Reading Esther, I find words for the time we live in today:
Mordecai told ⌊the messenger⌋ to reply to Esther, “Don’t think that you will escape the fate of all the Jews because you are in the king’s palace. If you keep silent at this time, liberation and deliverance will come to the Jewish people from another place, but you and your father’s house will be destroyed. Who knows, perhaps you have come to your royal position for such a time as this.” Esther 4:13-14 (HCSB)
Esther was chosen as Queen and in the midst of her service to the King, she revealed several difficult things going on in the country and regarding the security of the inhabitants. She served God’s purposes as a time when there needed to be someone who would do the bidding of God in the land.
I do not any way claim to have been chosen for some special place of service, but I am more than ever convinced the new book will speak to this situation which seems to have exploded in our state. I am very much concerned people have gone to such extremes to handle disagreements. This week alone I have read far more than I care to read about incidents involving death as a result of disagreements.
The top stories in the media outlets are a few examples of an out of control world in Alabama. Yet, on a larger scale, the stories from our state are just a snapshot of the problems we see through the news from other states in the United States. We see a rise in the statistics of death because of domestic situations, a continual rise of ambushes on our law enforcement and gang related violence in our cities.
Yet, many stick their heads in the sand and refuse to see the real problem.
Why such carnage? When I was growing up we settled disagreements with words or our fist; we would never have considered shooting someone; we did not want to see death. Society has come to a point where we take out the ones who offend us. We settle matters by killing. I am shaking my head while I write these words.
Then when something happens in our communities, we play the blame game or protest or cause harm to others. We blame someone; we march, we yell; we scream; we make demands. While we are blaming someone or something, somewhere we are forgetting that the real problem exists within a certain framework.
It is not something we want to hear or enter into discussions about, because it just does not answer the questions we want answered. Only because we are a selfish lot; human beings with our own desires and wanting what we want when we want it at the time we have designated.
In the book, Power to do Greater Things: The Responsibility of God’s People, we examine three things within the framework of presenting an answer to the situations which exists in the time in which we live:
- There is a family issue;
- There is a spiritual issue;
- There is a mental issue.
These three things serve as a framework for understanding the issues of violence, the struggles within the schools, the problems within the family unit, and within the world.
We are not powerless! Though we see families being destroyed, churches struggling with attendance, violence and mayhem: God has given us authority and power to rise above and stand strong and firm in His Word! It is imperative God’s people see the responsibility to doe greater things. These are to cry out to God, seek His face, pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ, reach out to the lost sheep; to teach our children about the power of God’s hand in our lives as we serve His purpose!
Bottom line is when we see things built by God fall apart or take a direct hit, God’s people must be proactive. God’s people must take responsibility to pray, be spiritually aggressive and work within the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.