A life of devotion

We are all very familiar with the stories of the two sisters, Martha and Mary. Martha was almost certainly the older and she was the one who served – who got the job done. Mary just sat around at Jesus’ feet.

If asked which one you identify with, most of us would say Martha. We know Jesus said, ‘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: 42) but somehow sitting at Jesus’ feet when there’s work to be done doesn’t seem like the ‘better’ thing.

However Mary lived the life of devotion that followed the first and greatest commandment Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength (Mark 12: 30). It was given by Moses to the Israelites (Deuteronomy 6: 4- 5) and is part of the bedrock of the Jewish faith, the Shema, spoken by pious Jews morning and evening and it starts synagogue services.

Mary loved the Lord extravagantly and her greatest act of devotion is recorded in John 12: 1 – 8. A dinner was given at Lazarus’ house – Martha and Mary’s brother – in Jesus’ honour. Martha was serving as usual and Lazarus was reclining with all the guests.

Mary then did something incredibly brave. She walked into a room full of men eating their dinner and instead of quietly serving, the appropriate thing for a woman, she brought an expensive jar of pure nard and poured it on Jesus’ feet. The women would have been shocked and the men embarrassed. It was so inappropriate.

Some have surmised that this perfume may have been Mary’s inheritance. Money was hard to keep safe so inheritances came in the form of land or objects. Mary was blowing the very thing that would keep her in her old age in one extravagant act of devotion.

The apostle John noted that the fragrance filled the whole house – her act of abandoned love touched everywhere.

However even more shockingly Mary undid her hair and wiped Jesus feet with it. If people were embarrassed before, now they would not know where to look. Respectable women did not unbind their hair in public and only lowly servants dealt with dirty feet. Mary was not mindful of her reputation or her social standing, she just wanted to pour out her love to Jesus.

Some present ‘rebuked her harshly’ (Mark 14: 5) and she invoked criticism especially from Judas Iscariot who piously would have liked to give the proceeds of the sale of the nard to the poor. In reality he wanted to get his own hands on the money (John 12: 6). In this account in Mark 14, Judas was so offended by her waste that he went to the chief priests to betray Jesus. It was if it was the final straw.

Jesus however commended Mary for her beautiful act of worship. You can imagine all those reclining at the table who hadn’t known where to look before now sagely nodding their heads in agreement.  Jesus then said, ‘Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.’ How true - today we all know about Martha and Mary and her life of adoration.

Devotion though is a hard path to walk. Mary was criticised by her own family for sitting at Jesus’ feet instead of helping. The believers criticised her for extravagantly wasting an expensive jar of perfume.

Mary chose the ‘better way.’ Works for the Lord are important but they flow out of the greater thing. The priority is to Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

People will almost certainly criticise us for extravagant acts of worship – for living a lifestyle devoted to God – but it is the ‘better way’.

Heaven - our real home

But our citizenship is in heaven Philippians 3: 20

Set your mind on things above not earthly things Colossians 3: 2

A couple of years ago, we were on our way home after a long journey round South Africa. We stopped for petrol just before the last leg of the journey – and the car broke down. Several hours later we were towed back the way we had come to a garage that could fix our car.

I cannot tell you how upset I felt about going away from home. I had been greatly anticipating getting back to our house, our things, the place where I feel most comfortable and at ease. Now not only were we not going home, we were driving in the completely opposite direction.

All of us are destined for our real home – heaven and if we have given our lives to the Lord Jesus, that is where we are going and we should look forward to it with great anticipation.  However the reality is that many Christians secretly believe that heaven will be boring; sitting around all day singing worship songs, maybe twanging a harp and hoping they can summon up enough enthusiasm to ‘worship the Lamb’.

Of course nothing could be further from the truth. As James Garlow says:

Take your deepest longings. Think of what you crave, what fills you with delight, joy you’ve never experienced but yearn for just the same. Remember your longing for home, for a lover of your soul, for the contented wholeness that leads you to the place you’ve never been yet can’t forget – the place where your every desire is satisfied more abundantly than you’ve ever dreamed. Heaven is that home.

