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Continuing our study of Luke chapter 10, this week we’re looking at verses 38 – 42. Please read these verses every day this week and, if possible use a different translation each day, asking God to open your eyes to fresh revelation from His Word.
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Luke 10:38 (NIV)
‘As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.’
“Make yourself at home”
I’m sure that you’ve heard this phrase several times and perhaps you’ve said this to people who are visiting your home for the first time. I’m reminded of a story regarding the late manager of Nottingham Forest, Brian Clough.
He had recently signed the first 1-million-pound player (Trevor Francis) and called in to his house to say hello. He knocked on the front door and Trevor’s wife answered the door. She explained that he wasn’t at home but that Brian was welcome to sit and wait for him.
After a few minutes of small talk, Brian politely asked if he could use the bathroom and went upstairs. Some considerable time later, Trevor arrived home and his wife told him that Brian was still in the bathroom and that she was worried that something may be wrong.
Trevor went upstairs and knocked the door and asked if all was well. Brian replied that he would be out in a few minutes. After the minutes had passed, true enough, Brian walked down the stairs a little red in the face and with wet hair. Trevor again asked if everything was ok because he’d been in the room such a long time. His reply was that he’d had a bath! Trevor and his wife seemed a little taken aback by this because this was the first time that Brian had visited and it wasn’t the normal thing for visitors to do! Again, Brian in his own inimitable way responded that he’d asked to use the bathroom and therefore the assumption was that he would actually use the bath. If he’d wanted to use the toilet, he would have asked to use that!
I’m sure that if we knew people would actually ‘make themselves at home’ we probably wouldn’t say it. Can you imagine people taking a walk around your home and doing whatever they felt like and really treating it like their own? Most of us wouldn’t be too happy at that.
Martha ‘opened her home’ to Jesus. The meaning behind this is actually to give license to ‘make Himself at home’ and to treat the home as if it was His own.
Think about your life for a moment and imagine that different aspects of your life are separate ‘rooms’ in your house. For example, your place of work could be one room, the relationship with your family another room and your most private moments in another room. Would you be happy for Jesus to talk a walk in ALL of the rooms? Are there things in those rooms that could cause embarrassment?
Are you in a position to really open your home to Jesus or are there some things that are off limits? Take a few moments to consider this and I urge us to pray a fresh prayer of dedication, asking Jesus to take complete control of our lives. He already has the keys of death, hell and the grave, isn’t it time He had the keys to your ‘home’ also?
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