Opus 2022-206: Angels from the Realms of Glory

I believe that guardian angels exist.

(Psa 91:11 NAS77) For He will give His angels charge concerning you, To guard you in all your ways.

That seems simple and direct.  Of course it leaves a lot of questions.  I sometimes wonder if there is one angel assigned to each person or whether they have neighborhoods assigned.  Or the other extreme, maybe there are several keeping an eye on me.  I have no idea but I like the idea that they exist.  I sometimes remember to thank them

I think there is a lot of confusion over what angels would look like if we could see them.  I like the bit of artistic slight of hand used in the comic strip Rose Is Rose.  Pasquale has a guardian angel who usually appears as Pasquale with wings and a halo.  Every once in awhile the cute cherub gets a bit vexed and appears in his real form with is a macho warrior from the middle ages.  I like that.  I have noticed that when an angel appears to someone in the Bible they usually start off with, “Don’t be afraid.”  

At the same time there seems to be the ability to blend in.  Notice this verse,

(Heb 13:2 KJV)  Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.  

It would seem that we don’t always know.

I look forward to meeting my guardian or guardians at a time when we can sit down over a cup of coffee and share my stupidest moments.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-007: Angel Report

I am staying with my grandchildren and as I was being thankful this morning my guardian angel came to mind.  I am a believer in guardian angels.  

Psa 91:11  For He will give His angels charge concerning you, To guard you in all your ways.

This is repeated in Luke 4:10.  I used the NASB because it uses the word “guard”.  When I think of my guardian angel my mind takes a squirrel moment.  For instance, how do you leave your guardian angel cookies?  Do they like cookies?  And so forth.
Since I have a guardian angel it follows that my grandchildren have them too.  It occurred to me that they are doubling up, mine came with me and theirs is here.  It brings a whole bunch of squirrel questions to mind.

I wonder if they have ever met.  Do they need to be introduced?  Do all guardian angels know each other?

I assume that we were assigned the best available.  Or it could be that they are genuinely equal, after all God did make them.

I wonder if it will give them time off as they share vigils.

I wonder if my imagination is running away with me.

It is a great way to have it happen.

Happy New Year.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-117: Either Way

How much does God manage the small details of our lives?  I am thinking in terms of the China virus panic and guardian angels.  There are two extremes, tiny and God appointed.  Many times they may be the same.

For the big things we have guardian angels.  There are several places you can find this in the Bible but it is clearly stated in Psalms,

(Psa 91:11 NAS77) For He will give His angels charge concerning you, To guard you in all your ways.

I use the NASB here because it actually uses the word “guard”.  Usually when I think of a guardian angel I imagine an awesome warrior with unimaginable powers.  He can do all the things that Superman was described as doing and then some.  He is the one who slows my car down just enough to be late to the guy running the red light.  He is the one in war who erases my name from all the bullets.  

But what about the other end?  Does the guardian angel intercept all the little critters that are trying to invade our bodies and wreak havoc?  Imagine how boring that would be.  Or did God simply put an immune system in our bodies and let the macrophages feast?  Did He make it so that if we live righteous lives our natural defenses are more than adequate to protect us from things like the China Virus and the common cold?  Does He guide the path of every virus and bacterium or does He have some kind of heavenly probability chart?  Is our health the result of our life style or simply Providence?

Either way I hope I get a chance to thank my guardian angel(s) in eternity.  Did they laugh at my jokes?  What were some of the one liners they wished they could have shared with me when I was being really stupid?  It will be good times.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-071: Fear and Fear Not

What does it mean to fear not?

It is not permission to glibly run red lights.  It does not mean leaving your front door unlocked at night.  It does not mean that the China Virus doesn’t know where you live.  There are a lot of extremes that it does not mean.

It means,

(Psa 23:4 KJV) Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

It means staying out of downtown if you can.  It means washing your hands, if you can.  It means making sure you have gas, a fully charged cell phone and maybe some extra water before you start over the desert in summer.  But notice that he is going through the valley, not around.

Many things require a healthy respect.  Most of them also require to be kept in perspective.  When I read the promises of God I realize that they include both a promise of His protection and a promise of persecution.  The courage comes when you understand that He will be there to help you through the persecution.  How?  He has more ways to work it out than you have excuses not to live in faith.  That is a lot.  One of my favorites is,

(Psa 91:11 KJV) For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.

Sometimes the help is obvious.  I can remember when my dad put a credit card in my hand when I left on a trip.  Sometimes it is simple and assumed faith.  I remember the feeling of knowing my family would be there for me when I returned home with no job and a pregnant wife.  

We are told repeatedly in the Bible to “fear not.”  A quick search turned up 63 times in the KJV.  There is one exception.  We are told to fear God ten times.  It isn’t a contradiction.  Believing the second is the reason we can live the first.  

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-062: Monday Pulpit: Pestilence to the Right of Me, Pestilence to the Left of Me...

