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Third Verse Devotion: Be Thou My Vision

This has long been my husband’s favorite hymn. The song has an Irish tune, and the Irish notes are heard in the melody still. The hymn was written with five verses though four are only ever published in most hymnals. I want to look at the rare third verse. The song is in the public domain, and you can find the song at www.hymnary.org.

As I read over verse three, there is so much packed into the four-lined stanza. I could go into spiritual warfare, delighting in the Lord, the Lord is our refuge our strong tower, and he is our power who will take us to be with him either in death or at the end of all things.  Here is the verse that is left out of most hymnals.

Be thou my breastplate, my sword for the fight;
Be thou my dignity, thou my delight.
Thou my soul’s shelter, thou my high tow’r;
Raise thou me Heav’nward, O Pow’r of my pow’r.

The writer prays “Be thou my breastplate.” Ephesians 6 speaks of the armor of a Christian. Part of this armor is the breastplate which protects a soldier’s heart. A soldier cannot survive long on a battlefield if his chest and heart are exposed. As Christian soldiers, we are the same. We need to protect our heart. Many things are shot at us throughout a day aimed at taking out our heart.

Proverbs 4:23

Watch over your heart with all diligence,
For from it flow the springs of life.

In other words, what we fill our heart with is what will pour from our life. The bible has much to say about protecting our heart and how what we put in our heart comes out in our life.  Jesus in speaking to temple leaders put it this way,

Matthew 12:34

You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, express any good things? For the mouth speaks from that which fills the heart.

So, the question is, how can I protect my heart? I think there are three areas of our life in which we can guard our hearts: what we watch, what we listen to and what we dwell on.

I am not here to tell you to stop watching television or stop listening to music you like or to only read a certain kind of book. You must work that out with the Lord. However, you remember the old adage, “garbage in, garbage out,” well it is true. What we watch on television or the movies we choose to go see fills our hearts with violence, perversity, and other sins that make it easy for us to accept and turn a blind eye to in society. There are things on television now that would have been shocking only a few years ago. Yet we have become accustomed to these things as common place. They should still be shocking.

We also guard our hearts by what we listen to. Music is a powerful medium. We listen to music for many reasons. When we need some background noise to enhance study, when we are celebrating, when we are sorrowful, when we want to relax. Some people will say they listen for the words. While others say it is about the beat. Either way music gets into our heart. Will it not be better for it to be music that uplifts rather than songs about cheating, stealing, murder, abuse of all kinds? Again, it is about choices. I am not going to tell you what kind of music to listen to, but I will say that what we put in our ears and eyes affects our hearts.

This is also true with what we read. I am a reader. I would surround myself with books if I could. My family toured a home the other day which had a library which at one time contained 50,000 books. It was a dream for me. I could imagine the books I would place in such a space. I don’t read my Bible all day. I have favorite genres I go back to and some I don’t come near to touch. Even within the genres I enjoy there are still some I stay away from. Books, more specifically, words have a way of getting deep into our hearts and minds. The psalmist perhaps understood this when he wrote this verse:

Psalm 119:11

11 I have treasured Your word in my heart,
So that I may not sin against You.

It is so important that we have a regular plan for putting God’s word in our heart. One way is to memorize a verse each week. As we work through memorizing the verse we meditate on the verse and spend time on the meaning. The process strengthens our breastplate and in turn guards our heart.

Our stanza of study become even more beautiful when we consider how connected it is. We move from breastplate to sword. God’s word is our sword. As we learn to spend more time in His word, our bible becomes a sword against the things we see on television, in movies, what we listen to in music, and what we read and ultimately what we dwell on. He is our refuge and strong tower. The more time we spend in his word the more he becomes our dignity and delight.  He is our hiding place when the world is too much, and our soul needs a break from the craziness that is the world.

We cannot do this on our own. We need him to be our breastplate. We need him to be our dignity. We need him to be our sword and our strong tower. If you are struggling today with your breastplate and realize your heart is unguarded in any of these areas I have mentioned, take it to him and let him be your vision and your power.

