Saturday, November 8, 2014

Minute Musings...Celebration Time

Today marks the day that we celebrate my sweet little grandsons first birthday!  The day
ahead will be marked with noise, family, laughter and love.  We will focus on the blessing
this little person has brought into all our lives.  We like to celebrate happy occasions
don't we.  We celebrate births, graduations, new jobs, engagements, weddings, retirements,
we love to mark special events with a time of gaiety and fun.

Heaven is a place of celebration as well.  Heaven is a place focused on the Lord Jesus
Christ and is filled with praise and glory directed at Him.  There is also another type of
celebration that takes place within the Courts of Glory. 

Luke 15:10  "Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of
God over one sinner that repenteth."  What joy there is in Heaven when another name
is added to the Lambs Book of Life.  We rejoice when a precious little baby is born into
our families, we feel the excitement and joy this little one brings with them.  Heaven
rings with celebration when a soul is redeemed, born into the family of God.  I would love
to witness the joy that flows through the golden streets of Glory when this event occurs.

I have often wondered at the response of the angels to this good news.  The angels are
created beings that have never known the joy of sins forgiven, of being redeemed and
becoming a child of the most High God.  Why do they rejoice?  The angels have been
witnesses down through the ages of the supreme sacrifice of the Lamb of God.  The
great story of redemption has played out before them since time began.  They were
participants in the announcement of His birth on earth over 2000 years ago,  Luke
2:13 & 14  "And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly
host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace,
good will toward me.

They watched Him grow as a child.  They stood by and ministered to Him when He had
been days without food and water in the wilderness,  Matthew 4:11  "Then the devil
leaveth Him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto Him."  They watched
as He lived, taught and loved.  Then came the night of His arrest in the Garden of
Gethsemane, when Jesus reminded His followers, Matthew 26:53  "Thinkest thou
that I cannot now pray to my Father, and He shall presently give me more than
twelve legions of angels?"

Those Heavenly beings, which had spent their existence worshipping, praising and
exalting the Lord, now stood silently and watched Him lifted up on an old rugged cross,
paying the price demanded by a righteous, holy and just God, for your sin and mine.  An
angel was the one given the wonderful task of informing the women that Jesus had risen
and was alive!  Matthew 28:5 & 6  "And the angel answered and said unto the women,
"Fear not ye:  for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.  He is not here:  for
He is risen, as He said.  Come see the place where the Lord lay."  Is it no wonder then 
that there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels, the ones who have been a part of the
whole story from the beginning, when they see a sinner becomes part of the family of God!

The next time you hear of someone excepting God's free gift of salvation, just think of
the celebration that is ringing through Glory!

The Angels Are Singing Again
 
I once was a seeker, far from the light,
So full of myself, so lost in the night.
Till Jesus cried out, "Take my robe of pure white, 
And start Heaven singing again."
He gave me His garment and took all my sin;
He changed life completely and cleansed me within.
Now Christ is my Savior, my Lord, and my Friend,
The angels are singing again.
 
The angels are singing again,
Ten thousand hallelujahs begin,
The heavens resound, the lost has been found,
The angels are singing again.
 
                                             Ron Hamilton 

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