Esther 4:16 “Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!” Blessings in Christ Jesus! I really just love the Bible and how it is enriched with real life stories that we can relate to in our everyday lives. It gives us examples to follow and lessons to learn from. Esther is one of the characters in the Bible that we are to follow. For, she was bold in Christ. Before, I go deep into her bold character though, I will do a quick summary of her story. Esther was a young Jewish woman who lived in Babylon after the Babylonian Empire exiled the Israelites from their homeland and brought them into Babylon. Esther grew up under the guidance of her cousin, Mordecai, for her father and mother had passed away when she was a little girl. Both Mordecai and Esther feared the Lord and both were very bold. Mordecai himself refused to bow down to a Babylonian court official named Haman. Haman was full of vain conceit and arrogance, and therefore, was enraged over the fact that Mordecai refused to bow before him. So, then, Amon sought vengeance against Mordecai and the Jewish people. In the end, God and His people won. As for Esther herself, she was one of the many women who had the privilege to go to the king's court to prepare themselves to enter his presence with the hope of finding favor in his eyes and becoming his next wife and queen. Esther, who found favor in the eyes of God and in the eyes of man, became King Xerxes' new queen. Yet, her position was not for her vain glory but for the glory of God as she ministered to the people of God. I will pause here to say that there are some parts of the story that I did not go into in depth, so do go and read the entire book of Esther! It is a very short book found in the Old Testament of the Bible. Now, time to discuss Esther's boldness! When Esther heard news of how Haman had convinced King Xerxes to annihilate the Jewish people - by the way, the king did not know that Esther was Jewish - Esther boldly declared that she would go against the law of the kingdom, which stated that no person was to go before the king unless he summoned them, to speak to the king about the plight that her people were about to face. God calls us to be bold in the face of hurt and persecution, not submissive. Many times, Christians say, "May God's will be done." That is very right to say, but is it God's will that you perish at this time under such circumstances? If not, then it is an attack of the enemy, and the Lord has given us power to tread over serpents, scorpions and the power of the enemy (Luke 10:19)! At the same time though, if it is God's will, we are indeed to submit unto His will as Christ did on the cross. In the garden of Gethsemane, Christ prayed unto the Father that if it was the Father's will, for Him to take away the bitter cup of death. It was not the Father's will to take away the bitter cup. Therefore, Christ submitted unto the Father's will and died for us (Luke 22:39-46). To conclude, when we are bold, we are to be bold against the ways of this world and the enemy. We are to be bold against the laws of man if they serve against the law of God. We are not to be bold against the ways and the law of God. For, no law which God has established shall ever pass away. That means that He Himself will never violate them (Psalm 148:6). Amen. Much love and blessings, Emery in Christ Blessings! Joshua 24:15 And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” After many years walking through the desert and waging war with the peoples of Canaan, Joshua came to a place where it was time to let the people of Israel be independent. - It is like a father who trains a child as the child should go finally giving the child those awaited days of freedom (Proverbs 22:6). - Joshua reminded the people of all that the Lord taught them. He also reminded them of the dangers that are in the outside world. And he told them that though he taught them that it is good to serve the Lord, in the end of the day, it is them who shall make the ultimate decision whether to serve God or serve the world. Last Saturday, I attended a youth meeting at my church. The moderator asked: "What is a negative and a positive to being a young Christian?" People gave different responses. As for myself, I pondered the question, and 1 Timothy 4:12 came into my heart. I answered the question to its fullest. - "What is a negative and a positive to being a young Christian?" - I looked at the general young Christian experience and answered: "A negative is that elders often have young expectations for us. When we do something that is not pleasing or befitting they often put it aside as us being young and thoughtless. With low expectations comes low performances, and there is the manifestation of the self-fulfilling prophecy. What elders believe of us is often what we will believe of our own selves. The height of the bar that they put up for us is often how far we will reach. [Yet, a young individual with a strong mindset and much determination will break through such barriers of low expectations.] A positive is that we have vigor and are youthful, and we have the strength and energy to accomplish great things if we set ourselves up for it." I also looked at my personal young Christian experience and answered: "A negative is that I am often misunderstood by my peers for the fire that is in my heart for the Word. A positive is the joy and goodness of knowing God to the depths. It is not about being religious and doing religious acts but about knowing who God is [and feeling the embracement of His arms and the power of His love and just seeking to love Him back with all that I am and think and say and do]." The discussion continued, and then, God placed something else in my heart that mixed both a general young Christian experience and my personal young Christian experience. I said: "I talked about two negatives, low expectations and being misunderstood, and two positives, youthfulness and knowing God. My first two years of college, it was difficult for me to find a social circle because I did not agree with the actions of the individuals in