FDR is not one of my favorite people.  He prepared us for World War II so he was significant.  He also planted the seeds of socialism that are destroying us today.  In spite of that, he had some great speech writers.  One of the lines they wrote for him are double true today,

“We have nothing to fear except fear itself.”

You might want to write that down and read it during the day if you are following the news.

The truth of this statement is doubled for Christians.  This came home to me today as I was reading the 91st Psalm.  Let me share a few selected verses.  The Psalm starts off reminding us that he is writing to those who live in the shelter of Almighty God.  Then he says this,

(Psa 91:3 NAS77) For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper, And from the deadly pestilence.

That hit me in two ways.  First we have the authoritarians taking over the government who are intent on locking up anyone who has ever supported Trump or claimed to believe in Jesus.  Although one does not lead to the other there is an amazing amount of overlap.  They want to trap us.  They want to destroy us.

Then you have the “pestilence”.  It comes up again,

(Psa 91:5-6 NAS77) You will not be afraid of the terror by night, Or of the arrow that flies by day; Of the pestilence that stalks in darkness, Or of the destruction that lays waste at noon.

We are being told, “Do not fear.”  The author admits that they are out to get you and that there is disease.  But he is saying, “Do not fear.”  Did I say that you should not fear?  Did you hear it?

“But people are dying,” you say.  Yes, but that is true all the time.  Notice the next verse,

(Psa 91:7 NAS77) A thousand may fall at your side, And ten thousand at your right hand; But it shall not approach you.

It goes on.  You might want to take a few minutes and look it over.

But a word of caution.  These are promises that are only made to the righteous, the ones who are part of God’s people.  What troubles me about that is His people are a pretty small group.  Anyone can be a part but most people would rather keep living in rebellion and disobedience.  They think God is dumber than the person they sold their used car to.  It doesn’t work that way.

But that is a sermon for another day.

I hope you can fear not.

homo unius libri

Opus 2020-081: An Ounce of Providence Is Worth a Pound of Panic

I am having a hard time finding the panic button over the latest media scare.  Like many of you I remember the recurring theme that this time it is going to be the next Black Death.  Maybe.  Maybe not.  I am willing to go to the extreme of washing my hands for 20 seconds to keep myself safe.  To put other people at rest I am willing to reduce my trips out into the world and keep my distance when I go out.  As an introvert that is no problem. 

There is another reason I am not freaking out about this:  Providence.

We don’t use the word much any more.  My wife likes to talk about “the God thing”.  Even those who are serious about their faith in Jesus tend to forget that God is in control.  Sometimes it comes jumping out at me.  Yesterday was one of those times.

I was reading in Psalm 91.  The first few verses got my attention.

(Psa 91:1-3 KJV) He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.  I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.  Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.

For those of you who went to public school, “pestilence” means a disease of epic proportions.  Now I don’t know about you but that sounds like a promise.  Now I am not worried much about “the snare of the fowler” or the arrow that flies by day mentioned in verse 5 but verse six uses that word again.

(Psa 91:6 KJV)  Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.

Then we have a different word in verse 10,

(Psa 91:10 KJV) There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.

Verse 11 gives us a part of the reason.  I am going to use the NASB because it uses the word “guard” instead of “keep”.

(Psa 91:11 NAS77) For He will give His angels charge concerning you, To guard you in all your ways.

This is a clear mention of guardian angels.  It sounds like certain angels have been assigned to keep an eye on you.

Does this mean that I will not get sick and can’t die.  No.  God has His purposes and plans and my demise might be part of that plan.  What it means is that as a general rule I can expect to be protected from a lot of the “chance” happenings that go on all around us.  Why do some catch the latest virus?  Why do some die?  Why do others sail through?  At the heart of it is Providence. 

So I will wash my hands to make it easy on my guardian angel.  I will keep my distance to make my family feel better.  I will change my clothes when I come home.

Ultimately I will continue to dwell in the shelter of the Most High.

homo unius libri

Opus 2019-112: Baby Talk: Guardian Angels on Overtime

I don’t know if you ever read the comic strip “Rose Is Rose”.  One of my favorite support characters is Pasquale’s guardian angel.  At times he is a cute little cherub that looks just like Pasquale.  Every once in awhile he is revealed in his fearsome splendor as the warrior that he is.  Angels are not cute, they are scary.  And powerful.  And faithful.

So as a grandparent I want to put in a good word for what we call guardian angels.   I am not sure the term is Biblical.  I did a quick search for the two words in the same verse in both the KJV and NASB and came up empty.  The concept is there,

(Psa 91:11 KJV) For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.

but not the exact phrase.  Good enough for me.  I am thanking the guardian angel, or angels, that have an eye on my granddaughter.

I think of the limited chances for harm I have been able to witness.  I have seen drawers and little fingers in situations that made me cringe.  I noticed a music stand that refused to fall over on her head.  I think of the times I have been around to remove things from little fingers.

At the same time I am grateful it was my wife that got stung by the scorpion and me that found the centipede.  My wife didn’t enjoy it.  Neither did the centipede. 

