Lovin' Tellin' The Story

"If I perish, I perish." These are the haunting words of Esther as she prepares to enter boldly into the presence of King Ahasuerus. Looking at the story we may think this seems like an odd statement because Esther is the queen and she was highly favored by the king. Why in the world would she perish? Well, like Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, she was about to break a law, or at least take a huge risk. The law that she was risking transgressing was that no one was to enter into the kings presence without being summoned. If they did so they would be killed. Now there was one caviat, if the king extended his septer to the person then they would be spared. Now, I shouldn't have to explain the deep imagery of this as it relates to the way we enter into the presence of God and I don't want to spend much time on it because I want to focus on something else, the attitude that Esther has about this risk. "If I perish, I perish." These words are echoed by

Wrong! Habakkuk is a small book found between Nahum and Zephaniah and if I'm not mistaken is commonly referred to as one of the "minor prophets." Of course, the term "minor" is no indication of the weight of the words but rather the amount of words. Anyway, this short, three chaptered, book was my Bible reading this morning and though I'm sure this is not the first time I've read Habakkuk I'm equally as sure it can't be any more than the second. Thus, I was amazed at the meat and potatoes that were available from this so-called "minor" prophet. First we have those rascals the Chaldeans who are going to be used to punish the Israelites for their continued disobedience. There was one verse in particular that struck me in the first section of this book and it was 1:7 which says, "Their justice and authority originate with themselves." Now you may or may not have read my other posts about Jeremiah being an American but I would lik

Just this afternoon I was able to catch part of one of the episodes of Band of Brothers on the History Channel. I've read the book twice and seen the entire mini-series but the power of it never fades. I am always in awe of the men that fought in World War II and their humble heroism. I suppose I would like to take just a few minutes, as the Fourth of July approaches, to say "thank you" to those who have taken their turn defending freedom throughout the history of the United States. I fear that with the way that values and culture are heading there will be fewer and fewer who are willing to recognize what these valiant men have done and show their appreciation. Three of my grandfathers were, in some way, involved in World War II. My mother's dad served with the Civil Air Patrol in Manteo, NC. Their mission was to hunt German U-boats off the east coast and keep America's citizens safe. My father's dad, about whom I know very little as his passed on before