M
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Mark
His mother Mary opened her house in Jerusalem to the believers for prayer (Acts 12). Mark was cousin to Barnabas (Col. 4:10) and had been led to Christ through the ministry of Peter (1 Peter 5:13). Mark had abandoned the work during Paul’s first missionary journey (Acts 13:13) and Paul and Barnabas disagreed over the advisability of taking Mark along on their second journey, so Barnabas took Mark and they went their own way (Acts 15:36–41). Barnabas was concerned with what the work would do for Mark, but Paul was more concerned with what Mark would do for the work. In the end, Paul confessed that Mark was “useful” in the ministry (2 Tim. 4:11). The Lord used Mark to write the Gospel of Mark. In his association with Peter and Paul, Mark learned many important lessons in the school of faith, not the least of which was the power of prayer.
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Why did Mark desert Paul and Barnabas? Was it because Paul was now the leader and Mark’s cousin Barnabas was second in command (Acts 13:2, 13)? Perhaps Mark found it difficult to travel through the mountainous terrain. Was he upset because of Paul’s emphasis on reaching the Gentiles? Maybe it was just plain homesickness. Whatever his reasons and mistakes, Mark proved to be a successful worker for the Lord, and he is an encouragement to anybody who has failed in serving the Lord. The victorious Christian life is a series of new beginnings, and there is always opportunity to start over again.
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Martha
A woman named Martha opened her home to him [Jesus]. See Luke 10:38. When He was born, there was no room for Him in the inn (Luke 2:7). During His ministry, He had no place to lay His head (Luke 9:58).
Summarized from GCM, The Great Physician, p.229
Life in focus. “One thing is needful” (Luke 10:42). “One thing will I seek after” (Ps. 27:4). “One thing you are lacking” (Luke 18:22). “This one thing I do” (Phil. 3:13).
As a matter of fact, our Lord was not objecting to the “many things,” but He was showing her the effect produced upon her by “many things” was that “one thing” was lacking. He was revealing to her the fact that she needed concentration at a center, and where this was so, activities could still be carried on in peace and poise and quietness.
GCM, The Great Physician, 229
Mary, the Mother of Our Lord
[Luke 1:46–47] Oh, you can never know the joy of Mary unless Christ becomes truly and really yours; but oh! when he is yours, yours within, reigning in your heart, yours controlling all your passions, yours changing your nature, subduing your corruptions, inspiring you with hallowed emotions; yours within, a joy unspeakable and full of glory—then you can sing, you must sing, who can restrain your tongue?
CHS, 10:719
The verb “highly favored” (Luke 1:28 KJV, NIV) is the same as “made us accepted” in Ephesians 1:6, referring to all of God’s children. All true believers have been “highly graced” by the Lord.
[Luke 1:55] Covenant engagements are the softest pillows for an aching head; covenant engagements with the Surety, Jesus Christ, are the best props for a trembling spirit.
CHS, 10:723
Mary’s Song (Luke 1:46–55)
The Magnificat’s message is so subversive that for a period during the 1980s the government of Guatemala banned its public recitation.
Kathleen Norris, Amazing Grace, p. 117
Mary’s song was humble and reverent and solidly based on Scripture. She quoted from the Song of Hannah (1 Sam. 2:1–11) as well as from the psalms. It was a joyful song, sung in the Spirit (Eph. 5:18–21). Mary had surrendered herself to the Lord to be his servant and obey his will, no matter what the cost, and her purpose was to glorify the Lord.
I should like to be able to say as long as I live, “My soul doth magnify the Lord,” I should like to have this as the one motto of my life from this moment until I close my eyes in death…. I would fain preach that way; I would fain eat and drink that way; I would even sleep that way, so that I could truthfully say, “I have no wish but that God should be great in the eyes of others.”
CHS, 51:309
Mary’s last recorded words in Scripture are, “Whatever He says to you, do it” (John 2:5 NKJV). She is last found at the prayer meeting described in Acts 1:12–14.
For four rich sermons on the Magnificat (Luke 1:46–55), see Sermons by Canon Liddon, vol. 2 (London: Swan Sonneschein & Co., 1892), 129–88.
Mary of Bethany (Luke 10:38–42; John 11; 12:1–8)
She is mentioned three times in the Gospels, and each time, you find her at the feet of Jesus. She sat at his feet and listened to his Word; she came to his feet and wept over the death of her brother; and she brought her worship to his feet to prepare him for the cross.
A vast knowledge of the Bible will not make up for a little knowledge of the Lord.
Watchman Nee, What Shall This Man Do? p. 13
Faithful to my Lord’s commands
I still would choose the better part,
Serve with careful Martha’s hands
And loving Mary’s heart.
