Bible Study - Matthew 8

Read Matthew 8

I have been learning a lot about the power of having my own relationship with God, and not just basing my spiritual walk by the words of those around me. As important as it is to take council in others, it is more important that we take the time to grow our personal relationship with God through the Holy Spirit. 

I am encouraging you today, take some time to meditate on this passage and see what God would have you see.

Bile Study - Acts 8

Over and over, all through Acts we will see that God’s love is greater than anything that we could hope to gain from this world. Even Simon was so moved by the Holy Spirit that he followed Peter and John with the people who had once followed him. It is so easy in this world to get caught up in the spotlight that we don’t give the glory to God. Tonight my youth pastor talked about how the first step in us fulfilling our calling, is to accept that we can’t fulfill our calling. He has a point.  

I love this story about Philip it reminds me of how radical God is, and  what awesome, supernatural things He is capable of doing.

Rest in the LORD - Advice for Everyone (but mostly kids)

We are called to be an example to everyone around us “in life, in love, in faith, and in purity.” This calling was originally given to Timothy, while he was still very young, by Peter. We have since adopted it as God’s word to us, that we may set the example of His will through this earth. It is difficult to be bold enough to stand out in a world of similarity. But, as God’s children, that is what we are called to do. We are called to be difference, and the only way we can do that, is through God. Dear child, rest in the LORD, and He will give you the strength to stand out for what you believe!

Bible Study - Esther 8

The King’s Edict in Behalf of the Jews

1 That same day King Xerxes gave Queen Esther the estate of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. And Mordecai came into the presence of the king, for Esther had told how he was related to her. 2 The king took off his signet ring, which he had reclaimed from Haman, and presented it to Mordecai. And Esther appointed him over Haman’s estate.

3 Esther again pleaded with the king, falling at his feet and weeping. She begged him to put an end to the evil plan of Haman the Agagite, which he had devised against the Jews. 4 Then the king extended the gold scepter to Esther and she arose and stood before him.

5 “If it pleases the king,” she said, “and if he regards me with favor and thinks it the right thing to do, and if he is pleased with me, let an order be written overruling the dispatches that Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, devised and wrote to destroy the Jews in all the king’s provinces. 6 For how can I bear to see disaster fall on my people? How can I bear to see the destruction of my family?”

7 King Xerxes replied to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, “Because Haman attacked the Jews, I have given his estate to Esther, and they have impaled him on the pole he set up.8 Now write another decree in the king’s name in behalf of the Jews as seems best to you, and seal it with the king’s signet ring—for no document written in the king’s name and sealed with his ring can be revoked.”

9 At once the royal secretaries were summoned—on the twenty-third day of the third month, the month of Sivan. They wrote out all Mordecai’s orders to the Jews, and to the satraps, governors and nobles of the 127 provinces stretching from India to Cush. These orders were written in the script of each province and the language of each people and also to the Jews in their own script and language. 10 Mordecai wrote in the name of King Xerxes, sealed the dispatches with the king’s signet ring, and sent them by mounted couriers, who rode fast horses especially bred for the king.

11 The king’s edict granted the Jews in every city the right to assemble and protect themselves; to destroy, kill and annihilate the armed men of any nationality or province who might attack them and their women and children, and to plunder the property of their enemies. 12 The day appointed for the Jews to do this in all the provinces of King Xerxes was the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar. 13 A copy of the text of the edict was to be issued as law in every province and made known to the people of every nationality so that the Jews would be ready on that day to avenge themselves on their enemies.

14 The couriers, riding the royal horses, went out, spurred on by the king’s command, and the edict was issued in the citadel of Susa.

The Triumph of the Jews

15 When Mordecai left the king’s presence, he was wearing royal garments of blue and white, a large crown of gold and a purple robe of fine linen. And the city of Susa held a joyous celebration. 16 For the Jews it was a time of happiness and joy, gladness and honor. 17 In every province and in every city to which the edict of the king came, there was joy and gladness among the Jews, with feasting and celebrating. And many people of other nationalities became Jews because fear of the Jews had seized them.

I don’t always read the notes of insight that are printed into my bible, but I did today, and  I want to share it with you, because it brings up something that I had not noticed.

What About God?

Why is God’s name not mentioned in Esther - especially in obvious places like this one? … Some suggest that Esther and Mordecai were not outstanding examples of faith. The two were even willing to hide Esther’s Jewish background. Esther showed no reluctance to be married to a pegan king and become a part of his harem. Most critically, she and Mordecai (along with all the other Jews in Esther) had chosen not to return to Jerusalem with the first wave of Jews nearly half a century earlier. (The story of that is told in Ezra 1-6.) Those who stayed in Persia presumably cared more about their finances than about God’s plans for the Jews to return to Jerusalem from exile. Perhaps because of this, Esther is told as a secular story, to illustrate God’s care over even “secularized” Jews.

http://zondervanbibles.com/