[Ohio-Communities-of-Faith] DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR FRIDAY MAY 20

[Donnie Parrett]

DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR FRIDAY MAY 20

WORD OF WISDOM

If you want your children to listen, try talking softly to someone else.

___

DAILY DEVOTION

Involvement in God's Work


Then said I unto them, Ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem
lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come, and let us
build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach. Then I told
them of the hand of my God which was good upon me; as also the king's words
that he had spoken unto me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they
strengthened their hands for this good work.
Nehemiah 2:17-18

Nehemiah was heartbroken when he heard how the city of Jerusalem was
defenseless and how the Jewish people who lived there were suffering as a
result. So he resolved to do something about it. He got permission from the
king to go back and build a wall. Nehemiah understood an important
principle: that God's work requires God's people to join hands. Nehemiah
worked on the wall, but it was the efforts of the people of Jerusalem that
brought the task to a successful conclusion. "So the wall was finished in
the twenty and fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty and two days" (Nehemiah
6:15).
Henry Ford said, "Coming together is a beginning; staying together is
progress; working together is success." God's work is not usually done by
individuals working in isolation, but by groups of people joining hands
together and laboring together until the task is complete. Every church
needs the people of the church-not just the pastor or a few full-time staff
workers, but everyone-to be active and involved for the ministry to have the
impact it should.
The seventeenth-century Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto is credited with
the discovery of the 80/20 rule, commonly called the Pareto Principle.
Though it has many applications, one of the best known is that in most
projects, 20 percent of the people do 80 percent of the work. That may hold
true in many areas of life, but it should never be true of God's church. We
should all be active in His work.
God has a part in His work for every Christian; be alert to opportunities He
may have for you today.

___

DAILY BIBLE READING

Esther 7-10 New King James Version
Haman Hanged Instead of Mordecai
7 So the king and Haman went to dine with Queen Esther. 2 And on the second
day, at the banquet of wine, the king again said to Esther, "What is your
petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request,
up to half the kingdom? It shall be done!"

3 Then Queen Esther answered and said, "If I have found favor in your sight,
O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition,
and my people at my request. 4 For we have been sold, my people and I, to be
destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. Had we been sold as male and
female slaves, I would have held my tongue, although the enemy could never
compensate for the king's loss."

5 So King Ahasuerus answered and said to Queen Esther, "Who is he, and where
is he, who would dare presume in his heart to do such a thing?"

6 And Esther said, "The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman!"

So Haman was terrified before the king and queen.

7 Then the king arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine and went into
the palace garden; but Haman stood before Queen Esther, pleading for his
life, for he saw that evil was determined against him by the king. 8 When
the king returned from the palace garden to the place of the banquet of
wine, Haman had fallen across the couch where Esther was. Then the king
said, "Will he also assault the queen while I am in the house?"

As the word left the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face. 9 Now
Harbonah, one of the eunuchs, said to the king, "Look! The [a]gallows, fifty
cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai, who spoke good on the king's
behalf, is standing at the house of Haman."

Then the king said, "Hang him on it!"

10 So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai.
Then the king's wrath subsided.

Esther Saves the Jews
8 On that day King Ahasuerus gave Queen Esther the house of Haman, the enemy
of the Jews. And Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told how he
was related to her. 2 So the king took off his signet ring, which he had
taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai; and Esther appointed Mordecai
over the house of Haman.

3 Now Esther spoke again to the king, fell down at his feet, and implored
him with tears to counteract the evil of Haman the Agagite, and the scheme
which he had devised against the Jews. 4 And the king held out the golden
scepter toward Esther. So Esther arose and stood before the king, 5 and
said, "If it pleases the king, and if I have found favor in his sight and
the thing seems right to the king and I am pleasing in his eyes, let it be
written to revoke the letters devised by Haman, the son of Hammedatha the
Agagite, which he wrote to annihilate the Jews who are in all the king's
provinces. 6 For how can I endure to see the evil that will come to my
people? Or how can I endure to see the destruction of my countrymen?"

7 Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and Mordecai the Jew, "Indeed, I
have given Esther the house of Haman, and they have hanged him on the
gallows because he tried to lay his hand on the Jews. 8 You yourselves write
a decree concerning the Jews, [b]as you please, in the king's name, and seal
it with the king's signet ring; for whatever is written in the king's name
and sealed with the king's signet ring no one can revoke."

9 So the king's scribes were called at that time, in the third month, which
is the month of Sivan, on the twenty-third day; and it was written,
according to all that Mordecai commanded, to the Jews, the satraps, the
governors, and the princes of the provinces from India to Ethiopia, one
hundred and twenty-seven provinces in all, to every province in its own
script, to every people in their own language, and to the Jews in their own
script and language. 10 And he wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus, sealed
it with the king's signet ring, and sent letters by couriers on horseback,
riding on royal horses [c]bred from swift steeds.

11 By these letters the king permitted the Jews who were in every city to
gather together and protect their lives-to destroy, kill, and annihilate all
the forces of any people or province that would assault them, both little
children and women, and to plunder their possessions, 12 on one day in all
the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month,
which is the month of [d]Adar. 13 A copy of the document was to be issued as
a decree in every province and published for all people, so that the Jews
would be ready on that day to avenge themselves on their enemies. 14 The
couriers who rode on royal horses went out, hastened and pressed on by the
king's command. And the decree was issued in [e]Shushan the [f]citadel.

