Summoned: Answering a Call to the ImpossibleEsimerkki

Summoned to the Start

There has been much teaching of late that makes boastful promises of health and wealth when one becomes or remains a believer in Jesus Christ. The ripples of this false teaching have washed over an entire generation of believers and into a culture that rejects God altogether.

Many women have been led astray, blown in the wind by every new doctrine, yielding faithless fruit that is shallow and empty-handed in times of trial. Worst of all, the gospel that women have so desperately needed has been replaced with a "self-care centered" approach to experiencing God.

How can the church respond, when the church and cultural Christianity are responsible for many of these poor doctrines and heretical messages? It is time for the church to rise anew and walk boldly in the calling to believe rightly by ardently studying and proclaiming what God’s Word actually says.

The truth is this: our God is faithful; He never leaves or forsakes; His love is shown in His promises, namely in His Son Jesus’ sacrificial death, burial, and resurrection, and not in His provision of a comfortable or pleasing life. In the dark and desolate places of this life, at the side of deathbeds and destroyed hope, God is there with us. These hardships are inevitable and part of a life away from heaven. These things too will pass away, but the Word of the Lord endures forever.

We can rest in this truth: no matter what this life may bring, God loves His people and He is faithful. You and I can stand firm in the understanding that, even though His actions are sometimes unseen, God is constantly working in the lives of His beloved children.

The entire first chapter is about the king. God is not mentioned once, nor is He mentioned at all throughout the entire book of Esther. (Don’t worry, we will certainly come back to this.) However, in this passage, the king is mentioned six times. The writer of the book is introducing us to an empire that is wholly focused on the king, not God. All aspects of life for the characters in this story are centralized around the whims and whining of a king, not the King.

As we continue this journey through Esther, we will see that God works within and through the lives of many individuals, whether they acknowledge Him as Lord or not. And we will watch as these characters plot and scheme, supposedly controlling their circumstances. The book of Esther is going to show us that God is most certainly sovereign and that He is faithful.