It is Time!

 

“Who knows, you may have been placed in this place for such a time as this?”

–Esther 4:14

The Book of Esther is a story of how a marginalized people overcame imminent destruction and, as a result, encouraged a whole hostile nation.

Babylonian Queen Esther=s Jewish community stands at the brink of annihilation, genocide.  They are the victims of the vitriolic and uncontrolled hatred of one man, Haman, and the whimsical irresponsibility of the foolish king, Ahasuerus.

Today America is facing a crisis. While we no doubt have political and military hegemony, we have lost the high ground.  That is for sure!  And our world as we know it is ending. The once sacred cultural icons of this nation are forgotten, and the paltry offerings contemporary politicians and sociologists offer no longer satisfy the needs of our people.  What is God speaking to us, brothers and sisters?

In the past God used Revivals to bring renewal.  I think it is time we had another.  Could the home school movement, even in a small way, be a forerunner of that revival?

I believe it is!  For such a time as this, God has called His people, a small but significant part of which is the home schooled community, to be salt and light to a nation that has lost its flavor and lost its light.

Esther’s cousin Mordecai comes to warn Esther than she must give up her anonymity and take a stand or they will all perish.  All Esther wants to do is slip back into the safety of her role.  Who can blame her?  But for the sake of the nation, Esther will risk everything to do what is necessary.  Though her knees must be shaking, she determines to stare death in the face and stand up for her people.  Which is what she does.  Unless summoned by her husband, Esther faces certain death by approaching him,for one never approaches an Oriental monarch unsummoned.  Especially if one is a lowly woman–even a wife.

In 2011, home schoolers, are we called to give up our anonymity and to risk everything for the promise of revival?

It is time!

The theologian writer Fred Buehner writes in his book Now and Then, “When you find something in a human face that calls out to you, not just for help but in some sense for yourself, how far do you go in answering that call, how far can you go, seeing that you have your own life to get on with . . .”  You go as far as necessary.  You go as far as you can.  You go as far as Christ went. . .

Home schoolers, how much do you love America?  Are you willing to die for them?  Are you willing to put your children in a place of risk for this nation?

Perhaps we are called to this place for such a time as this . . .

Home schoolers we have come again to that sacred moment when God meets us in Jesus Christ.  We are loved into becoming agents of transformation. We now need to take Him to the world.  He empowers us to withstand whatever obstacles we may face. 

Martin Luther wrote, “There is no greater love than God and no more desperate scoundrel than the world. . . His love is greater than the fire seen by Moses and greater even than the fire of hell.”

 We stand today basking in the glow of the love of God in Jesus Christ.

My question to you  is this: How much do you love God? The USA?  The World?  Enough to prepare your children to be world changers for Christ?  To prepare them to die for the Gospel if necessary so that others may know Him?

Esther had no status, very little influence really, she had no obligations to anyone but herself.  But she obeyed God and saved a nation.  In Ch. 4 when she turns the corner and faces her husband unsummoned she is facing death . . . or eternal victory.  In the courts, in the business world, in higher education our children are doing the same.  Will we prepare them to do this?

We stand with those facing death.  We stand against systems that tyrannize, abuse, demean, and destroy.  We stand for life–all life, everywhere.  We stand because we know that we are loved . . .  That He died for our sins so that we might live, and love others too.  We daily dare to search our hearts, minds, and behavior and risk new ways of thinking, speaking, living, for the sake of our suffering neighbors, sisters, brothers, mother, fathers, sons, and daughters.  We will not necessarily succeed . . . but we will try.  The German theologian Karl Barth urges every church to ask constantly this question, “Is it time?”  Could we be God’s instrument?  Is this our time?  Could we be called for just such a time as this?

Finally, I end with a prayer written by the theologian, humanitarian, and writer Thomas Merton wrote this prayer shortly before his death: “If I have any choices to make, it is to lie here and perhaps to die here.  But, in any case, it is not the living or the dying that matter, but speaking your name with confidence in this light, in this unvisited place.  To speak your name . . . and the light you have given.”

It is time.

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