Sometime around 2007 I was sitting in the Walmart parking lot in Greensboro, NC…. I was again being challenged by God through His Word:

“Am I now seeking the favor of men or of God? For if I’m striving to please men, I cannot be a bond servant of Christ.” Galations 1:10

Right there in my car He gave me the chorus for the song “Face to Face.” (To listen to this song press the cloud icon by “Marilyn’s Music” in the right column or below.) Years later, He inspired the rest of the song. The title itself comes from Exodus 33:11:

“God talked with Moses face to face like a friend...”

“Face to face.” Many would say that this relationship was the exclusive privilege of a chosen few like Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, Elizabeth, Mary, Jesus, Paul, John….; but Jesus clearly defines how to be His friend:

“[Jesus said]: ‘You are my friends IF you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves…but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me but I chose you, that you should go out and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the Father in My Name, He may give it to you.”

He gives one criteria: doing what He commands. In Matthew 22: 35 “…one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, ‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?’ Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.‘” Jesus spoke clearly and without hesitation, so what is our dilemma? For me it is in the discerning of what “loving my neighbor” looks like. However, even in that statement I reveal my sin. Jesus did not put “loving my neighbor” first. Clearly, it is only through loving God with my WHOLE heart, mind, and soul that I can live in love for my neighbor.

Here is the Mary/Martha dilemma again. Martha was busy serving and preparing for guests, i.e. she was acting in love for others. However, her focus was horizontal and that inevitably led to her judgement and complaint about Mary. Had Martha’s first priority been to love God, then she would have seen Mary’s actions for what they were: Mary was fully focused on Jesus and being in His Presence: listening and ready to obey. Her focus was not on whether the house was in perfect order or if the meal would be delicious and pleasing to their guests. If and when Jesus knew that it was needful for Mary to do those preparations He would have told her and I am sure she would have complied. How easy it is to look around at this world and think we see clearly what needs to be done or said and then become critical and judgmental.

Now – in the context of my life now – He is again confronting me with the question “Whose favor are you seeking?”; and I am squirming under His searching gaze. As Ric and I talked yesterday, something surfaced that seems to pinpoint a major issue we face as believers. The Lord calls us, among many other things, to be “peacemakers;” so, perhaps you, like myself, have striven to carefully avoid anything that we think might bring discord and division from others. However, today He seems to be shedding light into my heart and showing me that my desire not to be separated from others has begun to take precedence over really hearing and obeying Him. Instead of wringing my hands over the condition of our country and world, I need to follow His clear instructions: II Chronicles 7:14 lists four requirements for the Lord to “Hear and Forgive us and Heal our land”: “Humble yourselves, pray, seek My Face, and turn from your wicked ways.” Is there anything unclear about these “commands.” As usual His instructions are simple, but not easy.

The last few days we have been reading through Isaiah; in Isaiah 55: 8-10 God says “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are My ways your ways,’ declares the LORD. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My Word be which goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.'”

The chorus for my song “Face to Face” is “There is no greater Love than this: that someone would lay down his life for his friend. You will be My friend if you will simply do what I command. I have chosen you: appointed you that you would go out and bear fruit; and the fruit will remain and you’ll receive whatever you ask in My Name.”

The last line in the song is from Jesus to each of us individually: “I want to be your Friend.” To lay down my life for my friend is to first lay down my life for my friend, Jesus. Only in doing that can I hope to know what it would look like to “lay down my life” for my fellow humans. I am asking God to forgive my Martha ways and to help me to learn how to love Him first. For, in truth, only He can enable me to learn how to love Him — and then teach me and lead me each moment in how to love my neighbor.