The Wedding of Two Seasons ~ Martha and Mary

Oswald Chambers said,    
The expression of Christian character is not good doing, but God-likeness. 

If the Spirit of God has transformed you within, you will exhibit Divine Characteristics in your life, not good human characteristics… you will exhibit God’s life, not your life, trying to be godly. 
The supernatural made natural by the grace of God ~ and our experience of this must work out in the practical details of our life ~ not just in times of communion with God.

God-likeness. How?

The call to walk in holiness, to be holy ~ has never been as loud as it is today.
Christians everywhere also feel the beckoning of God ~ a huge stirring ~
to do something, that we’ve had our season of preparation ~
that we are well able to touch our cities and our world ~

For me, this call to holiness mixed with the urgency to action ~ has been frustrating.
 Do I step out and do a new thing?
 Do I retire in intimacy?
 Do I boldly go where no man has ever gone before?
 Do I stay quietly in my prayer closet and wait for God to move?

Season ~ A period of time allotted for a special task to reach completion.
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Read Luke 10:38 – 42

The Martha Season.       We all know Martha. 
 
She is a busy girl.  She gets ‘er done.  Always in action, she has a servant heart.  She perceives the needs.  Dedicated.  Sacrificial.  Rock solid.  Steadfast.  Loyal.  Martha is the queen of details, which she carefully organizes.  She moves with authority. Accepts nothing but extreme excellence. A take-charge person, a natural leader.  If it needs to be done, she will do it.  Task oriented, goal-driven, there is nothing she can’t break into do-able pieces.  There is no end to the good she can do, no end to the needs she sees. 

A good person to have on the team ~ Martha ~ if you can keep up with her.   :^)

We’ve all seen a season as Martha.          Her focus is on:  The Need Only.
And Jesus really really loved her.

Lk 10:38  “A woman named Martha.” 
Her name means  “lady or mistress”.

She owned the house in Bethany ~ Bethany means “House of Unripe Figs”

She knew the risks of hosting Jesus.  
As queen of details, she wasn’t unaware of the situation.

Lk 11:16   Thomas says, ‘Let us go too, that we may die, be killed, along with Him”.

Yet she “received and welcomed Him into her house.”  Vs 38
 “received”, a verb ‘to take in by deliberate and ready reception of what is offered.’

Same verb as Lk 19:6  Zacchaeus, the hated taxman,
He is in a tree when he hears Jesus call.
 He “made haste” “came down” and “received Him” joyfully.
By the time Zacchaeus hits the ground he is a changed man,
for he had “received” the Lord.

The Mary Season

Humble, meek, and gentle, Mary carries a depth of love for Jesus we all want. 
She chose the better path more than once. 

She is a picture of the lovely and intimate Bride of Christ,
adoring Him, lavishing her love on Him with total abandonment. 

She is famous for her personal devotion ~ her soaking in the Lord.

We long for extended seasons as Mary.      Her focus is on: The Lord Only 
and Jesus really really loved her.

This summer we visited our son-in-law, who is schooling to become a missionary pilot.
Somehow, whichever way our conversation started, it concluded with his focus an airplanes or missions.  His ability to draw on this is incredible and inexhaustible!  I realized anew the power that presents itself when accompanied by raw passion and devotion.  It is an awesome force, in this instance, brought about by a Martha Season of immersion into the world of airplanes and flying. 
 We also visited our newest grandson.  I was completely enthralled by the focus displayed by our son and his wife over that baby boy.  It was absolutely profound even as I had to smile over their oblivion to everything and everyone else (don’t new parents everywhere display this?)  Their single focus on that baby preached an eternal message of the exquisite, exclusive Joy available to those who choose to soak; those who focus themselves singly, almost withdrawing from other activities to soak in a presence.  Theirs was a quiet personal power, just as potent as the pilot’s.
This power is brought about by a Mary Season of embracing.

Two Separate Sisters ~ with the same Father.
Two Separate Seasons ~ with the same Source.
Two Separate Focuses ~ with the same Object.

God-likeness happens when the contemplative spirit weds the activist spirit.

To limit ourselves to one is to ~ limit ourselves to one.  :^)

Practicing intimacy, we receive His passion. 
Practicing activity, we release it.
We need to do both.

That is what “Seasons” are created to do.  Receive and release!   Sow and reap!
It is what we are created to do.  We need to do both.

The NOW call is to walk in intimacy, in holiness, to be holy.

But the call is also to DO something, to actively participate,
plunging both hands deep into whatever God leads you to do! 

The element of failure ~ the risk in actually doing something ~ has another name. 
Jesus calls it faith and He really really loves it! 

When these two “seasons” are united in you ~
When your season of intimacy blends with your season of action ~
going beyond mere human goodness into incredible, riskfilled faith.   

You will carry, as Oswald Chambers discovered, a God-likeness!
You will transformed by Jesus ~ in all you do ~ and say  ~ and even think. 
A complete renewing and rewiring of your mind!

You will walk in His Kingdom, here on earth.  This is Kingdom Living!
The supernatural here and now, made natural in your daily life by His grace.

And it is at this union point, this wedding of your Martha and Mary Seasons,
that you will see what Martha and Mary unexpectedly saw ~

  Lazarus risen from the dead.  

Whoa God.