"LISTENING TO HIS WORDS!"

Luke 10:38-42              (1599 Geneva Bible)
"38 ¶Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain town, and a certain woman named Martha, received him into her house.
39 And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and HEARD HIS  preaching.
40 But Martha WAS CUMBERED ABOUT much serving, and came to him, and said, Master, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore, that she help me.
41 And Jesus answered, and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou carest, and art troubled about MANY THINGS:
42 But one thing is needful, Mary hath chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her."


One of my dogs is named ROME.  He is an extremely docile, almost skittish, Labrador mix that is the biggest lapdog around.  To say ROME is a bit high-strung would be the understatement of the year.  When a frisbee is in sight, he loses ALL control.  He can be perfectly calm, yet another dog can walk across the neighbors yard about 250 feet away, and ROME goes literally berserk!

At times, I act just like ROME.  An opportunity to serve The LORD comes up and I am on it with both feet, like ROME and his frisbee.  Like Martha in the passage above, I can imagine if JESUS were at my house in the flesh HE would say "Ray, Ray, thou CAREST, and art troubled about many things"!  Why can't we just fellowship with The LORD rather than try to impress others with "things" we do for HIM?  We may "care" as Martha did, but we let the "things" we are doing for others consume our beings.  In the meantime, JESUS even gives us even the air we breath.  John 1:3 says HE made everything, and everything that was made came from HIM, so everything we do is from HIM anyway.  All I need to do is serve HIM!

Just like my rambunctious dog, I want to get my feathers ruffled when others sin against GOD.  ROME whines and gets all upset from a dog walking in the neighbors yard, but the dog isn't bothering ROME or anyone else.  Someone can get out of line, do something that The WORD says is wrong, and I want to be the first to condemn, just like ROME barking at another dog across the yard!  JESUS told Martha "Mary hath chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her."  One commentary I read put it very eloquently.  It said "The good part which Mary had chosen was to listen to the Lord's teaching. In the final scheme of things, the things Jesus said that day were of much more importance than what He ate. Today, if we are too busy to commune with the Lord; to pray and study His word; to meditate on life's purpose and to enjoy a peaceful, private time with Him, then there is something "horribly wrong" with our practice. If our walk of faith consists mainly of going to church and then on with life's busy day then we are not receiving of the goodness that the Lord has planned for us. And if we are so hassled by the routines of daily existence that we find ourselves  lashing out at those we love as Martha did on that occasion, then isn't that a good indication that something  needs fixed?"

Martha did not HEAR the words JESUS was saying because she was busy doing "things" for The LORD.  Her life actions were good, but not being reflective of the actions of CHRIST.  Do my life actions reflect that the Spirit of CHRIST lives in me?  I wonder how many times I am guilty of doing busy "things" for The LORD, instead of listening to HIS WORDS???