The Bible In Paintings, #172: ESTHER'S BANQUETS

Bing Images ^ | c.2200 BC - c.95 AD | by the Father, Son & Holy Spirit

[Forgiven_Sinner]

“Since I was a small child, I’ve had a visceral sensitivity to others’ pain which is nearly disabling. Dutifully, I read Foxe’s Book of Martyrs and consider thereby that I’ve met my lifetime quota of investigating torture. To the extent I’m able, I’ve decided to keep my sights on our glorious future, in the spirit of Philippians 4:9. (I won’t even watch “horror” movies.)”

You’re a man after my own heart. I too read Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. But I originally was fearful of committing to God after reading the Bible. I knew there was no turning back. It took me two years to commit to Christ. I was comforted by 1 Cor. 10:13
No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

and finally gave my life to Christ.

[Hebrews 11:6]

That is one of the first handful of verses I ever memorized. It--or rather, the Holy Spirit through it--has encouraged and challenged me often.

I am fascinated by your (all too brief) conversion account. I hereby insist on hearing it in full! But that is not a current demand, because my confident expectation is that a chief topic of conversation in heaven will be each of us relating in exquisite detail exactly how we got there, while everyone hangs on every word.

Indeed, our stories are woefully incomplete now and so almost not yet worth telling, because we haven't yet learned the full backstory from God, as I also expect He will reveal to us.

Once He does, there will be ten or twenty billion saints, each praising God for how He saved them. What a spectacle!

If I may presume to extrapolate and opine on your account, it seems that you lived out Hebrews 11:6, what I've considered for twenty-five years to be the Bible's threshold verse. First, you believed He exists, but it took Him two years to convince you that He would reward you for earnestly seeking Him. You've stated it in simple terms because it really is just that simple: you can answer a resounding "Yes" to both questions in my tagline.

[Forgiven_Sinner]

“there will be ten or twenty billion saints, each praising God for how He saved them. What a spectacle!”

Only God knows the number of people who have lived and who is and will be saved among them.

“First, you believed He exists, but it took Him two years to convince you that He would reward you for earnestly seeking Him.”

My first belief came when I understood God HAD to exist because the Big Bang required creation from nothing. Although I didn’t know of dark energy at the time, I knew a powerful force was needed to propel the universe’s matter and energy out of the black hole that would otherwise result.

My hesitancy came from fear of torture, for I hated pain. I didn’t really fear death, having grown up on WW II films and TV. I saw death for God as a heroic act. Torture, not so much.

This took place between the ages of 12-15. There’s the real miracle. My parents didn’t attend church, and I never had, yet God called me through a radio ministry and reading the Bible.

[Hebrews 11:6]

God HAD to exist because the Big Bang required creation from nothing

You're probably aware how fiercely the Cosmic Creation event was resisted for precisely that reason. Rather than the universe being static and having always existed, which gives evolution the quadrillions of years it would need, creation only 13.8 bya gives far too little time to explain life's origin by natural processes.