Angela

Posted on by Angela

Rattling Bones

Get the picture with me. You are praying and everything is great, suddenly you open your eyes, and you are standing in the middle of a valley filled with bones. They had been there a while. These skeletons covered the whole valley floor. God tells you to walk among them and as you do so, He asks you if they can live again. Now you know there is no way, but since you are talking to God you know nothing is impossible with Him. You wisely answer, “Lord, God, You Yourself know.”

You are standing there a little weirded out half wishing he had put you somewhere less creepy. Then he tells you to speak to the bones. This is what God wants you to say to them.

“Prophesy over these bones and say to them, ‘You dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.’This is what the Lord God says to these bones: ‘Behold, I am going to make breath enter you so that you may come to life. And I will attach tendons to you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin, and put breath in you so that you may come to life; and you will know that I am the Lord.’”

The man is Ezekiel, and this story is found in Ezekiel chapter 37. Ezekiel does what God asks of him. While Ezekiel prophesied “there was a loud noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone.” While he was watching, “tendons were on them, and flesh grew, and skin covered them; but there was no breath in them.”

Ezekiel is standing in the middle of this valley where only a moment before had been covered with dry bones. Now it is full of dead men laying all over the valley floor. He had watched as their bones had come back together and tendons and ligaments came to cover the bones and muscles, and flesh covered the tendons and ligaments. They lay there with no breath in them. But God wasn’t done. He tells Ezekiel to prophesy one more time,

“Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘The Lord God says this: “Come from the four winds, breath, and breathe on these slain, so that they come to life.”’” So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath entered them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.” (Ezekiel 37: 7-10)

God put breath in these men. They were just dry bones lying in a valley. Now they were living men. God had restored them.  They stood there looking around at each other and at Ezekiel wondering what had just happened. Ezekiel was looking at them wondering what in the world this was all about.

God does not do anything without a reason.  He tells Ezekiel that these bones are the house of Israel. They believed all hope was lost. They were in exile from their land. The land God had promised them. God tells Ezekiel the people are saying three things. First that their bones are dried up. Represented by the valley of bones. Second, their hope had perished. They felt they had nothing left to hope for. And third, they had been completely cut off. They felt abandoned. Psalm 88:5 gives an example,

Abandoned among the dead,
Like the slain who lie in the grave,
Whom You no longer remember,
And they are cut off from Your hand.


I just wonder, have you ever felt abandoned by God? I think if you breathe you have felt that way at some point in your life. We go through difficult challenges, and we cannot see a way out of them, and we pray to what feels like a heaven made of iron. We feel forgotten and alone and cut off. Sometimes the fault is our own and the choices we have made. Other times it is just a season of life that we all walk through.

Israel brought their exile on themselves. God had given them prophets and warnings for years. He had tried to turn their hearts back to Him, but they were hard-hearted and unwilling. So, they were left with punishment and exile. Now here they were feeling abandoned, forgotten and cut off. Still God loved them. He gave Ezekiel this vision to give to the people to give them hope again.

The entire chapter of Ezekiel 37 is about the restoration of Israel. God reveals his plan in verses 12-14,

“Behold, I am going to open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people. And I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and done it,” declares the Lord.’”

What began as a terrifying moment for Ezekiel turned into a word of hope for the people of Israel. It is also a word of hope for us. As Israel came out of their captivity back into their land we are assured of God’s promises. There is a two-fold promise in this chapter. I challenge you to read the chapter sometime over the weekend. He promised them to return to their homeland and it happened – twice. First following the exile and second following the holocaust when Israel was recognized as a nation in 1948. Today as Israel sits on the land God promised we have hope in the assurance that God keeps his promise. No, Israel is not on the entire land. The rest will come. But Israel stands as a nation again. One and united, not two separate nations of Israel and Judah. When they were released from captivity, they were Israel.

I don’t know where you are today or what your struggles are. You might feel abandoned forgotten and cut off. Maybe you feel like those dried bones. But look up. God can breathe fresh breath of life into those rattling bone and call you out of your grave of despair and hopelessness.  Today walk in his love and assurance.

