30th Mar 26 | 13:54
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Luke 24 13-35 JESUS IS KNOWN IN THE SCRIPTURES 02 23Mar2022 Luke 24 13-16 God’s perspective of Shalom
📖 Luke 24:13-35
02 – 23Mar2022 – God’s perspective of Shalom - Luke 24:13-35 - JESUS IS KNOWN IN THE SCRIPTURES - Bible reading: Luke 24:36-38
“Thank You, Lord Jesus, that You give us the wonderful life of Shalom. You are sending us out into our world with Your Shalom. Lord, You want us to let the Holy Spirit open the Scriptures to us, see Jesus and be filled with Your Shalom. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.”
Our perspective must be the perspective of Jesus. The Scriptures reveal Jesus to us and that is how our life is completely changed.
Luke 24:13-16 Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. (14) And they talked together of all these things which had happened. (15) So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. (16) But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him.
We began by looking at how people are still viewing life from the perspective of the world and of the flesh. The Lord longs for us to have the perspective of Jesus.
We see here that these two disciples conversed and reasoned. Their conversation and reasoning led them to despondency and despair. It was their fleshly perspectives that dominated their discussion. Nothing made sense to these two disciples.
God’s heart breaks over us when he sees and hears our talk. He sees and hears that we are approaching life from earthly perspectives. We are not seeing and speaking things from His perspective. We are not experiencing the Shalom of God.
Jeremiah 5:20-23 "Declare this in the house of Jacob And proclaim it in Judah, saying, (21) 'Hear this now, O foolish people, Without understanding, Who have eyes and see not, And who have ears and hear not: (22) Do you not fear Me?' says the LORD. 'Will you not tremble at My presence, Who have placed the sand as the bound of the sea, By a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass beyond it? And though its waves toss to and fro, Yet they cannot prevail; Though they roar, yet they cannot pass over it. (23) But this people has a defiant and rebellious heart; They have revolted and departed.
God sees our heart, in all our conversations, and He sees that there is defiance and rebellion there. We want things to happen according to our own ways. We want God to fall in line behind us. We prefer to see life from our narrow and short-term perspectives of money, safety, security and wellbeing, all of which revolves around ourselves.
We do not perceive the things of God. We do not see or chose not to see the larger picture or the grand design of God. It is only when our life flows from the perspective of God’s agenda and His grand design that we will begin to soar.
Matthew 13:13-16 Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. (14) And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: 'HEARING YOU WILL HEAR AND SHALL NOT UNDERSTAND, AND SEEING YOU WILL SEE AND NOT PERCEIVE; (15) FOR THE HEARTS OF THIS PEOPLE HAVE GROWN DULL. THEIR EARS ARE HARD OF HEARING, AND THEIR EYES THEY HAVE CLOSED, LEST THEY SHOULD SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND HEAR WITH THEIR EARS, LEST THEY SHOULD UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEARTS AND TURN, SO THAT I SHOULD HEAL THEM.' (16) But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear;
The Lord longs to bring healing into our lives. He desires to fill us with His Shalom. He is calling us to come to Him and seek Him, not seek Him so that we will get answers to our prayers.
The Lord’s heart is thrilled when He sees that there are some, who long for the perspective of God. Though these two disciples were conversing and reasoning, deep in their hearts there was an unexpressed desire to understand. The Lord saw the pain in their hearts and that was the reason the Lord joined them on that journey to Emmaus.
Today, if some of us are not able to see our lives from God’s perspective but our trials and challenges loom large before us, we must yet hunger for God. We must be honest before Him and tell Him, “Lord, I am too immersed in my present crisis but Lord, help me see life from Your perspective”. If we are cultivating that hunger for the perspective of God, the Lord will surely intervene, as He did with the two disciples.
The Lord in His greetings to His disciples, after His resurrection, pronounced Shalom. The complete wellbeing of God.
Luke 24:36-38 Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, "Peace to you." (37) But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit. (38) And He said to them, "Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts?
The Lord longs for us to come into His Shalom. He wants us to have the perspective of God. When we are living in the perspective of Jesus, the outcome will be Shalom. If we are living life from our own perspectives, the outcome will be trouble, doubts and unrest.
As the people of God, if we are not experiencing the Shalom of God, then what message do we have, to share with our world, which is in confusion and turmoil. Today, we must make a decision to seek the perspective of Jesus, so that we will be filled with His Shalom.
Thought to ponder
Are your conversations, today, leading you to Shalom or are they leading you to despair?