Chase Finds a Sick Cat

Chase found a sick cat outside his house in the bushes this morning. Cody said it was pretty sick. Chase drew me this picture and a note tonight after church. I don't think he knew the cat died that afternoon. The picture is of a sad cat and a sad boy.

I think the note reads, "Chase cat is dine plees halp rob".

It's good to care about God's creatures.

A Great Hero

Every great hero is born of great necessity and great adversity. Mordecai the Jew faced both; Great necessity... the threat of the annihilation of his people and a great adversary… Haman the Agagite.

Haman was second in command of the great Persian Empire. He carried King Ahasuerus’ signet ring which carried the authority of the king. Haman was informed that Mordecai refused to bow and pay homage as Haman entered through the king’s gate. He was also informed that Mordecai was a Jew.

Instead of reserving punishment for Mordecai alone Haman devised a scheme to punish all the Jews. He schemed and “cast the lot” (astrology) and got King Ahasuerus to agree to issue an edict that all the Jews in the entire kingdom, which stretched from India to Ethiopia, could be “destroyed, killed and annihilated” including “young and old, and women and children” on the 13th day of the month of Adar.

Seems a little excessive doesn’t it? Every word in the Bible means something and the word, ”Agagite”, is huge in the understanding of Haman. An Agagite is a descendant of King Agag who was king of the Amalekites. The Amalekites were a people who, centuries before, God had ordered the Jews to annihilate. Undoubtedly Haman knew this and now he was in a position to do something about it. To do to the Jews what the Jews had done to his people.

In comparison to Haman, Mordecai the Jew appeared to be a nobody, but to God he was a somebody, a simple man of faith selected by God to overcome a great adversary so that God’s people could be preserved.
More on Mordecai next week.

Church Message Board

I had a few members Wednesday night ask me, hey what's up with the Kermit message on the sign? I hadn't seen it but after doing a little investigation I found out that Don puts the messages up. When I called him he said it was a "test message". He puts up a new message every week or so and he wasn't sure anyone noticed so he wanted to run a test to see if anyone actually read the message board. I told Gus that he and I failed the test because we didn't notice it. Gus said we passed it because our spies noticed it.

The Book of Esther

The selection of Esther as queen of the Persian Empire has sometimes been characterized as a “beauty contest”… which in my mind is a complete mischaracterization of the event.

When King Ahasuerus decided he needed a new queen he had young virgins selected from all 127 provinces in his kingdom ranging from Ethiopia to India. If just one young woman from each province was selected that’s 127 young virgin women. At the time of their gathering they were placed in the “first Harem” and were considered to be concubines/wives of the king. Unlike a beauty contest there would be no going home for these young women. One of them would become queen but they would all be concubines/wives.

There was a 12 month education/beautification process involving cosmetics, choice food, oil of myrrh and spices before the selection would be made. The interview for the queenship was a personal one with the king himself. Esther was not an unwilling participant in this process. When it was Esther’s turn, she went to King Ahasuerus palace in the evening and spent the night with him and was taken to a new harem the next morning… the second harem. No longer a virgin she had consummated her marriage to King Ahasuerus and in the process won his favor and become queen of the Persian Empire.

Esther could have been quite young at the time, perhaps as young as 14 years, and now she was the second most important person on the royal side of the Kingdom. Her older cousin Mordecai, who had been her guardian, would become the second most important person on the political side of the Kingdom. For me, the story of Mordecai is more important than the story of Esther. In fact, the book could easily be named the Book of Mordecai. Amazing that God would place two Jews in such high places in a world empire… more on Mordecai next week.

Uncle Rob

Earth and Life

All we have in this world, physically, are dirt and water. When you couple these elements with sunshine you can get color, structure, aromas and everything else that we have in this world. It only requires one thing... a recipe… a recipe for life.

You can find that recipe in a seed. When a seed comes in contact with moist earth a reaction occurs that allows the seed to select and absorb different minerals to initiate a chemical reaction that causes something to grow.

When you look at that old brown dirt you cannot see green, yellow or any of the colors, but the elements are all there waiting to be chemically manipulated so that they can come into existence.

Thank you God for bringing life to a planet that used to be just dirt and water. Thank you for the promise of another life in heaven.

Primogenitus

In Hebrews 1:6, Jesus is called the Primogenitus or firstborn of God.

I’m not sure that in today’s time we fully understand what the “firstborn” meant to the Hebrews. Certainly the firstborn son of a Hebrew family was shown favoritism as far as inheritance went but in addition Hebrew families understood that their firstborn sons belonged not to themselves but to God.

In Exodus 13 we learn that every male, whether human or animal, that “opened the womb” for the first time belonged to God to do with as he pleased.

The firstborn males of clean animals; goats, cattle, sheep were to be killed or sacrificed. In Numbers 18 these firstborn animals are called “holy”. God could require that of the firstborn male children as well but allowed their parents to “redeem” them. The cost of redemption? …five shekels of silver.

The Hebrews constantly had it hammered into their heads that their firstborn male sons belonged to the Lord.

So you have cases like Hannah who so wanted a child that she made a vow to the Lord that if she could have a son she would not redeem him but give the son, Samuel, to the one who already owned him… Jehovah God. God answered her request and she fulfilled her vow.

Imagine the surprise of the Hebrews when God, the owner of all the firstborn sons, took his own firstborn son, Jesus Christ, and used him as the redeeming price for the sins of all humanity. The Hebrews bought their firstborn sons back for 5 shekels of silver. God paid for the sins of humanity with the death of his own Primogenitus. The sacrifice of one life being the equivalent price for the lives of all humanity.

The Old Testament was about humanity’s sacrifice for God. The New Testament is about God’s sacrifice for humanity.

As a side note… what about today? My mother told me my Dad made a promise to the Lord that if he could have a son he would dedicate that son to the Lord. Dad was 18 years old at the time. I don’t take that lightly as a cause for who I am today.

Julie and Virginia Lawler

Julie and I went to go see Virginia at Holmgreen's on Monday. When we got there there were three ladies from King's crossing playing "Skipbo" with her. We had a good visit with her and she is planning to stay there until she gets better. She is suffering from Congestive Heart Failure. I think she said her heart was operating around 30%.

There were a lot of older people at Holmgreens who were in declining health. It's always kind of sad for me to see adult children taking care of their loved ones who are declining in health. I was glad I went it kind of yanked me out of my busy life into the reality of human love and suffering.

When we left we held hands to pray and for the first time I just couldn't do it... Julie bailed me out and prayed for us.