“She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said, But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made”
(Luke 10: 39 – 40)
As the New Year begins to take shape, all the activities that were temporarily put aside for the holidays, now have to be begun again, the children are back at school, exercise classes begin, soccer practice, basketball, swimming, all the after-school classes start, grown ups sign-up for new programmes, issues at work need to be addressed, life begins again in earnest.
I read an interesting description of what this can mean not only in our day to day life, but our spiritual walk, “the fog of distraction”. When we are distracted by multiple activities, a fog descends upon us and we lose sight of what is really important to see. Here in North America the use of cellphones has become such an obsession, that people use them even when driving a car and hence the term, distracted driving which can and does bring about terrible accidents and multiple injuries, they become immersed in a fog which hides the hidden danger of what they are doing.
Distractions can also blind us to the importance of our relationship with the Lord and Luke records a very telling example of this which occurs in the home of Martha and Mary. Martha becomes distracted by impressing Jesus with a beautiful meal while Mary
listens intently to what Jesus is saying.
Here in Vancouver we live by the water and have a beautiful view of the city skyline, but during the wintery mornings a thick fog settles over the water and creeps around our windows, so the city view is obliterated and all we see is fog as if the city does not exist. The fog of distraction can stop us from keeping the Lord in full sight, and we might forget he is there right with us while we are so caught up with everything we are doing.
Isaiah describes us as sheep who have gone astray;
“We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way….” (Isaiah 53: 6)
We know that sheep are not the most intelligent of animals and if they get distracted and wander away from the flock, they lose sight of the shepherd and find themselves in all sorts of predicaments.
So how do we deal with all the distractions of modern life and not lose sight of our 
Shepherd? Jesus himself answers that question when Martha begins to complain about her sister, Mary. He points out what is important not only for Martha to realise, but us as well. Worrying about schedules, and all the other distractions of life creates a fog between us and the Lord. Making time to sit with him and listen to him through his word, is the most necessary task to accomplish in a day;
“Martha, Martha, “The lord said, “You are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10: 41)
As another new year approaches, many of us have doubts about how we will face the challenges the new year will bring. Some of us have been damaged by many different events happenings this past year which have created havoc and ravaged our lives. Some have lost dearly loved ones, some have lost jobs, their reputations, some have experienced failures and have lost confidence in themselves, some have begun to think they are worthless. Scripture has a beautiful picture of what this might feel like…
The Christmas season has started with a blast of activities and shops filled with all the glitz of decorations and huge ads urging us all to buy, buy, buy! Our city begins the festivities with a huge Santa Parade down the main streets on, ironically God’s day, a Sunday morning in early December. I was amazed to see on the television the crowds of people, rugged up from the cold, lining the streets. One of the commentators spied two little girls, hopping up and down with excitement and peering anxiously down the street. He asked them who were they waiting for and they both shrieked, Santa!! I was suddenly overcome with sadness that this incredible moment of time, when God became man, in the form of a baby who was to be the Saviour of the world, had been forgotten and replaced by some jolly fat figure in a red suit.
The Magi knew who he was because they were following the star also to find and worship him, the king of the Jews, and they asked King Herod where he was;
I read a beautiful story recently about an old Christian lady whose health had forced her to live in a Care Home for seniors. She had been an active servant for Christ, constantly involved in all the activities of her church and working in the community with various groups helping the needy, the poor and the disadvantaged. One of the members of her church came to visit her and asked her if she was missing not being involved working for the Lord and how did she now fill her days. Her answer totally surprised the questioner.
be blindly turning down the wrong path because our companion, The Holy Spirit, will be close by to remind us not to make any decisions in life without first consulting him.
I had a very exciting day, this Fall, as my son-in law and my daughter with their two young children, asked me to accompany them on a trip to the Pumpkin Patch to select pumpkins to decorate their house for Halloween. I had never actually done this before and the adventure began with a beautiful drive into the countryside along winding roads lined with stately trees in their full magnificent Autumn colours.
One of the special celebrations was the Feast of Harvest, also known as the Feast of Weeks. This special Feast was to celebrate God’s special providing of food and the best of the first harvesting was to be brought to the temple and dedicated to him
through our example and we will witness a plentiful harvest. James gives us some good advice on how to exactly accomplish that.
When my husband was running his busy Dental Practice, he had wonderful, instructions to all the receptionists who met patients at the front desk, as sometimes they had to deal with angry confrontations, usually concerning billing related to insurance companies. This was his advice to diffuse anger and to calm whoever perceived some sort of wrong doing
I have two granddaughters who were born very close to each other, six days apart, and as they were growing up little spats broke out between the two cousins, I remember witnessing one, when they were three years old, where both mothers were trying to teach them to say sorry. The punishment was for each to go to their room and when they were ready, to come out and say sorry. The elder of the two opted to say sorry first and as she stood in front of her cousin, with hands on her hips, she shouted and made a rude face as she said sorry. Obviously that lesson failed, but even if we don’t go to that extent just mouthing sorry without coming from the heart, negates any true forgiveness.
ying, sorry, begins the forgiveness cycle and when we practice both being willing to say sorry and being willing to forgive one another, we are blessed by living out Jesus’ beautiful example of loving one another as he commanded us to do.
My little granddaughter is going to a Day Care and I was so pleased to discover they are teaching her the same sweet songs that I sang as a small child. The other day I was travelling with the family and sitting in the back seat next to her car seat, when she offered to sing a song for me. I was thrilled to hear the words of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” emerge from this little mouth, accompanied by all the hand actions.
One of the churches I attended many years ago had a beautiful stained, glass window which I loved looking at, while seated in church. It was a depiction of Jesus, holding a lantern in his hand and knocking at a door. It was only just recently, while reading a study on the verse in Revelation 3: 20, that I discovered the history of this much, admired window. It was originally a painting by an English artist, William Holman Hunt and hangs in the Keble College Chapel in Oxford, England and is entitled, The Light Of The World, converting it to a magnificent stained glass window, has brought joy to countless viewers in churches scattered across the world.
and miss out on his loving fellowship. When Paul was telling others the good news in Antioch, the city realised they needed to hear the word of God, so they too could have the same wonderful relationship they could see Paul had with his Saviour.
Sending out words is vastly different as to the way it was when I was young. Handwritten letters were personal methods of communicating and for more official letters, a typewriter was used. Today the quickest way of getting your message across seems to be the most important point of any communication from emailing, texting to Twitter and Facebook. My sister and I played a little experiment this last few weeks to go back to sending a letter to each other. She lives in Australia and I live in Canada and while chatting on the phone to each other we were sharing some favourite recipes with each other. We both decided we would like to have each other’s recipe to try so my sister offered to send me hers by mail and I decided to send mine to her. Just for fun we posted them on the same day and waited to see which country had the best postal service. I received hers in exactly 7 days she is still waiting for mine 12 days later!!!
We tend to forget the incredible power of God’s word and sometimes fall into the error of thinking the Bible is just words written in a book. The Psalmists considered them so important, they wanted to absorb God’s words into their very being, the centre of the human heart;
When we are constantly spending time with the Lord and his word we are blessed by producing fruit which in turn blesses others and sends out his word in a mighty way. Somebody once remarked, people don’t need a sermon to find out what it means to be a Christian, they just need somebody demonstrating what the Lord’s love produces. Paul aptly describes how to do that in his letter to the Galatians;
!!! DISCOURAGEMENT !!!
carefully at our own lives and strive to be one who brings encouragement to those who need it and to be careful in offering unsolicited advice that may discourage others.