For Such A Time As This

For Such A Time As This

Have you ever wished that you had been born in a different time? Trekkies wish they would had been born three hundred years from now anticipating that much of what is now science fiction will become reality by then. Many young girls wish they had been born in the days of knights so princes that would duel over them. I have often wished that I had been born in 1842 or 52 instead of 1952. I could have been a real cowboy or a parson in a small Carolinian or Texas town. Even if I had been out of Bible College in 1952, my ministry would have been “easier” and certainly larger than it is now in an age that rejects truth.

You most likely know the story of Esther and how she became the instrument God used in saving the Jewish people by her marriage and intercession to a pagan king, but lets read a few verses of that story.

Esther 4:13-17

13 Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king’s house, more than all the Jews.

14 For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

15 Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer,

16 Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.

17 So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him.

(KJV)

While many girls might dream of growing up and marrying a king no devout Jewess would desire to marry a pagan nor would an uncle impress her into doing that normally. Yet, because they both did the abnormal and in some ways the unthinkable Esther was used by God and the Jews were spared. She was called into the kingdom for such a time as that. Her fasting and praying before she went in to the king shows her dependence on God. She knew what had happened to her predecessor for disobeying the king and she was right to think that he might kill her in a rage. The fact that she was still willing to do her duty shows her love for God and her spiritual maturity.

Why are we here? When you think that all that happened throughout the centuries to get your parents together and have you there has to be a reason why you are here in this time. Many family branches ended when the last member had no children. Some spread out like vines with couples that had fifteen children and each of them having nine or more. I am an only child and only here humanly speaking by the perseverance of my mother as my father did not want children because he was handicapped and knew he would have a hard time earning enough money to support children. If Dad’s desire had been fulfilled, my six grandchildren would not have been born. There were lots of variables that God worked together to get you here in this time and even in the birth order you are in as well as your gender. If you are the baby, your life developed differently than if you would have been the eldest or middle child. Girls are different than boys no matter what the culture says and God does not err and put the wrong gendered soul in a body. He had a reason for me to be male instead of a female. The branch of Shultz’s that I belong to would have died with me had I been born female. I’ve had a son so it has lasted at least one more generation before the Lord returns. I would not be a pastor if I were born a woman or at least not one biblically. I could have been in rebellion and heretical, but not a biblical pastor.

So, if I am here today as I am for a reason what could be that reason? There may be several in such a time as this.

To Catch The Falling

II Thessalonians 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; (KJV)

We are definitely living in an age of apostasy if not the one described here though I believe we are in the one that precedes the Rapture and the Tribulation. As Christians, we are here to stand for the truth and to try and catch some of these folks that are on the verge of or are falling away and to restore as many as possible. (James 5:20, 1 Peter 4:8)