Courage and Stepping Up

If you read the previous update, you’re probably wondering what in the world this has to do with Esther. Well, it has to do with courage – which is what we discussed this past week.

At the end of chapter 4 we start to see Esther make her way to the king. I feel that she finally realized there would be no direct intervention in or after the three days of fasting - she in fact would become the divine intervention in the situation. Take a minute and think about what courage means to you - is it standing up to someone/something? Is it conquering a fear? Is it doing something you'd normally never do? When's the last time you were an example of courage? I'll give you my example, and it has taken me almost a year to figure out what has been going on.

I'm speaking for myself here, but I'm a chicken. Maybe not when it comes to doing things like riding roller coasters or going on adventures, but when I have to socialize with others in public, I freeze. I'm not an eloquent speaker. I'm not loud. My mountain accent tends to get in the way, and people make me nervous. If you can imagine, being the leader of a Bible study full of women (who are all older than me) TERRIFIES me. I started feeling led to do Bible studies with the women about a year ago. I put off even mentioning it until I just couldn't keep it inside any longer. I was convicted over the idea. I finally realized that nothing would happen unless I stepped up and did it myself. This wasn't a calling to Carolyn, Ann, or Mrs. Jane. God was talking to ME. Of all people, He spoke to ME. I questioned whether or not I could make a difference. After all, I was the youngest, had social anxieties, detested speaking in public, was the "newest" of the ladies in the group, and stumble over words. The Association Meeting this weekend really opened my eyes. Just as the disciples were given specific tasks, we have all been given a unique task. We have been chosen to do a job for God.

If you go over to Matthew 25 you will find a parable of the talents (starting in verse 14). The story tells of a master who was leaving his home to travel, and before going entrusted his property to his servants (property worth 8 talents). One servant receives five talents, the second two talents, and the third one talent, according to their respective abilities. Focus in on that last phrase: "according to their respective abilities". I've heard this parable over and over and never clicked with these words. Each person received an amount that they could do something with. The first two servants received more because they worked more. When the master came back to see what they had gained from the inheritance they were both able to show him that they had doubled the investment. The third servant received less because he worked less. When the master came back for his story it was different than the others. He had gotten lazy and buried the coin. He made no attempt to get any gain from his gift. When we feel called to do something, despite being scared to death, God knows what He has given us. He gives us tasks based on our abilities, just as He described in the parable. If you're willing to do more, God will more than likely do more with you. This is drilled into our heads from the time we are young until we grow older. Remember hearing "an object in motion stays in motion?" or "if you continue to exercise and eat well, your metabolism will continue to move at the correct rate."

Esther was given a task - a great task. She was to save an entire nation by standing up to her husband and planning an extremely clever couple of banquets. Before she made her decision she prayed and fasted. Remember - it was only after this that she was able to continue on with her decision. She was able to carry her plan through, and she succeeded. If you ever have any doubt, think of Donald Trump's words: "It's always better to try and fail than to have never tried at all." This is a hard lesson that I've had to learn, and just learned it in the past few days. If you feel led to do something, do it. There's probably a very good reason you are being convicted over it.

At the end of the day will God to look at your life and say: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord." -Matthew 25:21 or will he say "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth." Revelation 3:15-16?

Divine Intervention

(First of all, this entry doesn't seem like it has anything to do with our Esther study, but I promise it does. If you can make it through this one, go on to the next and you'll see what I mean. I had too much stuff to fit into one post, so I broke it up into two.)

Once again, I would like to apologize for the lack of updates. Since the last update we’ve had one lesson and part of a lesson. Last week we had (in my opinion) the best meeting that we’ve had yet. We didn’t even make it through the entire session. Everyone discussed things, opened up and encouraged one another like we should. Satan had really been trying to defeat me over this Bible study. On Tuesday of last week, I emailed the ladies and let them know what was going on. I asked for prayers and several were very encouraging and shared how the lessons had helped them. To be honest, I was ready to give up. Once Wednesday night’s service was over, I began to feel better about everything, but still didn’t feel completely right.

