Posts

Posted on

The heckler.

Reading Time: 2 minutes 
“Then someone called from the crowd, “Teacher, please tell my brother to divide our father’s estate with me.” Jesus replied, “Friend, who made me a judge over you to decide such things as that?” Then he said, “Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.” Luke‬ ‭12:13-15‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Luke writes that some guy… just some dude yells out complaining about his brother. Is this a joke? Seriously. This could not have been a real comment with the guy expecting Jesus to settle an inheritance dispute with the family.

Then, instead of ignoring the comment, Jesus bantered back – haha “who made me judge?” It is kind of ironic response given that Jesus would judge ALL THINGS.

Arm-twisting is not going to be helpful in this case. However, Jesus does take a heckled comment to give the crowd a perspective on wealth as well as being poor. That’s right, he talks about a rich fool and those worried about their next meal.

For the heckler he says, looking beyond the cheap laughs, beware. He gives this younger brother a gift, the wisdom of God.

Guard against greed. Money? Yes. Power? Yes. Success, stature, social standing? Yes. Yes. Yes. Guard against every kind. Ah, but Jesus used the word, pleonexia: covetousness, avarice, aggression, desire for advantage. The word is two words combined: possess and more, the lust for more.

Jesus warned against the exceeding abundance of possessions. Where certainly the holder of such abundance loses control and the abundance now possesses or owns them! When there is an abundance, you no longer rule over it, it rules over you. Jesus, in a way, asks the brother, that’s not really the life you want, is it?

Who wants to be a slave of anything or anyone, let alone to a bunch of amassed wealth, power or influence. How many rich are trapped by their own wealth? How many politicians are trapped by their own power-base? How many celebrities are trapped behind the image or fame portrayed as success? All of them are simply rich, powerful or influential slaves – they are not free. Do you think money is what you need? How about power or popularity? Guard against pleonexia!

Prayer

Dad,
Whoa. I do not want to be a slave of abundance! No wonder you want me to be generous. Does generosity play a role in not listing for more? Not being owned or enslaved by the obsession for more? Wow. That’s amazing. Can the joy of giving BE the antidote for the poison of pleonexia? That’s a lot to think about. Sounds like wisdom to me!

Posted on

Seeing what cannot be seen.

Reading Time: 2 minutes 
“By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.” Hebrews‬ ‭11:3‬ ‭NLT‬‬

​This crazy little thing called FAITH.

Seeing what cannot be seen.

Sure, that sounds ridiculous to the unbeliever of God and overly simple for followers of Jesus. It is neither ridiculous nor simple.

The author makes the case that dozens of men led a nation out of a “knowing” and a trust that God is real and knows what He’s doing. This theme of faith started with Abram on a substantial promise God made to him and all of his progeny. What is interesting is that this decision to believe was strong enough to be threaded throughout all the generational obstacles that would come.

God found an individual and that one person received the baton and kept running in spite of circumstances and zero prospect of hope. What if faith is just stubborn belief? “All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own.”

In the beginning they all talked big of a “land of their own.” Hebrews admits this looks a lot like “toxic positivity.” When you’re a “wanderer,” of course you’ll speak of such crazy things as a land of your own. They even died still believing!

I like this note about Joseph, “It was by faith that Joseph, when he was about to die, said confidently that the people of Israel would leave Egypt. He even commanded them to take his bones with them when they left.” All of these patriarchs had this phrase attached to their legacy, “it was by faith.”

What am I seeing that can’t be seen? I am seeing a massive amount of people turning to God when all the crummy cultural promises of identity, love and happiness have failed. I see a future where this generation realizes they’ve been fed huge lies and have been used in these horrible social experiments that spread faster than a virus ever could. There is coming a wave of people coming to Christ, returning to God. Will we be ready? Will the Church be ready to receive them? Our buildings will not be able to hold them all. The body of Christ MUST be bigger than our buildings. We need to be like the father that walks out to the edge of his property everyday to look for his returning son. And when he sees him in the distance, runs to him, embraced him and kissed him, welcomed him home.

What are you seeing that can’t be seen?

Prayer

Dad,
Wow, that list of men and women who saw what could not be seen is impressive. The thing I love the most is that their faith was accounted to them as righteousness! I can’t even wrap my brain around that. Their faith in your ultimate plans for all humans was somehow seen, believed and credited to them long before Jesus paid for their sins. I want to live a life faith that sees above and beyond the circumstances and struggles that surround me. And if I don’t see it in my lifetime, I want to die still believing!