the social circles that I would encounter. Yet, for the last two years of my college experience, I was able to connect to the Christian community on campus and the college Christian community that included [Haverford], Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore, UPenn [and more], and I enjoyed multiple joyful and good experiences with these communities. It was a blessing to see how quick we were to embrace one another for just being Christian." After the first time I spoke, I felt the ridicule of the enemy from one individual. Then when I sought to speak the second time, I felt the irritation of the enemy from another individual. Yet, I was unbothered. After I spoke twice, I once again felt the ridicule of the enemy from a third individual. I want to pause here and make you understand that whenever a person in Christ is building up in words or in actions for the glory of the Lord, the devil is always here to ridicule the person's words or works. It is called the spirit of intimidation. Some people also call it the spirit of Sanballat and Tobiah, who tried to discourage Nehemiah from rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 1-13). When the devil sees that he has failed in his ruses and the person continues to build up even more for the glory of the Lord, he is irritated and angered. To continue, even after the discussion, my spirit was much disconcerted. For, I just kept thinking on this: Many of the responses were more on being a Christian than on being a young Christian. Is there any actual negatives to being a Christian? What can be so bad about knowing God?! What can be a bit bad about knowing God? My answer is nothing. There are no true negatives to being a Christian. For, though my heart laments for the plight of my persecutors, I take joy in being persecuted and mocked for knowing my Christ, my King. I take joy in being misunderstood and in being a pariah. For, the Lord says that though I may be in the world, I am not part of the world. That is why I love not the world and the world hates me (John 15:19). And the hatred of the world only serves to show that I have received the love of the Father. My being "out of this world" only serves to show that I am saved from the world. That is the point that the moderator got to. I also believe that the more we come to know and experience the depth of God's love and splendor, the more we will come to abhor this world and its ways and see its vain glories for that which they are. Yes, I would rather have Jesus. For, Jesus is indeed truly sweet. Only He is so sweet. Now, I leave you with this Word: 1 John 2:15-17 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. Much love and blessings, Emery in Christ Hello! Long time no hear! Wow. There has been a lot that has gone into me not writing anything to post on the site. This includes events, a new season in my productive life and technical difficulties. All in all, I am in much joy to finally be able to complete this post, which I started to prepare a month ago! Praise God!!! Amen. Proverbs 21:23 Whoever guards his mouth and tongue Keeps his soul from troubles. So, I would like to talk about keeping secrets. With this age of social media, everyone wants to share everything. Of course, what they share are not exactly whole stories, but instead the good sides of stories, for everyone wants to get likes and shares. Yet, even though these are not whole stories, at times they are just TMIs. Too much information. Even beyond social media, going into good old traditional social exchanges, people tend to share too much of their personal lives. Why? Well, there are a lot of reasons. One reason is ignorance. Some people do not know better. A second reason is trickery. Some people know how to get information out of others. A third reason is pride. People just like to boast. To address the first reason that I mentioned, it is not good to talk too much. To address the second reason, it is not good to talk too much. To address the third reason, it is not good to talk too much! Lol.... This act of sharing too much information for whatever reason is a human tendency. We can trace it all the way back to Genesis. Yes, Genesis. There, we find Joseph. Now, God revealed to Joseph that He would make Joseph head over his brothers. God revealed this in two dreams. The first dream was a dream in which Joseph was standing in a wheat field with his brothers. Then, each brother's bundle of wheat fell before his. The second dream was a dream in which the sun, the moon and eleven stars prostrated before Joseph. The sun symbolized Jacob, who was also known as Israel, and the moon symbolized Leah, for Joseph's mother Rachel was already dead. The eleven stars symbolized Joseph's eleven brothers. Joseph's brothers were already quite jealous of Joseph. When Joseph shared those two dreams with them, his brothers became even more jealous and angry. So, therefore, they planned to kill Joseph, and in the end, sold Joseph into slavery (Genesis 37). From this story, we can see that it is not everyone we should share our personal life events with, especially our dreams and successes, because they will then seek to destroy us to keep us from accomplishing those dreams or continuing in those successes. Next story. In 1 Kings 13, there is this foolish young prophet and this destructive old prophet. God sent the young prophet on a mission and told the young prophet that he should not eat, drink, nor return the same way that he went. After the young prophet fulfilled his mission, King Jeroboam invited him to his home to refresh himself. The prophet responded no and then recounted what God had ordered him not to do. People, including the sons of the old prophet, heard this. The sons went home to their father and told their father what the young prophet had said. In response, the old prophet went and entreated the young prophet to disobey God. Consequently, God punished the young prophet for his disobedience by causing a lion to kill the young prophet. What is worse is that the same old prophet who led the young prophet to sin was the same to declare