Judas is a Nard

It's weird how when we don't spend the amount of time that we should in God's
Word & in prayer with Him, how we become very cynical to others & God's work. I know from experience… I hate to say it, but I've been there more than once…Way more than once.
I was sitting here reading in John 12:1-8, the time when Mary, the girl that was Lazarus' sister… you know the dude that Jesus raised from the dead. Well anyway, Mary, Martha & Laz (I call him Laz, I like to think that we are friends) had a dinner for Jesus there in Bethany. While Jesus, Laz & his Disciples were kicked back around the table, Martha was cooking, but Mary came in & anointed Jesus' feet with this very expensive fragrant oil, they called it nard. Wait, that's what they called me in school…No that was nerd, never mind… back to the story. She poured this nard on his feet…Now this stuff was worth an entire year’s wages, probably her life savings. She poured it on his feet and wiped it off with her hair.
This is where I… Oh, I mean Judas comes in. He makes a comment about her wasting this expensive oil, & how it could be used to sell & help the poor. But Jesus knew that Judas' heart was wrong & that he didn't care about the poor, he wanted to stick the money in the treasury bag so that he could steal from it, so Jesus said to him "leave her alone; she has kept it for the day of my burial. For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me."
See, when we take our eyes off Jesus, even for a short time, we start to look for the faults in others to make ourselves look & feel good. Be careful, Satan looks for ways to lead you and me away from God, & even though we seem very active for God, we still stumble and can hurt people. "Remove the plank from your eye, before you try to remove the sawdust from your brother’s eye."

Vern