Daily Devotional

Barry McGuire came to our church to speak and sing 2-3 times in Reedley. He tells the story of encountering Arthur Blessit at a gathering.  Barry was partying when Blessit looked at him and spoke to him.  When Barry looked into his eyes, he saw fires burning in there.  “I didn’t want to be a Christian,” he said, “but I wanted what Blessit had!”  It was his turning point.

Burning eyes.  Burning hearts.  After Jesus was resurrected, He appeared to two men on the road to Emmaus.  Jesus asked them about the things they were eagerly speaking about.  They answered, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?” Luke 24:18

When they said of Jesus, “We were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.”  Luke 24:21. Jesus responded with a kind of stinging rebuke, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!  Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?”  Luke 24:25-26

They missed it, even in His day and in His presence!  As we think about celebrating Easter, what have the prophets said about our time?  What is the Spirit of Jesus speaking to us, as we walk along and talk?

It is easy to be slow of heart to believe.  Nothing in particular is required! But to not become “slow of heart to believe” is a chosen path.  How did Arthur Blessit get fire in his eyes?  He chose a path that led to it.  How do we get burning hearts, like the men on the road to Emmaus had?  We choose that road, and seek to listen.

What do we do this Easter?  We acknowledge that our present state before God is our own choice.  You have as much of God as you want right now.  What do you want?  The question is not just for backsliders. Nor is it just for the especially anointed ones.  It is the question for all believers, at every point in their walk.
 
David was already close to God, but he asked it.  He sought Him.  He would have a burning heart!  He refused to be slow of heart spiritually.  So he sought the Lord.  “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”  Psalm 63:1, ESV.  We LIVE in a dry and weary land, where there is no water!!  David was determined to have a burning heart, and fire in his eyes!

“I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.”  Psalm 63:2, ESV.  He had seen Him, in the sanctuary.  The Lord was his God.  But nevertheless, his soul thirsted for Him, and his flesh fainted for Him!

What do we do this Easter?  We draw aside.  We go into the sanctuary. We give legs to our spiritual thirst.  We choose a path that faints without the Lord’s presence, without His working in our lives.  Without it today! Without it tomorrow!  We perish unless we can see and hear again His power and His glory.  Unless we experience His love.  Unless we can bless Him and lift up His name!

Were not our hearts burning when He was speaking to us on the road?  I don’t know how to say it more – we were born to have burning hearts, to have fire in our eyes!  We refuse to be satisfied with anything less.  We give God unlimited hearts.  The passion will come and go, but we always work toward its renewal, or the next phase.  It’s never as another has, but as God has for us – uniquely.  Satisfied souls, but with burning hearts and fiery eyes.  Kingdom agents.  Spirit empowered.  Hungering for righteousness.  Thirsting for holiness, in a barren and weary land, where there is no water.  Alive among the dead, looking at the unsaved Barry McGuires.  Dragging a cross around the world, our own after our own call. Not Blessit’s.

Easter!  Resurrection!  Eternal life!  Deliverance!  Transformation!  Mission! Living in another realm.  Being about the unseen purposes of God, as we go about our day.  Still earnestly seeking.  Our souls thirsting for God, for Jesus.  Our flesh fainting unless we enter into His presence.  Going into the sanctuary.  Beholding His power and His glory – again!  Swallowed up in His love.  Praises rising from our hearts.  Mission drawing us into the next work, the next world.  Again, and again!

"My soul found Him whom it loves.  I held on and would not let go.  Until I had brought Him into my mother’s house, and into the chambers of her who conceived me. " Song of Songs 3:4.

Easter!  Burning hearts!  Fire in our eyes!
 
Read, and enter in:  Habakkuk.  Hosea.  Psalms 33, 36, 63.  Luke 24.  “Were not our hearts burning within us while…He was explaining the Scriptures to us?”  Luke 24:32

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.