Summer and Fall Schedule

June, July, August 2009
For the summer we're doing a mini-study on Worship. This was one of the very first SPS topics so it's a great time to revisit it. A mini-SPS is more self guided so it's totally up to your own interpretation. Please send us your art so that we can post it on Gallery Wednesday. You can also link to your blog or web site from the comments. Next Wednesday's Gallery has not been assigned yet so submit anytime up to midnight on Tuesday.

September 7, 2009 - Kona with Jonah
We'll start a full SPS in September. We're excited because we'll be going through Sandra Glahn's new Coffee Cup Study "Kona with Jonah". It's so new, in fact, that it's only available right now for pre-order on Amazon, due to ship July 27. It's available for free shipping when you purchase $25 so now's the time to bundle your order with the new "Frappé with Philippians" and another Coffee Cup you've been wanting.

Speaking of Amazon, anytime you order, we recommend that you do so by going through the link provided in the right hand column on Sandi's blog:

Sandi's husband, Gary, is Special Projects Manager for the East Africa team of East West Ministries International. If you place any of your Amazon orders through this link on Sandi's blog a portion of your order will benefit Gary's efforts! How easy is that!

I guess that's enough news for now. Check here on Fridays for other news and scheduling updates.

Jonah - coming in September

The spring study through Judges was intense! But I hope you all enjoyed it. I've never done a study of Judges so it was a great first time. If you'd like to go back through Judges on your own, just click on the tag "Judges" in the left column.

June, July, August 2009
For the summer we're going to do a mini-study on Worship. This is one of the very first SPS topics so it's a great time to revisit it. A mini-SPS is more self guided so it's totally up to your own interpretation. Please send us your art so that we can post it on Gallery Wednesday. You can also link to your blog or web site from the comments. Next Wednesday's Gallery has not been assigned yet so submit anytime up to midnight on Tuesday.

September 7, 2009 - Kona with Jonah
We'll start a full SPS in September. We're excited because we'll be going through Sandra Glahn's new Coffee Cup Study "Kona with Jonah". It's so new, in fact, that it's only available right now for pre-order on Amazon, due to ship July 27. It's available for free shipping when you purchase $25 so now's the time to bundle your order with the new "Frappé with Philippians" and another Coffee Cup you've been wanting.

Speaking of Amazon, anytime you order, we recommend that you do so by going through the link provided in the right hand column on Sandi's blog:

Sandi's husband, Gary, is Special Projects Manager for the East Africa team of East West Ministries International. If you place any of your Amazon orders through this link on Sandi's blog a portion of your order will benefit Gary's efforts! How easy is that!

I guess that's enough news for now. Check here on Fridays for other news and scheduling updates.

The Invisible Star

If you're a female, when you were a child, did you ever spin around in a long dress pretending to be Cinderella? Perhaps you watched Cinderella on TV or video. Was it a cartoon version? Maybe a parent or sibling read it to you. Or perhaps you saw Rogers and Hammerstein’s 1965 production starring Lesley Ann Warren. Maybe you watched the 1997 show with Brandy, Paola Montalban, and Whitney Houston. If you’re a big Cinderella fan, perhaps you saw and read all of these and more.

What about My Fair Lady—did you ever imitate Eliza Dolittle singing about the rain in Spain (or the rine in spine)? Did you mentally protest against Henry Higgins when he asked “Why can’t a woman be more like a man?”?

Many cultures have their rags-to-riches stories like Cinderella and My Fair Lady. The details differ, but the general plotline is the same: a poor, plain girl of questionable pedigree rises from poverty to become rich and beautiful, perhaps even the queen of a vast empire.

The Book of Esther is like a Hebrew Cinderella story. Yet some significant differences set this drama apart from fictional stories such as those mentioned above. For one thing, Esther’s story actually happened. The book begins with the same Hebrew word (“wyhy”) that introduces the historical books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, Ezekiel, and Jonah. We are supposed to read Esther as fact, not fancy.

Another key difference is that in Esther, the villain (Haman) is far worse than any evil stepmother or chauvinistic linguistics coach. Haman is out to commit genocide, and the king approves his plan without hesitation.

Yet there’s an even more significant difference: the main character in this Cinderella story is someone other than the woman at the center of the drama. In fact this story’s main character is never explicitly mentioned by name, nor does He appear. An accurate Playbill for this drama would have to have an empty space next to the photo of the one playing the lead. He is invisible, yet we trace His hand through every turn in the plot as the seeming coincidences add up.

