Stephen Hosmer's Page

This morning while shaving (yes I do shave around the hair garden on my face) I heard Courageous by Casting Crowns. It made me stop and savor the moment. For me, this was a battle cry to take action. I felt empowered to rush the enemy and take on whatever opposition my come. 

On father’s day, our church had a service, in which God really moved. The sermon, based on the visual of the sword ended with an unplanned "knighting" of men that came forward for prayer and to commit themselves to the service of our Great King, the King of kings. This was a beautiful opening to what I believe is a move of God in our church body, if not the city. 

Continuing on what seems to be a theme of royalty, I was asked to present a character study based on Esther, to, of all things, our men's group. I have been wrestling for a week about how to make Esther meaningful (notice I didn't say relevant) to our men. 

This morning's moment of inspiration with Courageous, made me realize that the picture of Christ in the story of Esther, is that Jesus has gone before the Father to provide a way of salvation from this present trouble. I have often looked at the story of Esther, identifying with her and drawing courage from "such a time as this", and "at least I won't die if I ...", but I have never seen the image of Christ in her interceding before the king.

Esther's "success" did not result in the removal of the problem facing the Jews, it identified a course of action, and empowered the "afflicted" to withstand the coming fight. We as men (and women) of God should not expect God to remove the challenges we must face, though He is gracious enough to do this sometimes, we must realize that we are to stand in His strength and withstand the enemy. 

The way we are to act is interesting. In the proclamation of the king, he said that the Jews were to band together, defend their life, and to annihilate and plunder the enemy. I think this can be seen as a model, that we are to gather together as the body of Christ, and assist each other, united in standing against the powers of this world. Together we can defend our life in Christ. Though are called to lay down our life for Him, I see the defense of life here to mean our eternal security. 

Finally we are to annihilate the enemy and plunder his goods. I believe that this directs us to be uncompromising in our stand, to give the enemy "no quarter" and be holy as God is Holy.  The plunder we should seek is to take from the enemy's hand, those that he has enslaved and deceived into thinking that hey are not free to follow God. 

Just my thoughts for today :) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkM-gDcmJeM