That is the reality. The most wonderful thing is that we will be loved unconditionally, affirmed, appreciated and greatly valued just for who we are. Imagine that. No ulterior motives, no control, no manipulation, no rejection. Just pure love.

We will then be reunited with all the people we love starting with Jesus but including all our family and friends who have given themselves to serving the Lord. We will have eternity to get to know one another better but most of all to get to know Jesus and our loving heavenly Father and surely that will take eternity.

Out of that will flow the most awesome worship from hearts poured out in adoration to their Saviour and God.  Thousands upon thousands of voices raised in unity to honour and worship the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Nothing boring about that.

In addition, we were created to look after the earth in all its amazing diversity and beauty and the new heavens and the new earth will be perfect just as God created them to be not tarnished in any way by sin. There will be opportunities of incredible magnitude to serve and work in a deeply satisfying way.  

Think of all the things you would love to do and then imagine all the endless possibilities with the kiss of heavenly perfection on them. That is just the start of the wonders of heaven which are far beyond my imagination either to think of let alone write about.

Best of all will be the deep sense of being home with the ones we love and who love us. We are but pilgrims in this present earth; our destination is heaven where all will be well because the Creator of all things resides there with his Creation – which includes you and me.

First posted in April 2014

Keep burning

Romans 12: 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord

Keeping our passion ablaze can be very difficult.  As I said in my previous blog “zeal needs a fuel” and the fuel is Jesus himself and our persistent pursuit of him.

Too often Christians look for a change of circumstances to keep their passion burning. Their thoughts might run along the lines of if only my husband / wife was a Christian it would be so much easier, if only I could change my job, house, car, school or even church I would regain my passion.  Some Christians go from conference to conference to keep their passion alight. 

But passion comes from the inside not our outward circumstances. We can be passionate people in the midst of the most mundane tasks when we get the revelation Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (Colossians 3: 23 – 24).

 In the day, I was a stay at home mother with four small children and there came a time when I resented this. Our church was hosting one ‘big name’ speaker after another and for various reasons I always seemed to be missing out at home.  One day I was having an almighty grumble to God about this and then very quietly I got the amazing revelation of how God viewed motherhood.  He told me motherhood is one of the highest callings a woman could have. (Please if you are single or cannot have children this does not mean you cannot live a fulfilling and satisfying life.) I thought of Mary, Elizabeth and all the nameless women in the Bible and down the years who had birthed and raised men and women of God. What an honour.

This changed my outlook on my life completely.  No longer was motherhood something to endure till I could get a ‘proper’ job but a God given calling. There were still many times in the midst of the domestic humdrum that I grumbled but now undergirding my life was a sense of purpose that sustained me through even the most tiresome of situations.

God also promised me that if we ever needed a babysitter he would provide and if I was unable to get to a meeting or conference because of childcare commitments, I would never miss out.  Immediately my heart was at peace and God has been utterly faithful to his promise.  My husband and I were even able to go to Uganda for two and a half weeks whilst a wonderful couple in the church took over our lives and children.  I can confidently assure you that 25 years later, I have never missed out on anything by looking after my children. Today it is my privilege to encourage other young ladies struggling with their calling to motherhood to stand firm against the voice of the world that says you can only find true fulfilment in going out to work.

As Simon Ponsonby writes our passion, our destiny and calling come from within not from our outward circumstances. The Westminster Catechism says, ‘Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever’. That does not come from our education, work, relationships or even church. It comes from our relationship with our heavenly Father where we can truly find satisfaction and fulfilment in even the most boring duties.

God has called us to a life of love with him and others. As we pursue him we find that our destiny is not in some mighty ministry or incredible career but in loving our family, the lost, the hurt, the rejected, those we find ourselves around every day. We are there to share God’s light and love with them and our part is to keep the light shining brightly through a passionate pursuit of the one who came as the Light of the World. 

