Martha, Martha

Martha and Mary were two sisters from the same familyI believe this story tells a lot about how the church (family) is divided in its view of what pleases the Lord. On one hand is the Martha's. Martha was trying to do things to please Jesus who was there at her house for a visit and a dinner. She was basically trying to do everything just right. Making sure the food was just right and the house in order, and that the quest were taken care ofeverything had to be perfect. Mary on the other hand, was doing absolutely nothingnothing that is but sitting at the feet of Jesus listening to the words that He was saying. By today's standards, Mary wasn't pulling her weight. She wasn't helping prepare the food or serve the guest. How dare Mary not help. Did she not understand that Jesus would be impressed with Martha's effort? And that Mary would probably be judged as not being a true Christian for her lack of actions. Did Mary not understand that she was putting at risk her salvation because Jesus was not going to be pleased with her works! Does this not sound a lot like the church today? We need to feed the poor, visit the sick, take care of the helpless, spread the gospelget the people saved! You will find every one of these things listed in the bible. And in most all cases these things were spoken by Jesus. So why wouldn't we think we aren't suppose to be doing these things? I don't think the issue is that as christains we shouldn't be doing these things. The question is by whose direction are we doing them. Does God honor your effortor your obedience? Some churchs today seem to think the more programs they have, the more impressed God is going to be with their effort. Do I think Jesus is serious about all the things that I listed. You better believe I do. That is why it is even more important that we do it right. By doing it His way. And we can only do it right by doing it like Mary. Where was Maryat the feet of Jesus. Doing whatlistening. Do you know when you are to feed the poor or plan an out reach or go to the hospitalswhen He tells you to! What if the pastor declares God told him to have an out reach and you are to play a major part in putting it together. My answer to you is that you listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to you and do not be intimated by the title of pastor or that God directed him to have an out reach. Maybe God did direct him, but you will know if you are to be a part of it by the confirmation of the Holy Spirit. You are to abide in the Spirit____not in the pastor. To many that may sound rebellious, but who are you rebelling against, the pastor or the Holy Spirit. When you operate out of your own reason or someone else's, you are operating out of the will of God. You are saved by grace, not by works less any man should boast. We have to realize that we are only His tools and sometimes microphones. God says He calls______man to salvation. That is why it is important that preachers today are hearing the Holy Spirit and working within God's master plan for that church group, not what makes for a large crowd or a happy crowd. If you are a Martha trying to please God through all the works you are doing, you may be doing more damage than good. Especially you pastors, preachers and missionaries. Remember we are to be on God's schedule and move when He directs us to move. If we are trying to do it on our own, with the best of intentions, surely God will understand that we were only trying to do what is best for God. That is so backwards in thinking! God is doing what is best for His creation. He has only one plan and that is His. He doesn't need help in planning, He needs help in executing. If we could just set back and wait for Him to give the instructions, we probably would make His plan work a lot smoother. I can't image how much cleaning up God has had to do as a result of all the good intentions that we Christians do in the name of the Lord. If you have heard from the Holy Spirit concerning God's plan, it is your responsibility to obey. But don't do things out of an obligation that you feel because you are a Christian. You are obligated to do only one thing and that is to listen and obey. But be sure you are listening to the Holy Spirit. Even if you have the best voice in the church you attend. Don't join the choir unless you are directed by the Holy Spirit to do so. You may think that since God gave you such a beautiful voice, that surely He wants you to be in the choir and you will most likely find a lot of fellow Christians telling you the same thing. But your ways or not God's ways______so don't suppose you know God's will for youask Him. I think Jesus back's up what I am saying when He answered Martha after she complained to Jesus about Mary's lack of help with Martha, Martha you worry about so many things but there is only one thing that is important. And that was what Mary was doinglistening.

And what about the people, or Martha's, who feel they are called for these services and do not think that it is an obligation, but in their hearts believe that it is a calling from God? I feel that this is where most people fall off the wagon. The only way you have a heart for these ministries is to remember your heart before you accepted Jesus. Did you have these compassions for the lost and hungry before your salvation? If the answer is no, then you need to understand that your motivation comes from the Spirit of God and it is all the more important that you hear His Spirit talking to you concerning your calling. It is interesting that a person who has a heart to minister follows the procedures man has set up so that he is deem worth to minister. I wonder why after the return of Jesus to Heaven, the apostles did not go an sign up for a local outreach program or enroll in the school of ministry. To be accept by man this would have been the obvious road to take. Are is the road a lot narrower than that. It was a simple road for the apostles, they were to wait for the empowering of the Holy Spirit before their ministries were to begin. And once they were empowered, they were to listen, and then obey. Pretty simple concept! It is not always easy to do because we have this person inside of us call self-will or the flesh, who is always arguing against the things of the Spirit and wanting us to chose the things of the flesh. God says if you walk in the flesh, you reap things of the flesh. If you walk in the Spirit, you reap things of the Spirit. 1 John____

