My alabaster...
I guess 'my alabaster' refers to my precious pot of what is my treasure, sounds like something Gollum would have. Just sung a beautiful song about pouring out the contents of 'my alabaster' at the feet of Jesus, pure oil, beautiful fragrance... as if I had something of real value to give him...
But the reality is my life may have once been something precious, an alabaster ming vase once upon a time...
But these days it's more like a dirty cracked filthy smelly chamber pot, full of vile filth, a vile stench in God's nostrils - rotten, degenerate, decomposing dung - like when Paul having listed what he could have boasted about, counts it all as dung compared to knowing Christ!
But God is just fine with that. He's not bothered that I don't have a beautiful perfect spotless fragrant offering to give him... that offering has already been made for me by Jesus, the only perfect offering ever made for the sins of the entire world.
God invites us to bring our stinking offering, our filth, our stench - and he gives us his fragrant oil of his presence, he washes our filthy broken vessels with his shed blood and washes them with the water of his word. He gives us his broken body to repair our broken body...
But the crazy thing is - when we bring the filthy cracked stinking pot that is our lives, full of sin, rebellion, lust, pride - to him it is a sweet aroma - because it's our surrender, it's all we have to bring and this is what he wants, this is what he died for, to take our filthy broken surrendered lives in exchange for his resurrection life, his perfect spotless life, his fragrance. This is what he died for. This is the reward of his suffering, our surrender, our repentance, our brokeness, our rotten decaying dying flesh... so he could die in our place, and give us new life.
That alabaster flask probably cost a month's wages for that woman, likely a protitute - the perfume in it was likely what she used when she was entertaining her clients - she was surrendering her shameful life style and livelihood. A costly sacrifice - but in exchange for humbling and surrendering her shameful lifestyle, she received Jesus...
Philippians 3:7-11 KJV
[7] But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. [8] Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, [9] and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: [10] that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; [11] if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
https://bible.com/bible/1/php.3.7-11.KJV
But the reality is my life may have once been something precious, an alabaster ming vase once upon a time...
But these days it's more like a dirty cracked filthy smelly chamber pot, full of vile filth, a vile stench in God's nostrils - rotten, degenerate, decomposing dung - like when Paul having listed what he could have boasted about, counts it all as dung compared to knowing Christ!
But God is just fine with that. He's not bothered that I don't have a beautiful perfect spotless fragrant offering to give him... that offering has already been made for me by Jesus, the only perfect offering ever made for the sins of the entire world.
God invites us to bring our stinking offering, our filth, our stench - and he gives us his fragrant oil of his presence, he washes our filthy broken vessels with his shed blood and washes them with the water of his word. He gives us his broken body to repair our broken body...
But the crazy thing is - when we bring the filthy cracked stinking pot that is our lives, full of sin, rebellion, lust, pride - to him it is a sweet aroma - because it's our surrender, it's all we have to bring and this is what he wants, this is what he died for, to take our filthy broken surrendered lives in exchange for his resurrection life, his perfect spotless life, his fragrance. This is what he died for. This is the reward of his suffering, our surrender, our repentance, our brokeness, our rotten decaying dying flesh... so he could die in our place, and give us new life.
That alabaster flask probably cost a month's wages for that woman, likely a protitute - the perfume in it was likely what she used when she was entertaining her clients - she was surrendering her shameful life style and livelihood. A costly sacrifice - but in exchange for humbling and surrendering her shameful lifestyle, she received Jesus...
Philippians 3:7-11 KJV
[7] But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. [8] Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, [9] and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: [10] that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; [11] if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
https://bible.com/bible/1/php.3.7-11.KJV
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