{"id":14595,"date":"2013-09-13T01:00:14","date_gmt":"2013-09-13T06:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=14595"},"modified":"2013-09-12T20:44:00","modified_gmt":"2013-09-13T01:44:00","slug":"esther-221-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2013\/09\/13\/esther-221-23\/","title":{"rendered":"Esther – Chapter 2:21-23"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"HeAlone_Wk_Spring\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I would like to believe that I would be like Esther.\u00a0\u00a0 Although, I cannot promise I would. \u00a0If my own life\u00a0 was on the line, would I be willing to stand up for my people, God\u2019s people?\u00a0 Of course, as a mom, I would lay down my life for my children and family.\u00a0 But what about His kingdom? What would you do?<\/p>\n

Esther, chapter 2, is a story about redeeming grace and like us, the king is searching vainly for something or someone in this case to fill the vacuum of his life. We are always seeking something to fill our hearts. Here is where Mordecai and Esther enter in:<\/p>\n

Mordecai\u2019s most important. His name means \u201clittle man,\u201d humbled and laying aside his glory to save the king\u2019s life. \u00a0Does he remind you of Someone else? \u00a0Jesus maybe?<\/p>\n

\n

Philippians 2:5-8 <\/strong><\/p>\n

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
\nWho being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God
\nsomething to be used to His own advantage;
\nrather He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant,
\nbeing made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man,
\nHe humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mordecai resembles the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, whose task is to exalt the One Who came to redeem man.\u00a0 His specific work is to restore our fellowship with God, which has been lost. Mordecai does this throughout the story.<\/p>\n

Our verses for today are Esther 2: 21-23<\/a>.\u00a0 \u00a0This chapter closes with the account of how the king\u2019s life is about to be spared because of Mordecai and Esther being brought into his life.\u00a0 He is then delivered from a plot to end his life.<\/p>\n

Evil enters the picture, as it does often from time to time. \u00a0It invades the minds of men. \u00a0This betrayal is a perfect example of how the enemy is at work, trying to impress evil<\/span> into our thoughts and into<\/span> our minds.\u00a0 All the while, completely trying to destroy the glory of God\u2019s purpose in man\u2019s life.\u00a0 We all know this force too well, unfortunately.\u00a0 This force is at work right now in your kingdom and in mine.\u00a0 Aren\u2019t our souls the prize in this spiritual warfare?\u00a0 The enemy tries to strike, but Mordecai hears about the plot and the ones who had planned it are carried out and hung on a tree.<\/p>\n

\n

Colossians 2:12-14 <\/strong><\/p>\n

For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized.\u00a0 And with Him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, Who raised Christ from the dead. \u00a0You were dead because of your sins and because\u00a0 your sinful nature was not yet cut away.\u00a0 Then God made you alive with Christ, for He forgave all our sins.\u00a0 He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

We know the evil one threatens to overcome us—and we know how this will end for him.\u00a0 We are all Christians and we\u2019ve all known what it\u2019s like to live restless and to live without God.\u00a0 We have all searched for something to make us happy and to satisfy some need or emptiness.\u00a0 And now we know, He alone satisfies and He alone breathes life back into us.\u00a0 We, too, have been delivered, just like the king.\u00a0 Our lives have been spared because the One was nailed to the tree and was made a public example for all of us. We, too, will begin to experience the deliverance that God has intended for our lives.<\/p>\n

Have you begun to experience this yet? If so, would you be so courageous as to share?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Let’s Pray<\/span>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for this study and for the work You are doing in each of our lives.\u00a0 We thank You for delivering us from our own death by sending Jesus to die on\u00a0the Cross in our place.\u00a0 He took the fall for us.\u00a0 Lord, keep revealing to us anything that may divide us from You and keep us from clearly hearing Your voice. \u00a0Bring to the light whatever it is and may we lay it at Your feet and be free, so that we may not have any distractions.\u00a0 We love You and we praise You.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name we pray.<\/p>\n

Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I would like to believe that I would be like Esther.\u00a0\u00a0 Although, I cannot promise I would. \u00a0If my own life\u00a0 was on the line, would I be willing to stand up for my people, God\u2019s people?\u00a0 Of course, as a mom, I would lay down my life for my children and family.\u00a0 But what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":14630,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[3678,3475,2052,3674,3512,425,506,3680,589,2054,3677,3676,3679],"class_list":["post-14595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-womens","tag-colossians-2-12-14","tag-darlene-schacht","tag-esther","tag-esther-221-23","tag-esther-the-beauty-of-courageous-submission","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-holy-spirit","tag-jesus-death-on-the-cross","tag-kim-spring","tag-mordecai","tag-phil-25-8","tag-plot-to-kill-the-king","tag-time-warp-wife","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/HeAlone_Wk_Spring.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-3Np","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14595"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14639,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14595\/revisions\/14639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}