As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”. “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
Luke 10:38-42 (NIV)
Hello everyone!
It's been a while since I last did an article so I thought I would start by asking you what you think of when I say the word "Christianity" to you.
Do you think of rules? Regulations? Pews?
What if I told you that there was another way to live? God's way that leads to freedom and to life eternal...
Who You Say That I Am
In chapter 10 of Luke, we see Jesus commissioning the seventy two to further the unbiased Kingdom of God and then He proceeds to tell the story of the good Samaritan. That in itself is a lesson on how to treat our neighbour as it is someone who doesn't normally associate with the victim going out of his way to look past the labels of society and simply see a man in need.
A man in need.
That's why I left the last church I had been at for seven years; I was a man in need and I was not helped the way that I feel I should have been helped.
It happens.
It's been a rough past few months if I am honest, but at least I have broken away from wrongful thought patterns and the people that were holding me back from becoming all that God wants me to become. You could say that I saw, in myself, the man in need and in the end I went to the only place I know that my help is guaranteed to come from; God.
We are told in Psalm 46 that God is our "ever-present help" and it is in times of need that we truly find out two things: -
- what we are made of; and
- what we are standing on as the foundation for our life
Each one has a powerful impact on our lives and each one, I believe, has the potential to derail our progress if we give enough time and attention to it.
This is why I have brought up today's Scripture reading; in it, I believe, contains valuable insight into living our lives the way that God intended.
Living as God Intended
Since I left !Audacious, I have been on a remarkable journey of self-discovery that has revealed me to be a lot stronger and a lot more faith-filled than I was ever aware of. Yes, one of the reasons I left was because I was not at all helped in a timely manner, but it wasn't the only reason.
To dilute it back down to one thing; my time there was just... up.
In truth, I do not belong somewhere I cannot grow to my full potential. This is why I have since stepped back from the whole church scenario for a while; to shore up my foundations on Christ as my Solid Rock so that, in the future, I won't need to pull away from church to get anything significant done in my life.
This is why I can relate to Martha, in verse forty of today's passage, when she complains that she is being left to all the preparation by Mary.
This is a clear distinction, I believe, that Jesus is trying to make between people.
There are people who fuss over the details, and there are those who don't.
Me? I definitely like to fuss over details as I am a very meticulous person, which is both a gift and a challenge at times as there are some situations I can be in where I just cannot plan out details and just have to let things happen.
Final Thought
Next time, I'm going to look at what it means to be a "Mary-type", the type of person who can just be content to rest at Jesus' feet and be happy being still knowing that God is still God and He still reigns, no matter what happens to us.
Until then...
Peace!
===TLP===
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