Could you be born for such a time as this?

Why were you born, why are you here at this stage in life, is there a plan, a goal that only you can fill?  I hope you will stop reading, and ponder those questions, and then read the confrontation of Queen Esther by her uncle Mordecai, who had raised her as his child.  Esther’s king was named Ahasuerus and by law of the land no one could enter the kings presence without an invite by the king; to do so meant death, unless the king held out the golden scepter in his hand.  Esther had not been invited into the king’s presence for 30 days; when Mordecai ask her to address Haman’s plan to kill all the Jews in the nation.  Picking up the story in Esther 4:12-14, “And they told Mordecai what Esther had said.  Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “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?”

Do you recall the account of Martin Luther, who was born in Eisleben, Germany, in 1483, and became a most important leader in Western history; “Luther spent his early years in relative anonymity as a monk and scholar. But in 1517 Luther penned a document attacking the Catholic Church's corrupt practice of selling "indulgences" to absolve sin. His "95 Theses," which propounded two central beliefs—that the Bible is the central religious authority and that humans may reach salvation only by their faith and not by their deeds—was to spark the Protestant Reformation. Although these ideas had been advanced before, Martin Luther codified them at a moment in history ripe for religious reformation.” (History Dot.Com)  Can anyone say that Martin Luther was not born for such a time as this?

I’ve given much thought to the questions in the opening sentence, it is time to take a stand, to fill my place in the line, a place that only I can fill, for God has given me a heart like His; the heart of a warrior.  Do you recall the shameful days of our soldiers coming back from the war in Vietnam, and how many in the public treated them not as warriors, but as scoundrels?  It is often said in my presence, that we should not discuss issues or actions of our government at church, and I, like maybe you have complied in a very large degree.  But what happens when the government and it’s authorities are attacking the foundation of our faith, when they are attacking the institution that God has set in place, things like the family and marriage?  Should the church be silent, and if you are in Christ, you are the church.

When does the warrior come out in a follower of Jesus Christ?  When do we say as Peter and the apostles, “We must obey God rather than men?”  With that said, let us recall Jesus words in John 17:22-23, “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”  In the book of Exodus 15:3, we have these words about Christ who is living in us; “The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name.”  Could you be born for such a time as this?

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

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