Angela

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The Choice

When I left us last time, we were under a load of guilt and shame. We were covered with sin and under judgement. We saw that Jesus was the propitiation for our sin, the satisfaction that God accepts for the removal of our sin. The only satisfaction God accepts. So, now what? Now we are faced with a choice.

Either we accept that Jesus is enough and accept his work on the cross and find salvation. Or we reject his work and face eternal separation from God. These are our only two options. Jesus is the only way to remove our sin. In John 14: 6 Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the father but by me.” This world will tell you that there are many paths to salvation and the world lies. There is only one. That path is through Jesus alone.

I do not want to alienate you at all, my friends, but I will not lie to you and risk losing you to an eternity separated from God. This world is cruel and violent. Of course you will hear there are many ways to salvation. Why would it tell you different? We are living when people are saying right is wrong and wrong is right. When people are killed for no reason. When people are filled with hate and call it justified. We will look to this world for answers and salvation? It doesn’t make sense, does it? Instead, we have a God who loves us so much that he sent his son into the world to die for our sins, to die in our place, so we can spend eternity with him. All we must do is accept it.

The choice is yours and mine. We each must decide what we will do considering this great salvation. We don’t have to wait until we are free from our addictions. We don’t have to wait until we have our family situations sorted. Let me tell you he already knows about them. There is nothing in your past or present that can prevent him from loving you. He is waiting to forgive and cleanse.

David was a man after God’s own heart. Yet, David was also a man filled with sin. In Psalm32:5 he writes:

I acknowledged my sin to You, And I did not hide my guilt; I said, “I will confess my wrongdoings to the Lord”; And You forgave the guilt of my sin.

David recognized the need to confess his sin and need of God. Confession is the act of admitting that we have sinned, of recognizing our sin. It is the first step toward repentance and forgiveness. We make our confession directly to God.

When we confess our sin and agree that we cannot pay the debt that is owed and accept that Jesus’s death on the cross was enough to pay our debt, something wonderful happens. We find it in 1 John 1:9:

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

He has done all he can do. He will not violate your free will. Jesus paid the price. The debt is paid. The gift is yours. He made a way for you to be reconciled with him. It is not his desire for you to be separated from him.

2 Peter 3:9

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.

Will you come to him today? What is your choice?

If you made the choice to accept Jesus and his gift of salvation, I would love to hear from you. Leave me a comment letting me know of your decision.

Angela

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Dark, Dirty and Ugly

It’s something we don’t like to talk about. In fact, if we can, we dismiss it completely.  It doesn’t exist. It is the dark side we hide from ourselves and others. It is only mistakes made, an accident, a slip-up. Everyone does it. What’s the big deal? But see it is a very big deal. I am talking about sin. It started in the Garden of Eden, and it continues to this day with you and with me. None of us are excluded.

God has much to say about sin in the Bible. He takes sin very seriously. Sin separates us from him. Sin caused Adam and Eve to lose their home in the Garden. Sin has caused the loss of many a home and many broken families and broken relationships throughout history. We must talk about it.

 What exactly is sin? We might immediately think of the big things like murder, adultery, violence, theft, porn, human trafficking, and along those lines. You know the yuck of humanity. The things we can easily condemn. Surely all of these are sins. And they are. But what about the little things, the little lies we tell our family, coworkers, friends, bosses, the ones we make up on the spur of the moment. The ones to cover our tracks when we weren’t doing what we were supposed to be doing or where we were supposed to be. Or when we said we would do one thing and yet did something else entirely. What about the thoughts we know are better kept inside our head that we don’t dare speak about but man if we could tell that person what we really thought. Or our gut reaction to that driver. Or when we feel cheated. Or no one will notice. No one will care. No one sees.

Those are as much sin as the big ones. God takes those just as seriously. He doesn’t see sin as big or little. He sees sin as sin.  Sin literally means missing the mark. Think of an archer or a marksman aiming for a bullseye. The arrow that misses the mark sins. The bullet that goes astray sins. God’s word, God’s law, is the bullseye and every time we go astray and miss the mark we have sinned. Every time we don’t meet God’s law we sin. The book of James puts it another way:

James 4:17 defines sin this way: So for one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, for him it is sin.

