SOAP (Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer)

Good Morning All,

So, one of the things I started doing a long time a go (and then it fell by the way side), was sharing my bible verse of the day via email with a lot of the women at church.  It was actually inspired by something I did with my mum (hi mum - she's my first follower - love you)! We did "Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren" together and because we don't live very close we shared our daily thoughts by email.  It was really wonderful and I saw a completely different side of my mum. 

Anyway to get back to what I was talking about SOAP! SOAP is a method of reading the bible that I learnt from my pastor and it really revolutionised the way I read my bible and applied it to my life.  Here's a link on how to do it.   Part of the reason for starting this blog was to reinvigorate my daily bible reading and sharing like before but instead of filling up people's inbox - I would open it up to a wider audience.  So here goes today's.....

Title - Drink in your own way!

Scripture -
Esther 1 v 8 "By the King's command each guest was allowed to drink in his own way"

Observation -
So the context of all of this is that The king is throwing a massive shin-dig before going to war to show how strong, wealthy and powerful he is.  Essentially it is all about gaining popularity.  Normally at a banquet, the king controls everyone's drinking and what and how much they can consume.  But here the kings instruction is to serve the people what they wanted and allow them to drink in their own way.  What his motivation for doing this was I have no idea - at a guess I would assume it was to make him look like a generous person and someone who put his people first?!?

But what I really like about this scripture and what jumped out at me was the turn of phrase - it isn't the same in all NIV versions.  "To drink in his own way" - it reminded me of all of the phrases about how Jesus gives us water when we are thirsty, how we should turn to him when we are in need.  But most importantly, it is that it doesn't matter how someone drinks from God.  We can all drink in our own way! One church method or denomination isn't right or wrong (providing they believe in Jesus as the Son of God, etc... but we won't have that debate today).

Application - What does this mean to me? I suppose it is easy to think that someone isn't worshipping or praying or spending as much time with God if they do it in a different way.  We question what we aren't familiar with.  But also it raises the question of how equally do we treat people - racism! Someone said to me on Sunday bullying isn't just being nasty to someone, excluding them intentionally is also bullying.  That was a bit of a "God Slap" for me because I know I do that!

Prayer - Lord help me not to exclude people or de-value them because they don't see the world in the same way as me! Help me be including in all that I do, to show your love to the world in the right way. Amen.