YOUR ANGEL STORY

So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him. The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists. Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him. Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision. They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.    Acts 12:5-10

I love this story of Peter’s deliverance, because I love angel stories. Almost every day someone sends me a story of a personal miracle; some incredible angelic intervention that changed their life. Yes, angels are very real They are God’s helpers and messengers. The Bible and our reality is filled with their incredible stories and adventures.

During the Christmas season, we often hear the story of the angel who appeared to Mary and told her that she would have a son called Jesus. Joseph was also visited by an angel who told him what his role would be in this world-changing event. After Jesus was born, another group of angels appeared to the Wise Men, as well as to a group of very surprised Bethlehem shepherds.

Today Christmas angels are alive and well, appearing just in time to help save or comfort us. They appear in many ways, but their mission never changes; they are here to help us in times of great need.

One of my own Angel stories is not that different than many others. Years ago I was driving home very late one night after a long day of work and some last minute Christmas shopping. The road was very dark and I was very tired. I was fighting to keep my eyes open and I was losing the fight. After dozing for only a second, the steering wheel was torn out of my hands and pulled sharply to the left. The sudden movement woke me out of my dangerous slumber as I grabbed the wheel. Just then I passed a parked car in the breakdown lane. I missed it by inches. I had fallen asleep at the wheel, drifted into the emergency lane and was headed directly at that car. In that one, life-saving moment, an Angel was driving my car – and probably saved my life.

What is your angel story? You probably need only a minute to remember that one moment in your life when something unexplained happened; when someone seemed to be helping you – maybe even saving you.

Yes, I love angel stories and I want to hear yours. Please tell us your angel story by responding in the Comment Section below with all the details. It’s time we spread the miracles!

This Week’s PrayerDear Lord, I know your angels are all around us. And I know I need them more than ever. Yes, Lord, I need an angel. But, most of all, I need the love and grace of Your Son, Jesus, through whom all things are made new again. Amen.

THE WINNING MOVE . . .

She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.” When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

Matthew 1.21-25

Years ago, an irritated journalist wrote a column about his experience trying to navigate his way through a crowded store. “Hurry as we may,” he wrote, “we are hemmed in by a surging crowd in front and a dense throng of people pressing in from the rear. One man digs his elbow into me, another carelessly hit me with a pole; one bangs my head with a plant. You can be considered foolish and thoughtless if you go out without your will made!” Sounds like a typical Christmas shopping trip at the mall, doesn’t it? Later, the columnist complains about the economic stresses of modern day life by writing that “here you may pay a big rent for a miserable house and everyone dresses above their means.” His frustrated insight is certainly shared by many of us.

The most fascinating element to these observations is that they are from the Roman writer, Juvenal, who lived from A.D. 60 to 140, just after the time of Jesus. Apparently, human nature hasn’t changed very much in at least 2000 years. Yet, while humanity often has a selfish and sinful heart, Christ can change us. In fact, He initiated that change in all of us long ago. Whether or not you choose to see it, that change can take place any time.

More recently, Benjamin Garrison, a Christian writer, found himself desperately trying to win a game of chess he was playing against his computer. His computerized opponent had made a brilliant, winning move several minutes before; a move Garrison had not seen. The computer let him continue making his moves, some good, others quite bad. And all along the computer was moving toward its own inevitable victory.

This is the just like the change God made with the birth of His Son, Jesus. Twenty centuries ago God made the decisive, but mostly unnoticed, move of sending Christ into the world. That move secured His victory . . . and ours. That move guaranteed the outcome. Meanwhile, He allows us the freedom to go on making our moves on the chess-board of life, some good, others incredibly bad.

And while we struggle on, God is calling us to join Him on the winning side. That is the simple message of Christmas. God has not forgotten you and me, His people. It is with Him that our nature can change forever. Jesus is the only winning move!

This week’s prayer

Lord Jesus, I don’t want to keep going on the same path. This Christmas, I don’t want to hurry about through life, ignoring and forgetting all the things that matter. I don’t want to live without you any longer. Your Son Jesus came into our world to save me. I know He is reaching out His hand right now to take hold of my life. Please give me the strength and will to take His hand and join the Victory of Christ!  Amen.

