Inside the Brain of E.C. Henry

When God Chooses a Hottie to Save His People

This is Shannon Bream of Fox News fame.  Of all the women on planet Earth you would be hard pressed to find one as beautiful and nice as she is.  And not only that, but Shannon's an author too -- and it's a godly book no less!  "The Women of the Bible Speak: The Wisdom of 16 Women and Their Lessons for Today".  If interested you can buy the book here.  I fell in love with Shannon watching Fox News.  It's like getting your news delivered by Meg Ryan.  Still, I know she's married...

#allthegoodonesaretaken

Snap!  But now that's we've got this kicked off.  Time for my hot take, and it's this:

Hot woman can be used by God.

The bible is an amazing book.  In God's word, many years ago while the nation of Israel was under the rule of the Persians, there came a time where God delivered His people through a beauty pageant winner.  I'm not kidding.  It's in the book of Esther in the Old Testament.   

I read the book three times recently in preparation for this post.  And the gist of the plot is that a Jew in bondage overcame her circumstances by winning a beauty pageant and agreeing to the queen of a Persian king, Ahasuerus or Xerexes who rained as king of Persia from 486 B.C. through 464 B.C.. 

At the start of his reign king Ahasuerus has a beautiful queen named Vashti.  She was so beautiful that Asasuerus wanted to show her off after he and his friends had been drinking, but Vashti refused!  This led to king cutting Vashti off and a nation-wide search for beautiful virgins was made to replace Vashti.  

This led to Esther's rise to preeminence, as she was ultimately chosen to replace Vashti, but while doing so at the insistence of her Jewish caregiver, Mordecai, who took her as his own daughter.  Esther was beautiful in form and face.  Yet once she was queen, Queen Ester faced one whopper of situation.  For one her king's closest confidants was conspiring to wipe-out all the Jewish people in the kingdom of Persia, all because ONE man of Jewish descent refused to bow before him in his presence.  Haman wasn't even king, yet he was so filled with ego and pride that he wanted the whole nation to wiped-out on account of ONE MAN's refusal to bow before.

Thankfully the beautiful Esther didn't turn her back on her people.  But rather she listened to her adopted father and made a proper entreaty before King Ahasuerus that exposed Haman dire treachery.  King Ahasuerus listened to his hottie wife, and the once he knew about Haman's treachery had him hung in gallows that Haman had built to hang Mordecai, Esther 7:10.  

I'm not a fan of torture.  Even of the most vile people.  Still, I'm glad that hotties like --

Exist.  Okay, the hottie I just posted isn't Esther either, BUT she is the first person I thought of when I started thinking what Esther may have looked like in real life.  Aishah Hasnie is her name.  And she, like Shannon Bream works at Fox News!  All the hot, smart and politically savvy women work there. 

Aishah Hasnie is Pakistani beauty follows the Muslim faith -- at least from what I've read.  But I'm not prejudice.  A beauty is a beauty no matter where they come from and all honest I think the real Esther from the bible looked a lot more like Aishah Hasnie than she did did Shannon Bream.

So many thing to appreciate about Esther's CHARACTER.  That's right, not only was Esther beautiful on the outside as is recorded in Esther 2:7; but this lady PROVED she was beautiful on the inside by the choices she made a critical time in Israel's history.

• Esther didn't turn her back on her heritage even when when was living the high life.
• Esther listened to advice and acted on it. 
• The story of Esther proves that adopted parents can have a success story through the children they raise.  Mordecai took on Esther after her parents died and raised her.  Then, even when Esther was a mature woman, she respected her adopted father and did right by him. 
• Esther was willing to use her God given gifts.  What if Esther never competed in the king's competition?  Her's was occupied people, after all, and Vashti was gawked at for her beauty.  Esther had to know this treatment would probably extend to her, but she endered it anyway. 
• Esther learned the proper ways and practices to be of royalty and how to approach the king.  She actively thought and didn't just rely on her outer beauty to carry her.  Esther had a brain -- and she used it the preservation of God's people.

From the story of Esther and Mordecai the Jewish people now celebrate the feast of Purim.  See Esther 9: 21-22.  On the 14th and 15 day of the Jewish month of Adar the Jewish people are to celebrate with feasting and rejoicing when God delivered them from a treacherous scheme to annihilate God's people while they were being disciplined already by another nation. 

This post was born of discussion that me and my mother had about the rapture.  We got to speculating and though MAYBE the rapture of the church could happen THIS Purim season, which in 2023 is being celebrated by the Jewish people March 8th and 9th.  Purim 2023

Nobody knows the day or hour that Jesus will come from his bride, the church.  BUT things down here on Earth keep getting darker, and the government of today is more led by the devil than it is led by the Lord. 

Many years ago God went so far as to state the EXACT borders that He wanted His people Israel to have.   

Genesis 15:18,  Exodus 23: 31. 

The Christian God does distinguish between people groups.  And the ultimate Lordship of all the people and nations is under the triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  

Lots is issues to sort through in this corrupted word.  Thank you Jesus we have the word of God to help make sense of it all, and guide us to where we should be on the issues.  Always seek to be one of Jesus's sheep that He calls to be at His right side.  God does differentiate between people...

