Have you ever had someone in your life that seemed to have the ability to avoid major troubles when they are deliberately asking for it? I’ve had my fair share of run-ins with people like this. They could fall into any manure pit around these hills, and still come up smelling like a bundle of roses. You think to yourself, 'how does this happen to somebody that has no knowledge or respect for the Lord?' It’s almost like how can God keep blessing people who deliberately do evil against him?


Well, who’s to say Satan isn’t working to help these kinds of people out? Maybe he wants to help turn a brother and sister from the Lord. We watch these lost souls live in sun, but yet they somehow seem so blessed financially, athletically, and intelligently. 

It’s like a boy watching his friend eating a piece of candy. You know, that boy without the candy will do whatever to get a piece of candy also. To see someone so successful and living in sin will sometimes make a brother and sister fall. You start to think, they have so many more friends and life is so much easier when we want the things of this world. Doesn’t that make it seem right?

Let’s not be like Judas like in Matthew 26: 6-13 and make others murmur or have indignation. Judas and the disciples are upset that Mary poured very precious and expensive ointment on Jesus. Judas, being a thief, said he would’ve taken the money to help the poor but really would’ve kept some for himself. Judas is that man that smells like a rose for a brief moment. But we all know that eventually all roses die and wither away.

Mary of Bethany, on the other hand, is who we need to be more like. She gave up probably the most expensive possession she had without thought for Christ. Every time she is mentioned in the Bible she is 100% worshiping Christ. She knew in that moment of anointing Christ, more than even the disciples, she was preparing the lamb for the slaughter (Mt. 26:12). We need to be more like Mary and care more about Christ than about the tempural things or the more well off people of this broken world.
“ Nothing given to Jesus in love is ever wasted.“ -Warren Wiersbe