"After two days was the feast of the passover, and of unleavened bread: and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death. But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the people. And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head. And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made? For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her. And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me. For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always. She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her."
Today's quote relates the story of the woman who, knowing that Jesus was about to die, anointed Him with a very expensive oil she brought in an "alabaster box".
Make note of what Jesus said after after he explained to His apostles why the woman was justified in what she had done. Jesus said, "Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her."
There could be no clearer instruction, yet in today's churches, one seldom, if ever, hears the story of the woman and the "alabaster box". Could it be that we, today, pay far to much attention to our chosen favorite details of bible scripture and ignore many of the direct instructions that came straight out of the mouth of Jesus Himself?
Another example of a direct instruction from Jesus that goes almost totally ignored in today's churches is found in Matthew 6:6-8; "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him."~
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