[Ohio-Communities-of-Faith] DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR THURSDAY MAY 19

[Donnie Parrett]

DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR THURSDAY MAY 19

WORD OF WISDOM

My first objective when I get home is to change into something that makes me
look like I am homeless.

___

DAILY DEVOTION

Our Crowns at His Feet


And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on
the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, The four and twenty elders fall
down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever
and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy,
O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all
things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
Revelation 4:9-11

Queen Victoria became the ruler of the British Empire while she was still a
teenager and reigned from 1837 until her death in 1901. Not long after her
death, a story appeared in a London newspaper that highlighted her faith in
Christ. At the conclusion of a sermon, she approached the speaker and said,
"Oh, how I wish that the Lord might come during my lifetime." When he asked
her what her desire was based on, she replied, "I should like to lay my
crown at His feet."
The world around us honors those who accomplish great things, accumulate
great wealth, or attain great power. But all that we can do pales in
comparison to the majesty and glory of Jesus Christ. And when we see Him,
all that we have done, any glory we have won, will simply be a trophy we can
present to Him for His glory rather than our own. The struggle of mankind
against pride is as old as all of human history. Yet if we see Jesus as He
really is, high and lifted up, we will realize how foolish our pride is.
There is nothing that we do for God or for others that should fill our
hearts with pride. After all, it is not our power and might and wisdom that
accomplish things. It is God's power alone. Jesus said, "I am the vine, ye
are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth
forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5).
Everything we have and everything we do is because of God, and He alone
deserves praise and worship.

___

DAILY BIBLE READING

Esther 4-6 New King James Version
Esther Agrees to Help the Jews
4 When Mordecai learned all that had happened, [a]he tore his clothes and
put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city. He
cried out with a loud and bitter cry. 2 He went as far as the front of the
king's gate, for no one might enter the king's gate clothed with sackcloth.
3 And in every province where the king's command and decree arrived, there
was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and wailing; and
many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

4 So Esther's maids and eunuchs came and told her, and the queen was deeply
distressed. Then she sent garments to clothe Mordecai and take his sackcloth
away from him, but he would not accept them. 5 Then Esther called Hathach,
one of the king's eunuchs whom he had appointed to attend her, and she gave
him a command concerning Mordecai, to learn what and why this was. 6 So
Hathach went out to Mordecai in the city square that was in front of the
king's gate. 7 And Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and the
sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king's treasuries to
destroy the Jews. 8 He also gave him a copy of the written decree for their
destruction, which was given at [b]Shushan, that he might show it to Esther
and explain it to her, and that he might command her to go in to the king to
make supplication to him and plead before him for her people. 9 So Hathach
returned and told Esther the words of Mordecai.

10 Then Esther spoke to Hathach, and gave him a command for Mordecai: 11
"All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that
any man or woman who goes into the inner court to the king, who has not been
called, he has but one law: put all to death, except the one to whom the
king holds out the golden scepter, that he may live. Yet I myself have not
been called to go in to the king these thirty days." 12 So they told
Mordecai Esther's words.

13 And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: "Do not think in your heart that
you will escape in the king's palace any more than all the other Jews. 14
For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance
will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house
will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a
time as this?"

15 Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai: 16 "Go, gather all the Jews
who are present in [c]Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for
three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will
go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!"

17 So Mordecai went his way and did according to all that Esther commanded
[d]him.

Esther's Banquet
5 Now it happened on the third day that Esther put on her royal robes and
stood in the inner court of the king's palace, across from the king's house,
while the king sat on his royal throne in the royal house, facing the
entrance of the [e]house. 2 So it was, when the king saw Queen Esther
standing in the court, that she found favor in his sight, and the king held
out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther went near
and touched the top of the scepter.

3 And the king said to her, "What do you wish, Queen Esther? What is your
request? It shall be given to you-up to half the kingdom!"

4 So Esther answered, "If it pleases the king, let the king and Haman come
today to the banquet that I have prepared for him."

