This is the portion of scripture that I am going to use for this post…
Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:38-42 ESV)
Like we can see, I will be looking at the difference between Martha and Mary… And what relevance it has today…
Now how did these two woman differ…
Here is my question…
“If JESUS came to your house, how would you act?”
Lets think of it in today’s terms…
Now lets look at Martha…
So Jesus pitches at their house…
Martha says “Hi” and runs into the house, puts roast in oven, starts cleaning like crazy and ends up moaning…
Now look at Mary…
So Jesus pitches at their house…
Mary says “Hi” and sits by the feet of Jesus and learns…
Wait… What?
This can not be… How come the one jumped up and ran in to start working, while the other went to sit?
I am going to make a statement which sounds absurd, but here goes…
Jesus walked everywhere… This means He was most likely walking for a while at that time and it didn’t matter to Him what He had to eat… in South African terms “Why not just have a braai?” (Other places it might be a barbecue)… Something quick, no need to worry about necessity of cutlery, just paper plates… Nothing fancy…. Just a nice time of fellowship….
Wait… I can’t say that…. Or can I?
This is not what is written here, but here is why I would go to this… Jesus said to Martha:
” “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”
Here is why I put this in…
We, as Christians, become so much like Martha that we forget to be like Mary… Yes, men reading this, even us….
We jump to the occasion to go on a mission trip, serve in church, do a bible seminar or even a training course to enrich us… I put all this under Martha for a reason…
We go and DO, DO, DO, DO… The whole time, yet we never sit…
Mary knew she wasn’t ready to serve in the church, her heart needed preparation, so that when she serves, she doesn’t take offence….
She knew this mission trip would be fruitful, but yet if she goes she might take offense as she was not ready to go… Not prepared to gather the harvest…
She knew that doing another bible seminar will make her more religious, yet may take her further from God… And she knew that this seminar might have helped, if she actually was ready to receive, that she was already able to live some of what she knows…
She new that even if she got training, it would just be more knowledge she didn’t need.
Yeah, Yeah, I know… This is far fetched, but I am serious…
I was like this… I jumped for church service to church service… Ran from seminar to seminar, training to training… I never implemented anything, I became an obese Christian… Who ate and ate and ate scripture, but never gave out… I never learned to do what I learnt…
Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give. (Matthew 10:8 NIV)
Wait is this supposed to have been done…
THIS IS A COMMAND, NOT A REQUEST…
Jesus did it why not us… Demons fled when the apostle walked by… But when fakes tried:
Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding. (Acts 19:13-16 NIV)
Now we think that we have such authority… Do we really?
If we go in the name of a pastor who is legit, but we are screwed up, does it help? The seven sons of Sceva will differ with us today…
WE MUST KNOW WHO WE ARE IN CHRIST BEFORE EVER TRYING TO PROVE OURSELVES IN A WAR… WAR AIN’T FOR HALF-HEARTED KAMIKAZE’S …
I am ending know… We must know who we are in Christ… BEFORE we attempt to do the Martha thing and DO, DO, DO again, let us be a Mary and just walk around in the presence of Christ…
There is a time to be a Martha, but to be an empty Martha is bad for us… When we have nothing to give, we should jump for joy so that we become Mary for a while and just receive, even if it means you sacrifice that party, that ministry opportunity or even that seminar…
God bless… Remember there is a time to be Martha, but not without having a time to be Mary….
P.S. The best place to be is a Martha, with a Mary lifestyle… Where we live in the presence of God, and we when we do it is from the presence of God…
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