We’ve been thinking about relationship with Jesus and the 120 people in the Upper Room in Acts 1. What happened to all the others? The 15,000+ he fed, for example?

Here’s another example. A lot of people witnessed Jesus’ raising the widow of Nain’s son:

Soon afterward he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. (Luke 7:11 – 12, ESV, emphasis mine)

I wrote about this over a year ago (time flies!). The story makes the point that the spectacular is not enough. Just as being fed is not enough (read, sitting under great teaching) neither is participating in or witnessing spectacular events. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, too, with plenty of witnesses from Jerusalem.

When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. (John 11.43 – 46, NIV)

The Promise Keepers’ men’s events of the late 1990s were extraordinary. I was there, with my sons, for the first three or four of them, and I was deeply moved. But without an abiding day-to-day relationship with Jesus, fueled by time in the Word and prayer, the effects of the best moments wear off. Just as one doesn’t sustain a marriage on the memory of a spectacular wedding ceremony.

Blessed are those who listen to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway. (Proverbs 8.34, NIV)

My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD; In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up. (Psalm 5.3, NKJV)