Jesus, Draw Near

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Scripture

 So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them.

 ~Luke 24:15, NKJV

Quote

“The nearer any soul comes to Christ, the more it is conformed to Him.”

~John Flavel

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Two disciples are walking on the road to Emmaus and suddenly Jesus shows up. The NASB and LSB uses the word ‘approach’ and the CSB reads ‘came near’ but the meaning is the same: Jesus approached, appeared, drew near, showed up, etc. He was uninvited, unexpected and unannounced. The disciples had no idea He was going to show. They thought He was dead. They had not prayed for Him to appear to them or to walk and talk with them. Nor did they write a book later—SEVEN STEPS TO GET JESUS TO SHOW UP. There are no seven steps; there is not one step, Jesus appeared of His own sovereign will. As for the two disciples they were first captivated by what He had to say and later amazed and astounded at His very presence.

As much as we want to do it at times, we can not program Jesus. We can not call His office and arrange a meeting—Jesus, be at Grace Point at 10:15 this Sunday and plant that holy fire in our hearts that you put in the hearts of the two disciples at Emmaus. Jesus did not appear to them that day because of their prayers or their faith: they did absolutely nothing.

This leads me to a confession. I basically chewed our folks out Wednesday night for not coming to the altar and soaking it with tears. Afterwards the LORD had a talk with me…”Are you soaking the altar with tears? When was the last time you wept bitterly over your own sin? Were you not being a bit of a hypocrite tonight and do you expect them to do something that you yourself cannot do? Then on Thursday morning, I providentially came across this verse and he grabbed my attention. The two disciples had revival and it was not planned or prayed down.

It is the LORD’s reminder to me: Jack you can’t produce tears, repentance, revival or the fire that ignites revival and neither can your people. You are expecting them to do something you cannot do yourself. I also admit there is most likely a deep frustration in me concerning the lack of fire and our desperate need for revival. On the way home Wednesday night I saw a church sign that had these words on it: Review, Reset and Revive. Sounds so simple but there is one problem: we can’t make revival happen anymore than those two diciples could make Jesus show up. We can long for it in our hearts and ask for it in our prayers, but He has to show up to make it happen.

  • Cool this morning: you will love it
  • Communion this Sunday
  • Hawaiian Shirt Day August 9: loudest shirt {most color} wins a $25 Cracker Barrel gift card.
  • Don’t forget to pray for someone today other than yourself.
  • I hope you have a great Friday and thanks for reading the blog!

Grands And Great Cooling Off in The Pool

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