Matthew 26:11a For you always have the poor with you,

That is just the way it is, not that God wants it that way but because that is how the world works.

Matthew 26:8 And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste?

A woman took an expensive ointment and anointed our Lord. This was the response of his disciples. Allow me for the moment to shift the conversation from anointing the Lord to how we choose to spend our money.

No matter what we buy, someone is going to get the larger market share of the profits from the sale. Even in those things that are cheap, they could not make it to market without everyone along the supply line eking out a living. Somewhere, someone is getting a larger market share than anyone else. That is just how the market place works.

Who that person or persons are will be hidden from us and we do not make our choices with them in mind. The ones that suffer the most are the ones that are the poorest. They have no choice but to choose the least expensive product just in order to survive.

Our charity will never be enough to erase poverty because the only things available to buy  come from that same marketplace and the same people will get their share.

Jeremiah 9:12 Who is the man so wise that he can understand this? To whom has the mouth of the Lord spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined and laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through?

I am beginning to understand why John the Baptist preached in the wilderness where the land was laid waste and there was nothing to be offered there, no market, no buying or selling. Just the free offer of salvation.

Ezra 4:15 in order that search may be made in the book of the records of your fathers. You will find in the book of the records and learn that this city is a rebellious city, hurtful to kings and provinces, and that sedition was stirred up in it from of old. That was why this city was laid waste.

It is not the marketplace that ruins a city but rather sedition.

The truth is found in the records of our fathers. Read, learn and be warned.

Genesis 4:7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”

Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

Since Jesus is knocking at the door, and sin is not with Him, then sin is crouching on our side of the door. In order to open the door and let Him in, we must push sin aside in order to let Him into us. Yes, into us.

Since we cast sin aside does that mean that sin is no longer in us?

The answer to that question is found in the abiding presence. Sin cannot exist in the presence of God. So what happened to the sin that was crouching at the door? The door is the door to our heart. According to the promises of Ezekiel 36:26 we have been given a new spirit and a new heart. Since He lives in us we become His temple according to 1 Corinthians 3:16.

What we struggle with are scriptures like Paul laid out in Romans 7.

Romans 7:15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

Want and hate are functions of the mind but this new heart is now the seat of right choices led by the power of the Holy Spirit. When we make a mental choice it is not by faith, it is what we want, but not necessarily what God wills for us. Choose what is right in our hearts and our actions will serve God.

Is everything I choose to do by rational thought of the mind sinful? No, but if God was not the author of that choice then it does not swerve His will. Paul felt very deeply about serving God for he was a zealot for the law and then became a zealot for love. If he did not love perfectly, it wounded him, not because he did something wrong, because it did not glorify God.

That is my conclusion and mine alone. Others might feel differently and that is fine. We are free to come and go as we please.

Psalm 121:8 The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.

Whether of the mind or of the heart, we are still the Lord’s.