Koinonia - Dallas Emmaus Community Newsletter

And The Night and the Morning Was the Fourth Day
Genesis 1:16-19 God made two great lights-the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning-the fourth day. NIV

Each day of the creation story shows us how we grow and develop spiritually. The first three days speak about the growth of our mind, our thinking, our understanding, and our faith. The fourth through the sixth days speak about the growth of our hearts, our love for God and one another.

I find it interesting that on the first day, God said "let there be light", but it wasn't until the fourth day that God created the stars, the moon, and the sun. In other words, although there was always light coming from God, we don't comprehend it until we actually see the sun on the fourth day. So, this is what begins to happen on the fourth day: It was on the fourth day that God gave us the sun, which represents our love for the Lord and our acceptance of His love for us. It was on the fourth Day that God gave us the moon to shine at night as a sign to us that in our darkest periods and our times of difficulty, we can have faith in the knowledge that God is with us. It was on the fourth Day that God gave us the stars as fixed spiritual principles that we can use to guide our lives through the difficult times.

Sounds a little like Emmaus doesn't it? All who attend an Emmaus Walk begin their spiritual journey with a three-day weekend. During these three days we begin to develop principles of spiritual living and learn how to apply them mentally, but all too soon those three days are over and we begin a journey with no end. Thus, after your Emmaus Walk is over, you hear a lot of talk about something called a "Fourth Day." In Emmaus, when we use the term Fourth Day, what we are really referring to is the rest of your life. One of the questions at the closing service of your personal Emmaus Weekend is "What are you going to do with your experience?" At that moment of excitement and spiritual renewal, many of us make some promises to God, our new faith community, our families, and even ourselves that we really intend to follow through on and keep. But, then we go back into the real world and what started out as a pivotal point in our journey sometimes end up becoming a series of unkept promises that dwindle down to just a nice memory of a fun loving weekend.

During those times, when you feel God is not near, the enemy sometimes comes and tempts us to think about cutting corners or doing something out of our old nature, and figuring that nobody would notice the difference, we may say something like, "Well, it wouldn't be so bad if I went back to my old ways." It happens all the time, but this does not have to be your testimony. If you faithfully attend and participate in the life and leadership of your local church, your faith community for support, guidance, and challenge, your Fourth Days will help you develop a life in Christ as Christian leaders who are effective both personally and in your local churches.

As Community Spiritual Director it is my prayer that all of your fourth day experiences, much like the workings of Sanctifying Grace, be a continuous process of spiritual growth and development in your relationship with Christ that extends beyond the weekend, into your life in the world so that you can continue to make deeper commitments to Christ and live as faithful disciples throughout the rest of your faith journey.