Friends in Christ Message for April 12, 2002

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Friends in Christ Weekly Message
April 12, 2002

They said to each other, "When he talked with us along the road and explained the Scriptures to us, didn't it warm our hearts?"
Luke 24:32 (CEV*)

The two disciples walking on the road to Emmaus didn't understand what had happened to Jesus. They probably knew the Hebrew scriptures, but they hadn't grasped what they meant and how they were fulfilled. When Jesus explained it all to them, they understood and their hearts were warmed.

Still today many people read the scriptures, but often without understanding them. These are texts that they may believe have very special meaning, but the words have not come alive to the readers. People sometimes rely on purely intellectual explanations, or simply accept some formulaic interpretation offered by others.

Early Friends (Quakers) observed that the scriptures could not be truly understood unless one was in the Spirit that brought them forth. Christ Jesus is available as our Inward Teacher if we have Him in our hearts. Although we don't have the physical presence of Jesus, we can share the kind of experience that the disciples had on the road to Emmaus. The Bible can become more than a grouping of texts, but a living presence in our lives through the Inward Teacher's work in us.

Dear friends, if you want the Bible to have real meaning in your life, seek to cultivate a relationship with Christ Jesus. You will find that relationship opening up the true meaning of scriptures for you and, indeed, warming your heart.

Bill Samuel