Paul also had something to say about how sin is defined. Paul had to address some concerns in the early church between Jews and Gentiles (or non – Jews). For now, the treasure I want us to see is the last part of the last verse of Romans 14.  Paul says, “and whatever is not from faith is sin.”

If you want something more concrete, ever hear of the Ten Commandments? God gave us a set of commandments to live by a guiding law for our lives. You can read them in Exodus 20. Yet we are not able to keep these. In fact, we go so far as to remove them from our presence. We don’t even want the reminder of them. Why? Because we know we cannot keep them. James, earlier in his letter, speaks about the commandments. He names some of the commandments outright then makes an interesting point, “For whoever keeps the whole Law, yet stumbles in one point, has become guilty of all.” (James 2:10 NASB)

What does all this mean then? Is any of us without sin? The obvious answer is no. No one is without sin. At some point we all have broken God’s law. We all have gone astray. We have all come face to face with sin and caved at the first opportunity.

God warned Cain in the very beginning, “If you do well, will your face not be cheerful? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.” (Genesis 4:7 NASB)

I think we all know how that ended. None of us can master sin on our own. We need a Savior. I don’t want to end this post without giving us some hope. Yes, we are all sinners. Romans 3:23 tells us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Sin is dirty and dark and ugly, but there is a remedy and there is a hope. His name is Jesus. Next time we will talk about the price of our sin.

Angela

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Third Verse Devotion: Amazing Grace

John Newton, the writer of Amazing Grace, was at one time a slave trader in the Atlantic and then after his conversion at sea became an abolitionist and minister. He never forgot the depths of his former depravity or the depths of God’s grace that covered his sin. He wrote the words to this beloved hymn that most of us know at least the first stanza of by heart. It stands as a testament that when God entered his life, everything changed for him, and he wrote one of the most recognizable Christian hymns of all time.

Amazing Grace is typically found with five stanzas. All five are powerhouses and I cannot see how it can be justified to leave any out. I am going to display all five verses even though we will only discuss one. For more background on the hymn or the author you can always check out www.hymnary.org which is where I always go for hymns, aside from my Baptist Hymnal, of course. Certainly, you can do an internet search for John Newton and Amazing Grace and find more information.

Amazing grace! how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed!

Thro’ many dangers, toils, and snares,
I have already come;
‘Tis grace hath bro’t me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.


The Lord has promised good to me,
His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures.

When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we first begun.

We could spend weeks mining the depths of treasure in this hymn and I hope you will spend some time in the next few moments and days meditating and singing on the hope, grace and truth found within its lines. The fourth stanza is where I want to bring our focus.

God’s promises are forever. As we read scripture and find a promise, we will find some of them are specific to Israel, some are specific to individuals, like Abraham or David, but there are a lot that are for all time for all people. His promise to never flood the earth again is one example. There have been tragic places where there have been floods, regional occurrences, but never again the entire earth as in the time of Noah. The rainbow in the sky is a reminder of this promise, however else it may be used and twisted. The promise that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life is for everyone. You and I and whoever has lived before and whoever will come after. This is a promise he will not break. He has promised good to us.

His word my hope secures. We can read the word of God and find hope for the situation we are in. That does not mean of course, we can just let our Bible fall open and randomly drop our finger in and find the answer we need. No, I mean daily reading. Abiding in His word. Spending time systematically reading through His word. There are a ton of different ways. If you are new to reading the bible, I suggest you start with the gospel of John. The theme of John is “that you may know.” John wrote his gospel that you may know that Jesus is who he says he is and is a great place to begin your journey. Of course, you can always go old school and begin with Genesis and read straight through. Watch out for those Old Testament names but go for it. However you do it, just get into God’s word and stay there. There is hope secure in the pages.

The next line is taken right out of scripture. He will my shield and portion be. See the two verses below:

Psalm 3:3

But You, Lord, are a shield around me, My glory, and the One who lifts my head.

