When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. Jn. 11:20 NIV
WAITING FOR THE LORD
WAITING FOR THE LORD
Martha rushed to meet Jesus before he got to Bethany, Mary stayed at home.
You would have thought it would be the reverse...Mary ever seeking Him, deeply aware of HIM-surely she would be the one who flew to him in trouble.....
Martha's go where they are not bidden, answer when they are not asked, initiate what God did not begin. Marys, yielded even in crisis, wait till sent for....Surrender to His orders without ordering Him.
Jesus did the same, not moving toward Bethany for days until His Father bid him, even though he knew Lazarus was dead.
Mary in knowing Him, knew His ways. She could only wait for His summons. By gazing at Him, she had become like Him.
Martha called her sister Mary aside, The Teacher is here she said, and is asking for you. When Mary heard this she got up quickly and went to him.
Martha named Him Teacher, a Greek word that meant Instructor, an ironic title for her, as she was not one taught.
For Mary He was Lord and Lover, not teacher. But because He was Lord she waited until sent for. Submission is the response of love to Being Loved.
THE DEAD STINK!
As Jesus approached the tomb of Lazarus she to whom he promised life, to whom He revealed Himself as Life and Resurrection, made the ludicrous assumption that He did not know the dead stink!
Martha....said to Him, Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days. Jn 11:39
He who created life and filled the universe, who knew all the past as well as the startling future of the man...knew that Lazarus was in the stink of decay.
Martha's are ever educating God. Poor God, He needs my help, He doesn't understand. Let me tell Him what is going on.
She who believed she believed and even proclaimed, I Believe, had no faith in the actual and no clue of His intentions or His power. What she believed about this Lord of Life were simply lofty ideas about some distant future with no reality for the present.
Knowledge is always future...therefore dead for the now. That's safe, No error there, but...Faith is current and viable for it is grappling with the urgency of TODAY.
Faith that raises the dead never rises from the REASONINGS OF A RELIGIOUS MIND. Your faith grows in the realm of the heart by the catalyst of love.........
JESUS WEPT
Now Martha said to Jesus, Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
Mary came.............fell down at His feet, saying to Him, Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
There is a vast difference between a petulant complaint that reprimands God and a stunned quest to fathom Him.
The initial words of Mary and Martha were identical, the difference lay in the hidden heart which Christ alone can discern. He never answered words, only hearts.
In His presence Martha stood and Mary fell and thus revealed the difference in their hearts.
To the calloused heart He always answered questions with questions, making a person declare their error out loud in the hope that they would hear themselves, if not Him. This He did with Martha. The relationship of Jesus and Martha existed only in ideas and words, a liaison merely of the mind.
To the vulnerable heart of unveiled passion He gave- not only answers- but miracles of action. To the soft heart, His own heart replies.
Martha engaged Him in truth but Mary captured His heart by the influence of her anguished submission in grief.....sprawled at His feet.
So Mary, by her surrender of bewilderment, ignited the compassion of His divinity.
She said only one sentence, no argument, no discussion. She simply came to Him because....He was the Solution...To everything...To anything.
His heart was torn by union with her heart and His soul wept with her in the silence of their profound intimacy. He gave no words of answer....Their communion was not in words, their closeness needed no conversation that others could overhear.
Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping...He groaned in the spirit and was troubled.
No Answer! No Words! Do you understand? His entire Holy Being was wrenched in intimate fusion with her suffering and He moved to demolish the laws of death.
He turned from Mary with His Spirit heaving a travail of intercession and asked that the tomb be opened.
The Word of His Power called one name and death fell off the corpse.
Lazarus rose alive out of a consummate death, old and putrid. Hopeless, but for the plea of love to the Source of Life.
In response to Martha, He explained.
In response to Mary, He raised Lazarus.
I would rather move Him than understand him.
I would desire to wring my broken heart before Him than exercise my mind about Him.
I would prefer to be ignorant and in the desperation of bewildered love than informed and.....blind.