William Temple, the ninety-eighth archbishop of Canterbury, was known to have said, “When I pray, coincidences happen; and when I don’t pray, they don’t happen.” The author of the Book of Esther stacks together a long string of “coincidences,” while never mentioning anything religious such as the temple, prayer, or even God’s name. Yet readers without being told know better than to think all the events in the book merely happened due to chance. We are left instead with one conclusion: The only way all these “coincidences” could have happened is if God directed every last detail.

Consider some of the “coincidences” in Esther’s story:

. The king wants his wife to appear, which just happens to set in motion events that will lead to the survival of an entire people group.
. The queen refuses, which just happens to provide the opportunity for Esther to become queen.
. Esther just happens to be beautiful enough to enter (and win) the king’s beauty contest.
. Esther just happens to be received favorably, both by the eunuch over the harem and by the king himself.
. Mordecai just happens to be in a position in the palace that allows him both access to Esther and to overhear a plot to kill the king.
. Mordecai’s revelation of the plot is recorded in the king’s annals (which just happen to be read on the most opportune night some years later).
. The dice or “lots” thrown to determine when the Jews are to be killed just happen to indicate the twelfth month, allowing eleven months for the Jews to seek a means of deliverance.
. Esther’s unexplained delay in having a second banquet just happens to allow the king a chance to have the insomnia that will motivate him to listen to his chronicles.
. The section read to him just happens to be the part about how Mordecai saved his life.
. Haman just happens to arrive at the palace with Mordecai on his mind at the very moment when the king is thinking about how to honor Mordecai.
. The very “gallows” (or pole) Haman installed for having Mordecai impaled (they would “spike” people after killing them) just happens to be the means of Haman’s own destruction.
. The king’s entry into Esther’s room at the exact moment when Haman falls on her couch just happens to make him misinterpret events, resulting in Haman’s death.
. Not one Jew is listed as killed while 75,800 of their enemies just happen to be destroyed—on the very day when the Jews were to face destruction.

This Cinderella story has ramifications that far exceed an “if the shoe fits” scenario. Much more is at stake than a glass slipper and love that ends “happily ever after.” Ultimately, Esther just happens to be in the right place at the right time and of the right nationality to intervene for hundreds of thousands if not millions of people and save them from certain genocide. God uses Esther to make a way, to keep His promise, to triumph over evil in one grand reversal.

And He is still sovereign over every event of our lives today.


Excerpted from Espresso with Esther.

Pray for Our Soldiers...and...

I hear it on the radio. I hear it in church. I read it on bumper stickers. "Pray for our soldiers."

Nothing wrong with that. It's good to pray. My friend's husband is "over there." She's caring for their three kids alone. I definitely don't want anything to happen to him, so I'm glad we pray.

But you know what's missing in such requests, don't you? Yeah--the reminder of our Lord's command to love our enemies.

Recently I was struck anew by the fact that God sent Jonah to Nineveh, which being interpreted was Babylon, which being interpreted was the heart of Iraq. Jonah resented (more like got royally torqued) that God offered his enemies a chance to repent. And they did repent, so God didn't do lightning. Woo-eeee. That did not go over well with the angry Jonah-man.

The year I decorated the card you see here, the U.S. invaded both Afghanistan and Iraq. Those places are under His mercies, and not just because Jonah and Daniel did short stints there. From the desert to the iceberg continent, God's mercies are over all his works.

Okay, so that explains Babylon and Iraq and Afghanistan and even Antarctica. But Italian? Well, a prof in my PhD program was initially negative about my being a Christian, though she softened as the semester went by. Anyway, her speciality was/is Italian.

And she's under the mercies.

So am I. Romans says I used to be God's enemy, too.

So let's pray for our troops. But let's also pray for their troops. We need to pray the same for both: that they might all be translated from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of His Beloved Son--the One who loves His enemies.

Call Me Jonah

Well, I was hoping that I could write a lament like King David's, rising out of noble and righteous circumstances. "Oh Lord, they are trying to kill me! What have I done to them? Day and night they curse Your name. They do what they see fit with no fear of punishment. Strike them down for your name's sake. Protect me, your servant, from the evil ones." Etc. etc.

Turns out that I am more like Jonah- disobedient, judgemental, whiny, and lamenting the most irrational things.


