Heart Ablaze

As I have gotten older I have noticed that my favorite kind of food, spicy spicy food, creates a new reaction in me. Heart burn. And I hate it. It makes it hard to sleep. It makes it hard to concentrate. It is extremely uncomfortable and I cannot wait until it stops. Yet, this morning I found myself seeking heart burn. When I say seeking I mean yearning for it. But not the heart burn that comes from spicy foods or a late night Dr. Pepper. No, I was yearning for a different kind of heart burn. Not only was I yearning for it, I was powerless to make it happen. No matter how much I wanted my heart to burn I couldn't make it burn. Not in this way.

You see, I wanted my heart to burn from reading the Scriptures. God's Word. I am not saying this in a gloating manner or trying to make you think I super-spiritual. Quite the opposite, actually. I am telling you this because I was realizing my heart had grown harder and had grown colder towards the Scriptures. I realized that my inconsistency in time spent in the Word had led to a frustrating end--the Word feeling cold. And I realized my heart needed to be engulfed by the fire of the Scriptures. Yet, those same Scriptures teach that only God can engulf my heart with unquenchable fire by "opening my mind" to their meaning and heart implications. It is then, when your mind grasps the treasure, life-changing, and life-giving Words that the Scriptures are, that your heart becomes emblazed.

So after pleading with God to open my mind as I read his Word I found myself picking up where I left off in Luke 23 & 24. And sure enough it would happen that Luke 24 contains one of my favorite stories in all of the gospels. After Jesus' resurrection he begins walking on the road to Emmaus with two disciples. These two men are talking about the recent events in Jerusalem; namely, the crucifixion and reported resurrection of Christ. I emphasize reported because these two men don't seem to believe the report. As Jesus is walking with them they begin discussing the events with him but they do not realize who he is because "their eyes were kept from recognizing him" (v.16). Jesus then begins to "open the Scriptures" to them, explaining from the Law to the Prophets how the Christ had fulfilled these things and that he foretold of his death and resurrection. Later as they were eating Jesus broke bread and "their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight" (v.31) Wow! It's the next phrase that stuck with me.

They said to each other, "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?" Luke 24:32

Now that is the kind of heart burn I want! I can't imagine how surreal that must of been. Surreal, yet so real! Later we find the Jesus appears among the eleven disciples in a room and begins to remind them of the scriptures and things that he said about himself. When he told them these things initially "it was concealed from them, that they might not perceive it." (Luke 9:45). But now, post resurrection, "he opened their minds to understand the scriptures" (Luke 24:45) so that they would see him, believe, and be able to teach and spread the Gospel calling on the Scriptures as proof of their testimony.

So today, I pray that God would also plant in you a yearning for heart burn. And I trust that if he gives you the yearn to burn he will be faithful to open up your mind to understand the Scriptures and set your heart ablaze!

Grace and Peace.