Psalm 73:26

My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

He is our strength, shield, portion. He is our all in all. When we simply cannot take another step, he is our strength. He is the lifter of our head. Notice Psalm 73:26 “My flesh and my heart may fail.” My goodness. Haven’t we been there? The burden becomes too much, and we don’t know what else to do or where else to turn. There is a God we can turn to who is our shield, our glory, the One who lifts our head. He is not a magician who waves a wand, and everything is magically better. No. We still have to walk through the trial. But. He is the strength of our heart giving us the strength we need to take that next step.

Wow. We just looked at one verse of Amazing Grace and what an Amazing God we have found! I want to issue a challenge to us. Let’s memorize not Amazing Grace but the two verses I have posted above. I have them posted in the New American Standard Version but use whatever version with which you are comfortable. The New International Version and the New Living Translation are good versions for reading and memorizing.  Write them out on an index card and begin to commit them to memory. I wonder, can you sing them to the tune of Amazing Grace?

Angela

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The Way Home

Mother-in-laws get a tough rap. They become the butt of jokes, gossiped about over coffee, warred over in homes. Yet in the Bible we find the story of a mother-in-law who did not fit the mold when we think of mothers-in-law.

This lady’s family moved because of lack of food. There was a famine and her husband, and her two sons moved to the land of Moab. Soon after her husband died. Her sons grew up and married local girls, then they too died. The woman was left with nothing. In this time, there were not many options for a woman left alone with no man to protect her or provide for her. She was in a strange land and now had two daughters-in-law with her. In her profound grief, she decided to go home.

You may already recognize the story. I am talking about Naomi from the book of Ruth. This small book of history in the Old Testament gives a beautiful account of the relationship between a mother-in -law and a daughter-in-law. The picture they paint can be a model for us today in the treacherous waters between women who dare to marry sons loved by their mothers.

What is your relationship with your mother-in-law like? Is she like a mother to you? My own mother-in-law was much older than myself. In fact, she and my grandmother were closer in age. She had a difficult life, and I married her youngest son, the baby. Were you and your mother-in-law at peace with each other? Had you found a way to make your relationship work?

We pick up Naomi’s story in chapter 1 of the book of Ruth. Naomi had heard there was food again in the land of Judah so with her husband and both sons gone, she decided to go home. It is worth noting that both of her daughters-in-law were prepared to go with her. Yet Naomi urged them to return to the home of their parents, so they could move on with their lives and find another husband and have a future. We aren’t told how much time passed from when her sons died to when she decided to go home. What we do see is that both her daughters-in-law were devoted to her. They were going with her back to her homeland.

What would you do? If your mother-in-law decided to move away, would you rejoice? Or would you start packing to move with her? Would you be willing to live with your mother-in-law? Naomi’s daughters-in-law were prepared to go with her back to the land of Judah. They were ready to leave their own land and follow her, such was their devotion.

Naomi released them. When she saw what they were intending, she sent them home and blessed them. She kissed them and they all wept together. At first both insisted on going with her then she convinced one of them to return but, “Ruth clung to her.”

So, now the question begs, what kind of mother-in-law are you? Or let’s go ahead and ask, what kind of father-in-law are you? Would your daughter-in-law “cling” to you? Or do you interfere in a marriage that isn’t yours? Do you pull your child away from his or her spouse at every chance? Are you a divider between them? While it may be hard to believe that someone could be good enough for our “baby”, our baby has found someone. I have not had the experience yet as a mother-in-law. So, I don’t know what I will be like. I hope I could follow Naomi’s example and be one that my future daughter-in-law could cling to.

When Naomi urged Ruth to go back to her people and her gods, Ruth uttered the words that many have committed to memory, and many have since repeated as a declaration of loyalty and devotion.

