YOUR EMMAUS ROAD TRIP

“Were not our hearts burning within us

 while he talked with us on the road . . .” 

Luke 24:32

All followers of Christ can have their own Emmaus road trip with all its possibilities.  It is not difficult to identify with the two disciples in the original story of Christ on the Emmaus road (Luke 24:13-32).  When we journey with Christ, the Scriptures come alive and communicate to us God’s perfect love, wisdom, and compassion.

It’s a old cliché: “Life is a journey.”  Its true.  Life is a social, spiritual road trip.  I have two terrific children, now adults.  Together, we love road trips.  Getting on the road and driving across country occasions a remarkable opportunity for deepening relationships.  That’s what took place in the Gospel of Luke with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.  That’s what happens every time I pack up the car and go on a road trip.

My son is now thirty-two years old in Salvation Army ministry in Seattle.  We recently took an overnight road trip together.  Starting with the ferry from south Seattle over to the peninsula, we drove up to Port Angeles, and camped overnight in Olympic National Park.  It was a glorious day.  We made our way up to Hurricane Ridge, viewed snow covered Mt. Olympus in one direction and Victoria, British Columbia and the Canadian Rockies in the other.  Spectacular!  More spectacular was the conversation there and back.  As well as I knew my son, I now know him even more.  Even better, I know his heart, and I know much more about the nature of his walk now with the Lord.  And he knows mine.  Road trips do that. Putting time in on our spiritual road trip with Jesus does that too.

Father and Son at Hurricane Ridge

Road trips make possible deeper acquaintances.  We get to know the other(s) better.  We make new discoveries.  As the conversation deepens so the relationships deepen.  It becomes clear that there is more to the other person than we knew.  There’s always more.  

So, here’s a question.  What about your Emmaus road trip?  Where are you in your life long road trip with Jesus?  How acquainted are you with God today?  Do you know something about Jesus, or a great deal?  Do you know him personally as Lord and Savior and know him well?  Is he your intimate friend with whom you walk often, even daily, and so you are being formed and perfected in the likeness of Jesus, filled with the fullness of God by the Holy Spirit?  Wherever you are in your road trip, there's always more.

In the company of Jesus, there’s yet more blessings of God's perfect, holy love along the way.  If you’re not on the road with Him, if you've wandered off alone or in another direction, start again.  An Emmaus road trip can be yours.  He’s just waiting for you to get in step and on the road again.  The views will be glorious.  Glory to God!

If we walk in the light as He is in the light

We have fellowship with one another,

and the blood of Jesus Christ

 purifies us from all sin.

1 John 1:7

WALKING HUMBLY IN GOOD COMPANY

Imagine yourself as one of the two disciples on that first, post resurrection Sunday morning.  Put yourself in the story.  You’re on your way from Jerusalem to Emmaus.  You were a disciple.  You followed Christ for three years.  He and the other disciples were the company you kept all that time.  Now your following is over.  You are walking to Emmaus with a friend, another disciple and talking about the events of the last few days, the arrest of Jesus, the trial, the crucifixion, burial, and now the empty tomb.  As you walk, you’re both sad and confused.  How is it possible?  Jesus the Messiah is dead.  The mind-blowing change you hoped for Israel just didn’t happen.  The oppressive rule of Rome will continue. 

You don’t realize that everything has changed.  While you walk, your eyes are about to be opened like the man blinded from birth that Jesus healed.  Your preconceived notions about the Messiah are about to be washed away like the mud from the blind beggars eyes.  You’re soon about to see all of life differently. Then it begins.  As he comes along side, your worldview and way of life is forever altered, reconstructed, transformed.  Beginning with Moses and the prophets, Jesus explains what is said in the Scriptures concerning himself.  Jesus totally renovates your mind, your perspective, your worldview, your understanding of the Kingdom and his work as your Messiah.  He just does that.  By the end of the day you make a remarkable discovery.  You realize your idea of him was all wrong.   At the dinner table, when Jesus simply breaks the bread, your life is dramatically changed.  You suddenly realize that this stranger is someone you’ve known, but misunderstood for years.  It is a flashbulb, life-changing moment.  You rediscover the risen Christ.  It is Jesus, the Messiah, the living, life giving Christ. 

