Mary from Magadala

Easter is over.  You are back at your job or whatever you do on a daily basis - dealing with work, relationships and life in general.  Turn the clock back 2000 years and try to imagine what it must have been like on that Monday.  

Jesus' body was gone, then He was seen alive.  Can you imagine the confusion, disappointment, fear and all of the emotions that those who followed him closely must have felt?  

To me, one of His most fascinating followers is Mary  Magdalene - from Magadala.  You can read about her in Matt. 27 55-61,  28:1  Mark 15 40-47, 16 1-11 Luke 8:2  23:55, 56  24 1-11  John 19:25, 20 1-8  

John mentions the women who followed Jesus and were His personal friends.  Among these women, Mary Magdalene, next to the mother of Jesus, stands out the most prominently.  Out of the nine times she is mentioned along with the other women, she is named first, with one exception.  (John 19:25)  

John mentions her alone and by name four times in his account of the resurrection and this makes her the leading character in this great event.  She not only was brave enough to stay standing at the cross, but she also has the distinction of being the first one to see the risen and glorified Lord.  

You cannot confuse this Mary with the four other Mary's mentioned in the gospels, because this Mary is called Mary of Magdalene to distinguish her from the others.  

This is the Mary that the scriptures mentioned above tell us had 7 devils cast out of her by Jesus Christ.  How does a woman who was released from 7 devils come to such a high place of honor in history to be the first to see the risen Christ, and to be given the commission to go and tell the news to the others? 

She followed Christ closely.  She met Jesus Christ and her life changed drastically.  This brings me to the point of this devotion.  I believe that we Americans are almost over ex-posed to the Word of God.  We can watch church services and preaching on T.V., listen to them on the radio, listen to tapes, C.D.'s and go to a service about any day of the week.  There are hundreds of devotions to choose from to read daily.  We can do all this and remain unchanged.   

If we do not take in and meditate and chew up and digest and assimilate and apply the Word into our beings, we get more and more knowledge and less and less action.  We become hearers and not doers.   We do not have a drastic change in our every day life.  The fact that we read devotions or go to church or pray can become our crutch...sort of an excuse to remain the way we are and not put away things we know we need to put out of our lives.  We can still feel O.K. because we are going through the motions of religious activities.   

I hope to challenge you to concentrate this week on one thing that you want to change in your life.  When we train horses, we cannot keep taking them to the next level until they completely understand and perform on the first level.  If we do, we will wind up with a horse that is not solid and does not do his job with confidence and assurance.  He will have a hole in his performance.  He will not have a solid foundation built upon solid basics.  We, like the horse, need to get our basics down pat and be able to do them and THEN continue on to the next step.   

Pick  only  ONE thing that you want to overcome this week and pick ONE scripture to help you overcome.  A good one is, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."  Phil. 4:13    Follow Jesus closely, boldly and unafraid this week. Experience a CHANGE !

Let us become as Mary of Magdalene - a most vivid example of what Jesus Christ can  do for a human soul.  The story that began with the human misery of devil possession and ends with the most glorious day in the history of the world.  A story of a woman who put Christ first in her heart and experienced the joy of a changed life.   

Thank you for the encouraging responses to the last devotion.  Pass them on to anyone you wish to and Praise the Lord!!