Ministering Angels

"Are they [angels] not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?" Hebrews 1.14.

Wow! Did you read that? Angels serve for your sake. Sent from the throne of God and Jesus, angels serve your interests. Let's try and wrap our heads around the implication of these things. The Creator God made the world for you to live in - as his own image and in his presence. Even though we messed that up, that same Creator God sent his Son into the world to reveal to us the Father; the Father's character and love for humankind. He did that for you. Then, after the ascension of the Son, the Father sent the Spirit - his own Spirit into our very beings to nudge, to witness, to correct us on our journey of transformation into the most perfect image of God - the likeness of Jesus. But even more fascinating still, the angels are sent from the throne of God for you.

The entire enterprise is focused - from God's perspective - on you. The world was created perfectly, as your home by the same loving Father who made you to live in it as his own image. The most perfect image came to show us the Father, whose images we are to be, and he has sent both his own Spirit into our hearts and the angels to minister to us as we travel the road of transformation most perfectly into his very likeness.

In short, the universe is orchestrated for your blessing and life with and in God as his image and as a partaker of the divine essence.

That my friends is mind-blowing.

But...it's true.

Have a great day!

Comments

Freewheeling

Merton never disappoints. Here's an excerpt from "Love and Living," a collection of individual writings collected after his death in 1968: "Life consists in learning to live on one's own, spontaneous, freewheeling; to do this one must recognize what is one's own—be familiar and at home with oneself. This means basically learning who one is, and learning what one has to offer to the contemporary world, and then learning how to make that offering valid." This short passage is pregnant with meaning and spiritual insight (would we expect anything less?). Let's start with the last few words: "…make that offering valid." The offering of ourselves, of our lives is our calling. We offer ourselves to assist the re-creation of Creation; the reconciling of Man to God. The validity of our offering is measured in how closely we mirror the work of God; to what extent our motivations are based on knowing who we are rather than a slavish obedience to p...

Wineskins II

In chapter 16 of Matthew, Peter ‘makes the great confession’ - Jesus he says is the Son of the Living God. At Covenant, when someone wants to become a member or to be baptized, we ask them who Jesus is and we expect this response. Peter is correct when he says this, but it is not clear that Peter (or the other disciples) understood the ramifications of his statement. Following Peter’s statement we find a series of incidents that make us wonder just how much Peters actually believed what he had said. In the first instance, Jesus compares Peter to Satan. Jesus tells his disciples that he is going to Jerusalem and there he will die. Peter exclaims that he will not let that happen; Jesus will not be killed. Peter is expecting great things from Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God on behalf of Israel and he cannot fit Jesus dying into his hope for a greater Israel under this Messiah. This cannot happen, he reasons. Jesus’s response is a harsh re...

Wineskins

Jesus comes from the Wilderness where the Spirit has driven him for testing, announcing the imminent coming of the Kingdom of Heaven. His message to the crowds calls them to repent because the “Kingdom is at hand.” The kingdom or the effective rule of God has come upon Israel and Israel’s expected response is to return to her God. A number of passages tell us the sorts of things God has against Israel or at least her leaders. They have the form of the People of God, but not the substance. He will call those opposed to him “white-washed tombs” to describe their religious and moral corruption. They look good but are dead. He calls these people to repentance, to return to “their first love,” to actually live as though they are the People of God. In another place, he will tell them that while they do well to tithe mint and cumin, they have missed the larger point of caring for people. In the judgment scene, he describes sending into a place of gnashing of teeth those who failed to gi...

The View from the West Mesa

Search This Blog