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Out of Brokenness,
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Mark
14:6 But Jesus said. ". . . She has done a fine and beautiful thing for
me. |
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Luke
7:36 A Pharisee invited Jesus to have dinner with him,
and Jesus went to his house and sat down to eat. |
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Welcome to the
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We
hope you enjoy your visit to this web site. Please return soon, and
return often, because it changes continually. It is my prayer that on
each visit you will find something to minister to you and encourage you. For your
convenience, you can navigate the site from here, or you can read all about
us and then navigate the site from the bottom. |
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What's New!!!—For those of you who have visited this
site since its last update, thank you for your patience and prayers while you
waited for the next update. Finally,
it’s happening! Over the next
weeks and months, this site will be completely overhauled. —New articles are
very slowly being written for the Box. We apologize for the delay, our Webservant Alabaster
has been very busy with new projects lately. Meanwhile, we hope you
have been enjoying the current offerings, as well as what is in the Archives. —We continue to add
new links—and fix old ones—as
we get the opportunity. Hopefully you will still be able to find many
of your favorites! Pay especial attention to the new link in the People
Like Me section of our links. I've met the founder of the organization
featured there, and he is doing good work on behalf of people with
albinism. Please feel free to support him as you wish.J ! |
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For Your
Determination - The role you play in the shaping of your destiny, in this
world and the next |
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Alabaster And The
Box |
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First,
the person . . . . |
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I am
Alabaster, and I am the WebServant for Alabaster
Box Ministries. As you visit with us, we pray that you will be richly
blessed by what we have to offer. Meanwhile, let me tell you a little
about myself. |
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I
come from a medium-sized family that consists of my dad, my mom, a sister,
and five brothers. We all were born pretty close together, and whenever
one makes it home to visit, the rest of us try to get there if we can.
We have a strong sense of family, which I think is very important, and very
good. |
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I
enjoy music. I sing and play the piano, and I’m learning to play a Fender
Squier guitar hooked up to a Crate amp. So
far, I can strum a handful of songs, but I plan to learn more. In addition to the wide variety of sounds
of Christian music, I occasionally enjoy listening to and singing other
genres. All my favorite artists, however are Christian. |
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I
also love to read. My main reading materials are the Bible (the
Amplified and New King James Versions are my favorite), romances, sci-fi/fantasy, some magazines, and educational things,
both sacred and secular. |
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As for TV viewing, I like PBS for
the documentaries and information shows, as well as many of the artistic
offerings. Of the current network TV offerings, I am very much into
“Lie To Me.” I also like
funny movies. I'll watch anything in the Star Trek series, but I miss
"Andromeda", which I don't get to see anymore (although I
discovered that you can rent it from Netflix) ; these shows
satisfy my love of Science Fiction. On cable, I like to watch The Learning
Channel, Discovery Health Channel, Home and Garden TV, Food Network, Travel
Network, Animal Planet, Planet Green, DIY, and National Geographic. I do
watch three "reality" TV shows when they are on, "The Next
American Idol", "So You Think You Can Dance", and " |
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When I'm not making music, or
improving or entertaining my mind, I like to knit or crochet, cook, write,
and do stuff at my computer. The internet is a fascinating and useful
pastime, depending on how one uses it. Sometimes, I spend hours playing
a game called Mod 3, which is a form of Solitaire. I absolutely love
it! |
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When
I can bestir myself to exercise, I like to work out at a local health club,
where I use various cardio and weight machines as well as attending group
fitness classes. I like Pilates, which is challenging but very good for the
midsection of the body. Occasionally I ride my tricycle—no, it's not a
kiddy trike, it's adult-sized. This is my
second model. I got the first one very well used from a friend who used to
manage a warehouse where trikes were used to get
from one side of the warehouse to the other, because it was a huge
place. It was a red, single-speed Trailmate
Desoto, which I liked to ride for exercise. The only problem was
that with only one speed, I had to pedal very hard (or sometimes get off and
push) to get up hills, and then I had to sit on the coaster brake to keep
from crashing as I went whizzing down! Nowadays, I ride much farther,
and with greater ease, on my more recent, much more lightly used upon
acquisition, |
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These
days, I am very busy with looking for a job in medical transcription, social
networking, and church. I attend Church at the Triangle Sunday
mornings, where I am part of the Prayer Ministry. We meet and spend
some time before service praying as the Holy Spirit leads us. Sunday
afternoon usually finds me doing work—or play—at the computer to
the strains of worship music. All in all, I'm having a pretty good time. |
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And
now, the reason . . . . |
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If
you have read all the way down here from the top of this Page, then you've seen
the Scriptures printed there. They speak of a woman who, out of the
ugliness of her life, gave to Jesus the best she had. It is possible,
based on the account given in John 12, that the woman of the alabaster jar is
Mary Magdalene, out of whom Mark (16:9) and Luke (8:1-2) state that Jesus
cast seven demons. When we see the story of the resurrection of her
brother Lazarus in John 11, we discover something else of importance: Jesus
was a very loving Friend to Mary Magdalene, probably the only real friend she
had outside her family. While tht Bible
doesn't specify what her sin was, the account of her story as it appears
above has led many theologians to suggest—and to teach—that she had been a whore at some point, and that
the spikenard she lavished on her best Friend was purchased with what she
earned from this trade. |
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The
Bible does not say that Mary and her family—Martha
and Lazarus—were rich, and if Mary was indeed a
whore at some point in her past, then the fact that she saved up all her
money to buy the most expensive scented ointment, packaged in the most
expensive container that would hold it, shows me that she appreciated and was
willing to give herself, albeit misguidedly, to wrest something precious from
all her degradation. Some would say that this was a case of having
champagne aspirations on a Kool-Aid budget; yet there came a day when she was
willing to sacrifice her only claim to fineness to demonstrate a higher love
and appreciation for the One Who had given her more than money could ever
have bought her in ten thousand lifetimes of trying to sell herself for
it. More than all this, Mary was not afraid to love Jesus in the faces
of those who disdained her for her past, and of the religious leaders who
plotted to kill not only Jesus as a means of securing their own hypocritical
lives, but her brother Lazarus as well. (As a result of Jesus giving
him back his life, the people responded to Him with a ferver
that appeared as if the balance of power would shift from thse
Rome-appointed priests to Him.) |
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Mary’s story is one of hope for all of us. No matter how bad we’ve messed up, no matter how broken we are, whether
because of our own doings or because of things done to us, we have assurance
that, even in our worst condition, we can reach the heart of Jesus—and He will restore our hearts. : All we have
to do is what Mary did: Out of our brokenness, we give Him our all, and
in exchange, we receive what Mary got:&nbs;
All that He Is. |
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This
site has been on the internet since 1998. It was last updated June 16,
2009. Unless otherwise noted, all written materials at this site are
the property of Alabaster Box Ministries and/or the Alabaster Box and its
creator. Thank you for bookmarking this site
and/or adding this site to your links page. |
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Thanks
for Stopping By J ! |
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For Your
Determination |