Looking back, you realize that along the way you encountered him in a deeper, more intimate, and possibly in a more disturbing way.  You remember how along the way your ideas changed and your heart warmed.  Then it became like a blazing fire.   At the same time you were humbled by his presence and by the magnitude and implications of your discovery.  You realize you will never be the same.  Now it is clear.  In the company you kept all long the way, you walked humbly with God! 

Just as he is the Bread of Life, broken for us, we must be Christ's broken bread for others. . .

My life must be Christ's broken bread, 

My love his outpoured wine,

A cup o'er filled, a table spread

Beneath his name and sign, 

That others souls refreshed and fed,

May share his life through mine.

Albert Orsborn (1888-19670)

Love mercy.  Do justly.  Humbly keep company with Jesus.

Micah 6:8

THE COMPANY TO KEEP WALKS IN THE LIGHT

I was simply brushing my teeth.  Suddenly one of life’s truths hit me.  We become the company we keep.  It happened back in my college days (ice age. . . late 1960s)while rooming with a fellow student, Dick McClain.  Dick had a unique laugh. I could hear that laugh in a dark room of a hundred people and know it was Dick.  While brushing my teeth one morning, a funny thought crossed my mind and I laughed out loud.  Out of my mouth came the unmistakable, unique laugh of Dick McClain.  Dick was and still is bright, fun to be with, and a strong follower of Christ.  Hopefully, that was not the only positive characteristic I picked up from him.

 It is true.  We become the company we keep.  From the time we were in our mother’s womb, we’ve always been social beings influenced by those with whom we share time and space.  We are shaped by the social, spiritual contexts and environments where we spend precious time.   It seems as though the hands of others shape the clay of our lives for the better or not.  It is not difficult to see that the impacts of some settings are positive while others are not.  Some are healthy while others can be toxic.

The Bible has something to say about the company we keep.  The Apostle John put it this way (1 John 1:7) -  “If we walk in the light as he (God) is in the light we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ purifies us from all sin.” Jesus made it clear (John 15:5) – “If a man remains in me and I remain in him, he will bear much fruit.”  In the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians (5:22), he clarifies the nature of such fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  That’s an impressive return on investment of our time keeping company with Jesus.  We become like him!

On the other hand, some people are toxic.  Paul’s letter to the Corinthians (15:33) reminds us of the toxicity we expose ourselves to when we keep the wrong company.  He simply says – “Bad company corrupts good character.”  Bad company walks in darkness.  Such company is impatient, unkind, envies, boasts, is proud, rude, self-seeking, easily angered, keeps records of wrongs, delights in evil, protects only itself, mistrusts and cannot be trusted, is devoid of love, and inevitably disappoints and fails. 

How wonderful it is to walk in light with others who also walk in the light of Jesus.  In such light there is wisdom, truth, peace, joy, and learning that by the Holy Spirit sanctifies our lives.  It all about the company that we keep.  The company to keep walks in the light.

He walks with God who speaks to God in prayer,

And daily brings to him his daily care;

Possessing inward peace, he truly knows

A heart’s refreshment and a soul’s repose.

He walks with God who, as he onward moves,

Follows the footsteps of the Lord he loves,

And keeping him forever in his view, 

His Savior sees and His example too.

Dorothy Ann Thrupp (1779-1847) SASB 580

LOOKING FOR LOVE SOMEWHERE ELSE

Churches are ebbing rather than flowing.   The future of many churches looks bleak. The Christian media reports that young people are rejecting their Christian identity and leaving the church in droves.  So, . . . What?

The ongoing performance of an automobile requires an ongoing supply of energy.  Today that’s usually gasoline and electricity.  Life too requires energy, but also a constant supply of oxygen.  Likewise, the ongoing life of an authentic follower of Christ requires the ongoing gift of God’s grace.  His grace is sufficient at all times and in all circumstances.  Without God’s grace we are left to our own flawed and insufficient wisdom, abilities, and nature.  Grace enables faith, encourages hope, and empowers love where these characteristics of the Christian life would otherwise be impossible.

