Deliverance By Design

That same day King Xerxes gave Queen Esther the estate of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. And Mordecai came into the presence of the king, for Esther had told how he was related to her. The king took off his signet ring, which he had reclaimed from Haman, and presented it to Mordecai. And Esther appointed him over Haman's estate. Esther again pleaded with the king, falling at his feet and weeping. She begged him to put an end to the evil plan of Haman the Agagite, which he had devised against the Jews. Then the king extended the gold scepter to Esther and she arose and stood before him. "If it pleases the king," she said, "and if he regards me with favor and thinks it the right thing to do, and if he is pleased with me, let an order be written overruling the dispatches that Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, devised and wrote to destroy the Jews in all the king's provinces. For how can I bear to see disaster fall on my people? How can I bear to see the destruction of my family?" King Xerxes replied to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, "Because Haman attacked the Jews, I have given his estate to Esther, and they have hanged him on the gallows. Now write another decree in the king's name in behalf of the Jews as seems best to you, and seal it with the king's signet ring--for no document written in the king's name and sealed with his ring can be revoked." At once the royal secretaries were summoned--on the twenty-third day of the third month, the month of Sivan. They wrote out all Mordecai's orders to the Jews, and to the satraps, governors and nobles of the 127 provinces stretching from India to Cush. These orders were written in the script of each province and the language of each people and also to the Jews in their own script and language. Mordecai wrote in the name of King Xerxes, sealed the dispatches with the king's signet ring, and sent them by mounted couriers, who rode fast horses especially bred for the king. The king's edict granted the Jews in every city the right to assemble and protect themselves; to destroy, kill and annihilate any armed force of any nationality or province that might attack them and their women and children; and to plunder the property of their enemies. (Esther 8:1-11 NIV)

The book of Esther tells the story of a young Jewish girl whom God used to thwart a plan by the enemy to annihilate the Jews. She rose from obscurity to become the wife of King Xerxes and, guided by her uncle Mordecai, laid her life on the line to expose the man and the plan intent upon bringing destruction upon her people. However, even after Haman, the man responsible for the original edict of death, was exposed and executed, his decree signed with the king’s signet ring could not be undone according to the law of the land. Now, God could have intervened in a variety of different ways at this point. He could have sent a plague, an Angel of the Lord to destroy the opposition, a natural disaster, or any number of other calamities to deliver the Jews from this seemingly certain fate. That, however, was not His choice for this occasion. Instead God’s deliverance of choice was enablement.

The Scripture says that King Xerxes commissioned Queen Esther and Mordecai to write another edict in the king’s name in whatever way they felt would be in their best interest. So Mordecai drew up a document designed to counter the one authored by Haman and stop the slaughter of the Jews. This order granted the Jews in every city the right to form an army and protect themselves. It gave them permission under protection of the law to pound to powder any adversary that threatened them or their families. So what did the Jews do with that opportunity given to them? They saw God’s hand of deliverance in it and they jumped on the bandwagon.

What happened next was nothing short of amazing. It goes like this. “On the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, the edict commanded by the king was to be carried out. On this day the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, but now the tables were turned and the Jews got the upper hand over those who hated them. The Jews assembled in their cities in all the provinces of King Xerxes to attack those seeking their destruction. No one could stand against them, because the people of all the other nationalities were afraid of them.” (Esther 9:1-2 NIV)

God empowered the Jews through Mordecai’s mandate, making provision for the taking down of the terrorists who were out to trounce them. This provision was just as much the work of God’s hand as if He would have sent in hundreds of wild animals to devour the disputants or carried them off in a whirlwind to lands unknown. It was God’s deliverance by God’s design.

It is often our predisposition and our preference that God’s deliverance will come with a mighty rushing wind and some mind-boggling cataclysmic event that defies natural law. He certainly has done those things and still does them. However, with this limited mindset, we run a great risk of being robbed of our God-appointed rescue because we are seeking solely the spectacular. There are times in the Scriptures that God singlehandedly defeated the forces of the enemy. For example, in 2 Chronicles 20, the Moabites and Ammonites attacked Judah and the Lord brought the victory by causing the opposition to oppose themselves and delivered Judah without them ever swinging a sword. Many times, though, God’s solution involves His ability paired with man’s obedience, one of those times being in the Scriptural account in Esther. We must be willing to take the course of deliverance that God in His wisdom provides. God’s strategy may seem to us at times mundane and a far cry from sensational, but obedience is key and we must understand that He often uses the ordinary to accomplish the extraordinary. He without a doubt can still rain fire down from heaven to deal with our difficulties if He chooses, but we must not make the mistake of putting Him in a box that demands such and thus limits His ability to work in our lives.