THE CHRISTMAS STORY CONTINUES . . .

“Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

Matthew 1:20

The Christmas story is a beautiful tale of love and family; a true inspiration for all of humanity. Yet, the most extraordinary part of this story is that it continues today in all our lives.

Take a moment and consider the people you encounter each day. Among your neighbors, co-workers, friends and family perhaps there is a man whose second marriage is not going well; a young man having profound doubts about his career; a woman who is waiting for test results from her doctor; or a family in debt is trying to find their way out of a devastating financial crisis.

Why am I telling you this during such a joyous time of year? Because Christmas has always been about people in trouble. It began with an unplanned pregnancy to an unwed couple who were on the road with very little money. They had no place to stay, so the teenage mother gave birth in a barn surrounded by farmers and their animals. For the baby to rest, the young couple could only place him in a feeding trough. And this was only the beginning of their troubles!

Remember, the story of Christmas is not just about the Christ Child in the manger. Like the stories of our lives, it is filled with plot twists, unpredictable characters and lots of surprise endings! And through it all - through the clamor and confusion of our everyday lives - we hear the call of God. Like the angels singing out to the shepherds, it is a glorious call bringing common men and almighty God into fellowship again. It is a call of forgiveness, hope and love.

Let there be no doubt. It is time we receive that call! And whatever challenges you are facing in your life right now, this is where your story can be rewritten with a magnificent new direction!   

This week’s prayer

Lord Jesus, I hear your call. I know the story of my life has many complications and surprises to come. Please be with me as my story’s central character. Guide me and lead me today and every day as I answer your Great Call on my life. Amen.

THE CHOICE IS YOURS

“The commandment we have from him is this: 

those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.”

1 John 4:21

Since the time of Adam and Eve, our Lord has provided us with everything we need in life, including the choice to reject it all. Yes, the power to choose is one of the most awesome, mysterious and wonderful of God’s gifts. Whether we accept it or not, it is something we live with every moment of the day. In fact, our lives are filled with choices between our way and the Godly way.

The history of the Christian faith is filled with inspirational stories of people whom made Godly choices. One story begins long ago with a young girl named Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu who chose to become a nun when she was 18 years old. As a nun, Agnes was assigned to teach very wealthy children in Calcutta, India. From her classroom window, located in a well-to-do neighborhood, she could easily see people living in the impoverished slums throughout the villages below. Yet, Agnes was perfectly content with the choice she had made for her life.

Then one night she was walking home and heard a woman crying out for help. Finding the injured woman lying in the street on the verge of death, Agnes rushed her to the nearest hospital. Since the woman was poor the hospital said she would have to wait for treatment. Knowing the woman would die without immediate medical attention, Agnes took the woman to another hospital. Again help was denied because the woman was poor and belonged to an undesirable social class. Desperate, Agnes took the woman to her own home. A few hours later, the woman died in peace, held in the comfort of Agnes's loving arms.

That night Agnes resolved that this would never happen again to anyone within her reach. She chose to devote her life to easing the pain of those who suffered around her. Whether they lived or died, they would do so with dignity. She made a clear choice to treat the poor better than they had ever been treated in their entire lives, with the love and respect the Lord wanted them to have.

That is the choice Agnes made. And that is how she began her journey as Mother Teresa.

We never know what the results will be when we begin to share God’s love, especially when we share it with the poor. Long after Agnes became Mother Teresa to the world, she told us, “What the poor need most is to feel needed, to feel loved. The condition of banishment which their poverty imposes is what ulcerates them. There are remedies and treatments for all kinds of illnesses, but when someone is undesirable, if there are no serving hands and loving hearts, then there is no hope for a true cure.”

This Christmas, you can become the cure by using your hands, your heart, your mind - your everything – by serving “the least of these,” the poor.

This week’s prayer

Lord Jesus help me to share your love generously. Give me the strength to choose Your will and Your way in all things. Keep me focused on the people you need me to help most of all. Show me the opportunities to help the poor and give me the discipline to make the right choice. Amen.