By Martha Kilpatrick-Adoration
My heart is wretched........as I once again read these words.
Love you,
Joian
You would have thought it would be the reverse...Mary ever seeking Him, deeply aware of HIM-surely she would be the one who flew to him in trouble.....
Martha's go where they are not bidden, answer when they are not asked, initiate what God did not begin. Marys, yielded even in crisis, wait till sent for....Surrender to His orders without ordering Him.
Jesus did the same, not moving toward Bethany for days until His Father bid him, even though he knew Lazarus was dead.
Mary in knowing Him, knew His ways. She could only wait for His summons. By gazing at Him, she had become like Him.
Martha called her sister Mary aside, The Teacher is here she said, and is asking for you. When Mary heard this she got up quickly and went to him.
Martha named Him Teacher, a Greek word that meant Instructor, an ironic title for her, as she was not one taught.
For Mary He was Lord and Lover, not teacher. But because He was Lord she waited until sent for. Submission is the response of love to Being Loved.
THE DEAD STINK!
As Jesus approached the tomb of Lazarus she to whom he promised life, to whom He revealed Himself as Life and Resurrection, made the ludicrous assumption that He did not know the dead stink!
Martha....said to Him, Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days. Jn 11:39
He who created life and filled the universe, who knew all the past as well as the startling future of the man...knew that Lazarus was in the stink of decay.
Martha's are ever educating God. Poor God, He needs my help, He doesn't understand. Let me tell Him what is going on.
She who believed she believed and even proclaimed, I Believe, had no faith in the actual and no clue of His intentions or His power. What she believed about this Lord of Life were simply lofty ideas about some distant future with no reality for the present.
Knowledge is always future...therefore dead for the now. That's safe, No error there, but...Faith is current and viable for it is grappling with the urgency of TODAY.
Faith that raises the dead never rises from the REASONINGS OF A RELIGIOUS MIND. Your faith grows in the realm of the heart by the catalyst of love.........
JESUS WEPT
Now Martha said to Jesus, Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
Mary came.............fell down at His feet, saying to Him, Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
There is a vast difference between a petulant complaint that reprimands God and a stunned quest to fathom Him.
The initial words of Mary and Martha were identical, the difference lay in the hidden heart which Christ alone can discern. He never answered words, only hearts.
In His presence Martha stood and Mary fell and thus revealed the difference in their hearts.
To the calloused heart He always answered questions with questions, making a person declare their error out loud in the hope that they would hear themselves, if not Him. This He did with Martha. The relationship of Jesus and Martha existed only in ideas and words, a liaison merely of the mind.
To the vulnerable heart of unveiled passion He gave- not only answers- but miracles of action. To the soft heart, His own heart replies.
Martha engaged Him in truth but Mary captured His heart by the influence of her anguished submission in grief.....sprawled at His feet.
So Mary, by her surrender of bewilderment, ignited the compassion of His divinity.
She said only one sentence, no argument, no discussion. She simply came to Him because....He was the Solution...To everything...To anything.
His heart was torn by union with her heart and His soul wept with her in the silence of their profound intimacy. He gave no words of answer....Their communion was not in words, their closeness needed no conversation that others could overhear.
Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping...He groaned in the spirit and was troubled.
No Answer! No Words! Do you understand? His entire Holy Being was wrenched in intimate fusion with her suffering and He moved to demolish the laws of death.
He turned from Mary with His Spirit heaving a travail of intercession and asked that the tomb be opened.
The Word of His Power called one name and death fell off the corpse.
Lazarus rose alive out of a consummate death, old and putrid. Hopeless, but for the plea of love to the Source of Life.
In response to Martha, He explained.
In response to Mary, He raised Lazarus.
I would rather move Him than understand him.
I would desire to wring my broken heart before Him than exercise my mind about Him.
I would prefer to be ignorant and in the desperation of bewildered love than informed and.....blind.
By Martha Kilpatrick-Adoration
My heart is wretched........as I once again read these words.
Love you,
Joian
