You Don't Know The Cost

The room grew still as she made her way to Jesus
She stumbled through the tears that made her blind.
She felt such pain, some spoke in anger
Heard folks whisper "there's no room here for her kind."
Still on she came through the shame that flushed her face
Until at last she knelt before his feet.
And though she spoke no words, everything she said was heard
As she poured her love for her master from her box of alabaster.


I've come to pour my praise on Him like oil from Mary's Alabaster box.
Don't be angry if I wash his feet with my tears or I dry them with my hair-
You weren't there, the night He found me, you did not feel what I felt
When He wrapped his arms around me and you don't know the cost....
of the oil in my alabaster box.

This is an awesome song.  As I walked my dog yesterday, this played on my ipod.  I thought back to the day I came to Christ and how much this song rang true. 

When I came to Christ, Psalm 40 was much my testimony and that's why no one knows the cost.  When I read "He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand." [Psalm 40:2]  The truth is that I was in a slimy pit, in the mud and mire and he set me free!  No one can ever know the cost but it does not end there.

As I walked and listened I came to the realization that "you still don't know the cost."  Christ paid the price for our salvation and the chance at eternal life however;  even in our walk with Christ, we will be faced with sin. Our reaction to situations, our behavior with those outside of our church circle, our daily walk, all reflect the true "us."  We are all sinners and depend on God's grace to cleanse us and forgive us of that sin.  We always want to qualify sin.  I might say "Well, at least I'm not in that slimy pit" which was major sin.  Let me tell you, that issue is irrelevant.  When we go against God, when we violate his word, when we are disobedient....we sin!

This woman recognized that she was a sinner. But she also knew where to go for forgiveness.  A Pharisee looked down on her and saw her as a "sinner."  Despite the fact that others criticized her, Jesus welcomed her.  So it is with us, there will always be critics who think you aren't living up to their expectations but we don't serve them. 

Keeping the course can get difficult, it can be painful, it can wear you down.  You can try to do it all by yourself or you can go to the one true friend that will never leave you, never betray you, never give up on you.  He knows your sin, he knows your heart and he knows you.

I find myself having to go to the feet of my Savior daily.  You may know me, you may know my walk, but I can assure you....You Don't Know the Cost!

Now a Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at  the table.  When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears.  The she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.  When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is-that she is a sinner. "  Luke 7:36-39

Alabaster Box, 1999-CeCe Winans