Samantha, you ask a truly great question. It had me thinking for a couple of days. But first, I enjoy your blog! I just want to say that I have said a prayer for you and hubby as you witness at the zoo. I hope you will blog about it! Now...
Samantha: Does this verse mean angels help those who are going to receive salvation? The unsaved who are not yet saved?Or are they for both the saved and the "soon to be saved"?Hmm....what do you think?
After some prayerful thought on this, I'm thinking this way...
Angels are eternal creatures and do not experience life and death the same way we do, so the same angels that were in existence during the creation are still in existence today. So, I'm thinking that God prepared the angels to be ready for all His children as the ages pass. God foreknew those who will become Christian, certainly, therefore God prepared angels to protect on a continuing basis as humans reach the age of understanding and then put their allegiance in Jesus. That's about as far as my thought process has gotten :)
Sonya, you are a precisous sister and I do so much enjoy your blog!
Sonya: I know angels are real (because the Bible tells us so), but I'm not quite sure what their role is in my everyday, ordinary, going to work, coming home, surfing the net - life. Do you think they watch over each of us personally? Or do you believe they handle God's 'heavy lifting'only ?
I hang onto the fact that God has my best interest deep in His heart. I have experienced so many close calls such as near misses in car accidents, trips and falls, stupid mouth syndromes that I cannot help but recognize God's hands in my life. Whether He uses angels (which means messenger) or not, I don't know. I do know beyond doubt that I have felt God's hand on me in my deepest despair and Jesus' presence during that same period. So, I think God is hands-on in our lives and most likely uses angels in the Spiritual War that goes on around us without us really knowing its extent.
Gotta run... my Intended is taking me out to dinner for my birthday which is next week. Life is good!
2 comments:
Here is what John Calvin had to say about angels in his Institutes. This is just a snippet. All of what he said about angels can be found here.
http://www.reformed.org/books/institutes/books/book1/bk1ch14.html#four.htm
6. The angels as protectors and helpers of believers
But the point on which the Scriptures specially insist is that which tends most to our comfort, and to the confirmation of our faith, namely, that angels are the ministers and dispensers of the divine bounty towards us. Accordingly, we are told how they watch for our safety, how they undertake our defence, direct our path, and take heed that no evil befall us. There are whole passages which relate, in the first instance, to Christ, the Head of the Church, and after him to all believers. "He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone." (Ps. 90:11-12). Again, "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them." (Ps. 34:7p). By these passages the Lord shows that the protection of those whom he has undertaken to defend he has delegated to his angels. Accordingly, an angel of the Lord consoles Hagar in her flight, and bids her be reconciled to her mistress (Gen. 16:9). Abraham promises to his servant that an angel will be the guide of his journey (Gen. 24:7). Jacob, in blessing Ephraim and Manasseh, prays "The angel which redeemed me from all evil bless the lads." (Gen. 48:16.) So an angel was appointed to guard the camp of the Israelites (Ex. 14:19; 23:20); and as often as God was pleased to deliver Israel from the hands of his enemies, he stirred up avengers by the ministry of angels (Judg. 2:1; 6:11; 13:3-20). Thus, in fine, (not to mention more,) angels ministered to Christ (Matt. 4:11), and were present with him in all straits (Luke 22:43). To the women they announced his resurrection (Matt. 28:5,7; Luke 24:5); to the disciples they foretold his glorious advent (Acts 1:10). In discharging the office of our protectors, they war against the devil and all our enemies, and execute vengeance upon those who afflict us. Thus we read that an angel of the Lord, to deliver Jerusalem from siege, slew one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the camp of the king of Assyria in a single night (II Kings 19:35; Isaiah 37:36).
Isn't that so amazing? We are so stuck in our finite world that it is hard to fathom that one single angel could wield that kind of havoc to that many men.
Post a Comment