The
Road to Emmaus
Most Christians know the story of the Road to Emmaus and what
happened. It is an awesome story of how
Jesus worked through a couple disciples to bring understanding to his
followers. The two had been in Jerusalem
at the time of the crucifixion and left after they thought things were
over. They moved on with their lives.
Then on the road they met a man who started talking to them and told them all
about the Bible and all the times it referred to Christ. Finally when they
stopped to eat their eyes were opened. They
realized it was Christ who was walking with them. Immediately they went back to
where they had left Jesus disciples and shared their experience. Then Jesus revealed himself to His disciples
as they spoke.
Having read the story many times I always wondered why Jesus did not
just show himself to his disciples. Over
the years and a lot of Bible study and my own experiences finally gave me an
answer. The disciples, while they loved
Jesus were probably worried about their own survival. Were they going to be next? What should they do? Where should they go? Their focus was not on Jesus at that point in
time. Many times when bad things happen
in our lives we tend to try to solve the problems ourselves and forget to take
the matter to Jesus in Prayer.
The two men on the road to Emmaus did what they thought was right. They moved on with their lives. They continued to share Jesus with each other
and that allowed them to have the experience they did. Matthew 18:20 says, “For
where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of
them.” The verse makes clear that we must be seeking Jesus. Sometimes we become so involved in
fellowshipping, that we forget we are seeking Jesus. It is easy to do. Understanding this makes it hard for me to
sit in Sunday school classes. It is not
that I feel I do not need to know what they are teaching. I definitely do need to know. My problem is if you put a book in my hand I
become so focused on what I am reading I tune everything else out. If I find it interesting I may be totally
gone. This has happened to me on occasion and someone asked me to pray and I
was at a total loss as to what to pray about.
While I may have been physically present with the people in the room my
mind was not there. It was lost in whatever
I was reading.
Why or how I know that is based on my understanding of another verse in
the Bible. 1st John 2:27, “27But the
anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need
that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all
things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will
abide in Him.” Based on this
verse I get so focused on understanding what the Bible is saying to me I have a
tendency to tune everything else out.
That is mainly because I have a one track mind and multi-tasking is not
something I do well.
Many groups share in the spirit of Emmaus and focus on knowing the Bible
and the time of fellowship that they spend together. That is a very important part of the
experience and should not be ignored.
The problem for me is that I find something else just as important, if
not more important. It is being where God
wants you to be or needs you to be, regardless of your own feelings in the
matter. Following what I feel to be the leading of the Holy Spirit has saved my
life on more than one occasion. It has
also opened the door to share the Word of God.
Let me give you two examples.
I drove a truck for a living and one time I was going through Georgia
and was northbound on I-85 between Atlanta and the South Carolina state line.
It was raining very hard and the traffic was very heavy. Considering the road conditions I felt the
traffic was moving much too fast. A
truck past me and the driver had his front bumper only about two feet off the
bumper of the car in front of him. I made a comment on the CB that if he kept
following like that sooner or later he was going to kiss one those
bumpers. He looked over at me and said, “Mind
your own business old man.” I had just taken a long break and ate breakfast on
the west side of Atlanta only a couple hours before. Normally I would drive five to six hours
before taking a break, but I felt moved to get off the road. It was a very strange and strong feeling. I followed the feeling and exited to the
Petro truck stop. I was only half ways
up the ramp to the overpass which would take me to the truck stop when the
radio exploded with screaming and warnings.
Someone had lost control in the rain.
There was a bad wreck involving many cars and trucks. A vehicle went across the medium and hit some
southbound vehicles head on. Several
people were killed in the wreck. It took
them many hours to reopen the roadway.
If I had not followed that small still voice I would have been right in
the middle of that mess.
Another time which was much less dramatic I needed to go to my daughter
Glenda’s house to take her to an appointment.
For some reason that escapes me at the time I did not have a car. I walked the two miles to the main highway
and hitchhiked to my daughters. When I
put up my thumb the first car to come past me stopped. The driver was a pastor and he was taking his
pregnant wife to an appointment in Evansville.
They went out of their way and dropped me off in my daughter’s
driveway. A couple years passed and my
daughter who was going through a seven year battle with a brain tumor asked my
wife and I to come to a dinner at her best friend’s house. My daughter was in the process of going
through a divorce, which is another story.
Any how my wife and I arrived at the dinner and it was and awesome
experience. The purpose of the meeting
was so I could meet my daughter’s pastor from her new church, which her best friend
attended. The Pastor was the one who had given me a ride. He also knew my wife through a prayer service
for a member of our church who had cancer.
While six strangers all sat down to eat, our paths had been prepared and
in reality we all knew each other.
My daughter went home to be with the Lord in August of 2010. Her pastor was there at her side right up
till the end. Since that time the church
my wife and I were attending closed its doors through attrition. It got down to eight people and it was not
fair to the preacher. If anyone did not
show up he would be preaching to only three or four people. Our pastor was awesome, but we could not seem
to revive the church and my wife and I moved to our present church. It was our daughter’s church and the pastor
has been a blessing in our lives.
One of my favorite verses is John 3:8, “The
wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where
it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” A big part of walking the walk of the
Christian life is following where the Lord leads us. That is what the men on the road to Emmaus
were doing. At times we may not
understand why or where our life is taking us.
That can be seen many times in the Old Testament. Joseph, Moses, David and Daniel are just few
stories that tell us that all things do work together for good. We may not understand it at the time.
When I had my had my heart attack in January of 2004 and had to sell my
truck and go on disability I did not understand it. Looking back I do know that God was
definitely working in my behalf. You can read that in Part 2 of my book Further
Down the Path, 3/29/12 which is free on my blog. Just scroll down to the Testimony which is at
the end of that part. The book is in
seven parts and is about some things I see happening in the Old Testament of
the Bible. Similar things seem to be happening in this day and age. So it is mainly an End Time Bible study. The book does have a lot about me in it, but
it is about how I came to understand the things I write about. Look for what it says about the Bible and
ignore me.
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