On the sixth day of Christmas my True Love gave to me, six proclamations, five broken dreams, four upset parents, three gifts from wisemen, two speaking prophets, and a great big herd of bleating, dumb sheep.
It may be that there were numerous angel visits on earth during ancient days that we simply don't have records of. After all, the Old Testament is full of recordings about the "angel of the Lord" coming to earth and speaking with people, and the Apostle Paul warns us in the New Testament that we could be attending angels unaware.
But it does seem that in a short amount of time, there was a flurry of angel activity in the middle eastern part of the world. In no particular order, here's the known listing of angelic activity during a two year period:
1) Luke 1 - angel Gabriel to Zacharias
2) Luke 1 - angel Gabriel to Mary
3) Matthew 1 - the angel to Joseph
4) Luke 2 - angel to the Shepherds
5) Luke 2 - a "host" or battalion of angels singing praises in front of the shepherds
6) Matthew 2 - the angel to Joseph
All my life I've heard stories of people seeing the death angel before they die. Some of them see him (or them) several times, some a few weeks before, others a few minutes before. It always made me a little fearful and yet excited at the same time. But can you imagine seeing an angel and it NOT being a premonition of death? I think that would scare me half to death. And yet, what better way to convince a person to attempt or think the impossible? I mean, would you believe you were going to have a baby without have sex? Would you believe it if you saw an angel and they told you the impossible about your old barren cousin and it turned out to be true? God often uses circumstances to "make" things happen. And other times, I guess you could say he sticks his finger in the pot (like by sending an angel) to stir the water.
How cool is it that we serve a God who not only uses the (by my definitions) impractical, unorthodox, and impossible methods of seeing His will accomplished. One has to admit, God has a very unique way of doing things. I don't know whether or not the angelic flurry of that time period was unusual or just another routine work assignment for them, but from our point of view, it's both exciting and neat. If Pastor Mike or my Dad told me something bizarre like Mary heard, I'd think he was mental. If an angel told me, I'd probably be more prone to believe it. May I be as faithful in proclaiming my message as the angels.
It may be that there were numerous angel visits on earth during ancient days that we simply don't have records of. After all, the Old Testament is full of recordings about the "angel of the Lord" coming to earth and speaking with people, and the Apostle Paul warns us in the New Testament that we could be attending angels unaware.
But it does seem that in a short amount of time, there was a flurry of angel activity in the middle eastern part of the world. In no particular order, here's the known listing of angelic activity during a two year period:
1) Luke 1 - angel Gabriel to Zacharias
2) Luke 1 - angel Gabriel to Mary
3) Matthew 1 - the angel to Joseph
4) Luke 2 - angel to the Shepherds
5) Luke 2 - a "host" or battalion of angels singing praises in front of the shepherds
6) Matthew 2 - the angel to Joseph
All my life I've heard stories of people seeing the death angel before they die. Some of them see him (or them) several times, some a few weeks before, others a few minutes before. It always made me a little fearful and yet excited at the same time. But can you imagine seeing an angel and it NOT being a premonition of death? I think that would scare me half to death. And yet, what better way to convince a person to attempt or think the impossible? I mean, would you believe you were going to have a baby without have sex? Would you believe it if you saw an angel and they told you the impossible about your old barren cousin and it turned out to be true? God often uses circumstances to "make" things happen. And other times, I guess you could say he sticks his finger in the pot (like by sending an angel) to stir the water.
How cool is it that we serve a God who not only uses the (by my definitions) impractical, unorthodox, and impossible methods of seeing His will accomplished. One has to admit, God has a very unique way of doing things. I don't know whether or not the angelic flurry of that time period was unusual or just another routine work assignment for them, but from our point of view, it's both exciting and neat. If Pastor Mike or my Dad told me something bizarre like Mary heard, I'd think he was mental. If an angel told me, I'd probably be more prone to believe it. May I be as faithful in proclaiming my message as the angels.
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