GOLDEN WORDS

For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father's family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.  

(Esther 4:14 N RSV)

"For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?"

Esther 4:14 (NASB)

For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?"

Esther 4:14 (NIV) 




God knows the right time and place for us to be born, and He wants us to make use of our talents and our strength right where we are. He doesn't want us dreaming of other times and places and what we could have done there.

It is His providence that sends us certain people at certain times, and He doesn't want us to lose these opportunities to help. If our circumstances are unusual, then He has given us unusual abilities to meet them. If we can remember this, then it will help us to have the courage to meet the whoevers, whatevers and whenevers in our life.

Pat Nordman

Daily Meditations by Pat Nordman

February 1

"Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it" Genesis 28:16.

How easy it is to forget that God is in this place, right where we are, especially if we are discontented where we are. The Almighty God can be found in the most illogical places. Why not, for He is omnipresent. When we least feel His presence, that is when He is most likely to be with us. Even Jesus thought His Father had deserted Him and cried out, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" Mark 15:34, Psalm 22:1. The Son was eclipsed by the overwhelming evil, only to shine brightest after earth's darkest hour!

Who has not exclaimed, "My God, My God, where are you?" in the anguish of a dark hour of loss and hopelessness? But it was at that very agonizing moment that Jesus fulfilled His mission and, in our least likely—and most hurting—moments, we may be crying out to our Father who is already there and is covering our ruptured hearts with His healing promise of wholeness once again. O! let us claim and believe in our most doubting moments His greatness and His love and, above all, His presence.

As we look back over the critical junctures of our lives, we see that it was then that our priorities were rearranged and the results, we hope, became God's will for us. But we can hardly be expected to appreciate the fire that is burning off the dross or the dent in our shoulder from struggling with our cross until we see the finished product. But, as we review our life, we realize that the heavier part of the cross was carried by Jesus and our burden was and is made lighter because of His love.

Yes, the Lord is in this place of anger turned to kindness, pride turned to humility, bitterness turned to gentleness, gossip turned to intercession, doubt turned to trust, ingratitude turned to acknowledgment, and malice turned to love. May we practice the presence of our God who loves and cares, no matter where we are and no matter what the overwhelming circumstances are. They can never overwhelm our God.

Pat Nordman ©

 

T H I N K A B O U T I T

Surprise in the Snow I had been away for a long weekend. When the taxi pulled up to my house late in the afternoon, the first thing I saw was a snowman. He stood tall and proud in front of my living room window as if he were welcoming me. I looked in disbelief as I paid my fare.  After checking the house, I came outside again. As I looked around, I noticed another snowman in front of a neighbor's house three doors down, and another one across the street. All three snowmen were "guarding" the homes of three widows, myself included.  I called my neighbors. "Did you see your snowman? Do you know who made them?" They, too, were delighted with the creations in the snow, but were mystified as to the makers. Obviously, neighborhood children. But I knew that the boys on our street were too big to bother.  The following day I saw the mother of two of the boys. "Sue," I asked, "has Matthew (age 9) added snow sculpture to his other accomplishments?"  "No," she replied, then quietly added, "Mark (age 12) and his friend Colin made them. They said, 'Let's surprise the ladies and make them happy.' " Their small and surprising act of kindness has inspired me to try to do the same when I can.  - Helen Mills, Christian Reader, Vol. 34.  Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless; Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow. Isa 1:17

 

February 1   Leviticus 1:1 - 3:17 Linked to Bible Gaitway TM

 

 

Today's  Devotion

 

... ...and by his light I walked through darkness!    JOB 29:3 NIV   We Will Understand  by Pat Nordman   "What I am doing you do not know now, but afterward you will understand"  John 13:7 At the time Peter could not comprehend why Jesus wanted to wash his feet. Later, when he heard the rooster crow, perhaps then Peter understood the servile act his Lord bestowed upon all the apostles, including the one who was about to betray Him. Peter may have thought, "What are we, O Master, that you are so mindful of us that you become our servant? Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man." (Hebrews 2:6; Luke 5:8) The great promise in John 13:7 is that one day we will understand what bewilders and frustrates us so now. In our lives confusing events shatter our comfortable existence and we are forced to trust in something that makes absolutely no sense to us but, to God, it is another part of the puzzle that He is piecing together for us. Faith is the only glue that holds together our fragmented hearts. We must know without a doubt that our Father views the summation of our life with the eye of His omniscience. When our world seems to be crashing, He whispers to us, "Trust that I know what I am doing, and that you, too, shall know in My good time." "By faith Abraham. . .obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going" Hebrews 11:8. This great patriarch of faith stepped into the unfamiliar. "They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance" Hebrews 11:13b. The faithful do not always realize what they think God has promised them. The promise to Abraham of entering Canaan never happened and it wasn't a broken promise. God drew a different blueprint for Abraham, that of the "city without foundations, whose architect and builder is God" Hebrews 11:10. But Abraham walked in faith to the heavenly city. © Pat Nordman Faith is the only glue that holds together our fragmented hearts. We must know without a doubt that our Father views the summation of our life with the eye of His omniscience.   More Walking Through the Darkness

 

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