This month, #TeamBurningJoy decided to study the book of Esther as a team.
The story is about Esther, a young Jewish woman, that becomes queen. In the story, she finds favor in the eyes of everyone that she is around. When her people’s lives are threatened, she boldly goes before the king. It was a huge deal because the king had not called her into his presence. If he did not raise his scepter to her- she would have been killed. The king did raise his scepter- she found favor in his presence. In the end, Esther’s people are saved. Her boldness in having faith and in doing what she was supposed to do was blessed.
There is no rhyme or reason to why we chose this book to study. It is a good story and a good book for a group of women to study. We didn’t have an agenda for studying it but there was a divine reason.
Dad is not seen in the book of Esther. When I saw that, I am talking about physically. He is not in the book. BUT everywhere you look in it, you see His divine fingerprints.
Esther found favor with every person she came into contact with? Esther just happened to win a beauty contest that featured all of the beautiful women in the realm? The fact that orphaned Esther was living with her uncle and even able to be in this pageant? The king wanted to please her so much that he offered up to half of his kingdom?
Fingerprints. All over.
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It hit me the other day. We are studying Esther in Vietnam!
Vietnam.
Vietnam, the closed country.
Vietnam, where Dad is not allowed.
Vietnam, where His FINGERPRINTS are seen all over!
This country is closed. We have passwords on our blogs. We watch what we say on Facebook- we are foreigners- everyone closely scrutinizes us. The first night that we were here, we were driving in a taxi and one of us talked about someone that had a beard… “a Jesus beard”… and the taxi driver whipped his head to give us a stern look in the rear view mirror. We don’t leave our Bibles out in our hotel room. So the people that clean don’t find them. We were glared at by the guards when we came to the University. We got kicked out of the University when about 15 kids- out of 50,000- were in a group with us. The country is closed.
But, even though the country is closed, we see His fingerprints all over. The first day that we went to the University, we saw a student boldly wearing a shirt that proclaimed His name. Even today, I went to lunch with a girl whose shirt said, “I <3 Jesus". The first time we had English club, the women- that we help lead the club with- openly announced that this was a Christian organization. When we had a club and the topic was food, there was scripture on the handouts, proclaiming Christ to be the bread of Life, etc. We were able to explain these verses. At the club focusing on holidays, we got to talk about Easter and Christmas and the reason for them. The first morning we were here, we went to eat some beef noodles for breakfast and before we ate, our host boldly prayed in the name of Jesus and thanked God for the food.
The book of Esther and Vietnam have similarities. The fact that our book to study for this month was that ordained, BLOWS MY MIND!
I have been praying for boldness on this kingdom journey. Queen Esther was bold in going before King Xerxes. I want that boldness.
We need that boldness. Especially in this closed country.
His FINGERPRINTS are all over the book of Esther
and
His FINGERPRINTS are all over Vietnam!
His love is crazy and it’s awesome to see it in action!
I love you all!
<3
Ash