God is famous for using the foolish things of this world to confound the wise and leave them scratching their heads in amazement; and when it really comes down to it, whether God causes water to gush from a rock to satisfy your thirst or provides you the resources to drill a well and put in a pump, all of God’s intervention into the human life is nothing short of miraculous.


He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. (Psalms 91:15 NIV)


©LaDonna Neel - September 2010

Times of Tree-bulation

I work at home as a medical transcriptionist. This line of work requires that I have high-speed internet to download my voice files and upload my completed documents. Living in rural America as I do, high-speed internet is not that easy to come by. The major telecommunication companies that I contacted did not provide that kind of coverage for my area and one that I talked to implied that I am fortunate to even have phone service here. However, just when it seemed I was without hope in this situation, God provided the perfect solution through a local businessman who had the inspiration to venture into the world of wireless high-speed internet for my area. This has provided me with over 3 years of solid service, until last week that is when suddenly I began to experience serious loss of internet service. Now internet problems can very quickly become a frustrating situation for me as it can ultimately affect my ability to generate income. This dilemma went on for several days. I made several calls to the technicians, and under their guidance I tried a number of different troubleshooting maneuvers to try and resolve this issue, but nothing seemed to be working. Finally, a technician came to my house to see if he could save what was left of my hair. It didn’t take him too long to find the problem. The culprit ended up being a tree. You see, this system works on the premise of transmitting and receiving. A transmitter on a tower several miles from my house puts out a signal and a radio on my house picks it up and gives me the high-speed internet. There must be a clear line of sight from that tower to my radio in order for things to work properly. Three years ago, when this radio was installed, this tree was fairly small and in no way created a problem. However, over time that tree grew. I never noticed it growing, but nonetheless it was quietly creeping up and branching out until one day it began to interfere with the signal from the tower, causing me to lose my internet. Had I paid attention in the first place, I could have avoided the situation all together. God really taught me something from this experience.

Just as I cannot allow anything to grow up in between the transmitter tower and my radio, I must be alert and not permit something to sprout up and separate me and my Heavenly Father. As I thought about this, I realized it is not the objects that blow in suddenly that catch us off guard. Those are usually obvious and easy to catch. The things that prove the most problematic are those that start so small that they manage to slip in underneath the radar. These seemingly trivial things tend to sneak in, put down roots, and begin to inch their way up at a pace that evades our attention. This can continue unbeknownst to us until all of sudden one day we are faced with a major interruption of communication between us and our Creator. The longer this connection remains impaired, the greater the loss we are likely to incur. That being the case, it is imperative that we deal swiftly and soundly with such disruptions, doing whatever is necessary to restore that vital connection with our true Source. Once the obstruction has been eliminated, it is crucial that we make a concerted and consistent effort to ensure that the pathway remains clear. This is done through daily time in God’s Word and frequent interaction with Him throughout our daily lives in prayer and in our thought life. These preventative maneuvers will go a long way towards keeping small seedlings from becoming troublesome trees and will afford us the ability to live genuinely productive lives through a strong relationship with Christ, the One in whom we live, move, and have our being.

(John 15:5 MSG) "I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you're joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can't produce a thing.”

©LaDonna Neel - June 2010

Keep on Playing

Music has always been a passion of mine. By the age of 5 my parents would find me sitting at that oversized upright piano of ours picking out the melody of songs that I had heard somewhere along the way. Desiring to foster my budding interest in music, they soon found me a piano teacher; and I spent the next several years learning to navigate this instrument that had captivated me at an early age. I gained knowledge about reading musical notes, counting time, key signatures, dynamics, and a host of other technicalities that make music what it is. Performance techniques were also something that my teacher attempted to impress upon me, one of those being if you make a mistake, don’t stop, just keep going. Get where you are supposed to be and finish the piece. I thought that was certainly easy for her to say because it seemed she never made any mistakes when she played. This task proved itself to be a quite a challenge. As I began to work on this issue, I found my first instinct when things went south was to just stop and give it up. I felt surely there was no way to salvage the remainder of the piece after what I had done. I could not focus on where I was supposed to be. All I could think of was the erroneous note, how everyone was staring at me, and how stupid I must appear. In my mind, I panicked, trying to decide what would be the most feasible method of dealing with this disastrous event, crying, faking an illness, or making a dash for the nearest parking lot. I cannot count how many times I said I would never do this again. It was just too hard to get past the embarrassment of making a mistake, regroup, and get back on track all in one small moment of time.

