Angels (Messengers of God)

December 11, 2013 purposeunderheavenLeave a comment

Drive through town and there are angels everywhere. Angels made of metal frames lit with lights. Angels topping trees. Angels on wrapping paper. And all the angels look strangely girly.

But Gabriel, the Angel sent to make all the announcements about Jesus most definitely looked like a man. Trouble is I am not sure a guy sitting on top of the tree has the same impact. I know he looked like a man because of the description in the book of Daniel.

Daniel saw Gabriel and described the being he saw as “one who looked like a man”. The actual word in Hebrew means warrior or a valiant man.

This is our first look at Gabriel, but he is really busy in the Gospels.

And every where Gabriel appears, the first words out of his mouth are “Do not be afraid”. I am not sure if his general appearance is frightening but I suspect it is his tendency to just appear suddenly that causes the fear, but either way, it is obvious he isn’t the soft sweet angel of Christmas tree decorations.

Now, I think Gabriel made a mistake telling Zachariah not to be afraid. When the old priest first sees the angel standing in the Holy area of the temple where no one other than the priest was allowed to be, he was terrified. The angel tells him:

Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John.¹⁴He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth,¹⁵for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born.¹⁶He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. ¹⁷And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

Now you would think Zechariah’s response would be wow this angel (word means messenger from God) just popped in from no where to tell me my prayer is going to be answered. But no, his first response is how can I know this is really going to happen.

Think about it on two levels. First minutes ago he is trembling in awe of the messenger. Now he is how do I know you can do what you say. And second, this is answered prayer. Why was he praying if he didn’t think God could answer?
Gabriel doesn’t appreciate this change of attitude and tells Zechariah that he will not be able to speak until the baby is born.

This baby grows up to be John the Baptist–a man of great faith.

Now Gabriel gets a new assignment a few months later. He appears to a young teenage girl.

The virgin’s name was Mary.

²⁸The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

²⁹Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.³⁰But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God.³¹You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. ³²He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, ³³and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

³⁴“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

³⁵The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. ³⁶Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. ³⁷For no word from God will ever fail.”

Now I doubt Mary had been praying let me get pregnant by the Holy Spirit and no one in my village will believe me. They might even stone me. Joseph will not want to marry me. Yep that is what I want Lord. I am doubting it had ever crossed her mind.
But Mary’s response to Gabriel’s message is:

³⁸“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

I look at my life and wonder how often I am a Zechariah. Do I pray my prayers without truly believing God can answer the prayer? When I see God move, do I see his hand or do I wobble and doubt?

Prayer: Lord help me to have stronger faith. Help me in my unbelief.

Meditation: Think about answered prayers

Action: Make a list of answered prayers; write it down. Look at it often to remember what God has done.

Advent · Christmas

Advent Challenge

December 1, 2013 purposeunderheavenLeave a comment

Advent represents a time of preparation.

Not just preparation for the Celebration of Jesus birth,

but preparation of the heart for his return.

I intend to challenge myself this year with a commitment to prayer, focused meditation and action each day of this advent season. It is a fast of sorts. A fast from the commercialism of the season by changing my focus (as cliche as it sounds) to the reason for the Season.

I will post my daily challenge in case anyone wants to join me in this fast.

Christian. · Ireland · March · March 17 · St. Patrick · St. Patrick's Confession · St. Patty's Day

Again? Really?

March 14, 2013 purposeunderheavenLeave a comment

Some Christians hold to the idea that if we believe in God and trust Him; then we will not see trouble in our lives. Patrick’s life shows a man of great faith and prayer. A man obedient to God’s commands who faced many trials. God acted over and over in Patrick’s life, but that does not mean hardships didn’t also come into Patrick’s life. He had one reaction each time–prayer.

Patrick,as a slave, prayed night and day. God answered the prayers and set him free. He reached a ship but they tell him “no go”. Then in a flash, after prayer, they agree to let him sail with them. The ship lands and they end up in no man’s land for days with no food. Patrick prays and food appears. Those with Patrick take Christ as their savior. Immediately after, Patrick is attacked in his sleep.

And a second time, after many years, I was taken captive. On the first night I accordingly remained with my captors, but I heard a divine prophecy, saying to me: “You shall be with them for two months.” So it happened.

Patrick trusted God. But when I hear Patrick talking here, I think I know how he felt. You lean on God and come through a spiritual journey. You are on the back side and you are thinking how God brought you through. You might even be feeling a little good about how you trusted and God was faithful. How you learned a spiritual lesson.

And then there you are and you are back where you started. In Patrick’s case, a slave again.

