Luke 24:35-36 And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread. And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.

Here we have the end of the story, Walk to Emmaus. There are several encounters recorded where disciples did not recognize Jesus until He did something significant to the time He spent with these men. In this case it was the breaking of the bread that allowed them to see Jesus.

Now here is the significance for us, here today. What is Jesus doing in your life to reveal Himself in you? I do not mean what are you doing to show Jesus, I mean what is He doing? The real danger in trying to show Jesus in us is that we are moving in our own strength.

Philippians 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Man cannot replicate the power of God. We can only obey by faith and wait on God to move. It might be in that instant or at another time, but it will always be at His good pleasure. I know because I have delivered a word in due season that fell on deaf ears. A year later that person would come back and tell me how God had made what I had said real to him. It isn’t about my expectation because I know that God’s word works in me the same way.

It is much like those two men on their walk to Emmaus. They heard the words that burned in their hearts even though they did not know it was Jesus. God can and does use us to speak in the Spirit the same way. Our utterances come from our heart, His abiding place. It does not come from the mind that is convinced it can do all things in Christ but rather the heart that is Christ in us.

Leviticus 19:9-10 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest. And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the Lord your God.

When I left you last I had hoped to hear those things which you might have gleaned from 1 Samuel chapter 8 which I had left untouched. It has been a week and nothing has been offered. Rather than returning to 1 Samuel 8, I thought it best to refer to the text upon which I derived my inspiration.

Did you know the root understanding of to glean is Arabic in context? It means to drink again and again, to satisfy ones thirst. Another implication is to return to those wounded in battle and kill them where they lay. Putting those two thoughts together one might see that drinking a well dry would rob anyone who comes to the well from receiving life sustaining water.

God’s instruction in our opening verse is about offering life to the poor and to the stranger. During the harvest, nothing was to be removed from the ground nor from the corners. The primary issue at hand for those two candidates was; number one, that they be present in order to obtain the gleaning while it was suitable to consume and number two that they do the work themselves.

While I was sick I thought of writing some of those items that you could have gleaned. I decided not to do that and offer this instead. The Lord said leave it lay, make them gather it for themselves.

In Exodus 16:16 the Lord commanded every man to gather the bread of life for himself, his wife and children. Who am I to countermand the Lord’s word?

Gather it for your own life.