Angels Songs (be warned it's kinda lengthy)

I wonder just what the angels sing when one sinner comes to Christ? Actually the Bible tells us that the angels are singing, "Holy, Holy Holy is the LORD God Almighty" and I'm sure some other songs that the Bible doesn't mention. But I do KNOW that the angels were singing this morning!! Luke 15:10 tells us, "I [Jesus] tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents." There were many sinners who repented today, who acknowledged their sin and their need for a covering from God's perfect anger and judgement and who accepted Jesus Christ as that covering. There is one person whom I am especially excited about doing that and some of you may know him, Chuck. Yep, Chuck acknowledged this today. His spiritual birthday. The BEST decision he, you or I could ever make, the decision to live life with Jesus Christ.

What does this mean? you may ask? Well first off it means that if Jesus were to return today that Chuck, as well as anyone else who has made this declaration would go to heaven with Him. It means that Chuck and everyone else too (who have made that decision) will have eternal life, "for God so loved the world that He gave his only Son that whoever believes in Him will not die but have eternal life" John 3:16. It means that though the cost of sin is death ("the wages of sin is death" Romans 6:23) the free gift of God is eternal life (Romans 6:23). It means that we have a responsibility to live for Christ, to become holy as He is Holy (1 Peter 1:16).

I am SUPER excited for Chuck. Life in Christ is FAR SUPERIOR than life alone. A life lived in Christ has purpose, hope, grace, mercy, forgiveness and unconditional love.

As we talked today at lunch I was reminicent of when I made that committment, the acknowledgement that I needed a Saviour and when it became real for me. When it went from head knowledge to heart knowledge...

I accepted that I was a sinner and Jesus was the only way to heaven when I was 7 years old. My Dad prayed with me and later he baptized me. For God's word is very clear that when one believes one is to be baptized as Jesus was baptized and as He baptized His followers then. I grew up learning the ways of God and the Bible and I am SO greatful for that upbringing. But the truth transferred to my heart from my head as a freshman in college. A freshman living selfishly for herself, using "grace" as an excuse to sin and live my own way. At a retreat the pastor spoke on playing games with Jesus. Playing tricks with the Word of God for our own personal gain and how that it was SIN and fake and God hated it!! He spoke on John 15, and verse 5 really stuck out to me: "I [Jesus] am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned." I was not bearing any fruit. I was not living in Christ. I was living in knowledge OF Christ but not living IN Him or FOR Him. And I wanted desperately to be doing so. So, I cut off a bad relationship, rather the other end of it cut it off for me (thank you God) and I made a decision to move away and start over. To move away and really seek God at a Christian college and live for Jesus Christ. The rest is history really. God's word has proven true again and again in my life as I strive to live by it. Most recently in the trial God allowed with Jackson's injury and the subsequent false allegations and months without our son living with us.

God's word is TRUE. When it speaks of hell it means a place we wish NO ONE would go. When it speaks of a Saviour there IS ONE! When it says that there is forgiveness, THERE IS! and on and on I could go, the promises God has given us, the example He has shown us in His Son. The strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow is all found in Jesus Christ and Him alone. Paul encourages me in 2 Timothy that despite false teachers and challenges that (2 Timothy 3:14-17) "as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood (thank you Jesus for a Christian home) you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man (and woman) of God may be competent, equipped for every good work".

As I read and study God's word, the more excited I am for the angels songs when ONE person comes home. When ONE person realizes his/her need for a saviour and accepts Jesus as the one and only. I am more grieved by those who have yet to discover this life changing awesome truth and pray that God would be patient in coming back so more can come, yet in the same breath so very excited for Christ to come back and soon so that I can experience heaven.

To wrap things up, some may be asking still what does it mean to "be" a Christian. Being a Christian is loving Jesus Christ with all my heart, mind, soul and strength. And in the Bible Jesus says, in John 14:15-21, "If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."

So that's my goal, be better at loving Jesus, obey what He commands with the help of the Holy Spirit. However, I am human and I will fail, as you all close to me can atttest, and in those moments I rely heavily on the grace and mercy of God. So that's it.

Angels are singing today. Singing joy before God the Father for Chuck as they have sung for me and maybe you? Have they?