Luke 10:42 There’s only one thing you need. Mary has made the right choice, and that one thing will not be taken away from her. (GW)

Recently our pastor clarified scriptures to the extent that it challenged common perceptions. He used the scriptures to dispel traditional views about the scriptures. It was not presented in a way that said “You are wrong.” It was stated so as to challenge our source of perception.

How do we feel about the bible? Feelings are not facts. Feelings do however influence how we interact with one another. In Luke 10 we see two sisters, Martha and Mary. Now you can take inference from the story and apply it to your life whether you take the role of Martha or Mary. But the Word only says what the Word says.

How are we to know with any certainty what any scripture means in context and in personal import? Well, I can only say what Jesus said here, “There’s only one thing you need.”

John 1:1a, 14 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

Sitting at His feet and hanging on every word is the only way to know for sure. He is the essential Word of God. Our perceptions are drawn from many different sources and some of those are nothing more than making the story memorable. Memorable isn’t necessarily truth, its emotional.

We should know the Word of God well enough to distinguish the difference between truth and memorable emotions. Sometimes we need to be challenged to question our sources of perceptions.

Isaiah 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Here we are at the beginning of a new year. A chance to start over, to do things differently, better and hopefully to a happier end. So why speak now about sorrows? How else could you see the need for change if not for the sorrows? Jesus is that man of sorrows and this is about why.

“This is a thing we ought to be much affected with; it is to be wondered at, and greatly lamented, and ministers may go to God and complain of it to him, as the prophet here. What a pity is it that such rich grace should be received in vain, that precious souls should perish at the pool’s side, because they will not step in and be healed!” Matthew Henry’s commentary on Isaiah 53:3

Christ at the cross took away the sins of the world with His death. He became sin, that knew no sin. All sin, every man’s sin, for all time, was loaded upon Him in death. I have often thought that the lamentations of the knowledge of this burden was the reason for His sorrows. I was wrong, it was that man rejects the release from the pain and penalty of those sins because they reject the free offer of salvation thru faith.

John 5:7 The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.

The healing pool of Bethesda was a place where those who needed healing placed their faith. It was always something with this man for thirty-eight years. It was for the lack of someone to help him or the insistent behavior of others that pushed him aside and kept him from being healed.

Your salvation is not dependent on others and no one stands in your way. Place your faith in Christ, the one who grieves for you and beckons “come to me”.