Posted on

Humanity, the epitome of humor in heaven.

Reading Time: 2 minutes 
“A cheerful look brings joy to the heart; good news makes for good health.” Proverbs‬ ‭15:30‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Are you happy? Please tell your face. I know the world doesn’t run on giggles and smiles, but I wish it did.

A smile, a cheerful look and countenance changes the environment of a room full of people. Of course the suspect types will wonder what you’re up to, but it’s still worth it.

Science says that a smile will trick your brain into thinking you’re happy! One of the most striking truths of a new series on the life of Christ (The Chosen) is that Jonathan Roumie, playing the role of Jesus smiles A LOT. He laughs, jokes and is playful around children. Most depictions of Jesus are ONLY of a man of sorrows – clearly dying for humanity’s sins will do that. But, to think for one moment that God isn’t joy-filled in the core of His character is a serious mistake.

Besides, humanity may be the epitome of humor in heaven! Wisdom writers got this one right. Jesus even spoke this truth in John’s gospel, “Be of good cheer for I have overcome the world.”

Prayer

Dad,
I have to force myself to remember how absolutely and totally lost and miserable I was before you found me! And, when I get bogged down with excessive minutiae about non-eternal things, I get cynical, grumpy and lose my joy. I hate swimming in muddy, mucky minutiae! I want to be a life-giving person and spend my life in life-giving ways. And, for heaven’s sake, your Church, your people should BE the most life-giving, cheerful, joyous place in this crazy chaos called humanity. It’s not that we have no sorrow or pain, it’s that we know that you hold our future and that you are good.

Posted on

Am I a fungus infected sin activist?

Reading Time: 3 minutes 
“Meanwhile, the crowds grew until thousands were milling about and stepping on each other. Jesus turned first to his disciples and warned them, “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees—their hypocrisy. The time is coming when everything that is covered up will be revealed, and all that is secret will be made known to all. Whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be shouted from the housetops for all to hear!” Luke‬ ‭12:1-3‬ ‭NLT‬‬

​Crowds as thick as a rock concert in Central Park. Did I ever notice that Jesus was looking over the throngs of people when he delivered this famous passage? No. He sees thousands out there and says, watch out for “leaven infection.” Sure, leaven is yeast as New Living Translation says, but I can’t use that word coupled with infection!

Yeasts are single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom! YIKES 🤢. Let’s just stick to its properties in food.

Yeast is used in baking as a leavening agent, where it converts the food/fermentable sugars present in dough into the gas carbon dioxide. This causes the dough to expand or rise as gas forms pockets or bubbles. When the dough is baked, the yeast dies and the air pockets “set”, giving the baked product a soft and spongy texture. Yeast also rapidly reproduces, effectively permeating every cell of the dough.

Why was yeast (leaven) associated with sin? First, on a practical level, the Israelites had to be ready to leave Egypt at a moment’s notice and thus they couldn’t wait for the dough to rise. Second, leaven in the Bible is symbolic of sin and deceit. Leaven, a picture of sin, makes the bread inflate. The visual is that sin makes one prideful and puffed-up. Plus, it only takes a very small amount of fermented dough to make new dough rise (Gal 5:9), thus the idea that fermentation implies a process of corruption. Yeast or leaven is NOT sin! It’s just an object lesson.

Jesus looks over this massive crowd and finds a few Pharisees among them. Effectively saying, “it only takes one” bad 🍎 to infect this entire crowd. The Pharisees message of weaponizing the Law of God to keep people from God is a deadly fungus that kills! Plus the fact that people that say they believe one thing but practice another are a hypocritical joke.

Yes, everyone at some point is a hypocrite, but no one should be an activist about it. Jesus warns – ALL SECRETS will be known! God will pull back the cover of darkness over all humankind and expose everything. I can’t, you can’t hide sin forever 😬. So what’s Jesus point? Well, the biggest one is don’t be a SIN ACTIVIST, publicly parading about proudly mocking God himself. You’d just be behaving like a fungus, socially infecting everyone around you. Two, the light of world, Jesus, will shine on every human heart and expose everything.