Christian. · Ireland · March · March 17 · St. Patrick · St. Patrick's Confession · St. Patty's Day

The Spirit Speaks What We Do Not Know To Speak

March 14, 2013 purposeunderheavenLeave a comment

Patrick, a man of prayer, at this moment cries out without even understanding his own prayer. He believes the Holy Spirit prayed for him when he did not know what to pray.

The very same night while I was sleeping Satan attacked me violently, as I will remember as long as I shall be in this body; and there fell on top of me as it were, a huge rock, and not one of my members had any force. But from whence did it come to me, ignorant in the spirit, to call upon Elijah?

And meanwhile I saw the sun rising in the sky, and while I was crying out “Elijah, Elijah” with all my might, lo, the brilliance of that sun fell upon me and immediately shook me free of all the weight; and I believe that I was aided by Christ my Lord, and that his Spirit then was crying out for me, and I hope that it will be so in the day of my affliction, just as it says in the Gospel:

“In that hour”, the Lord declares, “it is not you who speaks but the Spirit of your Father speaking in you [Matthew 10:20].”

Romans 8:26

²⁶Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Christian. · Ireland · March · March 17 · St. Patrick · St. Patrick's Confession · St. Patty's Day

Pray, Pray Pray

March 11, 2013 purposeunderheavenLeave a comment

So as we left Patrick, he ran away from his master and traveled a great distance to find a boat. He believes God called him to follow this path. The boat owners turn him down and tell him no way can he sail on their ship. Patrick turns and walks away praying.

Hearing this I left them to go to the hut where I was staying, and on the way I began to pray, and before the prayer was finished I heard one of them shouting loudly after me: “Come quickly because the men are calling you.” And immediately I went back to them and they started to say to me: “Come, because we are admitting you out of good faith; make friendship with us in any way you wish.” (And so, on that day, I refused to suck the breasts of these men from fear of God, but nevertheless I had hopes that they would come to faith in Jesus Christ, because they were barbarians.) And for this I continued with them, and forthwith we put to sea.

The fact God calls us does not mean there will not be obstacles but we should preserve as Patrick did. He prayed asking God to show him the way. God answered Patrick immediately, sometimes we have to wait and pray longer than Patrick did. But if God calls a person, and the person holds to faith and trusts God, the Lord will open the path.

Look at Moses. God called the Israelite out of Egypt. Before them was Red Sea and behind them the armies of Egypt.

Exodus 14:¹³And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.

¹⁴The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.

¹⁵And the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward:

¹⁶But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.

¹⁷And I, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them: and I will get me honour upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen.

¹⁸And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten me honour upon Pharaoh, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen.

¹⁹And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them:

²⁰And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night.

²¹And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.

²²And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.

²³And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen.

²⁴And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the Lord looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians,

²⁵And took off their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily: so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel; for the Lordfighteth for them against the Egyptians.

²⁶And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.

Christian. · Ireland · March · March 17 · St. Patrick · St. Patrick's Confession · St. Patty's Day

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night

March 9, 2013 purposeunderheavenLeave a comment

And I was not worthy, nor was I such that the Lord should grant his humble servant this, that after hardships and such great trials, after captivity, after many years, he should give me so much favour with these people, a thing which in the time of my youth I neither hoped for nor imagined.

But after I reached Hibernia I used to pasture the flock each day and I used to pray many times a day. More and more did the love of God, and my fear of him and faith increase, and my spirit was moved so that in a day [I said] from one up to a hundred prayers, and in the night a like number; besides I used to stay out in the forests and on the mountain and I would wake up before daylight to pray in the snow, in icy coldness, in rain, and I used to feel neither ill nor any slothfulness, because, as I now see, the Spirit was burning in me at that time.

Can’t you see our Patrick. They have captured him and dragged him to land he did not know. A slave, he is made to watch the sheep. Away from family, away from the easy life, Patrick prays. Day and night he talks to God about his issues. He prays. The spirit grows inside him. Patrick prays.

When I look at the lives of the men and women who have served God in mighty ways and have done hard things for God, I find one common denominator. They pray.

Jesus prayed. God, in human form while on earth, prayed.
Luke 5:16 tells us that Jesus frequently withdrew to an isolated place and prayed.

I have been think a lot about prayer. I think we need to spend quite time talking and listening with God. But I also think we should be discussing the day to day things with God. The times I have felt closest to God have been when I ask Him through the day about decision I have to make. When I discuss my concerns as they arise. Our prayers like Patricks should be through out our day as we proceed through our lives.