“Our Daily Bread”     http://odb.org/

The Daily Devotions of Greg Laurie                                  

http://www.harvest.org/devotional/daily-devotions/home.ht   

“Homily Grits Devotional”   http://www.homilygrits.com/

Luke10:38-39… Now it happened as they went that Heentered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. ³⁹ And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’feetand heard His word.  (NKJV)

This opening piece of scripture written by Luke, contrasts two sisters, Martha and Mary…who were friends of Jesus…  These were Lazarus’ two sisters from Bethany…who later came to Jesus, begging Him to heal their dying brother Lazarus…  Lazarus was later raised from the grave by Jesus, after being dead for 4 days, as recorded in…John 11:1-45…  Some believe this is one of Jesus’ most impressive miracles, because after 4 days of death, Lazarus’ body would have started to decay…

I believe Martha was running around trying to prepare a meal for their friend Jesus; and her sister Mary just sat at Jesus’ feet, listening to Him speak…  In Jesus’ times, both women would have been working to prepare a meal for their guest…  We can see Martha’s annoyance at Mary’s lack of interest in helping her, in the following scripture…

Luke 10:40…  But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You notcare that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tellher to help me.”  (NKJV)

This is a short piece of scripture…but there is much for us to learn from Luke’s record of Jesus’ teaching…  Jesus’ response to Martha’s request for her sister to stop focusing on Jesus, and to help her serve, was recorded in…

Luke 10:41-42…  And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. ⁴² But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”  (NKJV)

The “one thing” some Christians are guilty of today, hasn’t changed in 2,000 years…   Any time we are so busy focusing on our jobs, our family, our finances, our material possessions, or our own personal pleasures…where we put the Lord (who should be our everything), second to any other thing (god) that takes precedence over the Lord…Exodus 20:3…we are on a slippery slope that we as Christians need to be aware of, and be working to change…   

God must be the most important Person in the Christian’s life, ALL of the time…or they will be sinning…  The Christian life should be center around the Lord, with everything else coming after Him…  Our “self” should be dead last in the scheme of things…  When we can love the Lord with All of our heart, All of our mind, All  of our soul, and All of our strength first…and then love others around us All of the time, second…Matthew 5:43-44…we will be fulfilling Jesus’ 2 most important commandments He tells us about, in…Matthew 22:36-40…

Living a Spirit filled life (Ephesians 5:18-20) that has the Christian “Walking in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16) to the best of their ability…will produce blessings that go beyond our mortal expectations in so many ways… We see this fullness of God, in the life of a Spirit filled believer expressed clearly, in what the Apostle Paul pens, in…

Ephesians 3:16-19…  that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through HisSpirit in the inner man, ¹⁷ that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— ¹⁹ toknow the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.  (NKJV)

And then we see the next verse, which the Christian has to experience to believe, in…Ephesians 3:20…  Now to Him who is able to do exceedinglyabundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,  (NKJV)

God wants to bless His obedient children beyond anything they could achieve in their own mortal strength…  It’s a shame so many Christians take their focus off of the Lord, and try to do things on their own…  I guess we all learn from our mistakes…  But I am here today telling you to put Christ first…step out of your own way…and watch what the power of the Holy Spirit (“the power that works in us”), is capable of doing in your own life…

Anything we put before the Lord, has the cart trying to pull the Horse…  I spent a day writing about this major sin for the Christian, that was titled…“Put the Horse in Front of the Cart”…that can be read by going to www.Godsmanforever.wordpress.com and typing 3/04/2013 into the search window…

Heavenly Father, I for one am so amazed and thankful, for the Holy Spirit that You have given to me to control my every thought, and my every action…John 14:26…   I pray Lord, that other believers would waste no more time trying to live in their own strength…  I pray that they would turn from any and all sins…confess and repent of them…1 John 1:9…and allow the full power of the Holy Spirit to bring an abundance of blessings into their lives…2 Corinthians 9:8…  I pray for this fullness of Christ, and the many blessing it will bring for all of us, in Jesus’ most precious name and for His sake…Amen… 

Blessings in Christ,  bruce r mills