Luke
10:38-42 Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a
certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister
called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. But Martha was
distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You
not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help
me.” And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha,
Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is
needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from
her.” NKJV
After our Lord had commissioned 70 new disciples to
go out preaching and healing in His Name and they returned to Him with great
joy experiencing the power in His Name our Lord rejoiced in the Spirit that the
Father had hidden from the so called wise and prudent religious rulers of
Israel and revealed His Nature to those deemed outcast or insignificant in the
society. Our Lord took them aside privately and told them how blessed they were
to see and hear the things that they did because many of the men (the Prophets)
of old had greatly desired to see and hear such things but they did not. I
think of the Prophet Jeremiah who heard the Lord God speak and reveal Himself
to him and he spoke with authority “Thus says the Lord God of Israel”, even
weeping over the nation often as he did not witness the people being healed
spiritually, or turn to listen and heed the Lord’s words, nor did he see them
forsake their worship of false gods (this went on for 40 years) and for his
obedience he was dropped in the bottom of a well and tied behind horses and
drug through the city, yet he sat at the feet of the Lord God of Israel
continually receiving His word and proclaiming everything the Lord gave to him.
When our Lord and the disciples entered into a
village where the siblings of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary welcomed them into
their home, He would use this seemingly innocent visit to point out to them
(all the disciples and others in Martha’s home) the one thing He desires in His
heart for each of them to do continually as well as for us today. It is so easy
down here on the earth to get busy with the things of this temporal life and
drawn away from our heartfelt love and devotion to our Lord Jesus Christ. The
spiritual warfare with satan, with sin and temptation can often leave us weary
and wanting to flee the battle for some earthly pleasure that offers much, but
truly never satisfies. However, there is something that is noble, good, and
even honors our Lord that can take up the place He wants to occupy continually
in our hearts and minds.
Our Lord arrives at the home of these three siblings
with many disciples not including the women who followed Him also. Now it is
not clear whether they expected the Lord Jesus and the large number of
disciples, but it is clear that Martha wanted to be a good hostess and serve everyone
food and drink to satisfy them and make her house always welcome to the Lord.
Our Lord Jesus never ever spent wasted time but was always teaching Heavenly or
eternal lessons to all that would have ears to hear and receive. For the
measure of one’s hearing and understanding would be the way the word they heard
was measured or supplied back to them. Mary the other sibling probably was
working alongside Martha serving and preparing the wine and food, but as soon
as our Lord begin to teach, she left the serving and went immediately and sat
at His feet to drink in His words into her heart and soul. Serving our Lord
Jesus Christ is most definitely His will for His children but I believe His
words to Martha in this encounter makes it plainly clear that not even service
to Him is more important than our time of one on One with Him just drinking in
His words into our hearts.
The Psalmist asked the question in Psalm 119:9 “How can a young man cleanse
his way?” and then he answers the question in the second half of that same
verse with these words, “By taking heed
according to Your word.” It is the words of our Lord Jesus Christ that wash
our sinful hearts from the pollution of the sins of the flesh and spirit and
make us vessels useful to serve and worship Him as we ought. It is by our
sitting at His feet continually drinking in His word into our hearts that we are
purified and remain purified. Martha was wanting to do and do to show herself
well before our Lord Jesus Christ but her desire to do everything just right
caused her anxiety and worry and she missed out on being taught eternal truth
at our Lord’s feet and loving Him and receiving His love which is the most
important thing. Remember the greatest of all the commandments is to love the
Lord with our entire being and nothing else we do, preach, teach, give, serve,
go, sell, or anything else goes higher than to love Him. The one thing most
above all He wants from us is our love to Him, our loving communion with Him,
and our devotion to hearing and being changed by His words. This is why He
saved us! (see the article entitled “This One Thing I Do”, http://www.faithwriters.com/article-details.php?id=97492
).
Psalms
25:4-5 Show me Your ways, O LORD; Teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth
and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; On You I wait all the
day. NKJV
Psalms
27:4 One thing I have desired of the LORD, That will I seek: That I may
dwell in the house of the LORD All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of
the LORD, And to inquire in His temple. NKJV
Psalms
73:24-26 You will guide me with Your counsel, And afterward receive me to
glory. Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon
earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fail; But
God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. NKJV
Psalms
119:111 Your testimonies I have taken as a heritage forever, For they are
the rejoicing of my heart. NKJV
Proverbs
8:34 Blessed is the man who listens to me, Watching daily at my gates, Waiting
at the posts of my doors. NKJV
Colossians
3:1-3 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above,
where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things
above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with
Christ in God. NKJV
“Watch the morning watch. Do not see the face of man
until you have seen the face of God. Before you enter on the day with its
temptations, look up into His face and hide His Word in your heart.” F. B.
Meyer
“The amount of time we spend with Jesus - meditating
on His Word and His majesty, seeking His face - establishes our fruitfulness in
the kingdom.” Charles Stanley
“Now what is food for the inner man? Not prayer, but
the Word of God; and here again, not the simple reading of the Word of God, so
that it only passes through our minds, just as water passes through a pipe, but
considering what we read, pondering it over and applying it to our hearts.”
George Mueller
“The greatest test of whether the holiness we
profess to seek or to attain is truth and life will be whether it produces an
increasing humility in us. In man, humility is the one thing needed
to allow God’s holiness to dwell in him and shine through him. The chief mark
of counterfeit holiness is lack of humility. The holiest will be the humblest.”
Andrew Murray
“Give me a man who says this one thing I do, and not those fifty things I dabble in.” “One thing I have noticed in studying
the Word of God, and that is, when a man is filled with the Spirit he deals
largely with the Word of God, whereas the man who is filled with his own Ideas
refers rarely to the Word of God. He gets along without it, and you seldom see
it mentioned in his discourses.”
“Now I am no prophet, nor the son of a prophet, but one thing I can predict; that every one of our new converts that goes to studying his Bible, and
loves this book above every other book, is sure to hold out. The world will
have no charm for him; he will get the world under his feet, because in this
book he will find something better
than the world can give him.” D. L. Moody
If
you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this
from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear
Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I
believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from
the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn
from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control
of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...
Sincerely in Christ,
Clifford D. Tate, Sr.
Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you
Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus
Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and
Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple
I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reader,
Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…
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