Happy Feast of Purim to the Jewish people and we rejoice as the Mordecai and Esther Foundation,
Last week Thursday and Friday were the two days celebrating the Feast of Purim. As most of you know already, this comes from the beautiful book of Esther. It is one of my favorite stories in the bible and I pray for a similar outcome for the 10 children in the "protection" prison center.
Did you know that the name Esther is similar to the Hebrew word for hidden. We all know the book of Esther is the only book that does not directly mention the name of God nor even prayer.
The Book of Esther's legitimacy as part of the canon of Christian scripture has been the subject of debate because there is no reference to God or prayer. Even though God is never directly mentioned in the book, His Providence is distinctly evidenced in the deliverance of the Jews in the face of great opposition and terrible odds. It is a witness of God's mindfulness of His people, His recognition of their faith, and His direct intervention in their lives despite His indirect presence among them. In fact, the refrain of mention of His name emphasizes this contrast: that even though God isn't directly with us (as it would seem), His hand is still mighty on behalf of His faithful, and thus, is actually with us.
This reflects my exact feelings about all that has transpired with me and the 10 orphans and now the Gold kids. God has chosen to work behind the scenes and that in such a way as to seem "inactive" with any good for me or the kids.
Thinking on how the name Esther is most likely a play on words with the Hebrew word for hidden, it is clear that HE often "hides" what HE is doing and drives us to walk by faith and stay on our knees in prayer. In my flesh, this has become very, very difficult to go through and at times seems almost senseless. I love to dwell on how Job responded many times to what was happening to him. We already know he is one of the greatest examples of patience but most today would condemn him as being impatient with most of his comments to God in the midst of his trial. Time would not afford me showing all the examples of how Job clearly was crying out to God in confusion and was quite direct in asking God tough questions. His comments were legitimate in light of the extreme difficulty he faced and God knew that. Yes it is true that He repented in dust and ashes but it was a not because he was being punished through what he suffered. As I have said before, I do not consider the books of Hebrews and Revelation to be the most difficult books of the bible to properly understand. I still would list Job close to the top of the list of most misunderstood books and for sure one of the most difficult books to interpret properly. Or to make it simple, all too many people understand Job just like his "3 friends" and their erroneous statements about Job.
Remember, who was the object of God's wrath in Job 42? Job? See Job 42:7-9
It came about after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, because you have not spoken of Me what is right as My servant Job has. 8 Now therefore, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, and go to My servant Job, and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves, and My servant Job will pray for you. For I will accept him so that I may not do with you according to your folly, because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has.” 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the Lord told them; and the Lord accepted Job.
Back to Esther, I praise God that HE is always working for us, even though HE clearly chooses at times to be quite "invisible" with HIS grace and power. This is His gracious choice. LORD give the children patience and grace also to keep fighting and waiting upon YOU for deliverance. As in the days of Mordecai and Esther and the Jewish people's darkest day, help us to keep strong. Even today, the Jewish people face a similar enemy and that from the same area. God protect Your people and please protect the orphan children.
Enclosed are two pictures. One picture is of grandma Guo on the bus with me back from the "protection" prison center and we were surrounded by a "team" of fund raisers for some children's need. Uniforms and big glass boxes with no more than 50 cents worth of Chinese money in a city of 130+ billionaires and none of them seem to want to recognize how much we have done for children. Me and grandma were doing the real charity work and that faithfully for years and years. The whole system seems to be on a big charity propaganda publicity kick but with no real results. Please pray they will at least learn to work with people like me. It is so sad to see "so much effort" and so little to show for it and know one ever knows where the money goes anyway.
The second picture is of real charity. Me visiting for the hundredth time Jiang Jia Yi in the hospital and dropping off 3,000 RMB for helping this poor family and this recovering major heart surgery patient. Although 500 USD doesn't even come close to paying her 50,000 USD bill, I believe my "five loaves and two fish" will be multiplied by God. Amen?!!!
I close with the honest to John human thoughts. This stuff is crazy! It goes on and on, worse goes to terrible, bad goes to rotten and if I compared any of my latest struggles to my basketball games, it would sound like this. "I lost my last 20 games, made no winning shots, sweat like a pig but come up short even against the weakest of opponents and worst of all it's extremely exhausting to keep running up and down the hard courts for seemingly nothing." Fortunately this is not the case for me on the basketball court and I do thank God for keeping me in good shape, winning most of the time, love to make the winning last shot, especially a long 3 pointer and by God's grace I never get injured even though these guys hack cuts on me all the time if I don't get enough space to shoot. They do want me on their team though, nobody likes to lose, especially me. I play fair though and by God's grace we will not only win this battle for the 10 orphans, but also for many more orphans. Amen? and Amen!!!
Ray and the 10 and please keep Mr.Cheng and the Gold kids in prayer and all the other orphans as well.