Prayer

Dad,
Whoa, I see what you did here with the Pharisees, religious leaders of the day. I understand that I could easily see you exposes their thoughts and deeds and just be happy for a bit of justice for all the misery they (and those like them today) have caused. But I know how this works. I also need to see myself. My heart. My deeds. And when I think of all the times I try to get away with sin by being sneaky, or covering up, leaving no bodies to be found – that I’ve “gotten away with it,” the Holy Spirit arrests me on the spot! I then confess, repent, and turn from my sin. I WANT my sin covered, not by darkness but by the blood of Jesus that cleans me and makes me whole!

Posted on

Praying with a woke mind and grateful heart.

Reading Time: 2 minutes 
“Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. Pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ. That is why I am here in chains. Pray that I will proclaim this message as clearly as I should.” Colossians‬ ‭4:2-4‬ ‭NLT‬‬

If I don’t like the things happening all around me, I should PRAY. Paul’s admonition to the churches (and us) – PRAY! I’ve been practicing this evening and morning routine of giving everything to God just before I sleep and right after opening my eyes in the morning. No checking late night texts or early emails. And, to have an alert mind and thankful heart.

Paul uses this Greek word only used here in the New Testament, grēgoreúō – to be vigilantly woke. No kidding! Believers need to be woke in prayer. That coupled with a “eucharistos” heart – a well favored, grace-filled heart is a powerful way to approach any situation on any given day. Paul then not only encourages this prayer posture in tough times, he asks for MORE opportunities himself – while in prison! It’s as if Paul is wanting more woke gratitude to leverage it to even more effectiveness in his witness.

He asks for more ways to speak these mysteries, these secret, hidden without a Spirit initiated revelation moments with people. Paul, this giant of evangelism in the first century wants and prays to be even more clear about the gospel, speaking to the hearts of humans that God has already been working on.

With the Holy Spirit at work there is no such thing as a “cold call” when talking to someone! God has already been wooing and working on every possible way to reach them with His love, grace and forgiveness. These perceived serendipitous moments are divine appointments. Paul understood this and asked the churches to pray with him for more of those moments.

Do I pray that way? Mostly I am OVER concerned with my own agendas, frustrations and fears. My prayers have no room, even with woke gratefulness, to ask for more opportunities to share about Christ. I need to hear Paul’s humble admonishment and leave a little room for these supernatural moments of opportunity!

Prayer

Dad,
Wow, when reading Paul’s words, inspired of the Holy Spirit, I feel the embarrassment and challenge to not be so protectively selfish in my prayers. Of course, I am only thinking of what presses in on my mind. But I can leave a little bit, just the edges of my brain-field for these mysterious moments Paul wrote about. Help me not be completely consumed by my own agenda that I forget your BIG agenda for all of us who follow Jesus.

Posted on

Am I a one percenter?

Reading Time: 3 minutes 
“I said to myself, “Come on, let’s try pleasure. Let’s look for the ‘good things’ in life.” But I found that this, too, was meaningless.” Ecclesiastes‬ ‭2:1‬ ‭NLT‬‬

​The heart searches, but does it find fulfillment? First of all Solomon was afforded something most humans never have access to – leisure.

I don’t know if it’s true, but I’ve heard about this 99% of the world don’t have a lot. Does the majority of humanity even have the resources to enjoy leisure?

Solomon had a life that gave him the opportunity to even ask the question, “What do I really want?” Most work, sleep and eat very little and have no time to ask about dreams, wishes or even a moment to search for Solomon’s list.

Look at what he tries out for fulfillment. Pleasure. Laughter, enhanced by wine. Then he pauses and admits, “I tried to experience the only happiness most people find during their brief life in this world.” He knew he was entitled. He knew he had the access, money and opportunity to push every boundary possible to see what’s out there to fill the emptiness and/or cravings in his soul.

He tried more noble pursuits, like building. Oh, he didn’t build these things himself, he only dreamed the design and architecture of what he desired. Slaves built HIS dreams. Read the plurality of he “built,” big homes, vineyards, gardens, and man-made lakes (reservoirs). He bought slaves! He bought people to serve himself and his kingdom. And, he had the unashamed, zero self-awareness to couple those purchases with animals. He bought people like he did animals, and used them for his search for fulfillment! He acquired massive amounts of wealth, wealth upon wealth, money that makes more money, by ever increasing in value. He hired singers and had numerous sexual encounters with women and possibly men as well (concubines). He captured his plenty in this sentence, “Anything I wanted, I would take. I denied myself no pleasure.” He even tried actual WORK. What did he go out an pull a weed? Did he play slave for the day?

