SEARED HEARTS

I love the story where Jesus comes alongside the two disciples who were walking dejectedly back to their home in Emmaus. They were disillusioned. They thought Jesus would have delivered them from the tyranny of the Romans. But, now he was dead.

The resurrected Jesus draws near and begins to talk to them. They don't know who He is but as He reveals God's plan for a Savior from the Old Testament Scriptures their hearts "burned" within them. Later, after they recognized Him, "They said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures?" (Luke 23:32). Their hearts were actually "on fire."

Robert J. Karris talks how Jesus "seared their hearts." I love this thought, too. When an animal is branded with the name of the ranch to which it belongs, the name is seared into their skin so all will know who is their owner.

Ask Jesus to draw near to you. As you meditate on the Scriptures, ask the Holy Spirit to sear them into your heart and mind so they will become flesh and blood in your life. You will be so indelibly branded with His Word, that wherever you go and whatever you do, all will know to whom you belong! You will be so identified with His truth that you will always recognize deception. Your heart will be so seared with the revelation of His truth that all other pursuit of knowledge will seem empty.

And what about your precious children? Are you daily penetrating God's Word into their hearts that they will also be seared with His truth? So much so that nothing--either conflict, disappointment, persecution, or opposition--will ever cause them to turn away from their unflinching commitment to Christ and His truth.

Love from Nancy Campbell