Bible Study Blog for Friday, August 19, 2011
Esther 3-5; Acts 5:22-42
William Carey was on his way to India as a missionary. A friend who didn’t want him to go said, “If God wants to save the heathen, He can do so without your help or mine.” Carey agreed – then he pointed out that the only thing that would be lost – if he didn’t go – was his OWN spiritual success.
Question: If I choose not to follow God’s plan for my Life, who loses?
Haman was a bad guy. He duped King Xerxes into ordering the annihilation of all the Jews in his kingdom. Only Xerxes wasn’t aware that his own queen – Esther – was Jewish.
Queen Esther’s friend Mordecai informed her of the execution order and asked her to appeal to the king. Esther pointed out that visiting the king without an invitation was punishable by death. Mordecai responded:
“If you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish.”
If Esther declined God’s assignment, He would use someone else to rescue His people. And the opportunity to serve God – would be lost.
Esther took the risk, spoke up, and God delivered the Jews yet again.
William Carey got it. So did Queen Esther. How about me?
If I choose not to follow God’s plan for my Life, who loses?
Only one person: Me.
SO – next time God calls on me to serve Him – how do I respond?
Step up quickly and say “Yes” to the adventure!
Or – as a former shoemaker once put it:
“Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.”
- William Carey
Tags: Acts, Bayside Church Woodland, Bayside Woodland, Bible Study, Esther
I’ve not been able to read the blog this week, but I’m glad I finally got back in town where I could hook up to the web. The core of the Christian life is faith, but faith demonstrated by our actions in response to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. If we take off to save the world without hearing the call we’re likely to have the regrets expressed by Mother Theresa in some of writings before she passed. It demonstrates that we can at once hear the call and respond by attempting to do great things for God and after a while find that the job has lost the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and we’re running on memories instead of the fresh wind of the Holy Spirit enabling us–such efforts are tiring and may produce some very commendable results, but lamentably, works without faith are as empty as faith without works. It’s up to us to say connected with God as is revealed in the lyrics of that old hymn, “Sweet Hour of Prayer” that has been running through my head all week while I’ve been alone in my hotel room after work/dinner in the evenings. There’s great comfort in the Sweet Hour of Prayer, as those lyrics remind us, “…in seasons of distress and grief, my soul has often found relief, and oft’ escaped the tempter’s snare by thy return Sweet Hour of Prayer.” The escape from the tempter’s snare is a relevant thing to keep in mind as one travels for business these days. There are many temptations as one is away from home and anonymous in a strange town. The snares are out there, but the Holy Spirit doesn’t let you get close enough to get entangled when you’re calling on God throughout your day and evening. He isn’t able to be with us when we’re doing evil, and the separation from Him is a harsh punishment that He doesn’t even originate when we step away and into sin. Better to stay connected and not find yourself starting to slide into the edge of the slimepit that will suck the sinner’s soul deeper and deeper until there is a total separation from God–the true definition of death is separation from God–and Hell is described as an eternal separation–how unspeakably terrifying, but not our end as we put our faith in Jesus. The Amplified version describes peace as that condition of soul that has nothing to fear from God. Staying close to God in regular prayer and keeping Him close as we go about our work helps keep the faith strong so we can overcome the temptations by not even allowing our minds to consider them.
Getting great things from God is an outgrowth of trusting Him enough to act when we hear the call to action.