Wheeler Mission's Blog

Steve Kerr here, I’m Wheeler’s Chief Development Officer. Rick is out of town and asked me to submit something for his blog so here goes.

For many reasons, the book of Esther ranks high as one of my favorite books in the Bible (if we’re allowed to have favorites). You know the basics of the book; young Jewish girl (Esther) wins beauty contest to become queen; King’s second in command (Haman) plots to kill all the Jews in the kingdom and convinces the King to let him do it; Esther’s cousin (Mordecai) has a heart to heart with her about intervening with the King on the behalf of every Jew in the Kingdom; Esther hesitates and makes excuses why she can’t approach her husband the King to which Mordecai responds: "Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"

What a great lesson for us today! When it comes to sharing the Gospel, we can’t remain silent. And if we do, God will raise up others who will be more than willing to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

To paraphrase Mordecai "Who knows whether you have not come to be in Indianapolis for such a time as this?"

Will you remain silent or will you shout the good news of Jesus from the rooftops?

Steve (for Rick)

p.s. Please take time to read (or re-read) the book of Esther. I don’t want to give away the ending but it’s a doozy!

Breathing comes naturally to most of us. I would venture to guess that many of us rarely even think about it. Only when we develop a respiratory illness, and our built-in ability to breathe is lessened, do we consider the fact that our lungs are working well for us.

Genesis tells us that it was God Himself who “breathed life into Adam’s nostrils.” It is God who determines when “we breathe our last.” Yes, our every breath comes from Him.

But have you ever been in a life-threatening situation, and felt like you had “your wind” knocked out of you? Have you ever experienced a time when life was so hard for you that it made it difficult to even breathe?

I heard one of the men who graduated from our Addiction Recovery Program say he felt dead in his addiction. He felt he was so pressed down and controlled by his drug use that he was a walking dead man. Then, he came to terms with his addiction, spent a full year in our recovery program, and now says, “God breathed life back into me.” Only God can do something like that!

Life getting you down today? I encourage you to seek the One who can breathe life back into your soul.
Rick

Labels: spiritual life