This Friday (3/22) and Saturday (3/23) our pastor, our head deacon and my husband and I attended the Annual Association Meeting of the Piedmont chapter of Freewill Baptists. Friday morning I could have sworn the message was spoken straight to me. I had never heard the voice of God so clear. It was what I needed to verify my activity involved in Wednesday night services. It gave me the renewed spirit I had needed and the motivation to continue on. Friday night, the first message was technically spoken to the young preachers in the association by the ordaining counsel. I’m in no way a preacher, but I teach and therefore am responsible for getting the Word of God across clearly and effectively to everyone present. I took it and applied it to the work I could/should be doing with the Bible study. The message was supposed to be informative, helpful, encouraging, and instructional. Brother Tucker pointed out that we shouldn’t get discouraged over how many are in attendance during a service. Whether you have 100 or 10, you should be teaching the same thing. Phillip preached to one Ethiopian eunuch and led him to Christ. There weren't thousands in attendance. We forget that all of the events that took place with Christ and the disciples aren't recorded. There were probably thousands of times where they were only speaking to a handful of people. Everything they did wasn't in front multitudes or with a physical miracle like the raising of Lazarus. Most of the time they won others by just simply sharing the gospel in conversation. We shouldn’t lessen the message just because the numbers lessen. That’s a hard thing to learn, and I don’t think you ever learn it completely. Any event you have, whether it be a dinner party or a church service, you want everyone invited to attend. Don’t be discouraged by the ones that are there one week and out the next. Don’t be discouraged by those who say they study and read, but don’t/can’t/won’t answer or speak up. Don’t be discouraged by those who speak negatively of you or the words you are saying. Most times, they are speaking negatively due to a nerve your words hit within them – and if you are doing things right, your words are God’s words, so if they are getting upset, it’s just at the messenger. God will handle the relationship between them and Him.

In the KJV version of 2 Timothy 4:2 it says: "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine." According to the commentary by Albert Barnes, be instant means to stand by. Always be ready; in season means in good time. Be sensitive to the timing of things; out of season refers to a minister seeking out times to share the gospel with others when it might not be necessarily convenient to him. In other words, he shouldn't be confined to doing God's work only in the church or at church events. Reprove means to convince; rebuke refers to letting others know when they are doing wrong. If they are sinning, let them know. Exhort others by encouraging them. Lastly, do it with longsuffering. This is the hardest one for us as humans. Do all of these things with patience. This is our mission as disciples of Christ whether you preach, teach, pray, or just live your life for Christ. Your actions speak louder than words. You might not be speaking directly to others, but they are watching. Don't say one thing and do another. As you go through the days, keep this verse in mind. It's a wonderful goal to have each day.

There is so much more I learned from this meeting, but I won't share it all here. I'll try to spread it out ;)

Long Awaited Update

First of all, I'm apologizing for the delay in posts. To be honest, Satan really tried to mess with me when studying the last lesson. I feel like Bible study this past Wednesday night bombed, and nothing got accomplished despite my five pages of notes and two weeks worth of studying. It was just one of those nights.

This week we talked about the remainder of chapter 2. We got more into the marriage of Xerxes and Esther and then into Mordecai intercepting information regarding an assassination plot to kill the king. When talking about the marriage, you see that Xerxes did not use the right methods to find his mate. He held a competition of beauty, gave the women anything they wanted, then he spent one night with each of the women. He got what he wanted and if he didn't need them again, or found something he didn't like, he'd cast them to the side and move on to the next group. It's funny how many of these qualities get passed on through the ages. Many men still do this today - and as bad as I hate to admit it, us women do it too. Have you ever been looking for a serious relationship and started picking apart everything they do? We tend to develop checklists and we keep these in our minds when looking for a mate. They are required to make x amount of money, have a certain color of hair, have a certain type of upbringing, have similar interests, etc. We use these "checklists" in many other aspects of life. Finding a job, buying/renting a house or apartment, buying a car, and the list goes on and on. Many times we don't consider God's opinion and we stick strictly to our lists and go on with OUR decisions. We don't think about God's will for our lives. If we don't go to God first when making decisions, it's likely that we'll end up in the wrong spot or with the wrong people. This is mentioned specifically in Jeremiah 29:11 (KJV):

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end."

The second half of our lesson focused on the situation with Mordecai and the assassination plot against the king. Mordecai overhears Bigthan and Teresh - two of the chamberlains of the king - and found out that they "sought to lay hands on the king Ahasuerus. (taken from Esther 2:21 KJV)" The phrase "laying hands on" is not the same one we use to describe prayer. They were going to kill the king. These men acted as bodyguards of the king's bedroom. They stood outside the door to make sure nothing happened. Their motive is not known, but could be because of the way he was treating the women, or they could have been seeking revenge for Vashti's abrupt removal. It's funny how the men protecting the king were getting ready to kill him. After all, they had all of the inside information and knew his movements. I believe this is a warning to us to beware of wolves in sheep's clothing. You never know the motives of some people. They might seem helpful, but could be getting close to you to try and bring you down later on.