In the words of John Wesley, grace makes possible life in Christ as an “Altogether Christian” in contrast to an “Almost Christian.”  Today, Christian young people are leaving the church and shunning their identity as Christians.  They're frustrated in large part due in to so many churches being filled with “Almost Christians”, church attenders who have a measure of honesty, the outward form of Godliness, and may be sincere in being good and doing good.  However, they're missing the key characteristic of an “Altogether Christian”.

The difference between the “Almost” and the “Altogether” is the authentic love of God and love of others.  Love is the key attribute of the Altogether follower of Christ.  Love occasions the obedience to faithfully follow and obey Christ daily in all things. Jesus made it clear several times (read John 14 & 15), “If you love me, you will obey what I command."  Obedience to the Great Commandment is our shared vocation.  It is our steadfast, faithful, obedient response to Christ’s calling to love the Lord God with everything one has and to love others without discrimination.  Such love follows the high and narrow road of Christ’s likeness (holiness).  It is occasioned by an profound desire to faithfully live in the presence of a holy God whose essence is pure, holy love.  Like oil transposed into gasoline to power one’s automobile, such holy love is transposed by God into gifts of grace and fruit of the spirit sufficient at all times and in all circumstances for the life of the authentic follower of Christ.  Young people can spot such love like a seasoned jeweler can spot a high grade, authentic diamond.

Young people are not fooled.  They know authenticity. They recognize true love. They will always look for love somewhere.  Sadly, with a paucity of Altogether Christians in the church, many will continue “looking for love in all the wrong places.”  It is no surprise that so many young people will look for the pure, holy love of God somewhere else.  . . . So,  . . . What?

Note:  John Wesley’s sermon, Almost a Christian, may be read or listened to by Googling the sermon title. It is also available on Amazon with nine other Wesley sermons on Christian discipleship as noted above.

HAVERGAL'S PRAYER

A denominational hymnal is a valuable companion to the Bible when we spend personal, quiet time devotionally in the presence of God.  The Salvation Army Songbook  (SASB) is my source of inspiration and enlightenment conveying a theology of the heart and the infinite love of God for even me. 

Most recently I’ve been noticing a particular poet and hymn writer, Frances Ridley Havergal (14 December 1836 – 3 June 1879).  She is best known for her hymn, Take My Life and Let it Be.  I keep bumping into her in my songbook.  This morning I encountered her again and I began thanking God for his love for her, and his Spirit in her that occasioned her inspired gifts of poetry and song over 150 years ago.  Her works remain an important part of our heritage today. Praise God!

Here in a lovely poem/song, we find her prayer. In it she speaks to the progress of our walk through life with God.  I imagine that it expresses a witness of her life’s journey as well.

Lord speak to me, that I may speak in living echoes of thy tone;

As thou hast sought, so let me seek thy erring children lost and lone.

O lead me Lord, that I may lead the wandering and the wavering feet;

O feed me, Lord, that I may feed thy hungering ones with manna sweet.

O strengthen me, that while I stand firm on the rock, and strong in thee,

I may stretch out a loving hand to wrestlers in a troubled sea.

O teach me, Lord, that I may teach thy the precious things thou dost impart;

And wing my words that they may reach the hidden depths of many a heart.

O give thine own sweet rest to me, that I may speak with soothing power

A word in season as from thee to weary ones in needful hour.

O fill me with thy fullness, Lord, until my very heart o’erflow

In kindling thought and glowing word, Thy love to tell, thy praise to show.

O use me, Lord, use even me, just as thou wilt and when and where,

Until thy blessed face I see, Thy rest, thy joy, thy glory share.

SASB#612  -  Frances Ridley Havergal (1836-1879)

Notice her progression from verse to verse:  speak, lead, feed,

strengthen, teach, give rest, give a word, fill with thy fullness, use me.  In beautiful words, Havergal covers the full continuum of God’s grace and provision. With the last two verses the prayer culminates in holiness and sanctified service and reminds us that wherever we are in the journey, there’s more!  Thanks be to God!