The one thing you need to understand about God is he never demands your love or obedience. It is a take it or leave it love with Him. He will not force you to love Him or obey Him. It is your choice. You chose to love the flesh or the Spirit. But how do you love someone you have never seen, but only read about or was told about? Good question! Why do you enjoy a cool breeze when you are hot, or a drink of water when you are thirsty.  We long to have satisfaction. We can not be happy unless we are doing the things that satisfy our selves. And if there is one thing that we are all about in this life is maintaining a state of satisfaction. Once you realize that those things you think are satisfying you are not , you will need to find another solution.  Because the thing you thought was going to bring you happiness doesn't work any longer. How do we know that God exist? Because if He doesn't you have to settle for yours or someone else's answer to your problems. The desire to have resolution, a need to know, a desire to get it right, that is built in to all of us, and it is that which points me to knowing that there is a God. Because as a man, I don't have all of the answers. And my flesh demands that I know. Why does it demand it? Because inside each of us, God has placed the knowledge of Himself. ________ . And what is good and what is evil. What is good? A breeze that solves the problem of being hot or water that solves the problem of being thirsty. God knows there will be problems while on this earth and He has given us solutions to each problem. How can you not love someone that has a solution for your every problem. The problem with most people is they would rather look to others and not to God for their answers. And like all of us at one time or another, we will ultimately be disappointed with OUR solutions to a problem. If you try His solutions to your problems and see the results, you cannot help but love Him. Why wouldn't you? Unless self-will won't allow you to humble yourself before someone other than yourself. Then you have chosen to love yourself and trust your own solutions more than the God who created you and provided you with every solution. And by choosing your way, you have also chosen an eternity of unsolved problems.
Don't you know how hard it is for me to love someone who is against everything that my flesh wants to do. Why can't I just me the way I want to be and be saved by God's mercy? He knows I am not capable of being a goody-two shoes. I have tried and it just doesn't work for me. I don't know how these other Christians can do it, I just can't get it right! You know Paul basically said the same thing in his writing in Roman________. I guess like Paul, we all need to come to the understanding that no matter how much we try, we will never get it right to God's standards. I remember one day, I was coming home from work and I got behind a truck with a lot of dog stickers on the back bumper. I figured that they were trainers or owned show dogs. Based on the number of bumper stickers on their truck it was clear, they sure loved their dogs. One of the bumper stickers caught my eye, it said, Lord, let be me the kind of person that my dog thinks I am.It made me realize that God sees me just like my dogs. He loves me so much that no matter what I do, I am the apple of His eye and I can't disappoint Him. Satan may try and tell me that I'm a great disappointment and unacceptable to God. But you forget what God sees when He looks at me I'm His creation. I am His son. He created me just the way I am, Size, height, weight, etc. So why do I feel so unworthy to be called a son of God. Maybe its because I compare myself to Paul who evangelized most of the known world and wrote the majority of the bible, or the apostles who gave their lives preaching the Gospel. To me they set the standardor do they? You forget Paul also had another name, Saul, and Saul was trying to destroy the believers and put a stop to Christianity. Acts______Or Peter who took off and hide like the other apostles when they came and got Jesus to crucify Him. He even denied even knowing Jesus. Now I don't feel so bad about myself. No one will ever measure up to God, no one can. But when God saw Peter He didn't see the wimp but the preacher, and Paul, not the destroyer, but the evangelist. And when He looks at us, He doesn't see us as we see our selves but as His sheep who only need to hear His voice and when we obey that voice, we too can be the person He sees in us. Peter, Paul, Moses, David, all were great men of the bible, and were unable to be what they thought they could or should be. But God had a different view of them. Moses who after murdering a guard in Egypt, ran away and hide in fear wasn't seen as a murder, but a deliverer, or David who had a soldier killed so he could cover up the fact that he had gotten the soldiers wife pregnant wasn't viewed as a murder and adulterer  but a King.  I would imagine that all of them felt one time or another that they didn't measure up to God's standards either. God may not be happy with our choices or decision we make in life. But He loves us so much that He has even given us a solution for our bad choices and decisions. We just have to ask Him to for forgive us. How can you not love Him! He never stops loving His creation and seeing the potential in each and every one of us. So from now on, my pray is going to be, Lord, help me be the person You know that I am.It is only with His Holy Spirit guiding me that I could ever hope to be that person that God sees when He looks at me.