5 Then the king said, "Bring Haman quickly, that he may do as Esther has
said." So the king and Haman went to the banquet that Esther had prepared.

6 At the banquet of wine the king said to Esther, "What is your petition? It
shall be granted you. What is your request, up to half the kingdom? It shall
be done!"

7 Then Esther answered and said, "My petition and request is this: 8 If I
have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it pleases the king to
grant my petition and [f]fulfill my request, then let the king and Haman
come to the banquet which I will prepare for them, and tomorrow I will do as
the king has said."

Haman's Plot Against Mordecai
9 So Haman went out that day joyful and with a glad heart; but when Haman
saw Mordecai in the king's gate, and that he did not stand or tremble before
him, he was filled with indignation against Mordecai. 10 Nevertheless Haman
restrained himself and went home, and he sent and called for his friends and
his wife Zeresh. 11 Then Haman told them of his great riches, the multitude
of his children, everything in which the king had promoted him, and how he
had advanced him above the officials and servants of the king.

12 Moreover Haman said, "Besides, Queen Esther invited no one but me to come
in with the king to the banquet that she prepared; and tomorrow I am again
invited by her, along with the king. 13 Yet all this avails me nothing, so
long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate."

14 Then his wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, "Let a gallows[g]
be made, [h]fifty cubits high, and in the morning suggest to the king that
Mordecai be hanged on it; then go merrily with the king to the banquet."

And the thing pleased Haman; so he had the gallows made.

The King Honors Mordecai
6 That night [i]the king could not sleep. So one was commanded to bring the
book of the records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king. 2
And it was found written that Mordecai had told of [j]Bigthana and Teresh,
two of the king's eunuchs, the doorkeepers who had sought to lay hands on
King Ahasuerus. 3 Then the king said, "What honor or dignity has been
bestowed on Mordecai for this?"

And the king's servants who attended him said, "Nothing has been done for
him."

4 So the king said, "Who is in the court?" Now Haman had just entered the
outer court of the king's palace to suggest that the king hang Mordecai on
the gallows that he had prepared for him.

5 The king's servants said to him, "Haman is there, standing in the court."

And the king said, "Let him come in."

6 So Haman came in, and the king asked him, "What shall be done for the man
whom the king delights to honor?"

Now Haman thought in his heart, "Whom would the king delight to honor more
than me?" 7 And Haman answered the king, "For the man whom the king delights
to honor, 8 let a royal robe be brought which the king has worn, and a horse
on which the king has ridden, which has a royal [k]crest placed on its head.
9 Then let this robe and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king's
most noble princes, that he may array the man whom the king delights to
honor. Then [l]parade him on horseback through the city square, and proclaim
before him: 'Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to
honor!' "

10 Then the king said to Haman, "Hurry, take the robe and the horse, as you
have suggested, and do so for Mordecai the Jew who sits within the king's
gate! Leave nothing undone of all that you have spoken."

11 So Haman took the robe and the horse, arrayed Mordecai and led him on
horseback through the city square, and proclaimed before him, "Thus shall it
be done to the man whom the king delights to honor!"

12 Afterward Mordecai went back to the king's gate. But Haman hurried to his
house, mourning and with his head covered. 13 When Haman told his wife
Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him, his wise men
and his wife Zeresh said to him, "If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to
fall, is of Jewish descent, you will not prevail against him but will surely
fall before him."

14 While they were still talking with him, the king's eunuchs came, and
hastened to bring Haman to the banquet which Esther had prepared.

Footnotes
Esther 4:1 Lit. Mordecai
Esther 4:8 Or Susa
Esther 4:16 Or Susa
Esther 4:17 LXX adds a prayer of Mordecai here
Esther 5:1 LXX adds many extra details in vv. 1, 2
Esther 5:8 Lit. to do
Esther 5:14 Lit. tree or wood
Esther 5:14 About 75 feet
Esther 6:1 Lit. the king's sleep fled away
Esther 6:2 Bigthan, Esth. 2:21
Esther 6:8 crown
Esther 6:9 Lit. cause him to ride