We find ourselves today living in the wake of Easter. It is easy for us to celebrate the empty tomb and then get back to our daily lives – our schedules and commitments and all that life brings. But I want to remind us that the resurrection changed everything. In one wonderfully cosmic event, life as we know it changed. Jesus overcame death securing for us the assurance of our own eternal life.
Jesus taught that if we will be first we must become last and if we are to truly live we must die to ourselves. When we surrender our desires and plans to him, we are, in a very real sense, dying to ourselves and being resurrected to live for Jesus.
Easter should be a reminder for us to live resurrected lives each and every day. We must seek to encounter Jesus each day not just at Easter.
One of my favorite accounts in scripture is the Emmaus Road encounter. Two of Jesus’ followers were reeling from the events of his passion. They had heard of the women who had gone to the tomb earlier that day and found it empty. They were talking to each other trying to make sense of it all as they walked the road. As they walked, Jesus joined them on the journey but they did not recognize him.
He spent time with them, instructing them on how the scriptures had foretold what would happen to the messiah but even through his teaching, they did not recognize him – at least not yet. It wasn’t until they sat down to eat together that their eyes were finally focused on who was sitting there with them. When they realized this stranger at the table was Jesus, he vanished from their sight.
As the two of them discussed all they had just experienced, they asked each other, “were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened scripture to us?”
There is so much power packed into that simple question!
When we encounter Jesus, our hearts burn within us.
When is the last time you experienced an encounter with Jesus that rekindled your inner flame. Jesus is in the business of igniting passions within us to make a difference for him.
That is what it means to live a resurrected life. It is to live a life of passion for the King!
May our hearts burn within us today because we have encountered Jesus!
Clay in the Hands 
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