What is the point of all this pursuit? And, why the excess? Solomon decided, since he was the wisest human to ever exist until Jesus came along, that he would find the answers and record them for anyone interested in knowing what’s out there.

You know what he found, exhausting every known pursuit – nothing! Nada! Zilch! He writes, “There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere.” I question the wild, abandoned pursuit of any of these things Solomon thought would bring him fulfillment or satisfaction of life itself.

But, I do know this. One, he did it so that I don’t have to wonder, “what if.” Two, Jesus, being the wisest ever, lived a totally and completely opposite kind of life. He didn’t live for pleasure, humor, wine, buildings, vineyards or gardens. He didn’t buy people or animals to amass a popular image. Jesus was financially BROKE, not having any real money or real estate to his name. Every cool little luxury he had was borrowed! Yeah, donkeys, rooms, goblets, gardens and even his own tomb – all donated by others. He died naked and even wore someone else’s burial clothes!

Solomon lived a life of excess and ecstasy so we can see how worthless it really is. Jesus lived a simple life, even a poor life, to show us the perspective of God towards a truly generous and eternal life. Jesus owned NOTHING, but had EVERYTHING. And, in God and accomplishing his mission, found the fulfillment that Solomon searched for.

Prayer

Dad,
If I am living the 1% life, and I believe I am. Then I really need to pay attention to a couple things: To whom much is given, much is required and I need to live a far more grateful, thankful existence. I need to constantly tend to my generosity and gratitude!

Posted on

Dinner with perfection.

Reading Time: 3 minutes 
“As Jesus was speaking, one of the Pharisees invited him home for a meal. So he went in and took his place at the table.” Luke‬ ‭11:37‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Can you smell the whiffs of fresh baked bread, the roasted herbs and see the deliciously colorful vegetables and fruits. Not with Luke’s account of Jesus going to the home of “perfection.” Do you know what Jesus smelled? A setup. Have you attended a meal where you knew the host was, you know, uh, let’s just say they are very fastidious about detail? If you have you know the feeling of nervousness and uneasiness and learn that the night will not be about the meal at all. And, neither will the meal be relaxing with lots of laughter and stories that make you feel part of the family. Meals at homes about perfection are all about performance and elite edicate, watching your “p’s” and “q’s.”

“But he started it!” This might have been the reason Jesus lit into the host from the git-go. Luke tells us that Jesus KNEW what the host was thinking. “His host was amazed to see that he sat down to eat without first performing the hand-washing ceremony required by Jewish custom.” Was it the host’s open gaped mouth or the lowered eye brows with a tight-lipped side frown? We don’t know, but Jesus did! Wait, Jesus didn’t wash his hands before dinner? No, no, no, come on – Jesus wasn’t born in a barn, er, without manners. This was a highly detailed, cultural, ceremonial cleansing purely for a religious show of “insider” rules practiced by pure-bred, wicked-smart elites.

The poor, the common would have had a VERY simplified version of this ritual. Jesus, just purposely skipped it altogether. He may have decided, “let’s just get right to the heart” of why he’d been invited in the first place. This host’s meal wasn’t about making peace at the table, it would be a failed lesson about righteousness and holiness!

Jesus spoke the first volley, serving up a spiked, fast comment right away. Jesus answered the grimaced, chagrined face of his host. “Then the Lord said to him, “You Pharisees are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and wickedness! Fools! Didn’t God make the inside as well as the outside? So clean the inside by giving gifts to the poor, and you will be clean all over.” Yikes! Ouch! Boom! Bam! Jesus goes for the religious jugular. Not so subtlety saying, “just STOP it!” You can’t “pull the wool” over the eyes of God. You can’t deceive or fake or have any pretense before the real standard of perfection.

Wow. Jesus admonished this “never been corrected” religious leader. And, if you look hard you’ll see God’s grace and mercy. Oh, you’ll find brutal, unvarnished TRUTH, but you’ll also see hope.

Truth: INSIDE you filthy, greedy and wicked, and no amount of ceremonial hand washing is going to fix that! Hope: Stop the pretense and give to the poor. That’s the hosts antidote, his potion to rid the poison of his soul. Give to the poor! Now, lest you think that giving to the poor will clean or save you, save me – it won’t. Unless you are living the “religious” purity scam, while being a greedy miser, living high on frugal principles while others suffer around you. Giving to the poor is not your antidote. Let the Holy Spirit point out your poison and then listen carefully for God to prescribe the perfect recipe to save your life! What a dinner that was, right? I wonder if Jesus shook off the dust on his sandals as he left that house?

