Esther.....What a Gal

Esther! Short name! Short book of the Bible! BIG story ! ! So many things about Esther that I never knew before these past three months of study. Even though I have read through the book of Esther at least a dozen times! I never knew the significance of so many hidden things. Things that Beth Moore brought out each week. Wow! If you've been through the study you know what I mean! If not, maybe you should plan on Esther: It's Tough Being a Woman for your next Bible study!

This week brought our study of Esther to a close with our group of ladies at Sav-A-Life. What a great journey we have been on. It has been so wonderful to meet with this group of women early each Tuesday morning and gather around the Word of God. We have laughed, and we have cried. I thought one of our ladies put it so well as she said this week...."I came expecting to learn about Esther and instead I have learned about MYSELF!" As women, we are all made out of the same stuff! (Any men that may be reading this...you will just have to take my word for that. ha)

All of the weekly DVD sessions were good but Session 4 without a doubt stood out to...and for....me. It was all about fear....something I am well acquainted with! It was just what I needed to hear, just when I needed to hear it. I had recently been diagnosed with a thyroid nodule and had a thyroid ultrasound scheduled for the next day. (I have already emailed many of you but for those who have not heard, I got the results today from the thyroid biopsy I had last week and everything was ALL RIGHT! NO cancer! Praise God!) In that week's homework Beth said..."As hard as trusting can be, living with constant fears is harder." Oh, yeah! That is SO true!

As she talked about Esther going uninvited to see the King to beg for the lives of her people, the Jews, Beth gave us these encouraging words: "With every step toward the throne room, she gained a small measure of strength." When we are afraid, every step we keep taking gives us a little more strength to go on. I needed that!

One of the most profound statements that I heard from Beth during the Esther DVD sessions was when she quoted from The Queen and I and said this: "In the eyes of the world, it is not our relationship with Jesus Christ that counts; it is our resemblance to Him". Wow! Doesn't that make you want to look like Jesus? To let His light reflect off you so others can see Him and desire Him? It does me!

And maybe you noticed in the picture of our little group that we were holding not only our workbooks but our "Red Books"! We were so impressed with Beth's "Red Book" that we made one of our own! I asked all the ladies in the Bible study, all the ladies in my Sunday school class, and many other ladies on my email list to answer the question, "What's the toughest thing about being a women?" and then I printed them and made each of us a little booklet. They gave so many wonderful answers. I can so identify with them that it is hard to read them and remember which one I wrote and which ones I COULD have written! ha

Whether you have done the Esther Bible study or not, please remember that you have been placed where you are....and as who you are.....for such a time as this! No one else can do the job that God has placed in your hands! Take up the torch and run with it. Run as if your life depended on it. For it may. Thousands of lives depended on Esther doing what she was put in the palace to do!

"And who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" Esther 4: 14

Celebrating life today!

Marilyn