{"id":449,"date":"2019-09-29T14:15:49","date_gmt":"2019-09-29T14:15:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/?p=449"},"modified":"2019-09-30T14:17:42","modified_gmt":"2019-09-30T14:17:42","slug":"michael-and-all-angels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/2019\/09\/29\/michael-and-all-angels\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael and All Angels"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Daniel 10:10-14; 12:1-3, Revelation\n12:7\u201312<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace to you and peace\nfrom God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m\nnot a big fan of the popular understanding of angels. I think often people use\nangels as a kind of a crutch. Still angels are in Scripture; they are real. Cathy\nhas been having a great time watching the old TV show, \u201cTouched by an Angel\u201d.\nIt can be fun thinking about what angels could do. While I may not be a big fan\nof the popular view of angels, I have to admit, over the years I\u2019ve read a\nnumber of books of (reportedly) true angel stories and experiences. And, I\nfound them interesting and convincing, but I can\u2019t help being a bit of a\nskeptic. Something in me has me looking for different explanations. Funny thing\nis, I find it easier to explain the unexplainable by saying it was good or bad luck,\nrather than by giving credit to God\u2019s having sent an angel or the devil for\ncausing turmoil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\nis it that makes so many of us want to explain away the whole idea of angels,\nwhile others hold onto the whole idea of angels for dear life? For me, I resist\nangel talk, not because of anything having to do with angels; but because of\nthe way that some people seem to make their faith all about angels; they say, angels\nare here and there all the time and they helped me here with this and there\nwith that, and they guard me; then and on the bad side, they also blame the\nangels when things go wrong, for not being there for them, or relate their\nproblems to the devil (the bad angel). I get this whole feeling from such\npeople, of living in a kind of a storybook world, like the \u201cHobbit\u201d or \u201cHarry\nPotter\u201d or any number of the Disney movies, with all the fanciful creatures\nflitting around. I like those books and I like those movies, but I feel\nuncomfortable making angels a part of everything in my everyday life. Yet, I\u2019m\na pastor and as I already said, angels are in the Bible; I really can\u2019t and\nwon\u2019t deny their existence; maybe I\u2019m just worried that people won\u2019t or aren\u2019t\ntaking responsibility for what happens to them, good or bad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With\nthat in mind. let me explain what angels are, according to the Bible. First\noff, angels are creations of God, just as we are creations of God. Angels like\nus seem to value their relationship with God. Most often, we see in the Bible,\nangels serving as messengers of God. Most notably we see this in the stories of\nDaniel and we see this again in the birth and resurrection stories of Jesus and\nthen in Revelation. Gabriel is often the named messenger angel (but just so we\nhave no confusion I am not talking about Gabriel, our music director, though we\nlike him, he is not the angel Gabriel<\/em>). Another angel named in Scripture is\nMichael; we see him in both Daniel and Revelation; he is more of a warrior for\nGod, rather than a messenger and there is an unnamed angel who serves in Daniel\nas a protector. One angel described in Scripture, often as a fallen angel is\nthe devil or Satan who we see as being in contention with God, working to keep\nus from obeying God\u2019s will, working to separate us from Jesus and his love. That\nwould suggest that angels, like us have the freedom to choose who they will\nserve and whether they will serve or oppose God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According\nto Scripture, we as humanity, often get caught between the angels of God, Jesus\nand God\u2019s will for us and Satan and his angels (demons). Confusing isn\u2019t it? Understanding\nthis, I don\u2019t want to overly emphasize the impact of the angels; I have to\nadmit that they are here, even though I don\u2019t want to make everything about\nangels. They are among us, carrying God\u2019s messages, helping us to do God\u2019s will\nand helping to get us out of trouble, but there is also at least one angel,\nworking on us to not <\/strong>do God\u2019s will and to get us in trouble. But it is\nvery important that we do not lift up God\u2019s angels so as to have them stand\nabove or take the place of God and Jesus; they are just messengers, always sent\nto us by God for God\u2019s purpose of love. They do the will of God and share God\u2019s\nlove, and when they rebel against God, they do that which is against God\u2019s will,\nlove and purpose, often involving us and attempting to lead us away from God\u2019s\nwill and the love we find in Jesus. This is where we have to always be on our\nguard, and we need to judge whether the help and guidance that we are receiving\nis from God and one of his messengers or whether it is from the devil and one\nof his demons. Wherever the angel comes from, God or Satan, we need to take\nresponsibility for our choices, our words and our actions. The other thing\nabout angels, is that they are not always appear to be helping and may not be\nsent to us in many situations. God, may deem it so, that we do not need the\nhelp of one of his messengers, whether or not we may think that we do. Angels,\nlike all of God\u2019s creations come to us from God. Angels are a gift. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\nis something else about this angel stuff. There was an old movie, I don\u2019t\nremember its name, but in it a parent addressed her child, \u201cBe an angel and get\nme my (I don\u2019t know, something).\u201d Remember, I explained that an angel is a\nmessenger, well, we can be messengers (angels) for the people we love, like in\nthe movie, but we can also be messengers for God; we can be God\u2019s angels\n(without the wings, if angels indeed have wings). Considering this, we might\nconsider the possibility that we have at times been angels of the Lord. I know\nfor a fact that many of us have been described, by those whom we helped, as\nangels who brought help and God\u2019s love to those who needed it. So, be an angel;\ndon\u2019t worry so much about God\u2019s angels, God will send them when he thinks we\nneed them; enjoy the blessings of angels when they come<\/strong> and give thanks\nto the Lord for their help or guidance, but most important be an angel to\nothers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Daniel 10:10-14; 12:1-3, Revelation 12:7\u201312 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ I\u2019m not a big fan of the popular understanding of angels. I think often people use angels as a kind of a crutch. Still angels are in Scripture; they are real. Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons-and-services"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":450,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449\/revisions\/450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}