Prayer

Dad,
Please remind me to NEVER try to fake perfection around you! And, to never try to impress you or anyone else with some kind of religious ritual as a performance. I’ll just remember to come before you naked and humbled by my station in life.

Posted on

Big God stories.

Reading Time: 2 minutes 
“O God, we have heard it with our own ears— our ancestors have told us of all you did in their day, in days long ago:” Psalms‬ ‭44:1‬ ‭NLT‬‬

The descendants of Korah give us a generational perspective, “our ancestors.” There were stories, there were songs of God’s intervention and advancement. And, the current generation were able to summarize, “God did this for us!” Their greats and grands passed on these markers in history. It is really important to get the God story of history down straight and to pass it on in tact so that future children will have their own stories to tell.

“You drove out the pagan nations by your power and gave all the land to our ancestors. You crushed their enemies and set our ancestors free. They did not conquer the land with their swords; it was not their own strong arm that gave them victory. It was your right hand and strong arm and the blinding light from your face that helped them, for you loved them.”

And they surmised that God did all of this for our elders because He loved them! These memoirs and stories also gave them their own faith and courage to face current struggles and battles. “You are my King and my God. You command victories for Israel. Only by your power can we push back our enemies; only in your name can we trample our foes. I do not trust in my bow; I do not count on my sword to save me. You are the one who gives us victory over our enemies; you disgrace those who hate us. O God, we give glory to you all day long and constantly praise your name.”

Is there no room, no opportunity to share our elder’s God stories today? I’m not talking about the price of milk, gas or houses! I’m talking about moves of God. Times of supernatural, national or global sweeps of God’s spirit. Where God changes the trajectory of human history. Where are those stories? Are they in our songs of old, hidden in our hymns? Are they passed down from one generation to another through testimony of God’s great mercy and grace. Maybe that’s where these current generations have lost hope? They have not been handed the stories of how and when God has worked in the past.

Prayer

Dad,
I feel old, but not too old to remember how you’ve worked miracles in my lifetime. I wonder what stories we (now an older generation) tell our children and grandchildren of you working in our world. My world of the nineteen sixties through the new millennium. Even a forty year span of what you’ve done, how you’ve showed up. I wonder if I have done my part in deeply thinking of the past and how to communicate it today.

Posted on

BIG life, boulder free.

Reading Time: 3 minutes 
“What does all this mean? Even though the Gentiles were not trying to follow God’s standards, they were made right with God. And it was by faith that this took place. But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded. Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law instead of by trusting in him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path.” Romans‬ ‭9:30-32‬ ‭NLT‬‬

​Imagine the walkway leading up to your house or your apartment complex. The reason it exists is for easy access to the entry to your home. Now imagine, if you decided to put a big boulder right in the middle of that path. Now the path is blocked, making it harder to get to your front door.

Paul says the law, the perfect commandments of God are that boulder, that ROCK. Paul says that for the Jewish folk, God himself put that boulder there. Then, by inference says, as a Gentile why would you put the rock 🪨 there by yourself, when God did not want it there?

Paul’s rock analogy is about the law. Gentiles, non-Jewish folk, weren’t even aware that there was a rock at all and thus, their path to God was not based on WORKING around the rock to get to himself. Gentiles had faith in Christ, who permanently removed the rock to freely allow access to God? To the Jews, Paul says elsewhere, Jesus is a stumbling block (boulder), because faith in Christ’s work removes the barrier between us and God. However, even as Gentiles (most of us), came to Christ, through faith and not having to work to get around or over the boulder, it seems that we still easily pickup Jewish ways.

We put the boulder back in the way and then struggle to get around it! Why? Because faith in Christ is HARDER than working to keep all the commandments. Strange huh? Faith in Christ is a humbling trust that God moved towards us and removed all the barriers to perfection and yes, holiness, to have a full grace-filled life with himself. Doesn’t grace make us like, sin-lazy, easy to just take the gift and do whatever we want? That is possible. Isn’t grace too easy? Not according to God it’s not. This grace was the most costly, extravagant gift God could ever give. It cost the suffering and death of his own Son, Jesus. But can’t that be taken advantage of or spurned (treated cheaply)? Yes, but what’s the advantage of that? That just puts us, automatically under the curse of the law – the souls that sins MUST die. Treating God’s gift of grace flippantly puts the boulder right back in our path.

