Our Resurrection Weekend services begin with our Good Friday Evening Gathering, March 29 at 7:00 pm, and conclude with our regular Sunday activities on Resurrection Sunday Morning, March 31!

preparing 20160717

Prepare your heart for Sunday by looking through these suggestions that will assist you in making the most of our time together.

You will find suggestions for thinking more critically through the passage, meditating more intently on the text, and tangibly putting scripture to action in your personal life, and in our corporate body.

Carefully Think

  • Read all ten chapters in the book of Esther in one sitting.  Try to read it all through once a day through Sunday.
  • When is this book taking place?  How do you know?  Describe the setting for the nation of Israel and where this fits in.  
  • What is the purpose of chapter 1 and how does it lay the foundation for the rest of the book?  
  • Chapter 2 continues with the King now in search of a queen to replace Vashti. What is the process to find a new queen? What events have to take place that a Jewish girl would become queen? Verses 19-23 seem to be out of place, how do the contribute to the story? What would be the point of their inclusion?
  • Reading through the plot of Haman to destroy the Jews on account of Mordecai builds a large part of the remaining book (Chs. 3-7). How do these three main characters relate to one another in the context of this story?  
  • How should these events be viewed from a Jewish vantage point? Who is in control of the events in Chs. 1-7? Do we see God anywhere in these chapters explicitly?  How do you know he is working these events?

Prayerfully Meditate

  • Examine the daily affairs in your life. How many seem tragic or painful far beyond your control? In Esther's life, what control did she have over becoming queen of an Empire? Saving the Jews?
  • How do we respond the situations in our life that seem far beyond what we believe we are capable of or can control? Can you think of the events in your life that have been traumatic and/or painful and know how God has used them to shape you for the work of His hands currently? Are you dead in the middle of a trial currently? How are you responding in faith? What was the response of Esther when her life was in danger? What is your response to trials that would seem to end you?  
  • What is the reason God's name is never mentioned in the text, but He seems to be so clearly in control of the events to aid His people? How can this instruct you in God's work in your life and our nation?

Intentionally Act

  • Read through the book of Esther every day this week and become very familiar with the text for the second part.  
  • Pray for your heart to become receptive to all circumstances God brings to you daily.   Pray that in those circumstances He would bring opportunities for you to strengthen the church in unity and to evangelize the lost.
  • Pray for our church to see the text as God intended and for its impact to change hearts toward God, toward other believers and toward the lost.  
  • Pray that the Lord would grant us understanding hearts and minds and that we would apply all that we learn through the preaching of his Word this coming Lord’s day.
  • Pray that the Lord would use the preaching of his Word to restore his people.
  • Celebrate the Lord’s work in the Gospel through rehearsing the songs chosen for our gathering this Sunday.
  • Pray for those leading our corporate gathering this week and for the Holy Spirit’s work as the book of Esther is further explained and applied: Dawson Bryant, music; Brandon Ferguson, Elders' prayer and Scripture reading; Bret Capranica, teaching.

Songs for Sunday

Lyrics

Lyrics Morning Gathering - July 17, 2016 by Summit Woods Baptist Church on Scribd