THE BLESSEDNESS OF COMMUNION

LUKE 10:38-42

“Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.

And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word.

But Martha was encumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.

And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:

But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

In this passage, we can get a very good idea of how the Lord holds time spent with Him in high esteem. It is better than to be “cumbered about with much serving,” according to his words to Martha.

As much as He appreciated all that Martha was doing for Him, He considered that Mary sitting at His feet and learning was the better thing. That may be very hard to understand until we rightly esteem the value of communion with one we love. We would rather they be with us than sacrificing for us in some way, if in order for them to make the sacrifice, they must take more time away from us and rob us of their presence.

Apparently, so would the Lord, as much as He appreciates labor done in His Name, He does not want us to sacrifice daily communion with him in order to do more for Him. The emphasis He seems to be putting on time “at His feet,” learning and communing, leads us to conclude that it is even more important than any sacrificial work that we would do for Him instead.

Certainly labor in His harvest field is appreciated and blessed, and needed very much, for “the fields are white unto harvest.” In fact, He calls us unto the fields for his namesake and directs us to pray for laborers to be sent by Him to the fields. There must be time spent denying self and faithfully laboring.

The thought He is putting before us is that this labor is not to be done to the neglect of communion and fellowship with Him. The branches must always be attached to the Vine, our labor will be in vain otherwise. Just doing a task for him is not sufficient, it is His great desire for us to spend time “at his feet,” as Mary chose to do long ago. He seems to put a great deal more value on that than we do, let us not neglect our daily devotional time with Him, and be abundantly blessed.

In His Lovely Name

Pastor Ed Bowen

OCTOBER 28, 2007