Do you believe in angels?

Do you believe in angels? The scripture says  in Psalm 37:4 that the angel of the Lord encamps about those that fear him and delivers them. Wow! What a promise. God's angels are with me wherever I go to protect me. They are not to be worshiped nor prayed to but they are there for the protection of God's children. They have been known to make themselves visible when the occasion calls for it. Countless people have told stories of "someone" showing up at just the right moment when they needed help.

A lady minister whose husband was a commercial fisherman once told me the following story. As a commercial fisherman he had financed an engine for his boat with a bank in a nearby town. It was a very poor season and he did not have the money to make his bank note that Friday. Toward the end of the week she called the bank to talk to the loan officer. The loan officer assured this lady that her husband, I'll call him Bob, had come into the bank several days before and paid the note. Now the lady knew this was impossible but the loan officer was insistent. She said, "I know your husband and talked to him myself. He came up to my window and paid his note in cash." She thanked the lady and hung up. That evening when her husband came home she asked him and he denied paying the loan. The only explanation was that one of God's powerful angels went into that bank disguised as Bob and payed his bank note. God is good!

The angels are spiritual beings who were created to worship and serve God. As God's children, he often sends them to serve us as well. We need never be distraught, afraid, or frustrated when in need. God's angels are watching over us every minute of every day. Allstate has a saying: "you're in good hands, Allstate." Well, I would like to tell us all that we are in in even better hands, the hands of God and He is always right on time.

Living confidently in Jesus,

Sullivan Jones 

What is a Savior?

Savior! The very word implies that we needed saving from something. We have all heard (and probably used) a term such as "you're a life saver" or "you saved me" when someone helped us out in a pinch. Yet very few of us probably know what it really feels like to have your life saved. The women who was pulled out of a river by strangers when her car went off the road knows what it is like. This is a drastic situation but "life saver" is a drastic term.

We use the term "Savior" all the time for our Lord Jesus without really stopping to consider what he saved us from. Oh, some people do know. They give testimonies about how God saved them from drugs or alcohol. Maybe others came to God when their marriage was on the rocks. But what about those who grew up in Godly, stable homes with wonderful parents? What about those who have never experienced all the bad that life has to dish out? Do they still need a savior?

The answer is yes. Paul said it like this in Romans 5:6: "At just the right time, Christ died for the ungodly." But who is the ungodly? Romans 3:23 says "all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory." That all includes everyone of us so everyone of us needed a savior. We all deserved death but God gave us life instead through his shed blood on the cross. No matter how good or bad we've been, he is the savior. We should take time today to thank him.

Blessed beyond measure,

Sullivan Jones 

Where can I go to Worship God?

John 4:23 (NIV) - Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

These are probably some of the most well known of Jesus' words. They were spoken to a Samaritan women with whom Jesus went out of his way to speak. Why? To understand that and the meaning of this scripture, we must first understand about the Samaritans. 

After the death of King Solomon the nation of Israel was divided in two. The Northern Kingdom became known as Israel and the Southern Kingdom became known as Judah.The smaller nation of Judah was made up of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. They continued to worship God in Jerusalem at the temple. The Northern nation of Israel took Samaria for its capital and began to worship God in the city of Samaria. This split created a long history of hostility between the two different Hebrew nations. 

 Beginning in about 605 B.C.E., or 600 years before Jesus, the kingdoms were destroyed and most of the people from Judah were carried as slaves to Babylon. Most of the people of the northern nation of Israel were lost to history. In time, many of the Hebrew slaves that had been carried to Babylon returned to Israel. They partially restored the temple and continued their worship of Jehovah. 

After the Jews were carried as slaves to Babylon. the king of Babylon resettled people in the area of Samaria in place of the Jews. This is where most of the trouble stems from. The Bible tells us in 2 Kings 17 that God sent lions among them because they did not worship him. When the King of Babylon heard it he sent a priest from among the captives of Judah to teach the people how to worship the God of Abraham. So according to the Jews today, the people who call themselves Samaritans are actually gentiles from Babylon and other places who were settled in the land by the King of Babylon's command. They worship the God of Abraham because they were taught to. At best they are Jewish converts; at worst they are gentiles. 

The Samaritans on the other hand have a different story. They see themselves as descendants of the Northern nation of Israel who somehow managed to escape being killed or carried away as slaves during the Babylonian invasions. They worship God on Mt. Gerizim, near the place where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. They believe they are the true original Israelites. The Samaritans today number only a few hundred people but in Jesus day there were likely several million living in this area called Samaria. 

The Jews of Jesus day did not go through Samaria when they passed that way. They went long distances out of the way so they wouldn't have to confront the Samaritans. Tt was uncharacteristic of Jesus, as a Jew to go through Samaria. But he went with a purpose. He needed to show the Samaritans (and future generations) that God loved them as much as he did the Jews. But there is a greater understanding here. The Samaritan woman's main question was this: "where is the true place to worship? Here in Mt. Gerizim or in Jerusalem?" 

Jesus answer no doubt astonished here but it would have been offensive to the Jews as well. She expected him to say that Jerusalem was the place of true worship, giving her a reason to be offended.  But he didn't do that. Instead he replied that the true worshipers would worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. This idea was totally foreign. He was saying that it didn't matter where the worshiper was, it was the truth that mattered. Jesus prophecy came to pass. Soon after his death and resurrection, the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. Those who had a revelation of him as the Son of God were scattered all over the world. