Marching Forth!

A great instance of poetic justice in the Bible is seen in the book of Esther.  The wicked adversary Haman plotted to destroy all the Jews and had access to the king of Persia.  Though he was able to pass a law to achieve his murderous intentions, he was foiled by the courage and bravery of Mordecai and Queen Esther.  The life of Haman well-illustrates  Proverbs 26:27 :  " Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, a nd he who rolls a stone will have it roll back on him ."  The one who wanted to kill Jews was himself killed for his evil scheme - on the same gallows he had built for Mordecai. When King Ahasuerus was informed of Haman's evil plot, he left the room in a rage to compose himself and collect his thoughts.  Haman knew his life was in great danger.   Esther 7:8 says, " When the king returned from the palace garden to the place of the banquet of wine, Haman had fallen across the couch where Esther was. Then the king said, "Will he ...

During devotions yesterday I was struck by something I read in Luke 4 when Jesus was being tempted by the devil.  After being led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness, Jesus was met by Satan.  Few knew or were convinced of Jesus being the Christ at this point in history, the promised Messiah God sent to save sinners.  But Satan knew.  Because he knew Jesus was the Son of God and desires to oppose God at every turn, he tempted Jesus to forsake His lofty station ordained by the Father. The first thing Satan did was appeal to His physical needs by telling Jesus to prove He was the Son of God by turning stones into bread.  Then he offered Jesus the power and glory of all the nations of the world if Jesus would worship him.  Finally the devil told Jesus to leap from the pinnacle of the Temple - likely in the sight of many people He would amaze - and even supported this course of action with scripture!  An ordinary man would have stumbled at these temp...

" And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. 46  Then He said to them, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, 47   and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem ." Luke 24:45-47 When the coming of Jesus the Messiah was announced by John the Baptist, the way had been prepared with baptism of repentance.  Spearheaded by the prophet John the Jews were struck with their need to repent of their sins.  People asked, "What shall we do?"  John was a mighty prophet, and his role was not to make disciples of himself but point to Jesus.  In fact, many who once faithfully followed John the Baptist left him and demonstrated a shift in their primary allegiance to follow Jesus instead. John preached repentance, and so did Jesus throughout His earthly ministry.  The passage cite...

Today I was confronted by the bane of custodians everywhere:  glitter.  At churches and preschools the only vacuums worth anything must pass what I will call “the glitter test.”  All vacuums which fail this most remedial test aren't worth much. As I pushed an Oreck vacuum over the carpet at church, it occurred to me how glitter has a way of migrating.  A craft fashioned in a classroom manages to deposit glittery goodness on chairs and carpet throughout the whole building.  For the first time I realised glitter and gossip share a lot in common with their ability to spread – and stick.  Once that glitter is embedded in carpet it is surprisingly stubborn, and gossip once swallowed down is not easily eliminated.  Proverbs 18:8 says, “ The words of a talebearer are like tasty trifles, and they go down into the inmost body .” The best way to keep a building free of glitter is to ban the use of it.  A fire dies out when it is deprived of oxygen, an...