Break The Box
Mary washed the feet of Jesus with her tears, dried them with her hair, and then poured expensive perfume on them from an alabaster box of ointment, the apex of the most humble of all offerings of worship. This woman had much to be forgiven; therefore, she loved much!
"And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she
knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an
alabaster box of ointment, and as she stood behind him, at his feet
weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped
them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them."
"And he turned toward the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house: thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped {them} with the hairs of her head." Simon replied, "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled." "You have judged correctly," Jesus said. Only those for whom the Lord has forgiven bountifully would this act of penitent adoration be deemed appropriate. The greater the sin, the greater the love; the greater the restoration to innocence, the greater the worship; the greater the touch of mercy, the greater the posture of humility; so are the redeemed who "break the box."
"... And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume."
(John 12:3)
We can't kneel and perfume the feet of our Lord Jesus Christ, to exemplify our gratitude for His grace, but our worship is a sweet incense rising as a fragrance to His nostrils. Its expense is determined by our intensity of worship. He longs for our whispers back to Him, our sweet word of love and hunger for our Savior, our thirst for more from the One who has already given His all. He doesn't mind at all that we crave more of Him; He desires it, savors it, and receives it as a valuable anointing when we sit at His feet in prayerful obeisance.
The One who invented the spectrum of audacious, rich, spectacular, beauty yearns for the lilac and velvety rose attar from the quavering and grasping lips of His creation. Our worship ascends to Him like the wisps of gentle breezes He breathes with Holy unction into His beloved floundering earth. Our words of adoration and love rise as an incense of lillies scattered in fields beyond the towering, giant cedars of Lebanon. The sacrifice of praise we offer when we feel we have nothing to praise about is the fragrance after the rain; the clean and pure aroma of His broken, reaching vessel of honor. The scent of His molded dust singing refrains of Holy, Holy, Holy, exceeds the smells of all of earth's wonders formed by His own hand.
When I reached a place where I could not pray, a place of perpetual tears, a place where I thought I could not go on, it was then that Jesus Christ, my Lord, said, "Break the Box."
The One who invented the spectrum of audacious, rich, spectacular, beauty yearns for the lilac and velvety rose attar from the quavering and grasping lips of His creation. Our worship ascends to Him like the wisps of gentle breezes He breathes with Holy unction into His beloved floundering earth. Our words of adoration and love rise as an incense of lillies scattered in fields beyond the towering, giant cedars of Lebanon. The sacrifice of praise we offer when we feel we have nothing to praise about is the fragrance after the rain; the clean and pure aroma of His broken, reaching vessel of honor. The scent of His molded dust singing refrains of Holy, Holy, Holy, exceeds the smells of all of earth's wonders formed by His own hand.
When I reached a place where I could not pray, a place of perpetual tears, a place where I thought I could not go on, it was then that Jesus Christ, my Lord, said, "Break the Box."
By Sheryl Fowler
(Visit promiselandchurch.net and theexperience238.com.
PromiseLand Church, Austin, Texas, Pastor Kenneth Phillips)
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