FINDING GRACE

John Fenn, Finding Grace

Hi all,
Last week I shared about one of the ramifications of grace; that of discipline and thinking for ourselves as we respond to Christ in us. No longer do we have external rules and laws compelling us to act, with a focus merely on the act itself, but we have Christ in us, leading us from within and suggesting that we discipline ourselves in our speech, our habits, our giving, our love and forgiveness and in every area.
 
The Lord leads, not drive us, and that means it's a suggestion we do this, or inward urging to do that. We are the proverbial horse being led to the water, but not even Jesus can make us drink from life; we must do it.
 
Today I'd like to share a related issue; how do you find grace in the midst of life's difficulties and trials?
 
What portion do you eat?
Luke 10: 38-42 tells us that "they" (Jesus and disciples) entered into a certain village and Martha received Jesus into HER house. Her sister Mary was there as well, and she sat at Jesus' feet while he shared. Verse 40 tells us Martha was "burdened" with serving the meal, and asked Jesus to tell Mary to help her serve.
 
The word translated "burdened" is "perispao", and means "to be pulled or dragged away". Martha was pulled away from focusing on Jesus because of the great burden of serving the guests. By using this word it is clear that earlier in the day she too was sitting at the feet of Jesus, but was "pulled and dragged away" to begin serving the guests, and she wanted help from her sister. But it is also clear that no one was clamoring for food - Martha made the choice based on her schedule, what she wanted done and when and how - and that was the burden. Everyone else was content to receive from Jesus and food could come later.
 
To give us a clearer idea of her emotions of the moment, we look at the word "help" in the Greek, when she asked Jesus to tell Mary to help her.
 
It is a compound word only found here and in Romans 8:26: "synantilabetai" - "syn" means "with"; "anti" means "over against"; and the root of "lambano" means "takes hold". In other words, it means "take hold, together with, against" whatever need is present.
 
In Romans 8:26 it is used of the Holy Spirit who "takes hold together with us against" our infirmity - that we don't know how to pray, and joins with us and the Father to help us pray His perfect will.
 
In Martha's case she is asking Jesus to tell Mary to "take hold together with her against" the great work of serving such a large number of guests - she was doing it all alone.
 
Additionally, Jesus observed that she was "anxious and troubled" about many things, literally "you are worried" about many things.
 
But Jesus told Martha no, saying that Mary had chosen the "good part". This demonstrates the Lord's sense of humor, as he uses a play on words that doesn't come across in English. "Good part" means a "serving" or "portion of food". In other words, Martha was worried about the food, but Mary chose the right helping or right portion of the real food being served at the moment.
 
Here's the rub...
Martha was right - people had to be served. It was her house, she had made the invitation, and she expected Mary to help - was that presumptuous? Maybe not in that culture. At any other time Mary would probably have helped her sister without a second thought.
 
And that's where finding grace in the midst of circumstances is difficult; we have a certain justification for being stressed, burdened, focused on another "portion" or "helping" rather than sitting complacently at the feet of Jesus while our world spins out of control. Don't we?
 
Start by sitting
Because the text tells us that Martha was "pulled or dragged away" by the burden of the day, we see she began as most any hostess would, sitting and visiting with her guest(s), then getting up to serve. That begs the question; why did she get up? I wonder if, while she was listening to Jesus, in her mind she was thinking "the bread needs warmed up, I need to start the lamb roasting, the veggies need prepared", not really listening to Jesus' words while the others were?
 
That's the nature of life - it pulls us away from the feet of Jesus - but he is our center, our focus, the Source of peace. Jesus told Martha that Mary had made a choice to eat the good helping that was being served "which shall not be taken away from her."
 
That's Satan's focus in all this - to take us away from the right portion at the feet of Jesus - and cause us to be "pulled or dragged away" because of the burdens and schedules and all that must be done.
 
We must first choose the good helping of food, and that won't be taken from us.
 
That's how we find grace - we must make the choice - WE make the choice as to which helping of food we will consume - the food of worry pulling us away or the food of Jesus, spiritual food giving us strength throughout the inevitable battles of the day.
 
Earth food; heaven's food
One word for the Word of God is "logos", which means the general Word. It is used in John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." This is the person of Jesus, the whole counsel of God wrapped up into Christ. Logos is the Genesis through The Revelation.
 
Another word is "rhema", which means a word porceeding from the logos in which God speaks directly to you. Anytime God has shown you something, spoken to you, given you peace in a situation, or in any other way communicated to you, that is a rhema. Rhema comes out of the logos with a specific word to you.
 
Rhema is used in Matthew 4:4: "Many does not live by bread alone, but by every Word (rhema) that comes from the mouth of God."
 
We don't live by the logos - memory verses have limited value because they aren't specific words to us about our situation. We equate our earth food with hearing God speak to us. That's what Jesus demonstrated in John 4:32 when the disciples asked if he had eaten, but in reality he had just ministered to the woman at the well: "I have food to eat that you don't know about."
 
When we have that priority truly in place in our lives - that given the choice between a nice lunch or time with the Father in prayer and fellowship or in the Word, it's a toss up. We need earth food, but we don't live by it alone, but by every word God speaks to us.
 
That is what Mary choose and Martha departed from. Mary was focused on the rhema, whatever Jesus was sharing that day ministered to her and fed her. Martha departed from that rhema and was content just to have the Logos sitting in her living room while she was burdened down with life.
 
Again, that's what Satan wants us to do - compromise - it's ok just to have Jesus inside you, he will walk with you through this - and that may be true (he loves using 1/2 truths), but the rest of the story is that a rhema awaits you if you will remain at the feet of the Master, choosing his food over what the world wants to feed you.
 
The Lord lives inside us, urging us gently to choose the good portion, but he won't make us do it.
 
A visitation to share
I rarely share this visitation because it is very personal, but I feel I should share parts of it here. Years ago I had a visitation from the Lord in which he asked if I had any questions. I had been thinking about him walking on the water and so asked him how he did that.
 
He said he had "an appointment set by my Father" to be on the other side of the lake the next morning, so he walked down the mountain where he had been praying, and started walking across the water. Mark's gospel records Jesus "wanted to walk by them" (6:48-49), but he turned aside to comfort them when he saw their fear. Matthew records Peter walking on the water with Jesus (14:25), and John's gospel records that when Jesus got into the boat it was translated across the lake to the shore: "and when he got into the boat immediately it was at the land where it was going"; a distance of 3-5 miles (6:21).
 
What the Lord told me was this: "I had an appointment set by my Father to be at the other side the next morning, so it didn't matter what was under my feet, I was just walking to that appointment. You must train yourself to become as focused on the Father's will and direction for your life as I was at that time. When you do that, it won't matter what is under your feet. But to answer your question, the water firmed up under me as I stepped."
 
To me the story isn't so much Peter walking on the water, but Jesus being so focused on the Father's will that it didn't matter what he was walking on or how the wind and waves were acting around him.
 
And that brings me back to Mary, sitting at Jesus' feet, focused on what he was speaking to her, having made the right choice to find grace in the midst of so much to do. Her food was his words, and earth food could come later.
 
May we become as focused as Mary tackling her helping of life's burdens only after receiving the right portion from the lips of Jesus, and may we be as focused on the Father's will as Jesus was - having no concern what is supporting our steps as we walk, only knowing the Father's will is our portion and he will take care of the rest!
 
Some thoughts this day,
Blessings,
John Fenn
www.ifaithhome.org