I have been playing for many years now. Through time and much practice, my musical skills have grown. However, even now, that guidance that I received as a music student remains near the forefront of my thoughts every time I play before an audience. Making a mistake continues to unnerve me and rattle my cage. There is still that initial moment of panic and then the immediate struggle to regain focus, and to this day I have times that I find myself wanting to crawl under the bench or make a break for the nearest exit. However, it has become much easier to quickly step past the immediate hysteria and with a little improvisation and patience pull back into line with the song and complete it successfully. I am not saying I don’t sweat bullets at times in the process, but I have found if I can regain my focus and keep moving, I can often finish the musical undertaking on a good note.

Just as blunders do happen in my musical adventures, they also seem to crop up in other areas of my life as well. I shouldn’t be surprised. Outside of Jesus Christ, no human has ever walked mistake-free and none ever will. Regardless, my heart is grieved when I discover that I have missed a beat. I can easily become distracted and find myself unable to find my place. Often Satan takes great pleasure in recalling that impropriety to the center stage of my mind, causing me to endure encore after encore of the unfortunate production, relentlessly reminding me of my less-than-perfect performance. So many times I have thought of calling it quits, thinking that this time I had really blown it with no possible hope of ever recovering.

It is at these moments that God gently reminds me that He is not taken by surprise when I get off key. In fact, He knows that I am but flesh and blood and apt to stumble at times; and instead of cancelling my contract and having me tossed off the stage, He directs me back to the correct measure and then tells me to “keep on playing.” Oh how wonderful the grace of our God.
Now, this does not give me license to be careless and casual about any endeavor but rather blesses me with the freedom to play my heart out, knowing that an incidental missed note will not bring down the curtain with one show-stopping thud. Over time I have finally begun to realize that my Father is just as interested in my success as I am and that when the last note is played He will be waiting for me as I step off the stage, waiting to celebrate with me the performance of a lifetime.

(Galatians 5:13 NIrV) My brothers and sisters, you were chosen to be free. But don't use your freedom as an excuse to live in sin. Instead, serve one another in love.

(1 John 1:9 NIrV) But God is faithful and fair. If we admit that we have sinned, he will forgive us our sins. He will forgive every wrong thing we have done. He will make us pure.

©LaDonna Neel – September 2009

The Possum Returns

The Possum Returns

It began as a quiet morning. I was working at my computer while the rest of my family was going through their normal morning routine of getting ready for school and work. Everything was running smoothly until a sudden shriek was heard from the middle of the house. It seems my daughter had stepped out onto our enclosed back porch to find a possum catching some shuteye in a 2-seater patio chair. I speculate this possum had found his way in when someone failed to shut the door to the porch before dark the night before. He had dined on some cat food and then settled in for a nap out of the reach of the cold October wind. Upon arrival, my plan was to open the doors and with minimal effort disturb him enough that he would quickly find his way off my porch and back into the wild. Well, he wasn’t alarmed. Since my presence wasn’t enough to rattle him, I resorted to shaking the opposite end of the furniture he was in. I shook and I shook but that possum hung on tight. I finally was able to displace his back feet from the chair but he remained firmly attached to the seat cushion with his front claws, hanging on with great tenacity with his back end flopping up and down. Finally, I abandoned the shaking and took the broom and finished dislodging him totally from the chair. Instead of running out the open door, he ran down to the corner at the opposite end of the porch. I made a few somewhat feeble attempts to push at him with the broom, but he just looked annoyed and didn’t move. I went back into the house with the thought that he would surely leave at his leisure through the open door.

After going back in the house I was reminded of last fall when I had this same problem. A possum found his way onto the porch and several days later he had not availed himself to the open door but was quite comfortable filling himself with my cat food and sleeping out of the weather. He finally had to be disposed of in a forceful way. It was at that point that I decided I wasn’t going to put up with that again this year. Much to the amusement of my children who were laughing uncontrollably in the kitchen, I grabbed my broom and back out I went. I was determined that this critter was leaving my porch and he was leaving right now. After flinging a few miscellaneous items at him and gaining little ground, I took my broom and began to shove him towards the door. He was not too happy about it. He bit and hissed and contended bravely for his position. As I persisted, he eventually did take off running but missed the door once again and thought he could hide under the chairs. Not a chance. I jerked the chairs out the way and continued my eviction maneuvers. After a few times around the inside perimeter of the porch, the possum did finally surrender and scurried out the door and back into the wild. The porch looked like a war zone with displaced chairs and a scattering of miscellaneous “weapons of warfare” covering it. However, the possum was gone and would no longer be hanging around consuming my cat food and making unwanted deposits on my porch. Oh, how wonderful the feel of victory.

