I HAVE SEEN JESUS!

"It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared.” Luke 24:34

Indescribable, uncontainable, all powerful, untamable, incomparable, unchangeable - I am awestruck.

There are no words to describe the experience of seeing Jesus. I can only imagine the emotions and thoughts of the two disciples that walked with him on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). Just when they realized who he was, he disappeared. Their response: “were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us.”

I spent the last three days walking with Christ. Yesterday, shortly before leaving, I realized I was walking with Christ all three days. Oh how I wanted to cling to him and never leave. But that is not why he walked with me. The experience was not for me, but for you.

We use the phrase “body of Christ” in church to identify all believers as one. I have been in wonderful church bodies and comforted by some of the godliest people on this earth. But this weekend, I spent 72 hours with the Body of Christ – Christ in the flesh.

This Christ did not preach doctrine or argue man’s list of appropriate Christian behavior. This Christ showed love in a way I have never experienced before. The agape love from the Emmaus Community was a visible sign of how each of their pilgrimage experiences changed their lives. I have been given so much love, there is no way I can keep it from overflowing.

Another part of the Emmaus Community included me. Eight women seated at the Table of Mary were so covered in prayer because of the painful lose of one, that the entire table bonded into the likeness of Christ quickly. We took our place at the table Friday morning and this much time later (imagine index finger of each hand approximately shoulder width apart) our hearts became one.

The love was so strong that we drew a bit of attention a few times. Our roaring laughter to weeping in sorrow was nothing less than God’s heart in all of us sharing our joys and pains.

I have discovered that Christ still appears in the flesh today. Oh, yes, he has made his dwelling place in the hearts of individual men and women. But his flesh appears when those men and women join together as a body with one heart.

Claire, Jill, Dara, Kendra, Judy, Marge, Barbara – you are my new best friends.

De Colores!

They didn't waste a minute. They were up and on their way back to Jerusalem. They found the Eleven and their friends gathered together, talking away: "It's really happened! The Master has been raised up--Simon saw him!"

Luke 24:33-34