Made for a time as this

The story of Esther in the Bible is one many Christians are very familiar with. It is a story of how God delivered His people from certain death at the hands of Haman, because Queen Esther a Jew, made a courageous move to save them.

If we trace the outline of the story from chapters one to ten, we realise that in God’s scheme of things, nothing happens by chance. Do you think it was by chance that Queen Vashti was deposed when she became too proud to honour King Xerxes order.

Was it by chance that Esther, the orphan cousin of Mordecai, was selected out of the many beautiful ladies by King Xerxes, as his new Queen?

The responsibility of a blessing

Happy New Year friends! Hope you had a refreshing time with your family and friends during the Christmas and New Year celebrations/holidays. 

With every new year, it is typical for people to pray for all kinds of blessings. I did and I guess you did as well. But do you know that for every blessing we receive, we need to be accountable and responsible?

Some years ago when my husband and I were trying for a baby, we prayed for God to bless us with a child. It took more than a year before I could get pregnant.

Whose report will you believe?

One of my favourite songs by Ron Kenoly is “whose report will you believe?” The chorus to the song is “we shall believe the report of the Lord!” I love the song because it challenges us to believe God’s report even when we are surrounded by all sorts of reports from others and from within.

These reports or opinions are often based on what people perceive which may not always be right. Nevertheless opinions often affect us positively or negatively. If a person is regularly told, “you are no good”, “you will amount to nothing”, “you are worthless”, etc., it is only a matter of time before the person starts suffering from low self-esteem and engaging in destructive behaviours. The reverse is the case when a person is regularly praised and complimented.

The snare of ‘comfort’

In the book of Judges chapter 2 verse 10, is this ‘scary’ sentence “After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel.”

I often wonder why the parents of that generation did not pass down to their children the same life-saving messages they had heard and the miracles they had experienced through God’s mercy. I think the answer for this is that the parents got too comfortable. They were in the ‘Promised Land’, they had more than enough, they had peace and protection, they were blessed beyond their dreams. Why bother too much about God, right?

Step out of the crowd

“There is comfort in many” says a popular adage. But is that really true? There could be great deception in many as well. The Bible urges us not to follow the broad way that has lots of people on it, but which leads to destruction. Rather we should follow the narrow way which is often lonely, but that leads to a safe destination.

We live in a world where most of us make decisions on what others tell us or what we see others do. If ‘every one’ is becoming materialistic, we assume we have to do same otherwise we may be seen as ‘old school’.

The Seasons of Life

It’s currently autumn/winter season in the UK. It’s that time of the year when trees shed their leaves, the weather gets colder and it gets dark at 4pm. After a lovely summer period, I don't think autumn is  very nice. I love summer, I get to wear colourful clothes, go to the parks, eat ice cream, even people tend to smile more! But autumn? Nah, people are usually too cold to say hello or smile! It’s just too gloomy!

But I realised that no matter how much I hated autumn, it was not going to make any difference. It will stay for as long as it is supposed to stay. Summer too will not come any sooner, it will come when it is supposed to come. That made me learn to start appreciating autumn as opposed to hating it.

Are you a Pharisee Christian?

I know you are probably thinking that is not right. "You can’t be a Pharisee and a

Christian at the same time, right?" Wrong! You can still be a self-professed Christian but act like a Pharisee. Let’s look at some ways we do that:

Laws minus love: The Pharisees were very critical and judgemental. They viewed themselves as better off than other ‘lesser mortals’ and were always quick to point out the flaws in others.