Tuesday; March 31

          The story of Queen Esther is more than an early version of Eliza Doolittle – a poor girl who made good.  Even though God’s name is not mentioned in the text, His fingerprint is all over the story.  If you haven’t read the account in a while let me remind you of the amazing rags to riches tale of a young Jewish girl who grew up to be queen of Persia.  While this seems to be fairy tale, it does have a nightmarish nature to it as well.  Even though the Jewess, Esther, was living a charmed life, her people were being persecuted by Haman.  In fact, he had manipulated the king into approving of an ethnic cleansing of the Hebrew people throughout the kingdom.  However, God was not going to allow His people to be eradicated.  Led by men like Mordecai, this holocaust was averted.  While the story has a happy ending, there is an exchange between Mordecai and Esther that speaks throughout the ages.  While Esther seemed to balk at interceding for her people with the king, Mordecai reminds here, “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14).  As I ponder this exchange, two things come to mind:  First, God is in control – His desire will not be thwarted.  Second, God uses people to make a difference in the lives of others.  In fact, He uses all kinds of people in His service.  From paupers to queens, no one is outside the realm of being God’s chosen ones.
          Has God summoned us to do something?  We may or may not be used to save a people from annihilation, but no matter the task, let’s be willing to answer His call. 
          Think About It!

Popular posts from this blog

Thursday; May 3

I have a fish tank that allows my three Bettas (Larry, Darrell and Darrell) to live in the same structure, but remain hidden from each other – well sort of.   When I go to feed the fish, I believe that one of the Darrell’s can sort of see that the other Darrell is getting fed and he will linger over on that side of the tank even after I put his food in his tank.   I have to tap on the side of the tank where his food is floating to help him refocus and eat.   I get the impression that he is so interested in what is going on in the other Darrell’s tank that he can’t enjoy his own food. I have been told that the brain of a fish is pretty small – which explains their inability to process “blessings”, but are we guilty of the same malady as Darrell?   Are we so worried (or consumed) by what happens to the people around us that we fail to realize what is going on with us?   Are we envious of the blessings that others are receiving and end up missing out on what we have been given?   Are w
Read more

Thursday; February 14

         While most of us are familiar with today being Valentine’s Day, there are some who actually refer to February 14 th as “St. Valentine’s Day”.  This title is often affixed to a criminally historic event known as “The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre” on February 14, 1929 in Chicago, but that is another story for another time.  Not knowing much about the history of “Saint Valentine” I did a little research and found out he was a Roman religious leader who was martyred in 269 AD.  According to my limited research Valentine was killed because of his encouragement of Roman men (especially soldiers) to marry which was in violation of Claudias’ edict that prohibited marriage to keep their minds singularly focused on their task of defending the Empire.  Somehow, from this beginning – and possibly embellished by Chaucer – St. Valentine became intertwined with the concept of romantic love.           I am not really sure how February 14 th became connected with love, but inspired by thi
Read more

Wednesday; December 6

What does it mean to be a leader? I subscribe to the belief that a leader is someone who seeks the best for others and works with them to achieve their potential. There are others; however, who define leadership as the ability to have a vision and the tenacity to get their own way. Leaders who are this way are often portrayed as having developed the maturity to manipulate people to do things their way. However, is the ability to drive people in our direction mature or is it childish? The Christians of the 1st Century came from a lot of different backgrounds and had to work hard to work together. As the Apostle Paul challenged Christians in the city of Ephesus he challenged them to accept individual differences, “… until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. “ (Ephesians 4:13). Bossiness was not to be viewed as a sign of maturity, a willingness to wo
Read more