Jonah, gotta love him, takes off running in the OTHER direction when God tells him to go to Ninevah. Ok, direct word from the Lord, and he goes 180 degrees in reverse. Why? The Ninevites were cruel and wicked people. Known and feared for their brutality, in fact. Not a soul there recognized Jehovah as Lord of their lives. According to VeggieTales, all they wanted to do was slap each other with fish all day. That's not being very nice.

So, God tells Erin to "raise up your children in the fear and admonition of the Lord." And what did I do today? I went 180 degrees in reverse. Why? Because my kids are NINEVITES! They don't clean up after themselves, they demand more than I can give, they throw temper tantrums, some of them take YEARS to potty train, they wake me up in the middle of the night, they wake me up early in the morning, they ask a constant stream of questions and don't listen for the answer, which means they ask that very same question 2 minutes later... I have yet to see any severed heads impailed on pikes around the walls of the playroom, nevertheless they are a micro- Ninevah. I can hear Jonah now, "I'm not going in there! They'll slap me with fish!"

And yet God, gracious God, understands Jonah's reluctance (though He doesn't tolerate his disobedience) and sends Jonah a little motivator. Ok, a big motivator. 2 of 'em. A storm to rival Alex, Charley, Frances and Ivan combined, and a big fish. I've ridden in the belly of that fish enough times you'd think I would get tired of smelling so bad. But I keep trying to run away from the task God has set before me in parenting. I just wanna go to Tarshish. I just want a vacation on a remote island where the palm trees sway and the waves gently lap the shore. Where no little midget voices clamor at me from dawn 'til dusk. Just a little vacation, that's all I ask. (Do you know what cracks me up? The moment I DO get a break from my kids, I start to miss them. Motherhood makes you so whack-o.)

Ok, so not only does Jonah have be toted back to Ninevah by an instrument of the Lord, he cops an attitude once he gets there. Jonah, Jonah, Jonah. "Well, I'll tell them your message Lord, but I won't do it with a smile on my face or a tear in my eye. And I am NOT going to stick around to help them figure out how to repent! You never said anything about showing compassion. I've got my own agenda to stick to."
Erin, Erin, Erin. "I'll raise these kids Lord, but I'm not going to give 100% to them. If they act right and make my life convenient, then we might be able to get along alright. But if they don't stop asking me questions and wearing me down, I'm just marching right out of here and going out for coffee and cheesecake. After all, I deserve it after all this fish slapping and ruckus."

The most convicting part of Jonah's history is his attitude once he leaves Ninevah. He finds a high spot on a hill "watch it burn." Somehow, he feels justified in getting miffed when God shows compassion and grace on Ninevah- whose people have, indeed, repented. Not only that, when God sends the worm to peel back another layer of Jonah's disillusionment, his response is, "Kill me now. I am angry enough to die." To die? DIE?! Over God showing GRACE to lost people?! Over a stupid withered VINE?! Jonah, you'd DIE over THAT?!?! C'mon!

Oops, wait. Just this morning I hit the roof when Ellie spilled the syrup. Oh, and I hollered at the girls for annoying their baby sister. And then there was that incident where I just threw up my hands in frustration. My attitude said, "I'm ready to die. Just kill me now. I can't bear another moment with the noise level and the commotion around here. The baby is fussing, the syrup is dripping everywhere and that's just the end of things."


"But the LORD said, 'You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?' " Jonah 4:10-11 Jonah had lost the big picture. He let his own desire for convenience and his own agenda rule his life. He was irrational. He was furious. It became all about Jonah, rather than all about GOD. And God's response was to rationally and lovingly point out the facts- "You didn't make the plant. You didn't kill the plant. You have no claim over the plant. I made the plant. I killed the plant. It was my plant. I made the Ninevites. I have claim to their souls. You are more consumed with that silly plant than you are with a lost, doomed and confused people. They don't know their right hand from their left and yet you wanna sit up here and scream at me for taking away your SHADE?"

Ellie was saying to me in the car today, "Look, Mommy. This is my right hand and this is my left hand. Am I right?" Boy, you want to talk about a Scripture hitting home? zing! That sweet girl that dribbled syrup all over herself and the table does not know her spiritual right hand from her left. Why am I focusing on the syrup? There are Ninevites living in my own home, eating at my table, peppering me with questions all day long. And God wants me to give them a message. I really need to get beyond the fish slapping and the withering vines and start telling (and showing) my Ninevites about repentance and grace.