Shout to the Lord

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music.  Psalm 98: 4

One of my all time favourite worship songs is Shout to the Lord by Darlene Zschech. I watched a clip of her on YouTube explaining when and how she had written that song. She and her family were in a hard place, struggling at many levels especially financially. One morning a tax bill came which they just could not pay.   Darlene says that she told God, ‘I just can’t do this God.’

She didn't give up. Instead she went into the secret place and worshipped God and Shout to the Lord was written.  If you listen to the words of the song in the light of these circumstances, they are extraordinary but she was following in the footsteps of many other believers who have found that worship in the midst of difficult, difficult circumstances brings forth something beautiful.

King David and many others who wrote the Psalms knew about worshipping God, not just in the happy, good times but especially in the midst of great trial. The Psalms, which is where Darlene got her inspiration for Shout to the Lord, is where we too can find help in our times of trouble. The saints who have gone before have left us a rich heritage of encouragement to help us in our times of grief, despair, disappointment, hurt and pain.

As Darlene says she was between a rock and a hard place. Have you been there?  No place to turn except upwards into the arms of our Saviour. There we find all we need. There in that place of confinement true worship is born and beautiful things come forth.

We may not be song or even poetry writers but worship given as a true sacrifice is beautiful in God’s eyes and does something extraordinary in us. It liberates us from our place of difficulty into a place of freedom  even though our circumstances have not changed. As we focus on the one who can change everything, everything changes in us.

Trust is born, faith arises, hope stirs in our souls. Worship given during the good times is amazing. Worship out of the hard times is life changing. 

Whatever you did for one of the least ...

While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table.

 When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked.  “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.”

Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me.  Matthew 26: 6 – 11

This story sits in an interesting place in the Gospel narrative and explains why the disciples had suddenly got so interested in the poor and were indignant to the woman’s act of devotion. Immediately preceding this event, Jesus had taught two very important and well known principles. The first was the using of talents (Matthew 25: 14 – 30). Those who used what God had given them were commended for their diligence and the one who through fear had done nothing with his talent, was sent out from the Master’s presence. The second story was the separating of the sheep and goats based on their attitude to the hungry and thirsty, to strangers, to the naked and those who were sick or in prison. Neither the sheep nor the goats realised that by helping the weakest and least in society meant you were doing it to Jesus (Matthew 25: 31 – 46).

So with these stories fresh in the disciples’ minds, a woman came to anoint Jesus’ head with extremely expensive perfume at the home of Simon the Leper. The disciples had picked up that they needed to look after the least and poorest in society because this was the same as doing it to Jesus. So why waste an expensive perfume on Jesus? Wasn’t it better to sell it to look after the poor? You could help a lot of poor with the sale of the perfume. What they had forgotten was the most important thing was to actually minister unto Jesus himself. There would always be opportunities to show kindness and mercy to the poor but Jesus was only going to be with them a little longer and this lady showered Jesus with her love and wealth in a reckless, extravagant act of worship for which Jesus greatly commended her.

I grew up in a church that had a strong emphasis on a social Gospel. This story of showing kindness to the weakest in society was mentioned quite often. The church was always pursuing good causes and showing great kindness to the least members of society. The downside was that the Gospel was not preached so I grew up in church with a strong sense of Christian duty but not realising I needed to be saved. 

It is vital that we use our God given talents to the best of our ability whether money or abilities and that we show great kindness to all those struggling with life but our first and greatest joy is to show our extravagant love and worship to our Saviour and let every other act of our Christian life flow out of that.

 

All creation worships you

In that day the Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of the survivors in Israel.  Isaiah 4: 2

You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance. The grasslands of the desert overflow; the hills are clothed with gladness. The meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are mantled with grain; they shout for joy and sing.  Psalm 65: 11 – 13

Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy; they will sing before the Lord, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth Psalm 96: 11 – 13

Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy;
let them sing before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. Psalm 98: 8 – 9

Sing for joy, O heavens, for the Lord has done this; shout aloud, O earth beneath.
Burst into song, you mountains, you forests and all your trees,
for the Lord has redeemed Jacob, he displays his glory in Israel. Isaiah 44: 23

You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace;  the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Isaiah 55: 12