Charles Wesley
The way to get the revival is to begin at the Master’s feet: you must go there with Mary, and afterwards you may work with Martha.
CHS, 16:240
It is not an easy thing to maintain the balance of our spiritual life. No man can be spiritually healthy who does not meditate and commune; no man, on the other hand, is as he should be unless he is active and diligent in holy service.
CHS, 16:229
Mary had already rendered service and taken her part in the work, then sat at His feet. She left the work too soon to please Martha (Luke 10:39–40).
GCM, The Great Physician, p. 234
I do not care to over-emphasize this, but with life’s experiences behind me, I am very much inclined to the conviction that the only way to enter into fellowship with His sufferings is through some suffering of our own, in which at His feet, we have discovered the sources of strength and comfort.
GCM, The Great Physician, p. 240
“Jesus wept” (John 11:35).… It is always God’s attitude toward suffering. The ultimate consummation of God’s love is that He will wipe away all tears from human eyes.
GCM, The Great Physician, p. 238
[John 12:1–11] So Mary, far from wasting, as Judas had snarled, her sentiment and substance, had heartened Jesus, and done posterity high service, and won immortal renown. The odor of her spikenard was to penetrate the world.
Carey, Jesus and Judas, p. 79
Note that Mary is identified with fragrance: the meal cooking in the kitchen (Luke 10:38–42), the odor of death from the tomb (John 11:32–40), the fragrance of the expensive ointment in the house (John 12).
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Lord of all pots and pans and things, since I’ve not time to be
A saint by doing lovely things or watching late with Thee,
Or dreaming in the dawn light or storming heaven’s gates,
Make me a saint by getting meals and washing up the plates.
Although I must have Martha’s hands, I have a Mary mind
And when I black the boots and shoes, Thy sandals, Lord, I find.
I think of how they trod the earth, what time I scrub the floor;
Accept this meditation, Lord, I haven’t time for more.
Warm all the kitchen with Thy love, and light it with Thy peace.
Forgive me all my worrying and make my grumbling cease.
Thou who didst love to give men food, in room or by the sea,
Accept this service that I do, I do it unto Thee.
Attributed to Cecily Hallack
Mary Magdalene (John 20:11–18)
And the strange thing is that, had she only known it, the cause of her grief was the joy of the ages. It was for an absent Lord that she was weeping, yet on that absence Christendom is built…. And so I learn that in our deepest griefs may lie the secret of our richest joys.
GHM, The Wings of the Morning, p. 100
A soul seeking Jesus may have Him very near and not know it.
CHS, 35:677
Melchizedek (Genesis 14:18–24)
Every one of us is met by the prince of this world and the Prince of Peace. The one tempts us with wealth, pleasure and ambition, but our Prince of Peace is ready to succor and strengthen us, in the hour of temptation.
D. L. Moody
It is not enough that Christ should be a king, for we are rebels and we need forgiveness. It is not enough that Christ should be a priest, for we are very weak and we need power. But Christ is both. He is our priest and king. He pardons and He empowers the faint. He is a priest forever, God be praised, after the order of Melchizedek.
GHM, Morning Sermons, 197
Moses
[Exodus 3:5] If we cannot sanctify our present situation, we will not sanctify a new one.
Moses did not go up to the mountain with a committee. If he had, he would never have come down.
Ken Blanchard
Moses was a “servant of the Lord” (Exod. 14:31; Deut. 34:5; Heb. 3:5), a title also given to Abraham (Gen. 26:24), Joshua (Josh. 24:29), David (2 Sam. 7:5), the nation of Israel (Isa. 41:8), and Jesus Christ (Isa. 42:1; 52:13).
What an honorable title! Moses is distinguished as “the servant of Jehovah.” He was this of choice, for he willed to be the servant of God rather than to be great in the land of the Pharaohs.
CHS, 33:313
Moses was “the servant of Jehovah” and also “a man of God” (Deut. 33:1; Josh. 14:6; 1 Chron. 23:14; 2 Chron. 30:16; Ezra 3:2).
[Deuteronomy 34:5] Moses thus “died according to the word of the Lord,” for a deep dispensational reason. It was not for Moses to give the people rest, for the law gives no man rest, and brings no man to heaven. The law may bring us to the borders of the promise, but only Joshua or Jesus can bring us into grace and truth.
CHS, 33:319
[Exodus 40:34–38] Where God’s glory rests, we need not ask the way.
Watchman Nee
[Hebrews 11:24–28] There are seasons when faith shows itself in taking; there are seasons when it is witnessed in refusing.
GHM, The Afterglow of God, 110
The finger of God; see Exodus 31:18; Daniel 5:5; Luke 11:20; and John 8:6.