Faithbase

Had you ever been told that cleanliness is next to godliness? Well, it's not. So, in John 11, one of the most famous stories in all of scripture, and actually a fun fact, is it holds the shortest verse in scripture. Jesus wept, right? It's John 11, 35. And the large part of this chapter centers around Jesus' raising of his friend Lazarus from the dead. And it's an extremely important story, and it's extremely valuable because Jesus experiences emotions, and it's a good teacher for us to let all of those things be. But one of my favorite stories is actually right after in that next section, and Jesus is spending time talking with two magnificent women named Mary and Martha. And what's awesome is you see this comparison in kind of these personalities that take place when Jesus arrives into their home. So, we have this picture of Martha who is cleaning the house, tidying up, trying to make it look as good as it can, and trying to get it to kind of meet a certain level of expectation that she thinks that Jesus might want or expect when he goes to her home. And then you have this other contrasting personality in the person of Mary who basically just sits at Jesus' feet, and she wants to learn and be taught by him. And so, we're kind of seeing these, you know, pictures of these two different women who are both trying to best express their admiration and love for Jesus. And Martha actually gets really frustrated with her sister Mary and says to Jesus, like, why are you just letting her sit there, right? Like, she just gets to hang out, and I'm trying to do all of these great things on your behalf. And Jesus basically looks at her and smiles and says, you know, Martha, like, you need to relax, right? I'm only going to be with you for a short time. There's always going to be things to do. You're always going to have a list. There's always going to be things to hurry about and accomplish. But while I'm here, I want you to spend as much time with me as you can because those things on your items, your to-do list, will always exist in their own right. And that gives us such a beautiful picture in our own world, right? Because if you're like me, right, I live by lists. I'm kind of a slave to my calendar because it's so important to accomplish. It's so important to get things done. It's so important to hit this meeting correctly so that we can springboard into the next quarter's ideals and set up these awesome events that people want to come to and see Jesus change lives. And I think none of those things are inherently bad, but it's always important to remember that those are secondary and of tertiary importance to the idea of spending time at Jesus' feet. And the best way that I found to do this is simply learning how to become a morning person and spending time in my devotional, spending time in prayer, and spending time listening to worship music. And so for me, I'll let you in on kind of what my life looks like every morning. And I try, and I don't do this every morning. So don't hear me like bragging or anything like that because this is not a humble brag time. But most mornings, I will try my very best to set aside 30 minutes. And I sit in bed, and I have my Bible and my devotional journal next to me. I have my Amazon Alexa, and so I'll say, Hey, you know, Alexa, play worship music. I hope if you have a device that you start playing worship music right now. And so hopefully some type of worship will come on, right, that I enjoy. And I'll just open my Bible, and I'll just read like one section. And it's just usually like five to ten verses. It's not very long, and I just read it. And then I'll try and read it again. And then I'll spend a few minutes journaling in what I thought came from that chapter, what I feel like God wants me to know. And then I'll write down a couple prayer requests and a couple things I'm grateful for. And then I'll just begin to pray and try and meditate on that chapter because I'm realizing that it is so easy for me to get out of bed and become a slave to my lists because all of the things that I'm trying to do are kingdom-related, right? I'm trying to help students know Jesus. I'm trying to help families experience healing. And all those things are great and valuable, but they are all of secondary importance when it comes time for me to spend at the feet of Jesus in a daily and consistent routine. So if you have any questions or if you'd like to figure out how to do this or you want some advice or somebody to bounce some ideas off of, please feel free to message me on here or follow me on Instagram at Joshua underscore Carmen. I would love to talk with you there. Thanks so much, and have a great day.