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God's Words For US
by Cecelia Lester
In the story of Jesus’ birth we see God’s emissaries carry the Gospel message to earth. God relies on them to:
● announce to Mary her role in His plan to send His son into this world.
●explain to Joseph what had happened and the carpenter’s part in this wonderful story.
● tell the shepherds of the birth of Jesus and invite them to go worship the newborn king.
At the age of 30, Jesus approaches his cousin, John, and requests to be baptized. As He comes up out of the water, the Holy Spirit-in the form of a dove lands on His shoulder. God speaks words of comfort “this is my son, in whom I am well-pleased” (Matthew 3:17)
When Mary Magdalene and two other women go to the garden tomb to finish the burial preparation, two angels ask the trio why they look for the living among the dead. He is alive just as He said.”
In our 21Century world, do we have God’s messengers in our lives? Have we seen any lately?
Yes, we have God’s messengers with us today. When we read a devotional that brings us new understanding of God, we receive a message from Him. Some of my favorite readings have stood the test of time-Henri Nouwen, Oswald Chambers, to name a few.
When we experience love through hearing the choir or the music of the praise team, we receive God’s encouragement from the word’s of the composer. One of my favorite hymns, “Til the Storm Passes By”, has brought me a lot of encouragement over the years. One Sunday, several years ago, my Sunday school teacher and his daughter sang it. (My teacher’s wife and I had talked early that week. I mentioned how I wanted to hear that hymn again.) When they got up to sing, they said very little in introduction of the song. But, I knew they chose it because I needed to receive God’s comfort. They are still God’s angels.
In working in our church’s drama ministry, I do some of the computer work. Each December we present a Christmas play, three performances-a Friday, Saturday and Sunday run. Last year, I found the play the troupe performed. This year one of the men wrote the script. We present it the weekend this article is published. I have a small role in it. I also put together the programme that those in attendance receive. A part of the format of the programme is color pictures of the actors in their roles. The church uses a tri-fold set up for the Sunday bulletins. I have opted to use the same form. Last year, I had my pictures too dark. Our associate pastor called me and asked me to send her the pix so she could lighten them. I had to do them the old fashioned way. I had a new digital camera and really didn’t know how to work the fancy features. She got them lightened up just fine.
This year, on Saturday before tech week, one of the secretaries brought a copy of the programme to practice all done up nicely. I went around the sanctuary showing different people their picture. I showed it to the associate pastor and she thought the pictures could be lightened a bit. She went to the office and worked on it while we practiced. When she brought back the lightened copy, she had arranged the pictures down the back of the programme the exact way I had envisioned them. I wanted each of them to be offset from the one above and below. She didn’t know this; I believe this was a God thing.
Our son visited us last weekend. He flew back to where he lives on Sunday morning. He arrived at the airport in plenty of time. From the time he left our house until he would get to his apartment, he spend a half a day enroute. As he is checked in the clerk informed him they had overbooked one of his flights. They got him on another flight and connecting flight. He still had a lay-over but he would arrive at his destination two hours earlier. Was an angel with our Son? I believe so.
During times of stress or depression, we may receive a note or a card in the mail, even a phone call. These missives convey a message of another’s caring about us in our circumstance. This type of message reminds us of how special we are to God and to the one who sent it. Or we may hear an encouraging word from a friend.
As we journey through Advent this year, let us all be watchful for visits from angels-visible and invisible- who carry God’s messages of love, redemption, and comfort to us and our fallen world.
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Cecelia Lester has been serious about her writing for over two decades..
She composes Christian essays and posts them to her blog quietspirit-followingmyking.blogspot.com/
She has served in a faith-based organization, Grace In Action by writing two newsletters and searching for possible grants.
In July 2017, she published her first book, 'Times of Trouble Bring Rays of Joy.'
She and her husband of 54 years live in central Indiana. They have one grown son.
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