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b'In the book of Esther, a Jew becomes queen of a gentile (or non-Jewish)\\nnation that stretches from India to Cush (the upper Nile region). This\\nkingdom is headed by King Xerxes. But Esther is not his first queen. The\\nbook begins when King Xerxes gives an enormous banquet for all his\\nofficials and the people of the land. At the end of the banquet, he\\ncommands his queen, Vashti, to come to him so he can display her beauty to\\nthe people. But Vashti refuses, so the king deposes her from her position\\nas queen and replaces her with Esther\\u2014after choosing her from among many\\nother beautiful girls who were taken to his palace. He doesn\\u2019t know Esther\\nis a Jew. But one day, there\\u2019s trouble. Mordecai, who is Esther\\u2019s cousin,\\nsits at the king\\u2019s gate to find out how Esther is doing, and he refuses to\\nbow to a high-ranking official named Haman. In his anger, Haman determines\\nto kill Mordecai\\u2014together with all the Jews in the kingdom. Mordecai learns\\nof Haman\\u2019s plot and sends a message to Queen Esther instructing her to go\\nto the king and plead with him for her people\\u2019s rescue. Esther is at first\\nunwilling to appear before the king, knowing that whoever intrudes in the\\nking\\u2019s inner court uninvited must be killed. So Mordecai sends a messenger\\nback to Esther with these words: \\u201cIf you remain silent at this time, relief\\nand deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and\\nyour father\\u2019s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to\\nyour royal position for such a time as this?\\u201d (Esther 4:14). Esther then\\nagrees, instructing all the Jews to fast with her before she goes to the\\nking. When Esther appears before him and pleads for herself and her people,\\nthe king listens. The genocide plan fails, Haman is impaled, and Mordecai\\nis promoted! The book of Esther shows us that God loves His people, and He\\nis able to deliver them from trouble using any means. God is sovereign.\\nEven though there was a plot to exterminate Jewish people, God worked\\nthrough Esther to save them. Generations later, God came to save His people\\nfrom sin and death\\u2014permanently. Because God loves us, Jesus died and rose\\nagain for us. We can become part of God\\u2019s family by putting our trust in\\nJesus. And, as a part of God\\u2019s family, when a need arises and we are in a\\nposition to help, we can do so because God\\u2019s love is in us, and He will\\ngive us the courage to do whatever He calls us to do. \\u2022 Charity Kiregyera \\u2022\\nIf God can work through any means, why do you think He often works through\\nHis people? \\u201cAnd who knows but that you have come to your royal position\\nfor such a time as this?\\u201d Esther 4:14b (NIV)\\n\\xa0\\nRead Verses:\\nEsth.4'