In John 12: 2, 3 all is harmonious: Martha is
found in service for the Lord, Lazarus is at table
with Him (fellowship) and Mary is at His feet (worship).
God is my Father, and my Father is God. Reverence
and nearness, nearness and reverence. Keep the two in balance and
you have worship.
We need feet washing every day (see John 13). How
important it is then to minister Christ to one another!
Teaching and exhortation go together (see 1 Tim.
6: 2). Exhortation builds on the teaching already received.
“The grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and the love of God, and the communion
of the Holy Spirit” (2 Cor. 13: 14, my emphasis)—how these things
were needed in the assembly in Corinth!
We should not be surprised at decline over time.
“The rest” becomes “a few names”, and eventually, “any one” (see
Rev. 2: 24; 3: 4; 20).
The answer to failure is not occupation with it,
but occupation with Christ (comp. Mal. 3: 16).
Virtually Paul’s last words are “The Lord Jesus
Christ [be] with your spirit” (2 Tim. 4: 22). The answer to many a
difficulty, problem or need!
Here Am I
The days in which we live
are incredibly solemn—perhaps much more solemn than we realise.
Wherever we look—politically, morally, spiritually—things are on the
slide. How easy to grow despondent, withdraw in upon ourselves, and,
like Jonah (see Jonah 4: 5) wait for the end. And yet are we not the
people for this moment? Did God not know of this tide of evil when
he caused you and I to be born? Did he not know about the
abandonment of the things our fathers held dear? We know He did. And
so it must be that we have been placed here “for such a time as
this” (Esth. 4: 14). Look at Isaiah’s day. It was an evil time: the
cities of God’s people were to “be wasted, without inhabitant, and
the houses without man, and the land become an utter desolation, and
Jehovah have removed men far away, and the solitude be great in the
midst of the land” (Is. 6: 11, 12). What a grim prospect! Moreover,
he was “a man of unclean lips” dwelling “in the midst of a people of
unclean lips” (v5). Yet when God sought a man, Isaiah replied, “Here
am I; send me” (v8). Brethren, this is your time.
Yesteryear is no longer available to us and tomorrow may be too
late. “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose
under the heavens” (Eccl. 3: 1). Arise and do the work the Lord has
given you to do. Leave the results to Him but do the
work. Here am I: send me!
