{"id":104,"date":"2003-09-01T21:56:15","date_gmt":"2003-09-02T02:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?p=104"},"modified":"2012-04-24T22:01:48","modified_gmt":"2012-04-25T03:01:48","slug":"mortal-combat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?p=104","title":{"rendered":"Mortal Combat"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou yourselves write a decree concerning the Jews, as you please, in the king\u2019s name, and seal it with the king\u2019s signet ring, for whatever is written in the king\u2019s name and sealed with the king\u2019s ring, no one can revoke\u2026By these letters the king permitted the Jews who were in every city to gather together and protect their lives-to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the forces of any people or province that would assault them\u2026\u201d Esther 9:8,11<\/em><\/p>\n

Have you seen that Capital One credit card commercial, the one that depicts a horde of marauding invaders descending on an unwary consumer? Just before they reach him, the consumer whips out his low interest Capital One card and the attackers are thwarted. Their weapons fall slack and with dejected faces they return to wherever they came from. Well, I don\u2019t know about you, but I can\u2019t remember the last time barbarians swarmed my suburban neighborhood. Yet the commercial hits home because the advertisers nailed the fear that comes with uncontrolled debt.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t have to look very far to find someone in financial distress. I have a couple of neighbors who were let go from their jobs, and I imagine they felt terror breathing down their necks. And there\u2019s more to dread than the lack of money. Just mention the \u201cC\u201d word – we all know someone who is fighting or has fought it.\u00a0 Watch people cross themselves or knock on wood or do anything they can think of to ward it off. It isn\u2019t just cancer people fear. There are scores of incurable diseases nowadays. I\u2019ve watched the clerk at the convenience store down the street from my house become more and more palsied as each month goes by. I know and she knows\u00a0it will only get worse until eventually it\u2019ll become so bad\u00a0she\u2019ll have to give up her job, and then what? I don\u2019t suppose a slow siege like that is any less frightening, or any less brutal, than a bunch of big, hairy guys coming at you with axes and swords. Wouldn\u2019t it be nice to have protection from that sort of thing that\u2019s as effective as the credit card in the commercials?<\/p>\n

Wait a minute! Isn\u2019t that the gospel we preach?<\/p>\n

All Christians believe in deliverance, but a dividing line falls along the boundary between whether deliverance is \u201chere and now\u201d (this life) or \u201cthere and then\u201d (the next). I\u2019ve believed the \u201chere and now\u201d version of the gospel, sometimes dubbed \u201cWord of Faith\u201d, for a long time. You might wonder how I can hold to that with all the suffering I see good-living Christians go through. Well, all I can say is if I formed my beliefs based on what I see I never would have become a Christian in the first place.<\/p>\n

The book of Esther lays it out for me. The King sent out a decree, a curse if you will, on all those poor Jews. Their enemies were waiting in the wings to take advantage of it. Then surprise! Someone intercedes on the Jews\u2019 behalf. The King can\u2019t rescind the first decree: it\u2019s out there to stay. So He issues a second. \u201cWhen your enemy attacks you, don\u2019t just lie down and take it! Fight back! Behold! I give you power over all the power of the enemy!\u201d Sounds like good news to me. It\u2019s a good thing the messengers in Esther\u2019s day spread the word to every village.<\/p>\n

So, don\u2019t triumph over me, oh my enemy, when I stumble and fall. I, the righteous in Jesus, will surely rise again! But as for you, Devil, you\u2019re going down and there is none to save you.<\/p>\n

To all who believe the second decree, happy charging!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou yourselves write a decree concerning the Jews, as you please, in the king\u2019s name, and seal it with the king\u2019s signet ring, for whatever is written in the king\u2019s name and sealed with the king\u2019s ring, no one can … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Mo02-1G","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":892,"url":"https:\/\/melissakaysimonds.com\/?p=892","url_meta":{"origin":104,"position":0},"title":"A Writer’s Womb","author":"lsimonds","date":"July 31, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"INTERVIEWER You start with a character in mind. 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