We are made to celebrate!
There is an overwhelming amount of bad news in the media, and there are countless families suffering from illness, poverty, dysfunction, needing Jesus. It's easy to see all the negative, but God calls us to praise and to celebrate, even when we don't feel it.
God has laid it on my heart this spring to enter His courts with thanksgiving and His gates with Praise. Psalm 100:4 I've had seasons when praise has been my mode, but sometimes I forget. I write this quick note today because I was reminded again of the importance of celebration as I was reading Esther.
Let me back up a quick second, our family has long had a tradition of putting stones in a glass candle holder to mark the big God things we see happening. We based in on Joshua 4:20-24,
"And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. 21 He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 22 tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ 23 For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. 24 He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.”
God calls us to celebrate His works. So in my reading today, I see that after God delivered the Jews from the hand of Haman, through the obedience of Esther at risk of losing her life, the Jews set a special day of feasting to repeat year after year!
Esther 9:28 "These days should be remembered and observed in every generation by every family, and in every province and in every city. And these days of Purim should never fail to be celebrated by the Jews--nor should the memory of these days die out among their descendants."
God has laid it on my heart this spring to enter His courts with thanksgiving and His gates with Praise. Psalm 100:4 I've had seasons when praise has been my mode, but sometimes I forget. I write this quick note today because I was reminded again of the importance of celebration as I was reading Esther.
Let me back up a quick second, our family has long had a tradition of putting stones in a glass candle holder to mark the big God things we see happening. We based in on Joshua 4:20-24,
"And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. 21 He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 22 tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ 23 For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. 24 He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.”
God calls us to celebrate His works. So in my reading today, I see that after God delivered the Jews from the hand of Haman, through the obedience of Esther at risk of losing her life, the Jews set a special day of feasting to repeat year after year!
Esther 9:28 "These days should be remembered and observed in every generation by every family, and in every province and in every city. And these days of Purim should never fail to be celebrated by the Jews--nor should the memory of these days die out among their descendants."
We celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, national holidays, Christmas, Easter...but how well are we doing at celebrating and remembering the things God is doing in our immediate surroundings. Sometimes it takes a few years before we feel we can celebrate and look back and see what God did. That's OK! This is just a reminder to praise and celebrate the God of the universe as often as we breathe.
Rend Collective, Boldy I Approach
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