There are so many things to be learned from Mordecai. The first of these things is that he was honest and loyal. As the plot developed and he learned more information, Mordecai didn't run to blab the news to everyone around him. He went straight to the people it affected most. He told Esther who in turn would tell Xerxes. We know that Mordecai and Xerxes probably weren't the best of friends (due to the fact that the king and his men hated the Jews), so why would he want to save someone he didn't care for? We know that Mordecai and Esther were Jewish and that the people they were around didn't care for the Jewish people. If they did, there would be no need to hide their nationality and beliefs. Therefore Mordecai probably avoided most contact with the king. Be honest with yourself - if you knew someone you didn't like was in danger of being hurt, what would you do? Would you tell others to start something? Would you go straight to them? Would you keep quiet and let the plan become an action? I believe this is one of those spots where God's protection and guidance shows up. If Mordecai had let Bigthan and Teresh kill the king, then later on when Haman loses his temper, the Jews would have been obliterated as planned. God's people would not have been spared, and it would have changed the course of history for the Jews.

The second thing we can learn from Mordecai is humbleness. Mordecai knew that if it had not been for him, the king would be dead. However he didn't run all over the place demanding recognition for his great rescue mission. His actions were recorded in the Chronicles of the King, and weren't discovered until approximately 5 years later when the king was being read to because he couldn't sleep. It wasn't until then that Mordecai was praised for rescuing the king. How many people do you know that have arranged a church function or made a large donation and then made sure that EVERYONE around them knew what they had done? This is exactly what we are NOT supposed to do. Luke 18:9-14 (KJV) is a passage of scripture where Christ describes this very thing. We shouldn't be doing things to be seen and praised by man. We should be doing them to glorify God.

Hopefully this wasn't too scattered. I apologize again for not updating sooner. I'll post the next one this weekend. We didn't have church this Wednesday so we're moving a bit slower than planned. If you ever have questions, please leave them in the comment box below or send an email via the contact me form on the prayer request page. I'll try to help the best I can.
Have a wonderful rest of the week!

Reflection

As I sit here waiting with for my Dead Sea Mask to dry on my face (while it burns like crazy), it really makes me think of our lesson last night. We discussed our issues with appearance, how we judge, and how we are judged. We shared stories with our experiences, compared favorite beauty products and why we use them, and compared our beauty treatments today with those that Esther had to endure. As a female in her mid-20's, I have to say appearance is one of the most popular subjects no matter who you talk to or what you are doing. As much as we'd like to avoid it and deny it, the thing is that we give in to what society's view of the perfect appearance is. We wear makeup, use treatments, masks and lotions on our face, we dye our hair, we starve ourselves, and dress the way the magazines say so, just to fit in. Who are you really trying to please? Is all that work for someone else (like the story of Esther) or for yourself? If you are constantly having to worry about looking the right way are you really and truly doing something to make yourself happy? Don't get me wrong - don't eat all day long because you're bored or avoid the shower to make a stand against "beauty", but be content with who you are, how you are. If there are things to work on, exercise your fruit of the spirit called patience, and work on it in a healthy, happy way. Gradual steps to cutting portions and adding moderate exercises are better than starving yourself for 2 weeks, losing your energy, and hearing your tummy rumble. Taking your makeup off and moisturizing in a daily routine are more effective than an automatic face lift or a Botox treatment.

People always say that first impressions are everything. It is better to leave an impression of what's in your heart than to leave an impression of a face that took an hour and half to prepare and is forgettable. Using context clues in the Bible, we can infer that Esther won over Hegai with her personality - not entirely her looks. We have to have more substance to ourselves than a thin veneer on the outside.

While on BBC.com, I came across an article that gave scientific explanations for why faces are easier to remember than names.

"In other words, faces are given to us – they are there when we look at the person we are thinking about – and all we have to do is know whether we have seen them before or not. Names, on the other hand, are hidden in memory and we have to retrieve them, which is a far harder psychological task."

If we put this in perspective, we need to give additional information to other that we come across that will stand out in addition to our face. Will you be remembered for your manners and sweet disposition or will you be remembered for being harsh, angry and upset all the time? Both are extremes, but both are easily remembered. If you are watching any type of TV show involving a competition, you are going to see personalities come out. You are either going to notice those who are ruthless and will do anything to win, or those who honestly have a respect for others and know how to play the game. Those that are in-between rarely stand out.

Which way will you be remembered? Would you have won over not only Hegai, but also the King, with more than your looks? It was stated that Esther was liked by everyone - men AND women. As a woman, I can say that I am MUCH more judgmental of women than of men, and a woman generally has to show some kind of substance before I can respect them. Imagine being in a room full of drop dead gorgeous women who were fighting for one man. I don't think many of those women would have thought twice about getting to know each other, let alone respecting one another. We always think that men focus more on our appearance, but according to our discussion last night, we as women notice more about other women. We pick them apart piece by piece.