God's judgment and condemnation against the young prophet. That is sad. Just sad. The moral of the stories is that when it comes to something very important, ask God whether you should share it or not. If He says yes, ask Him when should you share it and with whom. Furthermore, we see that in Luke 1:24, after Elizabeth became pregnant with John the Baptist, she kept her pregnancy a secret for five months. She said that God had given her grace, taking away her shame amongst men. God blessed her and she wanted to guard her blessing. Amen. Lastly, in Psalm 23:5, it is God who sets up the table in front of our adversaries. Therefore, when God blesses, guard your blessings and allow Him to glorify you at the right time. In the end though, God is here to show the same mercy that He had shown towards Joseph. While the young prophet was foolish and then disobedient, Joseph simply did not know better. Therefore, though Joseph faced the jealousy and anger of his brothers, God used it all to fulfill His promises to Joseph. So, for those of us who simply did not know better, we shall receive the same mercy. For, He is a Good, Good, Father. Thank You, Lord, Jesus. Amen. Much love and blessings, Emery in Christ Greetings in Christ Jesus! John 15:1: I am the true vine. Yes, Jesus is the true vine. He is the source of life and all goodness. Everything else that may claim to be so is a lie. So, no, you do not have an abundance of life because of the man or woman you have in your life. No, you do not have an abundance of life because of your children. Nor do you have an abundance of life because of the titles and positions you hold or the amount of money that you make or the state of your finances. For these things come and go, and when heaven and earth shall pass away, so shall they. They look splendid in the Spring and in the Summer, promising to be forever. Yet, they are the dried leaves blown away by the wind before Winter comes and settles in. No matter how much you may try to convince yourself that you are satisfied in them, in the things of this earth, you know the truth. The truth is that no matter how much you gain you still feel like you are losing. The truth is that your thoughts are restless, your spirit agonized, and your heart is torn and broken. The truth is that without Christ you are nothing and nothing else matters. Those who do not remain in Him are far from Him. They are dry and brittle. Easy to carry away, easy to break. Easy to throw into the furnace to burn away (Verse 6). But when you remain in Him, He remains in you and fills you with life, love and hope. You no longer walk on this earth with no fulfilling purpose and no promised destination. Instead, you walk with confident hope as you seek to love God deeply from the heart in keeping His Word and await to see your Love face to face. In doing so, you bear fruit. You bear more love, peace, joy, goodness, kindness, gentleness, patience, faithfulness and self-control. You know and uphold His truth and justice. You know and demonstrate His mercy and grace. You know how to exhort. You know how to encourage. You know how to love your parents and family in whole. You know how to love the man or woman in your life and you know how to love your children. You know how to love all others. You know how to live up to the title of “servant of God.” You know how to give unto the work of God and how to give to those in need. You are wise and knowledgeable in all your ways. Your heart soars. Your soul prospers. Your spirit is in peace. Your mind is sound. Your joy is perfect in the Lord, Jesus Christ. For those who remain in Christ, Christ remains in them, His Word remains in them, and they bear good fruit and the Father is glorified. Amen. Much love and blessings, Emery in Christ God bless! We have been discussing John 14 for the past three weeks. We have gone into faith and peace. Now, there is love. John 14:23-24 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. 24 He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me. Christ says that if we love Him, if we love God, we will obey His Word. Yet, how does love for God translate to the ability to keep, to obey, His Word? I do not know about you, but there are many times when though I wanted to keep His Word, I had to fight to keep His Word. I have had to fight against my flesh, the devil and this world. Even the Apostle Paul confesses to this. In Romans 7, he speaks: Romans 7:14-21 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. The law tells us what is good and bad, but it cannot enable us to do what is good and to not do what is bad. So, then, it seems strange that Christ could speak this so simply. Well, there is a connector. That connector is grace. Grace, only grace can enable us to keep the Word, to do good and to hate evil. Those who love God and seek to please Him have grace. Those who seek to submit unto God have grace, and they receive this grace through Christ Jesus. Paul also confesses to this grace which delivers us. – Thank You, Lord. - Amen. Emphasizing on the point of submission, in James 4:7, the Word commands us to first submit to God and then to resist the devil. We cannot overcome the devil if we do not submit to God. We must humble ourselves before we can be strong. We must first submit to God. God gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). This is the key against any thirst to sin, whether it be a sin of commission (i.e. doing something that we should not do) or a sin of omission (i.e. not doing something that we should do). To summarize, when we love God, we will to please God. Therefore, we submit to God. When we submit to God, God gives us grace. Through grace, we keep His Word. I am very glad to have had the privilege to write on love and obedience. Next, John 15! Much love and blessings, Emery in Christ |
But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
(Matthew 4:4). --- Jésus répondit: Il est écrit: L'homme ne vivra pas de pain seulement, mais de toute parole qui sort de la bouche de Dieu (Matthieu 4:4). Categories
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