God expects us to not only be thankful for His gift but to trust Him to live as BIG of a life as we can in this miracle of forgiveness. Living a Big life, boulder free!

Prayer

Dad,
It is so frustrating when we want to move towards being better, sinning less and try to live a life of perfection, the first thing we think of is putting ourselves back under the law and work hard to impress you. We’re just putting the rock back in our our path! The only path to perfection is running towards your presence and through your Holy Spirit live this life of grace and trust. Of course there is confession of sin and a repentance from those sins, but not to work harder or “do good” to try to erase our own sins. You designed us to walk with you and have provided a perfect way to make that happen – through Jesus. Thank you!

Posted on

I love it when a wicked plan fails!

Reading Time: 3 minutes 
“When he saw Queen Esther standing there in the inner court, he welcomed her and held out the gold scepter to her. So Esther approached and touched the end of the scepter. Then the king asked her, “What do you want, Queen Esther? What is your request? I will give it to you, even if it is half the kingdom!” Esther‬ ‭5:2-3‬ ‭NLT‬‬

If one was to say, “this story reads like the script from an Oscar worthy movie.” I would agree. Except, this story is not a fairy tale or even a classic ancient novel. This is a real story captured and written to provide insight to God’s faithfulness and His justice. Maybe all the greatest stories come from real life occurrences written long ago.

This scene is dripping with tension and anticipation. It’s a plan put together from Esther and her uncle Mordecai. But, will it work? Esther is very aware of the consequences in this recorded moment. If she was not summoned, she should never just APPEAR before the king! It wasn’t just a plan, it was her life. Before Esther goes through with it, she says, “Go and gather together all the Jews of Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will do the same. And then, though it is against the law, I will go in to see the king. If I must die, I must die.” Esther‬ ‭4:16‬. Notice, it was “against the law,” and she was prepared to die. Whew. So, King Xerxes, seeing her in his inner court, welcomed her and held out the scepter! Wow. The King spoke those famous words, “what do you want, Queen Esther?” Up to half his kingdom if she were to ask. Esther could have just told the King her tragic story, and the future genocidal act of killing off her race, but she didn’t. The plot, the story thickens.

She wants to not only catch Haman off guard, but she wants his own pride and hubris behavior to be his greatest downfall. Esther invites the King to a great banquet and she makes sure that Haman is invited. I think the King knows there was something much deeper going on and asks Esther about it, but she sticks with the plan and tells him, just come to the banquet and you’ll find out. I don’t think Kings like surprises, but he agrees.

Haman, obviously believes it is all about him and that a great honor is coming his way. After leaving the first banquet, his arrogance, his hatred for Mordecai only grows. And his bravado only amplifies as he throws a party for himself, his family and friends all while telling them how rich and important he is. The night before the second banquet something extraordinary happens. The King had trouble sleeping. And, strangely, he asks for the royal book of records that tell of all that he and other Kings before him had accomplished. And, what do you know, King Xerxes finds this brief mention of a man that saved his life from an attempted assassination from his own trusted men. And, as he searches further, he finds no record of honoring that man for saving the king’s life. That man was Mordecai.

And as providence would have it, the King looks for the first high ranking official in his court that he can find. And who is waiting in the outer court? Yep, Haman. And why is Haman waiting to see the King? To ask the King to impale his own hated enemy – Mordecai. The King speaks first. And says, “What should I do to honor a man who truly pleases me?” Haman has no idea how off he really is. He has selfishly and wickedly thought only of himself and he wanted MORE. Haman thought to himself, “Whom would the king wish to honor more than me?” Oh my goodness! Who could make this stuff up?

This story is a picture of what our own wickedness and bent perspective does to human beings. But it is also a picture of how God’s justice works. There were multiple times Mordecai could have turned, repented, changed his ways and humbled his heart to God to do what was right. But he would not turn. He would not yield. He would not change. You’ll have to read the rest of the story for yourself, but remember God knows how to take care of those who do right and knows how to being justice to those who continually do wrong.

Prayer

Dad,
I am always amazed at the ease that you direct our affairs to bring about our best (for those who love you) and justice to those who work wickedness to hurt others and bolster their own egos.