SCRIPTURE: Esther 6
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
So Haman took the robes and put them on Mordecai, placed him on the king’s own horse, and led him through the city square, shouting, “This is what the king does for someone he wishes to honour!” Afterward Mordecai returned to the palace gate, but Haman hurried home dejected and completely humiliated. [Esther 6:11-12]
The plot twists, the tables are turned, Haman is going down while Mordecai is rising!
It is a masterful story, and the Author of this tale continues to write stories like this.
We are a part of a similar story, though we may not yet be at the part when things turn around.
We can read this story in light of the big story, the story of God’s kingdom restoration. Continue reading those God honours

SCRIPTURE: Esther 5
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
Then Haman added, “And that’s not all! Queen Esther invited only me and the king himself to the banquet she prepared for us. And she has invited me to dine with her and the king again tomorrow!” Then he added, “But this is all worth nothing as long as I see Mordecai the Jew just sitting there at the palace gate.” [Esther 5:12-13]
Esther has a plan, so does Haman, and Xerxes is clueless in the middle of it all.
Haman’s ego is being fed by Esther, and his pride is being challenged by Mordecai.
For the moment, it seems that evil will triumph, the Jews will be killed and Mordecai will suffer a horrible death.
How will this story end? Continue reading pride

SCRIPTURE: Esther 4
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?” [Esther 4:14]
Though Mordecai does not mention God (in fact God is nowhere mentioned in the whole book of Esther), he does indicate his confidence that somehow the Jews will be spared – deliverance and relief will come somehow.
He also reveals how he understands God to work – through the circumstance of Esther being queen.
This is not just a coincidence, there is a purpose behind these things; and perhaps it was for precisely for this time and purpose, to help the Jews in this time of peril. Continue reading for such a time as this

SCRIPTURE: Esther 3
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
Then Haman approached King Xerxes and said, “There is a certain race of people scattered through all the provinces of your empire who keep themselves separate from everyone else. Their laws are different from those of any other people, and they refuse to obey the laws of the king. So it is not in the king’s interest to let them live. [Esther 3:8]
In this passage, it is because of how Mordecai (and the Jews) live that they are hated.
Their keep themselves separate, their laws are different, they refuse to obey the king.
Then you will be arrested, persecuted, and killed. You will be hated all over the world because you are my followers. [Matthew 24:9]
Jesus points out that it is because people follow Him (i.e. live like Him, obey Him) that they are hated.
That we are believers is not the problem for others, but that we actually try to live out of those beliefs.
We separate ourselves from immoral behaviour, we live according to Jesus’ law of love.
Guaranteed, if we actually lived out Jesus’ teachings, we would face some persecution – from mockery to rejection, possible job loss or loss of friends. Continue reading the risk of beliving

“Some people think that a spiritual quest of any kind is a colossal waste of time. For them, the only things that are real are those that can be proven or measured. They might think, Life boils down to earning and buying and selling… eating and drinking and having fun… respiration, digestion, elimination, ovulation, ejaculation, gestation, reproduction, antiquation, expiration. Why search for something that we can’t prove? Why don’t we just get real and get over it? Why waste energy on a spiritual quest? There’s nothing more than psychology and biology, which is nothing more than chemistry and electricity, which is nothing but physics, which boils down to mathematics. That’s all there is.” (Brian McLaren, The Secret Message of Jesus)

As one who believes that this is NOT all there is, I can’t help but feeling sorry for those for whom that’s all there is! Its no wonder so many people feel empty, pointless, worthless, purposeless. I know, they probably do not want my pity, but I feel it anyway. For me, I cannot ignore the spiritual whisper that is echoing within me. I do not understand it, and I don’t always hear it. But I cannot escape it. It gently beckons me, pulls me from the inside to something beyond the material to the immaterial, beyond the temporal to the eternal. I am on this spiritual quest, and I believe that the voice I hear is the voice of God, otherwise known as Jesus Christ.

God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. [Ecclesiastes 3:11]

What do you think?