So thanks GA.  I owe you much more than one.  And thank the Father who sent you.

homo unius libri

Opus 2015-74: Monday Pulpit: God’s Nostrils

A young man was leading in prayer in church and he said something to the effect that he wanted our lives to be a sweet savor in God’s nostrils.  My initial reaction was a loud “What!”  I almost said it out loud.

I am aware of the concept of giving off a spiritual fragrance both to God and to people around us.

(2 Corinthians 2:15 KJV)  For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish:

But God’s nostrils?  It sounds like a swear word from Charles Dickens. 

So I did a little research.  I found “nostrils” 14 times in the NASB, 15 in the KJV.  Most of the time it refers to humans but a couple of times it is God’s nostrils that are being referenced.

I hope you are not one of those people that demands that everything in the Bible be taken literally.  Picture the image that could emerge.  We have two nostrils and also just one eye.

(Psalms 33:18 KJV)  Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy;

The image has feathers and wings.

(Psalms 91:4 KJV)  He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

We begin to build a ridiculous picture, at least to Bible believing Christians.  If we were describing an Egyptian or Aztec deity, maybe; the God of the Bible, no.  If we wanted to be literal we might talk about hiding under His armpits but that loses the beauty of the poetic description.

So take the literal portions literally and the literary devices as literary devices.  It makes for better reading, and who knows?  You might find you actually understand it.

homo unius libri

Opus 2013-365: Basic Beliefs: God Is..., Part 1 of 3

Years ago in a seminary class the professor stated that there are three categorical statements about God in the Bible.  These are in addition to the attributes stated or implied.  These are statements that begin, “God is....”  When I did a search for “God is” in my software I came up with 169 hits.  Most of them are simple statements like “God is giving to us.”  Those obviously don’t fit this category.  Others are more subtle like,

(Deuteronomy 4:31 KJV)  (For the LORD thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.

I want to look at the three statements given by that professor.  Interestingly they are all from the writings of John, the last writer and the one with the most time to reflect.  This is not intended as a required doctrinal statement explaining God.  It is simply a look at some of the basics.

The first statement,

(John 4:24 KJV)  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

First, lets deal with the translation.  In the KJV and other older translations this describes God as “a” Spirit.  Modern translations drop the indefinite article and simply have “God is spirit.”  Greek does not use the articles the way we do.  The definite article, “the,” is used sparingly and seems to indicate emphasis.  The indefinite articles, “a” and “an,” do not exist in Greek so anywhere you see them they are added on the opinion of the translators.

The theological point here is that the eternal God is not a physical being.  When the Son came to earth he was “incarnated.”  That means He crossed a line and took on the physical nature of human beings without giving up the divine nature.  In essence though, it means that we are not to think of God in physical terms. 

There are numerous figures of speech in the Bible that are used to teach us about God.  They help us to understand bigger lessons.  There are times when the word picture is clear in our minds and seems to indicate that God is physical.

(Mark 16:19 KJV)  So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.

But if God is not physical, He does not have hands.  It is just as powerful to accept this as a metaphor and learn from it.  Everything is the Bible is not to be taken literally.  How do you know?  Paraphrasing the realtor who asked what was most important, “Three things:  Context, context, context.”Try to understand the Bible in the context of the Bible. 

For example.

(Psalms 91:4 KJV)  He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

Does that mean that God is a chicken?  If you insist that everything is totally literal that is your declaration.  If you accept that this is a metaphor, then don’t insist everything is literal.  Accepting the inspiration of the Word is not the same as demanding a literal interpretation.

More could be said but the first point is that God is Spirit, not material.

To be continued...

homo unius libri

Opus 2013-180: Taking the Bible Literally

Allistair Begg was talking about John the Baptist.  As he spoke he quoted something in the passage about John that he called hyperbole, “All of Israel went out to hear him.”  I could not find that exact quote but I did find the following.

(Matthew 3:5 KJV)  Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan,

His comments got me thinking about how people argue about Biblical inspiration, literal interpretation and what is called inerrancy.  People turn off their brains when these issues come up.  Biblical inspiration and inerrancy do not mean that you take every word in its absolute literal meaning. 

Take the statement above.  I doubt if the city of Jerusalem went out to the Jordan to see John.  I doubt is everyone in Judea heard him preach.  No one who is rational would question that this is a literary device.  No rational person would assume that when it says, “All people” it did not mean “all people.”  The Bible is to be interpreted the way it was intended to be interpreted not the way its critics want to interpret it.

Another good example of figurative language is,

(Psalms 91:4 KJV)  He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

In the context this is clearly talking about God.  No one who is in their right mind thinks God is a big chicken with wings we will hide under.  A rational mind understands that this is a figure of speech. 

We can disagree on whether something is to be taken literally.  We can disagree on whether the parables are observed events or composed stories.  We can argue about whether Job was a real person.  That is all in the family.

But don’t take those arguments as a reason to doubt that the Bible was inspired by the Holy Spirit, preserved by the Holy Spirit and understood through the Holy Spirit. 

It does not follow.

homo unius libri