But Ruth said, “Do not plead with me to leave you or to turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you sleep, I will sleep. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord do so to me, and worse, if anything but death separates me from you. (Ruth 1:16-17 NASB)

When Naomi heard the determination of these words, she stopped talking about it and they went home. Ruth worked to provide for herself and Naomi in fields picking grain. She happened to work in a field of a close relative. Before long, with Naomi’s guiding, Ruth revealed who she was to the owner of the field, Boaz. Boaz took the necessary steps and became her husband. Naomi had the joy of holding Ruth and Boaz’s first child.

The relationship between mothers-in-law and daughter-in-law can be tricky. Some never find common ground. Others experience a relationship like Ruth and Naomi. These two ladies set the bar high. They are the model to attain to. Is your mother-in-law a monster? Love her. She gave birth to your husband or wife. Is your daughter-in law impossible? Love her. She loves your son. Pray for each other. Your relationship may never reach the level of loyalty or devotion of Ruth and Naomi, but you can reach for a level of peace as much as it depends on you.

Angela

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Third Verse Devotion: Battle Hymn of the Republic

The words of this patriotic song were written by Julia Howe at the start of the Civil War in November 1861.  This patriotic song can be found in many hymnals. There are five stanzas to the song and all of them are full of meaning, for the sake of time I will only focus on one.

Here is the third verse from the 1991 Baptist Hymnal. You can find the full song at www.hymnary.org.

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never sound retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat;
O be swift, my soul, to answer Him; be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on. [Chorus]

Judgement is not something any of us like to think about. We choose to believe the characteristic of God as love, and He is love. Yet He is also judge. He cannot look on sin. He must judge sin. He is a righteous God and there is no unrighteousness in Him. So, the sin you and I carry must be judged.

There are two types of judgment mentioned in the New Testament. The first is found in Romans 14:10 and 2 Corinthians 5:10. This is a judgement for believers. Every person who has placed faith in Christ Jesus will stand before Him one day and give an account of the things they have done. Did you accept the gift of salvation that Jesus offers? What did you do with the gifts you have been given? How did you live your life? Did you share your faith with others? Did other people know you were a Christian? Did they know you believed in Jesus? What did you do good or bad after you became a follower of Jesus? This is what this judgement seat is all about. The second judgement is mentioned in Revelation and is called “the Great White Throne Judgement”. It is found in Revelation 20: 11-15 and is for all non-believers throughout history. Every individual who had the opportunity to accept God and refused will stand before Him and give an account of his deeds. All deeds were listed and then their name is checked against the book of Life. If their name was not listed there, they were thrown into the lake of fire.

Please hear me, if you think living a good life and performing good deeds will be enough to get you into heaven, Friend, you are wrong. You want your name in that book of Life. The only way to escape the Great White Throne Judgement is Jesus. You want to be at that first judgment.  The next line of the song is “…be swift, my soul, to answer Him…”. Let that be your response as well. When you know God is calling you to follow him, do not hesitate. Respond then. Ephesians 2: 8-9 reminds us:

For by grace you have been saved through faith;

and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 

not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (NASB)

You can never perform enough good works or be a good enough person to make your way to heaven and escape the second judgement. Good works will not get your name in the book of life. Only accepting the grace of Jesus will accomplish salvation and ensure judgment at Christ’s judgement seat.

Be assured God loves you. He does not want any at the second judgment. It is a fact that many will be there. Those who choose to reject Him. You don’t have to be among their number. If you are reading these words, you still have a choice. Make that choice today. Be swift to answer Him.  Since everyone one day will be judged, where will your judgement take place, at the foot of Jesus or at the Great White Throne of God. I hope to see you at the feet of Jesus.

Angela

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Family Matters

Mordecai and Esther were part of the Jewish exiles in Persia (modern day Iran). Their family had been living in Exile since the time of Nebuchadnezzar. They had grown up in exile and had never seen Israel or Jerusalem. They would have understood the customs and laws of the Jewish people as well as the people of the land they inhabited.

When Esther was young her parents died. We aren’t told how. Mordecai, her cousin was older and her took her in and raised her as his daughter. Maybe this is something like your experience. Maybe you were raised by a grandparent, aunt, uncle, cousin, a family member who loved you and took you in when you needed a place to live. Let’s look at how they cared for each other in difficult times.

