Emmaus Road Introduction

Today we look at the inspiration for the podcast

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:04

Hey everyone, welcome to Emmaus Road Podcast. Our hope is that it can help supplement your daily devotionals and be something meaningful to you that will help deepen your faith with Jesus Christ. Now for our host, Michael Jurgensen.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

Emmaus Road Podcast. Why Emmaus Road? Well, the day after the resurrection, two of the disciples were on the road going to Emmaus, and they were discussing the events that had happened, which were in the news, as we would say. And a man came along and started asking them what it was that they were talking about. And they said, Haven't you heard about the events that have taken place? And as they fell into conversation with him, he began to open them up, open up the scriptures to them. And eventually it was revealed that it was Jesus that they were talking to. And at one point then he disappears and they say to one another, Didn't our hearts burn within us as he opened up to us the scriptures? And if we could accomplish anything with this podcast, it would be that your heart would burn as the scriptures were opened up to you. Well, the Bible says that all scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. And we could say categorically that Scripture is the only standard that we have for faith and practice. So this podcast would be an attempt to open up the scriptures that we could look at the scriptures, that we could see what it was that scripture was saying to us. Here's a thought that I had this morning. We want to take scripture from just being words on the page to being living words in your heart. A living word in your heart is what is going to change your behavior. And so often maybe we hear scripture, uh, we talk about it, we quote it, but it is, is it actually changing our heart? So there's a scripture in Malachi, the third chapter, that actually runs out to the end of the book, but it says that those who feared the Lord, they spoke to one another, and the Lord heard them. And so, in some sense, we are going to speak to one another, and it said that the Lord wrote a book of remembrance of them, and it was able to separate those who served God and those who didn't. And ultimately, that's a question that we have to ask ourselves. Are we God's servant, or do we want to make God our servant? And so a thought came to me. He who walks with the wise becomes wise. And so we want to look at people, some of the people, and I have five of them, that I have singled out that over the course of my life I have listened to, I have read, I have paid attention to. They're all dead. Um, the last one died in 2013, the first one died in 1875. And so we're going to be looking at some of the things that they have said and how that has impacted or how it potentially can impact our lives. Um I uniquely qualified to offer this podcast. Uh I thought the answer is really no, because there's how many tens of thousands of people that are better qualified than I am, but at the same time, I'm qualified because they are my unique experience. They're based on my unique experiences and thoughts and things that I have learned over the years. Um, and I have the potential here to share those things with probably my family, maybe some people in my church, and possibly out into the wider body of Christ. And my goal would be simply to help you grow in your faith. And there is much that can be done that you can do to grow in your faith, but it's possible that by listening to this podcast, I could help you grow in your faith. So one of the people that one of the five uh is Dallas Willard. And I most of you, hopefully some of you, are are familiar with Dallas Willard. And here's a quote of from Dallas Willard. He says, the ultimate freedom we have as human beings is the power to select what we will allow or require our minds to dwell upon. And ultimately we could say, you are going to become what you think about. So let me ask you: what is it that you allow your mind to dwell upon? We will become like what we think about. And if we are going to achieve our goal of becoming Christ-like, we are going to have to learn how to think about the good things, the good things of God. And I think that these five individuals can help us learn how to think about the good things of God. Just a couple of other thoughts. One is my experience as a young Christian, I was able to attend a YWAM school in Herlock, Germany in 1972. And I was there during the Olympic outreach, and then I also did a summer of service and an SOE or School of Evangelism training that took about six months, I would say, maybe six to eight months, uh, close to a year in total. And during that time, I had a profound experience of learning. I was a young Christian, um, but I was able to hear speakers who had depth well beyond my years as a young Christian. And that experience changed me forever. And as I've been in the church over the last 50 years, and I look at people, I see I recognize that they never had the benefit of the training and the teaching and the learning that I did. And so, in some sense, I would like to impart some of what I learned then and some of what I have learned since. And hopefully, this podcast can be an opportunity to do that, and that you can benefit from what I've learned and benefit from my experience. In closing, let me just uh outline a parable that Jesus taught. It comes from Matthew 25, verses 1 through 13, and it's the parable of the ten virgins or the ten maidens. And to summarize it, Jesus said that um that there were ten uh maidens, five of them were foolish, and five of them were wise. And it said that they went out to meet their Lord, and the foolish ones didn't take enough oil with them, and the wise ones took extra oil, and they all slept. And then eventually it was announced that the bridegroom is coming, they all woke up. The foolish ones realized they didn't have enough oil. They tried to get oil from the wise ones, but the wise ones said, Well, we might not have enough for ourselves. You better go buy some from the dealers. And so the foolish ones left to get more oil, and the and the bridegroom came, the door was opened, the wise ones went in, the door was shut, and eventually the fool, the foolish ones showed up, but the door was shut. They knocked and said, Hey, let us in. And Jesus said, Well, I'm sorry, um the door's shut. I I don't know you. And those have to be the worst words that a person could ever hear. I'm sorry, I do not know you. And so um this podcast is an effort to help you know your Lord better, uh, to have as much truth as possible. Um as I heard back then, uh, the more truth you have, the more you're gonna love God. And our hearts have to be changed so that we can um love God more. Um, the alternative is we would love ourselves more. So uh let me pray for you. Um, Lord, I pray you'll use this podcast to help um the listeners, and that it can help them grow, and that we can all grow in our faith together, and that it can be an encouragement. Um and we just pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

Hey guys, my name's David, producer of the podcast. Find us on Facebook at Emmaus Road Podcast and leave us a review or send us a message. We would love to hear from you. If you know someone that would enjoy the podcast, share it with your friends and may God bless you. Have a great day.