Religious Busyness

G. Thomas Sharp • November 27, 2015

The dialogue between Mary and Martha in Luke’s gospel (10:38-42) identifies a potential concern that I now have, and have had for a number of years. Most of you will remember the oft-used cliché from 20 or so years ago, that “We must be more concerned about the Lord of the work, than the work of the Lord.” Religious busy-ness can often give birth to a deep and abiding paralysis…caused by taking your eye off of the “main thing”! I recall a preacher that announced that his topic for the morning sermon would be, “We must be careful to keep the main thing, the main thing.”

Luke pays special attention to this terrible potential in the exchange between Jesus and Martha. I am most interested in Christ’s response, “ Martha, Martha, you are careful and troubled about many things. But one thing is needful, and Mary has chosen that good part …” (10:41-42) Henry Thayer says the word “careful,” means to be anxious, and the word “troubled,” means disturbed—Hmmm…anxious and disturbed!

As I travel in ministry, I witness a formidable disquietude in the countenance of the majority of church members. People are more concerned about sickness, school activities, personal problems and responsibilities, church problems, geo-political challenges such as terrorism, business and financial burdens, etc., etc. But the fact remains that any or all of these concerns, while serious, are not the main thing! Our text has underscored the “main thing.” My relationship with Jesus Christ is the main thing!

Note: “ Now it came to pass, as they (Jesus and some of His disciples) went, that they entered into a certain village: … Martha received Him into her house… Mary… sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. But Martha was cumbered about with much servingand said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me.” But Jesus told Martha that only one thing was needful, i.e., setting at His feet and hearing His word. My and your relationship with Jesus is far more important than anything we do or plan for our family, or the church. It is true that the family and our local church are second and third in Biblical priority, but they are not first and never will be. Lord help us!  Thanks for your continued prayer for, and support to, this ministry.  (All scripture quotations are based in the King James Version.)

Sincerely,

G. Thomas Sharp

By Bob Dugas May 23, 2025
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As many of you may know, I appreciate space. Not space around me, although the older I get the more I appreciate that as well. The things in the heavens fascinate me and have for a large chunk of my life. I love working with our telescopes, allowing people to see for themselves objects that the Lord made on the 4th day of history. When I was younger I followed our Space Shuttle program, and over the years I have had the opportunity to see a couple of those shuttles around the country. Now it is great to see all the renewed interest in exploring the heavenly creation. I know most of it is for evolutionary reasons, yet over and over again something is discovered that points to the trustworthiness of God’s Word. After all, we are to study His creation as Genesis 1:28 states. On a recent trip to El Paso, it occurred to me that Blue Origin’s launch facility is in west Texas somewhere. After some quick searching I realized we were within an hour and half of it, and there was a rescheduled launch window during the time of our meeting. So, with some persuading of my colleagues, we arose early one morning to make the launch. We made it with just minutes to spare. It was spectacular! The whole launch to just beyond the Karman Line (space boundary, 62 miles/100km) and return of the rocket and capsule is about ten minutes total. While Blue Origin is best known for its New Shepherd rocket that carries paying customers to space and back with the biggest windows ever in a capsule, this NS-29 launch was purely experimental with a payload of instruments to measure simulated lunar gravity. Even though it was not a Saturn V, Space Shuttle, Starship or Falcon launch, it was great to hear and feel a launch for the first time, from blast off to the sonic boom return. It has piqued my desire to see a bigger launch now. As I began to reflect on what I experienced, the Lord reminded me of His design. Earth, our home planet, is so well designed for life. There is literally nowhere in all the universe like it. Yet He gave us the ability to discover creation beyond it. The only reason we can launch rockets and do space exploration is because He set it up in an orderly way. Physics works because He established it to work in a predictable fashion. As much as we may never understand everything in the universe from our position here, it works on an ordered reality that is reinforced by God’s Word. This is what drove Sir Isaac Newton in his understanding of physics. He wrote, “The motions which the planets now have could not spring from any natural cause alone but were by an intelligent Agent.” Evolutionists may come up with theories about the origin of things in the heavens, but over and over again they are being shown through experimentation and observation to be wrong. The Lord set the order of everything in the beginning and sustains it by His Word (Hebrews 1:3). So as you look to the heavens tonight, gaze into the depths of space and observe the different facets the Lord placed up there for our eyes (Genesis 1:17). Peer through a telescope at the lesser light of the moon with marvel and anticipation of further human study in the coming years. Check out the amazing observations being made by the James Webb telescope from deep in space. All of these place a perspective of how awesome our Creator is and how much we depend on Him. Our design becomes more and more obvious with every discovery, yet in our universe we appear so minuscule and fragile. Thanks be to God that His infinite focus has, is and always will be here on us! Blessings.
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