"The Only Thing That Matters"
"Now as they were traveling along,
He entered a village, and a woman
named Martha welcomed Him into her
home. She had a sister called Mary,
who was seated at the Lord's feet,
listening to His word. But Martha was
distracted with all her preparations and
she came up to Him and said, 'Lord,
do You not care that my sister has left
me to do all the serving alone? Then
tell her to help me.' But the Lord answered
and said to her, 'Martha, Martha, you are
worried and bothered about so many things,
but only one thing is necessary, for Mary
has chosen the good part, which shall not
be taken away from her."
Luke 10:38-42 (underline mine)
It's one of the classic Bible stories, isn't it? The story of Mary and Martha. For those of us who have been around the church for awhile it is instantly recognizeable. And, yet I fear that the message has gotten lost in the familiarity. Or perhaps, the familiarity has stolen from the seriousness of the message?
Jesus said in John 15:5 that "apart from Me you can do nothing." And Psalm 127:1 teaches,
"Unless the Lord builds the house, those who labor do so in vain."
Further, the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah likened our relationships with God as that of "A waistband clinging to the waist of a man" (see Jeremiah 13:1-11). He says that we are to "cling to God" in the same way that a waistband clings to the waist of a man, and insodoing God will be glorified.
Do we really believe that? Do we truly understand it? Do our lifestyles reflect it? Over the next several days we'll take an in-depth look at how, like Martha - serving God can actually get in the way of knowing God.
Posted By: The SISTAHS Ministry
Monday, February 1st 2010 at 7:27PM
You can also
click
here to view all posts by this author...