Once all the excitement had abated and the children had ceased their ridiculous giggling, I began to think about how much this possum was like the enemy of our soul. Satan, just like this possum, will not just eventually scamper out of our life if left to himself. He will stay just as long as we allow him to. He will steal from us and make a mess of our life. Our threats or half-hearted resistance will not intimidate him. He must be opposed with unwavering resolve, submitting ourselves to God and standing firm in our authority in the name of Jesus, decisively driving him out the door with the Word of God on our lips. Just like that possum, Satan can be intimidating and his appearance might tend to rattle our cage. Nonetheless, we must look past his initial threatening appearance and immediately take a violent stand against him, refusing to tolerate his invasion. We must stick to our guns and not be discouraged if after one swing of the sword he doesn’t immediately depart though. He is a persistent creature and we must be much more so if we truly desire to be rid of him. If we don’t resist, he certainly won’t retreat. Once he has fled, we must not in light of our success drowse off into complacency but be on guard because he will certainly be back at a more opportune time, hoping to catch us at ease and unaware. Scripture tells us that he is like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. He is serious about his objective and we must be serious about our opposition. Because of the work of Christ on the cross, Satan is a defeated foe. However, he is diligently looking for those who don’t know that. Through the knowledge and understanding that comes from God’s Word, we can learn to recognize our enemy’s schemes and become equipped with the weapons necessary to enforce that victory over Satan that Jesus secured for us. It has now been several days since this possum was evicted from my porch. Still, I keep my eyes peeled for the likely return of him or one of his cohorts. Experience has taught me to deal swiftly and sternly with these critters and not put it off until another day. That being the case, I keep my broom close at hand, standing armed and ready to firmly let any possum know that he doesn’t live on this woman’s porch.

(James 4:7 NIV) Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

(1 Peter 5:8-9 NIV) Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. (9) Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. ©LaDonna Neel – October 2009

Sylvester Syndrome

Earlier last year, in preparation for our summer vacation, I purchased a set of Looney Tunes DVDs for us to watch in the van to help pass the long hours of driving that would go along with the trip. I would like to say I purchased them for the children, but in reality they were mostly for me. The crazy antics of Bugs Bunny, Yosemite Sam, and Foghorn Leghorn still tickle my funny bone and make me laugh out loud. I also enjoy the mischievous merriment of Sylvester and Tweety. However, I have always been puzzled as to why that good-sized cat would exert so much energy chasing that tiny little speck of a bird. Tweety in no way would make a meal for Sylvester. In fact, I doubt he would even qualify as an appetizer. At my best estimate, Tweety’s head makes up by far the largest majority of his total body mass. There surely isn’t more than 10% of that bird that is edible. Nonetheless, Sylvester repeatedly endures such abuse as being mauled by Butch the bulldog, being flattened by speeding vehicles, and falling victim to the misfires of his own bird-catching schemes and contraptions. Regardless of how many times he gets blown up or falls off a cliff, he just continues his senseless struggle. That obstinate feline risks life and limb persistently pursuing a little yellow creature that when eaten for dinner might satisfy him for 15 minutes.

As silly as Sylvester’s pursuit of Tweety might seem, it is not uncommon for mankind to engage in this same type of enterprise. So many times we pour ourselves feverishly into endeavors that in the end will net us very short-lived satisfaction. We chase after possessions or relationships that ultimately never bring us the fulfillment they seem to boldly promise from a distance. Countless days, months, and even years of our lives are spent working diligently to lay hold of that one thing on earth which we are so sure will provide us with the contentment we so desperately hunger for. Unfortunately, so often we put out maximum effort only to find ourselves holding in our hand that which only minimally and momentarily quenches our thirst. It seems that we, as human beings, are easily susceptible to this “Sylvester syndrome;” and in fact, we can be infected with this condition and never even realize it until one day we actually catch Tweety and find he is truly 90% bone.

God speaks to us about this cat-astrophic condition in Isaiah 55:2, stating, “Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.” Only God understands what true bread is. Only God has knowledge of what will sufficiently satisfy that which He personally created. He not only knows the answer, but He himself is the answer. He satisfies the longing soul and fills the hungry soul with good (Psalm 107:9). Nothing but God will ever be able to fill the hunger that haunts the human heart. We may seek to quiet that inner rumble with everything that man can offer, but in the end we will always find ourselves leaving the table wanting more. This world simply has nothing on its menu that will settle the appetite for God in our soul. He alone is the bread of life. He is what our hearts desire. Best of all, He promises that if we passionately pursue Him, we will not come up empty-handed and we will find ourselves extravagantly and eternally satisfied, wanting nothing more except more of Him.

(Psalms 37:4) Find your delight in the LORD. Then he will give you everything your heart really wants.

©LaDonna Neel – January 2010