1 – “Then the king’s young men who attended him said, “Let beautiful young virgins be sought out for the king. And let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom to gather all the beautiful young virgins to the harem in Susa the capital, under custody of Hegai, the king’s eunuch, who is in charge of the women. Let their cosmetics be given them. And let the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.” This pleased the king, and he did so.” (Esther 2:2-4, ESV)

RAF: The Church is that virgin bride that pleases the King most. She is the one He has set His love upon. She is redeemed, blood bought, blood washed, robed in imputed righteousness, mercied and the preeminent display of His grace – His personal favor. She is His. Father, let me live in the reality of how deep your love is, how personal it is, how majestic it is, how faithful it is, how perfect it is, how divine it is, how MINE – it is. And grant that I may love you commensurately – as much as a fallen but redeemed sinner can by virtue of your Spirit.

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1 – “ Moreover, from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year to the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes the king, twelve years, neither I nor my brothers ate the food allowance of the governor. The former governors who were before me laid heavy burdens on the people and took from them for their daily ration forty shekels of silver. Even their servants lorded it over the people. But I did not do so, because of the fear of God. I also persevered in the work on this wall, and we acquired no land, and all my servants were gathered there for the work. Moreover, there were at my table 150 men, Jews and officials, besides those who came to us from the nations that were around us. Now what was prepared at my expense for each day was one ox and six choice sheep and birds, and every ten days all kinds of wine in abundance. Yet for all this I did not demand the food allowance of the governor, because the service was too heavy on this people. Remember for my good, O my God, all that I have done for this people.” (Nehemiah 5:14-19, ESV)

RAF: It is incumbent upon leadership to be careful not to overburden the people. Especially not to tax them for personal gain.

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1 – “ Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the Lord, the God of Israel, they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers’ houses and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do, and we have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria who brought us here.” But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers’ houses in Israel said to them, “You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God; but we alone will build to the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.”” (Ezra 4:1-3, ESV)

RAF: There may be those who are sympathetic with Christianity, and who have added Christ to their other gods and ways, who are nonetheless not Christians. They are not to be evangelists. They have no part in discipleship. They cannot be part and parcel of ministry. They are not whole-hearted after God. We must make these distinctions if we are to be about the business of the Church, and not just religion. Mere religion breeds syncretism.

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1 – “And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, yet not with a whole heart.” (2 Chronicles 25:2, ESV)

RAF: Heavenly Father, it is in this matter of whole-heartedness that I see such failure in myself. I content myself so easily in you. To barely know you. To spend little real time with you. To be so unfamiliar with what you have taken countless lives to reveal, write, copy and preserve throughout the centuries for us. To think little of your daily graces. To live in the shadow of the Cross and virtually take it for granted at times. Oh Father – make me a whole-hearted man after you.

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In the infinite wisdom of God,

He has filled all of life with types and shadows of spiritual truth.

In marriage,

His word makes clear,

there is to be found a most wonderful and detailed portrait of the love and bond between our Lord Jesus Christ and His Bride – the Church.

Which picture paves the way

for a no less stunning parallel to be drawn between Mothers themselves,

and the nature of God’s true Church.

It is in this figure,

given to us by God’s own hand

that I have learned much of Christ’s Church

In the life and ministry of my own Mother.

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Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man who fathered seven children with his daughter while keeping her imprisoned in a windowless dungeon in his cellar, has complained about poor media coverage of the case.

JOSEF FRITZL and ROSEMARIE FRITZL are being honoured at their 50 years wedding anniversary in 2006….

JOSEF FRITZL and ROSEMARIE FRITZL are being honoured at their 50 years wedding anniversary in 2006. Josef Fritzl made an astonishing plea for understanding from his cell today saying: “I am not a monster.” The Austrian, who locked up his own daughter in a dungeon for 24 years and subjected her to repeated rapes, claimed he has been unfairly represented by the police and the media. And in a twisted bid for sympathy he argued that he should be held in high regard for not killing Elisabeth, 42, and the children he incestuously fathered on her – Kerstin, 19, Stefan 18 and five-year-old Felix.

(Mark Large/Daily Mail/SOLO Syndication/Zuma Press)

His criticism of the international media’s reporting was published in the German tabloid Bild Zeitung.

“I could have killed them all,” reads the front page headline of today’s Bild Zeitung. And Fritzl, dubbed a monster by the Austrian media, told his lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, “I’m not a monster,” according to today’s report.  Read the entire article HERE AT ABC NEWS

• RAF: Hitler wasn’t a monster, he COULD have killed even more Gypsies, Jews, impaired or otherwise undesirables. Sure, 6 million Jews – but there’s still lots left – right?

• As shocking as Fritzl’s self-justification is – it is no different than yours or mine when we excuse ANY sin on the ground that we could have sinned worse.  Just because the lid is off of Fritzl’s depravity doesn’t mean ours would be any less heinous if it could be brought to the light of day.

• Thank God for His salvation – for the death of His precious Son, which alone can make any man right with God, to stand in His presence unafraid.

• Be repulsed at Fritzl’s obscene admission.

• And then remember what you have been saved from. And weep that his soul might too be rescued in Christ Jesus.

• For you and I were not one iota better. Only less exposed.

1 – “Jabez was more honorable than his brothers; and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, “Because I bore him in pain.” Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm so that it might not bring me pain!” And God granted what he asked.” (1 Chronicles 4:9-10, ESV)

RAF: Tucked away in the midst of these chapters with their long lists of people we do not and cannot know – about whom we know no more than their being listed here – is this simple reminder: When men call upon the Lord, He hears. And He answers. He is ever willing to meet us if we will but seek Him. Father, grant that I might seek you always and never stop.

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1 – 2 Kings 17 / Entire chapter.

RAF: 1. God must be our God. 2. God must be God, alone. 3. God must be worshiped according to what He has revealed. 4. God must be believed, and served according to what He has said. It is for want of these that Israel was decimated. Oh Father, keep us.

2 – “This is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him: “She despises you, she scorns you— the virgin daughter of Zion; she wags her head behind you— the daughter of Jerusalem.” (2 Kings 19:21, ESV)

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1 – “A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. And Elisha said, “Give to the men, that they may eat.” But his servant said, “How can I set this before a hundred men?” So he repeated, “Give them to the men, that they may eat, for thus says the Lord, ‘They shall eat and have some left.’ ” So he set it before them. And they ate and had some left, according to the word of the Lord.” (2 Kings 4:42-44, ESV)

RAF: This precursor to Jesus feeding the 5000 & the 4000, is a great reminder of God’s good provision for us. And, how it is He often makes what we have sufficient, rather than our needing more. How we need to trust Him for sufficiency. Temptation is warded off when we look to Him to make sufficient what we already have.

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1 – ” In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab the son of Omri began to reign over Israel, and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years.” (1 Kings 16:29, ESV)

RAF: And still God tolerated Ahab to reign in Israel for 22 years. His patience is displayed toward Ahab, and His provocation against the Israelites in leaving them to the whims of such a wicked man. There is always more going on that just the one circumstance.

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