“She has done what she could; she has anointed My body beforehand for the burial.” Mark 14:8
In this passage, we find a woman who gives the most valuable possession she had and pours it on the head of Jesus. Like the woman who put her two small copper coins into the treasury and gives more than all the rest, so also this woman who pours the perfume shows us what a true disciple of Jesus ought to be like. We are to love the Lord Jesus with all our hearts and all of our strength, without reservation. The work of Christ for us ought to daily impact us and stir us to be more and more committed to the gospel. Our love for God must be real, not merely ritualistic and cold, or without heart and devotion.
In our church we consider it to be of vital importance that members care for one another and help each other grow. The goal is not that we merely have a program of discipleship, but that it becomes for us a style of life. We want our local church to be one that is strong in evangelism and also in strengthening one another’s faith. We also hope that as our church grows stronger, we will be able to establish future churches. The work is long and weighty, and we are begging God by His Spirit to help us to depend more on His strength, rather than on what we can do in our own strength.
The Lord has added three new believers to our church. After a time of discipleship and confirmation of their faith in the Lord, and after teaching each of them through the gospel, we had the privilege of seeing them enter the waters of baptism. The church rejoices because this means that the Lord is helping us to fulfill the biblical command: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.” The work in each of them is still not complete, because we must continue teaching them to observe all that the Lord has commanded. We pray that each of them will exalt the name of Jesus.
The church continues to grow, and the challenge for me as a pastor, along with the other elder in the church, is becoming more and more obvious. I can say beyond any doubt that today I feel my need for the Lord more than ever in order to continue being a help to the church, especially as I exposit the Scriptures Sunday after Sunday. May God continue to be merciful to us and bless us.