SCRIPTURE: Esther 2
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
Esther continued to keep her family background and nationality a secret. She was still following Mordecai’s directions, just as she did when she lived in his home. [Esther 2:20]
We recently celebrated Canada Day, I am a citizen of Canada, and I am loyal to the nation, the government and the people; but my deepest loyalty is not to Canada.
Esther was a Jew, she was also the queen of Babylon; but her deepest loyalty was not to Babylon or Xerxes.
In this story we see how God works through His people in a foreign setting; we find God’s people working for the welfare of the nation that they are in, but for the sake of their God and their deepest loyalty.
God’s people are not spies or saboteurs, secretly undermining their host culture; God’s people are servants of God who bless the people around them with the love and blessing they have from God.
We see this in how Mordecai and Esther handle the plot to overthrow Xerxes. Continue reading dual citizenship

SCRIPTURE: Esther 1
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
He sent letters to all parts of the empire, to each province in its own script and language, proclaiming that every man should be the ruler of his own home and should say whatever he pleases. [Esther 1:22]
The king hosts a lavish feast to reveal his generosity [Esther 1:7]. But apparently his generosity has its limits – no generosity for his queen when she does not meet his demands.
Here we see the battle of the sexes played out again. And as is often the case, the men use force to make the women comply.
This goes all the way back to the curse that resulted from the fall into sin: Then God said to the woman, “I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth. And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you. ” [Genesis 3:16]
Some people mistakenly see this as an example of ‘headship’, the idea that the husband is the head of the wife: For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Saviour of his body, the church. [Ephesians 5:23]
The desire for control and the husband’s ruling over are not a part of God’s design, they are a part of the curse; whatever headship is, it is not “ruling over”! Continue reading how headship should be

Yesterday I wrote about being a practical atheist, and then discovered there is a whole book about the subject – The Christian Atheist by Craig Groeschel.
A look at the index shows what this involves:

1. When You Believe in God but Don’t Really Know Him
2. When You Believe in God but Are Ashamed of Your Past
3. When You Believe in God but Aren’t Sure He Loves You
4. When You Believe in God but Not in Prayer
5. When You Believe in God but Don’t Think He’s Fair
6. When You Believe in God but Won’t Forgive
7. When You Believe in God but Don’t Think You Can Change
8. When You Believe in God but Still Worry All the Time
9. When You Believe in God but Pursue Happiness at Any Cost
10. When You Believe in God but Trust More in Money
11. When You Believe in God but Don’t Share Your Faith
12. When You Believe in God but Not in His Church

So if the subject interests you, why not make this a part of your summer reading plan.
I’m sure its not a light and easy read – and it may make you uncomfortable.
I think I will.

SCRIPTURE: Psalm 51
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God. [Psalms 51:17]
Some people live with such a burden of guilt that they cannot accept that God could forgive them.
They know their sin, their failure, and they live with a sense of shame that weighs them down.
Add to that the voice of others, who look down on them because of their shame, as well as the voice of the devil, who loves to make guilty people feel worse.
Certainly David could have been like this; afterall, he had slept with another man’s wife and then murdered that man so that he could have her as his own.
All this from David, described as “a man after God’s own heart.” [Acts 13:22]
But David knows God’s heart, and he knows that more than anything God desires repentance. Continue reading a broken spirit

It is not what we say, but what we do, that reveals what we really believe!
I say that I love Jesus, but do my actions bear that out?
I say that I follow Jesus, but do my actions reveal this?
I say that Jesus is my Lord, but do I strive to do what He says?
I say that Jesus is my Saviour, but do I look to Him and rely on Him for help?
I say that God is real to me, but do I live and act without much thought to God’s presence or power in my life?
I say that the bible is important to me, but do I take time to read it, and apply it to my life?
I say that prayer is important to me, but do it actually prioritize time for praying?

I heard someone talk about “practical atheists”, those who claim to believe in God, and maybe believe in God in their brains, but in reality deny His existence by each one of their deeds!

What do you think?