Last week Thursday and Friday were the two days celebrating the Feast of Purim. As most of you know already, this comes from the beautiful book of Esther. It is one of my favorite stories in the bible and I pray for a similar outcome for the 10 children in the "protection" prison center.
Did you know that the name Esther is similar to the Hebrew word for hidden. We all know the book of Esther is the only book that does not directly mention the name of God nor even prayer.
The Book of Esther's legitimacy as part of the canon of Christian scripture has been the subject of debate because there is no reference to God or prayer. Even though God is never directly mentioned in the book, His Providence is distinctly evidenced in the deliverance of the Jews in the face of great opposition and terrible odds. It is a witness of God's mindfulness of His people, His recognition of their faith, and His direct intervention in their lives despite His indirect presence among them. In fact, the refrain of mention of His name emphasizes this contrast: that even though God isn't directly with us (as it would seem), His hand is still mighty on behalf of His faithful, and thus, is actually with us.
This reflects my exact feelings about all that has transpired with me and the 10 orphans and now the Gold kids. God has chosen to work behind the scenes and that in such a way as to seem "inactive" with any good for me or the kids.
Thinking on how the name Esther is most likely a play on words with the Hebrew word for hidden, it is clear that HE often "hides" what HE is doing and drives us to walk by faith and stay on our knees in prayer. In my flesh, this has become very, very difficult to go through and at times seems almost senseless. I love to dwell on how Job responded many times to what was happening to him. We already know he is one of the greatest examples of patience but most today would condemn him as being impatient with most of his comments to God in the midst of his trial. Time would not afford me showing all the examples of how Job clearly was crying out to God in confusion and was quite direct in asking God tough questions. His comments were legitimate in light of the extreme difficulty he faced and God knew that. Yes it is true that He repented in dust and ashes but it was a not because he was being punished through what he suffered. As I have said before, I do not consider the books of Hebrews and Revelation to be the most difficult books of the bible to properly understand. I still would list Job close to the top of the list of most misunderstood books and for sure one of the most difficult books to interpret properly. Or to make it simple, all too many people understand Job just like his "3 friends" and their erroneous statements about Job.
Remember, who was the object of God's wrath in Job 42? Job? See Job 42:7-9
It came about after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, because you have not spoken of Me what is right as My servant Job has. 8 Now therefore, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, and go to My servant Job, and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves, and My servant Job will pray for you. For I will accept him so that I may not do with you according to your folly, because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has.” 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the Lord told them; and the Lord accepted Job.
Back to Esther, I praise God that HE is always working for us, even though HE clearly chooses at times to be quite "invisible" with HIS grace and power. This is His gracious choice. LORD give the children patience and grace also to keep fighting and waiting upon YOU for deliverance. As in the days of Mordecai and Esther and the Jewish people's darkest day, help us to keep strong. Even today, the Jewish people face a similar enemy and that from the same area. God protect Your people and please protect the orphan children.
Enclosed are two pictures. One picture is of grandma Guo on the bus with me back from the "protection" prison center and we were surrounded by a "team" of fund raisers for some children's need. Uniforms and big glass boxes with no more than 50 cents worth of Chinese money in a city of 130+ billionaires and none of them seem to want to recognize how much we have done for children. Me and grandma were doing the real charity work and that faithfully for years and years. The whole system seems to be on a big charity propaganda publicity kick but with no real results. Please pray they will at least learn to work with people like me. It is so sad to see "so much effort" and so little to show for it and know one ever knows where the money goes anyway.
The second picture is of real charity. Me visiting for the hundredth time Jiang Jia Yi in the hospital and dropping off 3,000 RMB for helping this poor family and this recovering major heart surgery patient. Although 500 USD doesn't even come close to paying her 50,000 USD bill, I believe my "five loaves and two fish" will be multiplied by God. Amen?!!!
I close with the honest to John human thoughts. This stuff is crazy! It goes on and on, worse goes to terrible, bad goes to rotten and if I compared any of my latest struggles to my basketball games, it would sound like this. "I lost my last 20 games, made no winning shots, sweat like a pig but come up short even against the weakest of opponents and worst of all it's extremely exhausting to keep running up and down the hard courts for seemingly nothing." Fortunately this is not the case for me on the basketball court and I do thank God for keeping me in good shape, winning most of the time, love to make the winning last shot, especially a long 3 pointer and by God's grace I never get injured even though these guys hack cuts on me all the time if I don't get enough space to shoot. They do want me on their team though, nobody likes to lose, especially me. I play fair though and by God's grace we will not only win this battle for the 10 orphans, but also for many more orphans. Amen? and Amen!!!
Ray and the 10 and please keep Mr.Cheng and the Gold kids in prayer and all the other orphans as well.
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