"And they said to one another, 'Did not our heart burn within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened the Scriptures?' " Luke 24:32
The western church is in severe need of heartburn. I'm not speaking of the physical kind with very real physical discomfort, but I am speaking of the spiritual burning that can, and likely will, cause discomfort to our settled lives. We need to have burning hearts not only for Him, but His Word, His Truth, and the Way that He calls us to. The discomfort of that will come because we will find it impossible to live in the kind of settled, comfortable lives to which we've become so attached. Burning hearts respond wholeheartedly to not only the Word, but to the One who speaks it. Are we, you and I, in possession of such hearts? We can't be unless He is in possession, full possession, of our hearts.
Here's a question for each of us to ponder? When was the last time you read or heard His word, and your response was a burning heart? One translation puts it as hearts that felt "strangely warm." Is that experience even an occasional happening for us? The harsh truth is that too many of us approach the reading and meditation of His word as a duty to be carried out, and not an experience with Him to be caught up in. As for the proclaiming of His word through the venue of preaching, too many of us almost, if not literally, stumble into our corporate "worship" so preoccupied with other things and matters, that we're already dulled and desensitized to that word. It barely registers. Small wonder that we're bored with the average worship service, and so church leaders have to come up with different ways to try and hold our interest. The burning heart has no need of such. Does your heart?
Charles Spurgeon said that if you need to have a carnival to draw people to church, then each week you're going to have to find a bigger and better carnival in order to keep them there. A.W. Tozer said that entertainment is the devil's substitute for worship. A burning heart has no need of carnivals and entertainment. It wants no part of these in worship. The burning heart burns for His Presence, His Voice, His Life, His Power. Nothing else will satisfy. Nothing else can satisfy.
The Scripture from Luke 24 takes place after the resurrection, when Jesus appeared to two discouraged disciples on the Emmaus Road. They believed the Lord they'd loved and followed had been lost to them. Yet when Jesus began to speak, their hearts responded at once. They thought they'd been walking in darkness, but their hearts immediately responded to His Light when He appeared. Can our hearts do the same? Or, have they become so dulled, so hardened, that only "carnivals" can make any impression?
Blessings,
Pastor O
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