followHIM

Everything you just said reminds me of a really nice paragraph from the Come Follow Me Manual.

It says, as believers today all over the world, we still use these words in our worship of God.

The writers of the Psalms seem to have had a window into our souls and seem to have found a way to express how we feel about God, what we worry about, and how we find peace.

And what you had said about these Psalms, that's a great paragraph.

This does talk about what we worry about.

Another thing that the manual gives us, I love it when you're giving me a way to read it, not just read it again, but read it and look for something.

And so, the Come Follow Me Manual for individuals and families says, watch for the following. Write down what you discover. Invitations to trust the Lord in the Psalms, words that describe the Lord in the Psalms, words that describe the peace, strength, and other blessings the Lord provides, and words that describe those who trust the Lord.

That's why the fasting is so important. I'm going to go in search of the answer. I'm not going to presume it. I'm not going to act on my own genius alone. I don't believe that that's the path to salvation according to the genius of my own creation.

It's a different approach in the book of Hebrews. We really learn about the role of Christ as our high priest and the author of our salvation and all of these things, but the book of Esther is similarly well-crafted and similarly plays on multiple really interesting spiritual and emotional and intellectual levels and gives us a view of how it is that the divine works and how those spiritual realities can come to pass in our own lives.

It's a cautionary tale about the limits to which revenge can be taken, or the great cost of pursuing a program of revenge, that things will not work out if that is your focus. You cannot be elevated on the backs or the blood of others.

It functions as a warning against pursuing that kind of course in one's life, either in large ways, like here or in very small ways. I think Esther is teaching us that it's not the path of virtue.

It's really significant to me that in the book of Esther, we have the experience of a woman who does something at a redemptive level on behalf of others that is not tied to motherhood and is not tied to the bearing of children.

In the Book of Esther, she sees it as an opportunity, even in the face of a really severe life-threatening situation where a decree against their lives has been placed.

It's a heroine story, what they call a bildungsroman, a coming of age story.

God is hidden in this book in the same way that God is veiled from us during our mortal experience.

Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

It's almost like the world of Purim is like the millennium in miniature.

if you're nervous about it, there's a book our friend wrote, Tony Sweatt, wrote a book called The Holy Invitation.

I don't know if you know it's John, but he wrote another book called The Holy Covenants.

Our friend Alonzo Gaskell has also written a book about 75 questions and answers to prepare to go to the temple.

His dissertation was published as a book, Abraham Meets Death, Narrative Humor in the Testament of Abraham by Sheffield Academic Press.

He's also produced a World History textbook, Revealing World History to 1500,

He said, the age of the mockers is uncertain. The Hebrew can refer to prepubescent children, but can also refer to the younger generation, the same Hebrew word describes Rehoboam's peers in first Kings 12, eight as young men and they are over 40.

the warning label might say, Contents highly addictive, extremely corrosive to the soul, materials enclosed. Be prepared to have your mind twisted, your views of life ravaged and your spirit shrunk. Be aware that the Spirit of the Lord will not be with you during or after viewing. Be prepared that after an initial rush, you will experience feelings of depression, loneliness, despair and guilt. However, with repeated exposures over time, you can numb those feelings and enter into almost total amnesia, about who you really are and about the truth itself.

The Lord's going to follow through on what he says if we're willing to participate with him.

It's okay to be honest and ask for that.

The Lord is still our king and we're going to keep this religious slash family-based kingdom of his going.

Samson's a tragic figure. We're going to have lots of tragic figures in the Bible, but here's one.

If you keep the commandments of the Lord, you're obedient, you're faithful, you'll prosper in the land and God will help you. And if you don't, he won't.

Later on in the book of Nehemiah, Nadia, a woman we don't know much about is described as a prophetess.

Now, Jesus provides a way to meet the demands of justice, but everyone does not take advantage of that opportunity.

I was just reading this book this morning, Four Views on the Canaanite Genocide, and the very last chapter is a great one because the theologian, Tremper Longman, he's like, look, we're not commanded to go and be physically violent.

That's Jesus' role in the future as he fights spiritual powers and authorities. It's not our role.

He later gave a BYU devotional on a similar topic called 100% Responsibility. And his book that applies this to marriage, Love Is a Choice, is really powerful.