Friday, October 11, 2019

ANGELS? REALLY NOW - Angels are for real. God sends them to help us. They are meant to “keep” us and to “guard” us in all our ways. Not here and there, not now and then, but always and in all our ways. God often sends a ministering angel when we reach the end of our rope or the end of our hope. We cannot go along any way for God without the presence and help of a ministering angel from God. Believers trust and oftentimes prove that in true meditation the angels of God stand nearby.


................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Angels? Really Now
Bible Study

by William S. Stoddard


“But while he thought, the angel of the Lord appeared.” (Matthew 1:20).
Read: Matthew 1:20; Psalm 19:14; Psalm 39:3; 104:34; 91:11; Acts 12:7; 1 Timothy 4:15 KJV; Acts 27:23; Hebrews 1:14.


What is God Saying?
Angels are for real. God sends them to help us. 
They are meant to “keep” us and to “guard” us in all our ways.  Not here and there, not now and then, but always and in all our ways.
Peter was in prison. An angel of the Lord said, “Get up quickly,” and the chains fell off his hands. 
Belonging to God and serving God (Acts 27:23) mean that God has an angel standing by us. It comes with the territory. 
Joseph saw the angel of the Lord when he was in great perplexity. Guidance from that angel came in his deepest hour of need – another case of a man’s extremity is God’ opportunity.
God often sends a ministering angel when we reach the end of our rope or the end of our hope.
How Does This Apply To Us?
Psalm 91:11 reminds us that we cannot go along any way for God without the presence and help of a ministering angel from God. 
The world may scoff at this but believers draw strength from it. They trust and oftentimes prove that in true meditation the angels of God stand nearby.
When an angel of the Lord tells us to get up and get going, we are given the freedom to do it. 
Peter’s experience in prison demonstrates that when we are held in bondage to anything.
God can and will (if we believe) lift us up and set us free.
Pray With Me
O God, I thank You for all great and glowing thoughts. As every good and perfect gift comes from You, so all thought of pure love and unblemished beauty are Yours to give …. and ours to enjoy. Forgive me that too  often …·          
o    I have seen Your right and thought wrong.
o    I have seen Your beauty and thought ugliness.
o    I have seen Your faithful provision and thought anxiety.
o    I have seen Your gift of a second chance and thought revenge.
Help me to see Your thoughts expressed in all that is good and true and beautiful, and beyond all this give me the grace of some ministering angel to turn my thoughts toward the right and to shield my thoughts from the wrong. 
Yes, with Joseph, even in times of perplexity and deep concerns, may my thoughts be so centered on Your unfailing goodness that meditation shall be a heavenly “ladder” down which angels of light and mercy may come. 
O God, keep my thoughts so holy and loving that the appearing of angels may not seem strange nor their message go unheard.
In the name of Jesus who also knew the grace of ministering angels. Amen.
Moving On In The Life Of Prayer
In Copley Square, Boston, stands a statue that give a silent but eloquent witness.  It portrays Phillips Brooks, great preacher of the last century, looking out across the busy circle of traffic. 
In the shadows behind him there is a slightly elevated figure which can be easily identified as the Christ and one hand reaches out to rest gently on the shoulder of His faithful servant, Phillips Brooks.
In a similar fashion there is a nearby angel who ministers to us and guards us and sometimes, as with Peter, “strikes” us to get us up and get us going.
When things go well and life is at its exhilarating best, when things are very humdrum and life is painfully commonplace, when we have reached the end of our rope perplexed, bewildered and void of hope, think about this:
God has an angel for you, to keep you in all your ways.
Remember, “while he (Joseph) thought, the angel appeared.” 
Pray faithfully. Angels are nearer than we think and never too busy or too late.

William Sabin Stoddard, was born and grew up in Rochesther, New York.  He attended Haverford College and Princeton Seminary, graduating in 1940.  He was an Assistant Pastor and Youth Pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and then Senior Pastor at Homestead Presbyterian Church until late 1947 when he became Senior Pastor at Angeles Mesa Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles, California.  In 1960 he was asked to become the Senior Pastor at Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church in the Bay Area, retiring in 1976.  During the ensuring years he was the Protestant Chaplain on both the Royal Viking Line and Holland America Cruise Lines.  He and his wife, Henrietta, ministered to many during those years on the sea.
He received an honorary doctorate from Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington where he served on their Board of Trustees.
Dr. Stoddard’s wife Henrietta went to be with her Lord in 1993.  They had been married 54 years.  They had four children, all now living and serving their Lord in various capacities.  Dr. Stoddard and Henrietta both lived long enough to hold the first of their fourth generation great-grandchildren.


No comments:

Post a Comment