15 So Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal apparel of
[g]blue and white, with a great crown of gold and a garment of fine linen
and purple; and the city of [h]Shushan rejoiced and was glad. 16 The Jews
had light and gladness, joy and honor. 17 And in every province and city,
wherever the king's command and decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness,
a feast and a holiday. Then many of the people of the land became Jews,
because fear of the Jews fell upon them.

The Jews Destroy Their Tormentors
9 Now in the twelfth month, that is, the month of Adar, on the thirteenth
day, the time came for the king's command and his decree to be executed. On
the day that the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, the
opposite occurred, in that the Jews themselves overpowered those who hated
them. 2 The Jews gathered together in their cities throughout all the
provinces of King Ahasuerus to lay hands on those who sought their harm. And
no one could withstand them, because fear of them fell upon all people. 3
And all the officials of the provinces, the satraps, the governors, and all
those doing the king's work, helped the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai
fell upon them. 4 For Mordecai was great in the king's palace, and his fame
spread throughout all the provinces; for this man Mordecai became
increasingly prominent. 5 Thus the Jews defeated all their enemies with the
stroke of the sword, with slaughter and destruction, and did what they
pleased with those who hated them.

6 And in Shushan[i] the [j]citadel the Jews killed and destroyed five
hundred men. 7 Also Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha, 8 Poratha, Adalia,
Aridatha, 9 Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vajezatha- 10 the ten sons of
Haman the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews-they killed; but they did
not lay a hand on the [k]plunder.

11 On that day the number of those who were killed in [l]Shushan the
[m]citadel [n]was brought to the king. 12 And the king said to Queen Esther,
"The Jews have killed and destroyed five hundred men in Shushan the citadel,
and the ten sons of Haman. What have they done in the rest of the king's
provinces? Now what is your petition? It shall be granted to you. Or what is
your further request? It shall be done."

13 Then Esther said, "If it pleases the king, let it be granted to the Jews
who are in Shushan to do again tomorrow according to today's decree, and let
Haman's ten sons be hanged on the gallows."

14 So the king commanded this to be done; the decree was issued in Shushan,
and they hanged Haman's ten sons.

15 And the Jews who were in [o]Shushan gathered together again on the
fourteenth day of the month of Adar and killed three hundred men at Shushan;
but they did not lay a hand on the plunder.

16 The remainder of the Jews in the king's provinces gathered together and
protected their lives, had rest from their enemies, and killed seventy-five
thousand of their enemies; but they did not lay a hand on the plunder. 17
This was on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar. And on the fourteenth
of [p]the month they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness.

The Feast of Purim
18 But the Jews who were at [q]Shushan assembled together on the thirteenth
day, as well as on the fourteenth; and on the fifteenth of [r]the month they
rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness. 19 Therefore the Jews of
the villages who dwelt in the unwalled towns celebrated the fourteenth day
of the month of Adar with gladness and feasting, as a holiday, and for
sending presents to one another.

20 And Mordecai wrote these things and sent letters to all the Jews, near
and far, who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, 21 to establish
among them that they should celebrate yearly the fourteenth and fifteenth
days of the month of Adar, 22 as the days on which the Jews had rest from
their enemies, as the month which was turned from sorrow to joy for them,
and from mourning to a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting
and joy, of sending presents to one another and gifts to the poor. 23 So the
Jews accepted the custom which they had begun, as Mordecai had written to
them, 24 because Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all
the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to annihilate them, and had cast Pur
(that is, the lot), to consume them and destroy them; 25 but when [s]Esther
came before the king, he commanded by letter that [t]this wicked plot which
Haman had devised against the Jews should return on his own head, and that
he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.

26 So they called these days Purim, after the name [u]Pur. Therefore,
because of all the words of this letter, what they had seen concerning this
matter, and what had happened to them, 27 the Jews established and imposed
it upon themselves and their descendants and all who would join them, that
without fail they should celebrate these two days every year, according to
the written instructions and according to the prescribed time, 28 that these
days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every
family, every province, and every city, that these days of Purim should not
fail to be observed among the Jews, and that the memory of them should not
perish among their descendants.

29 Then Queen Esther, the daughter of Abihail, with Mordecai the Jew, wrote
with full authority to confirm this second letter about Purim. 30 And
Mordecai sent letters to all the Jews, to the one hundred and twenty-seven
provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and truth, 31 to
confirm these days of Purim at their appointed time, as Mordecai the Jew and
Queen Esther had prescribed for them, and as they had decreed for themselves
and their descendants concerning matters of their fasting and lamenting. 32
So the decree of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim, and it was written
in the book.

10 And King Ahasuerus imposed tribute on the land and on the islands of the
sea. 2 Now all the acts of his power and his might, and the account of the
greatness of Mordecai, to which the king advanced him, are they not written
in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia? 3 For
Mordecai the Jew was second to King Ahasuerus, and was great among the Jews
and well received by the multitude of his brethren, seeking the good of his
people and speaking peace to all his countrymen.