Community
Courage
So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. On the second day, as
they were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther, "What is your
petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even
to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled." Then Queen Esther
answered, "If I have won your favor, O king, and if it pleases the king,
let my life be given me — that is my petition — and the lives of my people —
that is my request. For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to
be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and
women, I would have held my peace; but no enemy can compensate for this damage
to the king." Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, "Who is he,
and where is he, who has presumed to do this?" Esther said, "A foe
and enemy, this wicked Haman!" Then Haman was terrified before the king
and the queen.
Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, said, "Look,
the very gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the
king, stands at Haman's house, fifty cubits high." And the king said,
"Hang him on that." So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had
prepared for Mordecai. Then the anger of the king abated.
Mordecai recorded these things, and sent letters to all the Jews who were in
all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far, enjoining them that
they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and also the fifteenth
day of the same month, year by year, as the days on which the Jews gained
relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from
sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make
them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one
another and presents to the poor.
Esther
7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22 *
The Banquet of Esther and Ahasuerus
VICTORS, Jan
b. 1619, Amsterdam, d.
1676, East Indies
1640s
Staatliche Museen
Kassel,
Germany
Calvinist
collectors in the Dutch Republic were often especially interested in Old
Testament paintings, as Calvin has advocated careful study of the biblical
narrative. Jan Victors, who painted mostly Old Testament scenes, apparently
made them primarily for Calvinist patrons. His large pictures of Old Testament
subjects are distinctly related to Rembrandt's biblical pictures done after the
mid-thirties; his paintings of tradesmen and rural genre scenes are more
personal.
In this
scene the Jewish heroine Esther, wife of the Persian King Ahasuerus, notifies
her husband of the plans of his advisor Haman, here seen at left, who has
schemed to massacre the Jews in the Persian empire.
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/v/victors/esther_a.html
Courage is
not the towering oak that sees storms come and go;
it is the
fragile blossom that opens in the snow.
~ Alice M.
Swaim
Worry does
not empty tomorrow of its sorrow;
it empties
today of its strength.
~ Corrie Ten
Boom
Carolyn
Martyn next to her painting in the
2012 Rocky
Mountain National Watermedia Show at Foothills Art Center in Golden, Colorado.
Congratulations,
CV!
The elk have
been very busy bugling during
rutting season!
Amelia was
one of the kid models at Transitions12,
a Hair and
Fashion Show presented by Tallgrass Spa and Salon Thursday evening.
Meri models
a tutu during the Evergreen Animal Protective League part of the show.
Meri, a
terribly abused pit bull, was adopted by Gail and Chuck Ridings.
She has had
four surgeries and has one more scheduled.
See story
below. **
Annette
Bradley reaching out to Meri with friends … and Christine Blaustein.
On Friday
morning, our Rotary Club met at Putting Edge,
a
glow-in-the-dark indoor mini golf spot at Colorado Mills Shopping Mall.
Roman
Weathermon and several others tried a bit
of golf
before our meeting.
Kimra
Perkins, a past president of our Rotary Club, was our hostess and vocational
speaker.
Kimra is the
General Manager of Colorado Mills Shopping Mall.
Ron Rossetter, owner of Evergreen Glass, proudly
showed me his Excalibur
which he has had for 16 years and lovingly restored
over a three-year period.
He and his wife drove it to Las Vegas and back a week
or so ago.
They had lots of stares!
Marilyn
Sandifer and Bruce Evashevski
at the
Evashevski’s Oktoberfest!
Oralie
McAfee and Mel Andrew
Joan
Evashevski and her friend Jeanne von Barby.
Things turn
out best for the people who make the best
of the way
things turn out.
~ John
Wooden
September 30, 2012 Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost; 26th
Sunday in Ordinary Time
Previous
OPQs may be found at:
http://www.dotjack.com/opq.htm
* The Book of Esther
explains the origins of the Jewish Feast of Purim
** Abused pit bull muzzled with barbed wire
EVERGREEN - Police and
an animal protection group are looking for help in identifying who may have
abused a pit bull by muzzling it with barbed wire.
Meri, a 3-year-old pit
bull, is now under the care of the Evergreen Animal Protective League after
severe neglect and abuse.
The dog was ditched on
the doorstep of an animal shelter in Brighton on Thursday before the shelter
opened, according to Jackie Bell, the president of the Evergreen Animal
Protective League.
Bell says the barbed
wire injuries make Meri's case one of the worst cases of animal abuse she has
ever seen.
"I don't know why
somebody would do that, other than to keep her from barking," she said.
Meri also has injuries
to her hip and will undergo surgery with a specialist.
"Everything about
her can be fixed," Bell said. "She's much better than she was and
she's going to be just fine."
She was also severely
malnourished, Bell says.
"You just want to
make her life better, and seek others that need help," Bell said.
For more information
on adopting Meri in counties where pit bulls are allowed, visit the Evergreen
Animal Protective League's website at http://www.eapl.com/
or by calling 303-674-6442.
(KUSA-TV © 2012
Multimedia Holdings Corporation)
http://www.9news.com/news/article/264487/222/Abused-pit-bull-muzzled-with-barbed-wire-
John said to him, "Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your
name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us." But
Jesus said, "Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my
name will be able soon afterwards to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against
us is for us. For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink
because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.
"If any of you put a stumbling-block before one of these little ones who
believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around
your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble,
cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands
and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble,
cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and
to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it
is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two
eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire is
never quenched.
"For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if salt has lost
its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace
with one another."
Mark
9:38-50
Agnus
Day, by James Wetzstein
Agnus Day appears with the
permission of www.agnusday.org
Esth. 7:1–6, 9–10; 9:20–22
Ps. 124
James 5:13–20
Mark 9:38–50