Now you have a few things to think about. I ended up having more to say than I thought. My mask is now dried, crinkled, and I can't move my face. I've been typing for at least 20 minutes...

I hope you all enjoy your week and are keeping one another in your prayers.

Preparation

All this week I have made a commitment to myself and God to study more. It's amazing what you can do when you want to do it. My excuses pertaining to studying before sounded similar to these:

"I don't have enough time in the mornings before work." "I am too tired when I get home from work." "I have too many errands to run on my lunch break and I only get an hour." "The weekends are time for family."

Turns out, I have plenty of time before work if I don't watch TV. I have plenty of time on my lunch break when I don't procrastinate my weekly teacher work. I have TONS of time after work if I don't get carried away with crafts. I can honestly say that I have spent at least 2 hours each day studying. Normally when I would drive to work my 35 minute drive would be spent listening to morning talk shows and music in the afternoons. I found a collection of 10 minute devotions for women at Lifeway on CD and those have truly been a blessing in the mornings. I have also been using that time to listen to the Beth Moore sessions on Esther. I feel like I have learned more in the past week than I did throughout the entire study of Daniel. Most of that I feel is due to actually putting forth the effort to learn instead of rushing through 5 days worth of questions and then reciting them back to the women on Wednesday nights.

I had all 4 of my wisdom teeth removed yesterday. It went well, and I feel much better than expected, but I am still pretty weak from lack of food and soreness. This morning I was sick of laying in the bed watching TV so I came downstairs in my office and started to study. I am doing another study called "Espresso with Esther" in addition to the Beth Moore study. The introduction to Esther in that study begins with lots of history of Israel and the Jewish people. We always hear about how all of the minor and major prophets spent their lives witnessing and telling others of Christ and what he could do, was going to do, and what he had done. I don't claim to be a scholar of any sort, but I have always been able to remember facts and information regarding the Bible, but it's simply amazing what you can absorb when you really sit down to study. The book of Daniel had so much to do with the beginning of Esther. We will recap how Nebuchadnezzar captured the Jews and how items were stolen from the temple. We will talk about Jeremiah's prophesies coming true with king Cyrus of Persia issuing that the temple be rebuilt. Again, I can't express my excitement for this Bible study. I have enjoyed it so far and haven't even gotten to share it with anyone!

God Bless!

Introduction

(all of the above tabs relate specifically to the book of Esther, such as People, Places, and Things. People describes the people found in the book, Places describes the locations in the book, and Things are events and important facts that need to be known before reading.

This blog was created specifically for the ladies in our Wednesday night Bible study group, but would be beneficial to anyone. Getting together as a group for one hour, one night a week doesn't give a whole lot of time for discussing everything and we don't get to say as much as we'd like to say. With our previous study we found that communication was lacking, so at the end one of the ladies came up with the wonderful idea of emailing back and forth. I decided maybe it would be even easier if I did something like a blog where readers could comment and carry on a discussion. (ladies, we can still email too)

I am thrilled to be starting the Esther: "It's Tough Being a Woman" series. I just finished listening to the introduction audio disc, and was blessed by it. It will work out well with us wrapping up Daniel where we did, as this all takes place during the Persian rule right after they conquered Babylon.

We should be able to do one lesson a week - there are 10 weeks of lessons and 10 chapters in the book of Esther. I will try my best to keep this updated so that we can share opinions, questions, thoughts and prayers with one another. You don't need the workbook. I prefer to use it to keep my studying (and my brain) on task. Lifeway has them for $14.95, and both the Greensboro and Winston stores have plenty in stock. I will come up with a much shorter version of each week's worth of homework so that it might be easier to study. I'd rather go over 5 or 10 questions really well instead of going through the whole week's questions and confuse everyone with us going back and forth. I'll get them to you ahead of each class and you can answer the questions during the week and we'll share them at the following meeting. No one should have any excuses for not doing their homework...I'm making it easy :)

I hope this study will be easier to follow and more relevant to your daily struggles and encounters. Through our journey with Esther we will hopefully become more aware of what it takes to be a strong, courageous, Godly woman in our nation's time of ungodliness.

Please try your best to make time - even if it's only 15 or 20 minutes to study some of the information. I know it's hard to create good study habits...my early college transcripts are real good proof of that. However, if you make time for it and add it into your daily routine, it will be as simple as putting on your makeup in the morning or brushing your teeth at night. Taking small steps is better than standing still. You can't press forward if you don't move. Here are a few words of encouragement to get you started:

"For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.        - Romans 15:4 KJV

"By perseverance the snail reached the ark." - Charles Spurgeon