THIRD PLACE: "Esther: The Hidden Hand of God"
We only have one more week of studying the book of Esther, and this past week we looked at:
God's Just Sovereignty (from chapter 6-7)
- GOD WILL REWARD RIGHTEOUSNESS (SO BE HUMBLE)
- GOD WILL PUNISH EVIL (SO BE PATIENT)
We then looked at Psalm 131, which could serve as a commentary for the story of Esther. In Psalm 131:1-8 we considered -
•Because god will reward righteousness, we should not fret (1,7,8)
•Because god will reward righteousness, we should walk humbly with Him (3-5)
We talked about how our world is messed up, and injustice is everywhere. But one day Christ will come to earth and set up perfect justice. Hallelujah for that.
Until that day, God desires to use us to be agents of change to bring about justice in the areas we can, and trust Him to be the sovereign God in the areas we cannot control.
LUCID: "Angels and Demons"
We are in the middle of a series on the Supernatural and Spiritual Warfare, and this past Wednesday we talked about common misconceptions about angels and demons; then we split into groups and each group looked at a different Scripture that revealed something about either angels or demons. After that we jotted down what the Bible had to say, and ended with encouragement from Romans 8:35-39
Romans 8:35–39 (ESV)
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor
height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
*We must always remember that "greater is He that is in us than He that is in the world." No supernatural force (angel or demon) could ever separate us from God's love in Jesus Christ.
So while it is important to study angels and demons from the Bible, we should not be consumed with them and we must remember Christ has given us the victory already in the battle that Ephesians 6 talks about.
