GOD NOTICES

by Charles Swindoll
Read Esther 6:1-14

Never fails, does it? Things are not as they seem. And about the time you think they cannot get worse, they do. This was certainly true for Mordecai at a pivotal point in the story of Esther.
When all seems lost, it isn't. Mordecai could have despaired at the situation in Persia. The king was a Gentile. He had no interest in the Jews. Furthermore his closest confidant was Haman, who shamelessly hated the Jews. Esther was in the palace, but when the king found out she was a Jew, her life might be over in an instant. When all seems lost, it isn't.
When no one seems to notice, they do. Remember Mordecai's courageous decision earlier when he heard of a conspiracy between two of the doorkeepers of the palace, who were plotting to kill the king? When Mordecai heard of that conspiracy, he told his adopted daughter Esther about it. And she, being the queen, alerted the king.
Esther had told the king that the information had come from Mordecai, yet no one ever rewarded him for his great act. It seemed as though no one noticed or remembered. So Mordecai went on living his life unnoticed, unrewarded, and unappreciated---until this pivotal night.
I love the first three words of 6:1, "During that night." That's the way it is with God. At the eleventh hour, He steps in and does the unexpected. When no one seems to notice and no one seems to care, He notices and He cares "during that night."
Learn a lesson from Mordecai today, will you? Through all that happens to him, Mordecai never becomes a man of vengeance. He never tries to get back at Haman, even when he has the opportunity, even when he has Haman in a very vulnerable spot. He doesn't kick him in the face when he has a chance to. He doesn't even speak against the man. Let me challenge you to guard your heart as Mordecai did.

For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints. (Hebrews 6:10)

I love those words, "God is not unjust so as to forget." When no one else notices, mark it down, God notices. When no one else remembers, God records it so it won't be forgotten.


Taken from Charles R. Swindoll, Great Days with the Great Lives (Nashville: W Publishing Group, 2005). Copyright © 2005 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission.

ASH WEDNESDAY

The Downward Path -
Margaret Manning

The life and ministry of Jesus--his birth, his life and death, his resurrection and ascension--are all echoed in the celebrations and seasons of the church year. We prepare for his coming during Advent. We anticipate the triumphant entry of God into the world in Jesus on Christmas Day. We grow in our understanding of Jesus during the season of Epiphany that unfolds his life and ministry. These seasons of the church year are joyous seasons filled with expectation, discovery, and hope.
Ash Wednesday begins the season of Lent. And unlike Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany, Lent is a solemn season as we travel with Jesus down the path toward the cross of crucifixion and death. The imposed ashes are from the previous year’s Palm Sunday fronds--fronds reminiscent of those waved triumphantly as Jesus entered Jerusalem on his way to Golgotha. The Jews believed he entered the city as the coming King; they did not yet understand he would reign through suffering and death.
The ashes remind us of our common destiny: “From dust you come and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19). And the Lenten season reminds us of our common mission to walk the downward path with Jesus toward death. It invites us to lose our life in order to find it anew, resurrected with Jesus on Easter morning.
Lent is not a lighthearted season. Indeed, it is the season that invites us to evaluate our own lives and to examine the ways in which we need to “die” with Jesus. We can do this deathly contemplation in the hope that we will experience resurrection on Easter morning. But the path to resurrection is the downward path, the path of laying down our lives, the path of relinquishment, and the path of self-denial. None of us want to walk this path because this pathway takes us in the opposite direction from the path of self-preservation.
Yet, Jesus said that if we want to follow him, if we really want the kind of life he will offer to us, the kind of life he modeled for us in his own life, then we must “deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him” (Mark 8:34). Following Jesus will lead us all to the cross, and will lead us all to the place of death. That is the downward journey of Lent. It is the season that bids us to come, to enter in, and to follow Jesus on his journey towards the cross. We all share in this destiny and like Jesus, we too will die; but in light of this destiny, how shall we now live?
The life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer provides an illustration of one answer to this question.(1) Bonhoeffer grew up in a home full of privilege and status. His father, a prominent psychiatrist, provided the best of what life had to offer. Bonhoeffer attended the finest university, and took a year before his ordination to study in the United States. His life was filled with promise and potential.
Yet, this life seemingly marked for success, would be marred by loss and suffering. He lost one brother in World War I and he would lose another in World War II. He eventually would be arrested by the Nazi regime for aiding Jews to safety. And while he embraced the risk of peace and dared to love in the face of one’s enemies, he would be implicated in a plot to assassinate Hitler and executed at the age of 38.
It was not until after his death that Bonhoeffer’s ministry and influence had its most potent force. Many are now familiar with his books The Cost of Discipleship and Life Together. He has been a theologian of immense influence, not just for students of theology, but for all Christians yearning to grow in their understanding of discipleship. In his letters and papers published posthumously, Bonhoeffer argued that the will of God and the way of Christian discipleship would not always lead to self-preservation or advancement. The will of God involves giving our lives for the sake of others (which Bonhoeffer believed would be the case for his action against Hitler). He wrote, “Christ’s vicarious deeds and particularly his death on our behalf, become in turn the principle and model of the self-sacrifice that makes community possible... The church is the church only when it exists for others.”(1)
Embracing the inevitable downward path leads us to a renewed, hopeful, and restored vision of life. For as we embrace our death and our decline, as we embrace the downward path, we let go of the false things we think make up our lives. We let go of thinking that the accumulation of wealth, power, and resources make up a good life; we let go of thinking that busyness makes us important; we let go of thinking that our personal safety and security are to be preserved at all cost.
The season of Lent is the season of death and the way of the cross, both of which lead to Easter morning. Bonhoeffer understood this as he wrote from his prison cell, and our Lord understood this as he bore the weight of suffering, misunderstanding, shame, and death. The way to resurrection life is not by saving our lives, but losing them. May we have the grace to walk that path this Lenten season.
Margaret Manning is a member of the speaking and writing team at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Seattle, Washington.