Matthew 25: 32-33 (Jesus speaking) "All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them one another, as the sheperd separates the sheep from the goats' and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left."

In the end, God's word is good and worthy to be studied and praised.  So glad that God uses many different ways to save.  Sometimes even a well-placed hottie gets her name called to do a work in His name.  To God be the glory!

Freezing Florida

I just got back from a two week vacation in the state of Florida over the Christmas and New Year's holiday, and found it for the most part to be FREEZING!  

Most beaches in Pensacola look like this:

White sand beaches.

At my mom's insistence we (me, her, my brother, his wife, two kids and their dog) went on a Florida vacation that had us first housed in Pensacola on the far western extreme of the panhandle, then over at Pacific Coast which is about 35 miles south of Jacksonville. 

The weather started turning the day we left Tennessee.  Day two in Pensacola it was below zero -- even in the middle of the day!  Found out the hard way that the windows in Florida aren't insulated very well.  Felt a cold draft coming from a bedroom window so severe that it made me feel like that window was open.  Yeah, I get it, Florida is a warm weather state, but we saw Pensacola in record low temperatures.  Still, cold or not, my mom and brother found amble time to look for seashells.  Me, I'm not really into that.  I can look for shells for a little while, but it's not my jam. 

Thankfully we left Penacola after six days, and traveled east.  We stayed at "Cinnamon Beach" in Palm Coast. 

That beach had a lot of dead reefs and was dark brown like the color cinnamon, hence the name: Cinnamon Beach.  Lot of hurricane beach access damage there with about half of the pier access damaged and not usable.  Beach access at Cinnamon Beach was supposed to look like this --

But these peers were usually damaged at the stair access to the beach.  We saw some fences pushed over and some palm trees knocked over from hurricane damage earlier in 2022. 

To be completely honest, I wasn't in the vacationing spirit during this trip.  The highlight of Pensacola was seeing a lemon tree -- that still had lemons on it in on at the house we were renting there.  Did try one of the lemons off the tree and found it bland.  Went through the state of Alabama and found the entire experience forgettable. 

I tried to convince my mom NOT to go on this vacation, but she was insistent.  She thinks that the U.S. economy is going to crash, and when it does people aren't be going anywhere!  I tend to believe along those lines, but I'm a little more optimistic about the future than she is; though we're both looking forward to the rapture of the church and being with Jesus.  Mom thinks this may happen at this year's Jewish feast of Purim in early March.  Purim is feast the Jews celebrate when queen Ester helped expose a plot by a man in power who wanted to eliminate the Jews.  This happened about 500 B.C.  Anyway, as things in the world continue to worsten me and Sweet Pea continue to keep our gaze above.  This year the feast of Purim happens in early March.

On our trip I did see three gators in the wild.  All where in northeast Florida.  One was at a golf course pond.  Another was at waste water pond off the highway.  A third was on a log at Silver Springs National Park.  Saw lots of alligators at the St. Augustine Zoological Park.  I thought with the colder weather (low 70s at the time) the gators would be more active, but they weren't.  Most of them just were laying around, or swimming lazily in their water exhibits.  Surprisingly it was the TURTLES that were out and about putting on a show for the tourists. 

Did gets SOME writing in during this trip, but not a lot.  Started the script for Ducky Goes on Holiday on New Years morning.  Before that I did beef up the outline and did some important character work.  Still not expecting Ducky Goes on Holiday to be done until March.  Think I have 11 song and dance numbers planned for this animated script.  Still have some research to do.  And since this is my first kids oriented script, there's that inexperience to consider too.

Did avoid drinking alcohol this trip, but was awfully tempted a couple of times.  Especially at condominium complex in Palm Coast.  They had a bar there that served Pina Coladas and I really wanted one!  But the streak is intact, 5 months since I last had alcohol.  Though I no longer want to abstain, for the family I'm going to--for now!  But sometime soon, I'm going to drink again.  Yeah, I'll always have alcoholic tendencies, but I've proven I to myself I can refrain and stop if I have too.  The AA life simply isn't for me.  Staying sober to be in their favor isn't much of a motivator.  Still, for now I'm playing that game as it makes my mom happy; and also since my brother and sister-in-law have given up drinking.  The other consideration is their 14-year-old son, Brycen; who is seriously immature and at at delicate state in his life.  Still, a beer at Buffalo Wild Wings sounds like Heaven.

Tomorrow it's back to work for me.  Time to crank-up a lot of stuff.  Like maybe a 2nd job...  Get a new cap on a tooth in the back.  Work on the lawnmower.  Pick-up the yard.  Make sure my chainsaw is running and in good order.  Straighten up and maintain our firepit area.  Build a new retention wall.  Re-painting the family table.  Getting a new financial plan.  Getting some service done on my Subaru.  Already three days into 2023, and life keeps chugging along.  Sorry I didn't include pictures from the trip.  I did take a few.  It's just nothing stood out.  This was more of a relaxing tour of the southeast just during a record-setting cold spell.