Author: Woodrow Kroll
Source: Lessons on Living From Esther
Scripture: Psalm 30:5 Esther 9:20-22
Joy Comes in the Morning
Esther 9:20-22
"And Mordecai wrote these things and sent letters to all the Jews . . . to establish among them that they should celebrate yearly the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar, . . . as the month which was turned from sorrow to joy for them, and from mourning to a holiday."
Joy Comes in the Morning
Life is filled with horror and tragedies. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland and began a systematic annihilation of the Jewish people. During the years of the Holocaust, approximately 65 to 70 percent of all European Jews perished. In 1975 a group of rebels called the Khmer Rouge took control in Cambodia. Tens of thousands died under their harsh treatment. In 1994 the Rwandan president died in a plane crash under mysterious circumstances. Within a month an estimated 200,000 people in Rwanda died from violence unleashed by racial hatred.
The Jewish people in Esther's time were faced with tragedy as well. As Haman's plan for ethnic cleansing was proclaimed throughout the empire, grief enveloped the land. God's people responded with tears and cries of sorrow. What they didn't know was that even as they lamented, God was in the process of engineering their deliverance. In the midst of their darkest night, God was preparing a joyous morning.
Christians are not immune from such tragedies. Brian O'Connell, director of the Religious Liberty Commission of the World Evangelical Fellowship, claims, "More Christians have been martyred in the twentieth century than in the previous nineteen combined." This is horrifying, but our comfort comes from knowing there will be a joyous morning.
If you are experiencing a great sorrow, rest assured that God is preparing a time of joyous celebration. The psalmist says, "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning" (Ps. 30:5). When the morning of Christ's return breaks, sadness will be swallowed up by an everlasting joy.
God's dawn always follows grief's darkness.
Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: A Lamp For My Feet
The Longing for Security
Once we have set ourselves to be pilgrims and strangers on the earth, which is what Christians are meant to be, it is incongruous for us to continue to insist upon the sort of security the world tries to guarantee. Our security lies not in protecting ourselves from suffering, but in putting ourselves fully into the hands of God. The desire for physical and material security makes us sly and hard. No. We must be like little children. The child in its father's arms is not worried. It lies quietly at rest because it trusts its father.
We disobey sometimes because we say it is impossible to do what God asks. Impossible? Perhaps what we mean is impossible to do that and keep our security, impossible to obey without tremendous cost, or at least tremendous risk. Where, then, will we find safety? Is it likely that we will find it elsewhere than in the arms of the Father?
Teach me to rest in your everlasting arms. Make me know that all other security is illusion.
Author: Woodrow Kroll
Source: Lessons on Living From Esther
Scripture: Esther 7:8-10 Psalm 73:17-18
The Slippery Slope
Esther 7:8-10
"When the king returned from the palace garden to the place of the banquet of wine, Haman had fallen across the couch where Esther was. Then the king said, 'Will he also assault the queen while I am in the house?' As the word left the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face. Now Harbonah, one of the eunuchs, said to the king, 'Look! The gallows, fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai, who spoke good on the king's behalf, is standing at the house of Haman.' Then the king said, 'Hang him on it!' So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king's wrath subsided."
The Slippery Slope
The fastest speed for a cross-country skier was set by Aleksey Prokurorov of Russia on March 19, 1994. Mr. Prokurorov maintained an average speed of 16.24 miles per hour for 50 kilometers. On the other hand, the speed record for downhill skiing belongs to Philippe Goitschel of France, who, on April 21, 1993, whizzed down the hill at 145.161 miles per hour. The drastic difference, of course, is caused by the slope.
Sin is also a slippery slope. In Psalm 73, the psalmist says about the wicked, "Then I understood their end. Surely You set them in slippery places; You cast them down to destruction" (vv. 17-18).
When Haman plotted to destroy the Jews, he placed his feet on a slippery slope. Then, like a downhill skier out of control, he careened first through exposure, then condemnation and finally death.
Sin still operates that way today. Most people begin with small transgressions. Perhaps they shoplift a candy bar or rent an X-rated video. These sins seem rather small compared to bank robbery or rape. Yet they set the person's feet on the edge of a very slippery slope.
If Satan whispers in your ear, "Go ahead. It's only a little sin," tell him you know better. If you refuse to take lightly the minor transgressions, you'll be sure to avoid the major ones.
The best way to avoid going downhill is to stay off the slope.