Summary of Esther chapter 1-2:4

A little background

The Persian king Ahasuerus had deposed and exiled his queen, Vashti.  Sometime after, the king regretted his decision. The advisors proposed to have all the beautiful young women brought into the harem from all the corners of the kingdom. The one who pleased the king should be the new queen. The king thought this was a terrific idea. So, girls perhaps as young as fourteen were taken from their parents from all over the kingdom and brought to the harem in the king’s palace. The girls had a year of beauty treatments preparing them for their night with the king. If the king never called for them by name again, they would live the rest of their days as a widow in the king’s harem.

Mordecai cares about Esther

Esther was part of the gathering. We are told that “the young woman was beautiful of form and face” (Esther 2:7 NASB). When the guards came round, she was selected and taken to the harem. Mordecai, being a father to Esther, would have been worried about her welfare. There was nothing he could do. He couldn’t rescue her. Her fate was sealed. He could not change it, but he could let her know he was there. He walked back and forth every day in front of the courtyard of the harem to learn how Esther was and what was happening to her.” (Esther 2:11 NASB) He showed up. He couldn’t change her future, but he could let her know he was there, and he cared about her.

It is often hard for us as parents to let our children experience difficult times. We protect them when they are small, but as they grow, they must learn how to handle challenges on their own and that becomes difficult. We still want to protect them instead of letting them learn and grow and mature as they work out their own problems.  Sometimes the only thing we can do as parents is let our kids walk through the tough times and let them know we are there, and we care. Sometimes the fault is our own and we must pay the consequences and develop some thick skin to deal with the fallout. Esther did not do anything wrong. She was a pretty girl caught in a king’s awful plan with no way out.

Esther cares for Mordecai

After Esther becomes Queen, she and Mordecai still have a close bond. She has not revealed to her husband, the king that she is Jewish. Mordecai had instructed her not to when she was first taken into the harem. Things are changing, however. A new enemy is on the scene in the form of Haman. He talks the king into destroying this group of people who are opposed to his kingdom. He doesn’t really come out and say who they are, just that they are opposed to the kingdom and need to be destroyed. The king trusts Haman and allows him to write in his name whatever needs to be done giving him his own ring to seal the deal. So, the decree is posted throughout the kingdom allowing the Jewish people to be exterminated.

Mordecai reads the decree, tears his clothes, dresses in sackcloth and ashes, a sign of deep mourning. News of Mordecai’s behavior reaches Esther. To comfort him she sends to him a change of clothes. Her servant returns and tells her he refuses them. Esther is beside herself and sends the servant back with instructions to try to get him to eat and change and find out what is wrong. She, in the harem, is not aware of Haman’s plot. All she knows is that Mordecai, her father, is grieving and she cannot go to him herself. She wants to end his grief.

When someone we love is hurting, the first thing we want to do is ease their hurt. It doesn’t matter if it is a parent, a child, or a family member we are close to and who has always been there for us. We don’t want to see our loved ones grieving or suffering. Sometimes their grief is a disease that we can’t take away. Other times it is a problem that we can’t fix for them. All we can do is pray and love them and let them know that we are there to support them. Esther cared for Mordecai the best way she knew how at this point. Sometimes we must get more involved into the matter. We may need to help with nursing care. We may need to help with housing. We may need to talk to an attorney. Mordecai asked Esther to go to the king on the behalf of her people. After all the years of keeping her heritage silent, it was now time to reveal her identity. This was not a simple fix for Esther. To go before the king uninvited could mean death without his extending mercy. Understandably, Esther was hesitant. Yet, out of love for Mordecai and her people she prepared through prayer and fasting and went to the king. She took a risk with her life to save the lives of many. We may not be asked to put our lives on the line for those we love, but we may be asked to do hard things that seem impossible for us to defend and care for those we love.

The relationship between Esther and Mordecai gives us a model for our own families. They teach us a respect for authority. How to love each other through difficult times. How to properly stand up for each other. It doesn’t mean life is easy, just the opposite. Life is hard and it requires hard things to do the right thing. Yet where our family is concerned, doing the right thing is what matters for our family.

