RETURN TO ME February 12, 2020 | Esther 4:1–5 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue What does grief look like? We express our grief in many different ways. At times, we may mourn in private. Other times, we long for the support and company of close family and friends. We may find comfort in staying busy or […]
NOT BY CHANCE February 11, 2020 | Esther 3:5–15 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue In 2011, TIME Magazine listed the “Top 100 Toys of All Time.” Included on that list was a toy called the Magic 8 Ball. It worked like this: When users shook the sphere and asked a yes/no question, a twenty-sided die floating […]
COVENANT-KEEPING GOD February 10, 2020 | Esther 3:1–4 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue Even though the book of Esther doesn’t directly use the name of God, Yahweh, it reveals much about His character. Specifically, it illustrates His intention and ability to keep His promises. In verse 1, the main antagonist is introduced: Haman, the Agagite. […]
THE PLACE OF PROVIDENCE February 9, 2020 | Esther 2:21–23 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue God’s providence has been compared to an elaborate piece of embroidery. If you look at the underside, all you see are knots and tangles. But flipping it over reveals a beautiful and intentional design. Our earthly, limited view, means we are […]
STANDING FIRM February 8, 2020 | Esther 2:19–20 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue A 2019 study reported that as many as 64 percent of twentysomethings who grew up in the church have walked away. A new book from the Barna Group, however, takes a look at those who chose to stay. In Faith for Exiles, David […]
KNOWING RIGHT FROM WRONG February 7, 2020 | Esther 2:12–18 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue Can you imagine having a full year of spa treatments? It might sound luxurious to us, but for the young women in Susa, any pleasure that might have been enjoyed was certainly mixed with grief, fear, and shame. When it was […]
WHO IS IN CONTROL? February 6, 2020 | Esther 2:8–11 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue It is easy to feel, when life is going well, that we have the world by the tail. We seem to be in control of our life. But other times, we feel helpless. Life seems to happen to us, and in […]
February 5, 2020 | Esther 2:5–7 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue Have you ever found yourself in a new place, forced to navigate within a different culture? Today, we meet Esther as she is about to leave the Hebrew world where she was raised and enter the decadent Persian world into which she has been thrust. […]
THE PLANS OF THE POWERFUL February 4, 2020 | Esther 2:1–4 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue Have you ever been anxious to see God intervene in a difficult situation? It can be frustrating when it seems like God is not acting as quickly as we’d like. In Esther chapter 2, we see the stage being set […]
February 3, 2020 | Esther 1:13–22 DEVOTIONS This Month’s Issue When we use a “slippery slope argument,” we assert that a relatively small event will launch an inevitable chain of increasingly worse events that will ultimately end in disaster. The problem is that the slippery slope argument isn’t sound reasoning; rather, it is a logical […]