Posted on by Angela

Meanwhile…

I am working on the next big post, but it is not coming together like I want. So, I have a challenge for you. Grab your Bible and take some time and read the book of Esther. If you don’t have a Bible at home that is not a problem, check out www.biblegateway.com or the bible app avaible on your phone.

A few odd facts. It was almost not included in the canon of scripture. It is the only book of the Bible where God is not mentioned at all. Yet, His presense and influence are everywhere. It is also the historical background for the Jewish holiday of Purim.

I will be back soon with the post for you. Until then, dive into this great book filled with intrigue and plot twists. I think you will like it.

See you soon!

Angela

Posted on by Angela

Third Verse Devotion: Trust and Obey

I can still recall this hymn from my youth. It was most often the offertory hymn. Four men would gather at the back of the church when the song leader gave the cue. It went something like this. “For our offertory hymn, let’s stand as we sing the first, second, and last verses of…” That was all it took, and they would leave their seats as we all stood with hymnals in hands. I wonder if this wasn’t one of his favorite hymns. We seemed to sing it every other Sunday. The men would stand at the back and wait for the last verse then march down the aisle to stand before the pulpit. The song leader would nod at one of them to pray or the pastor would come to pray then they would begin to take the offering. I didn’t realize then that this was just as much a part of worship as the preaching and singing. Giving back to the Lord just a portion of what He had given to us.

Take a moment to read the verses to the hymn.

1 When we walk with the Lord
in the light of his word,
what a glory he sheds on our way!
While we do his good will,
he abides with us still,
and with all who will trust and obey.

Refrain:
Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

2 Not a burden we bear,
not a sorrow we share,
but our toil he doth richly repay;
not a grief or a loss,
not a frown or a cross,
but is blest if we trust and obey. [Refrain]

3 But we never can prove
the delights of his love
until all on the altar we lay;
for the favor he shows,
for the joy he bestows,
are for them who will trust and obey. [Refrain]

4 Then in fellowship sweet
we will sit at his feet,
or we’ll walk by his side in the way;
what he says we will do,
where he sends we will go;
never fear, only trust and obey. [Refrain]

United Methodist Hymnal, 1989

Hymnary.org

The hymn was written by John H. Sammis around 1887. He was a businessman who was born in New York. He eventually settled in Logansport, Indiana where he became a secretary for the local YMCA. He later became a Presbyterian minister. He is said to have penned more than 100 other songs.

The backstory for the hymn is uncertain as I have read at least two varying accounts. However, what is clear is that a gentleman stood up during a Dwight Moody revival in Brockton, Massachusetts and stated, “I am not quite sure – but I am going to trust, and I am going to obey.” This statement was the catalyst for Sammis to pen the hymn.

Verse three is our primary focus. Sammis reminds us that “we never can prove the delights of his love…” What a beautiful thought.  We can never out test God’s love. God is steadfast in His love for us. He does not waver; He does not change. His greatest act of love is when he sent Jesus to the cross. In return, we lay everything on the altar. Give our all to Him.

Sammis points out it is in this giving everything on the altar, this trusting and obeying, that we experience His favor and the fullness of His joy. Indeed, we are encouraged to trust Jesus for our eternity, and we show our love for Him by our obedience.

There are examples of individuals experiencing the delights of God’s love, favor, and joy throughout the Bible. These experiences are accompanied by trust and obedience. I do not say that the path is easy. Many in the scriptures who chose to trust and obey had difficult journeys and troubled paths. Yet their joy was complete knowing they had accomplished what their God had sent them to do.

Psalm 84:12 encourages us, “LORD Almighty, blessed is the one who trusts in you.” (NIV)

What is the Lord asking you to do? Are you hesitant to begin? Let me encourage you to take that first shaky step. Will you be like the gentleman I mentioned at the beginning from Dwight Moody’s service? I will trust. I will obey.

Trust and obey

For there’s no other way

To be happy in Jesus

But to trust and obey

Angela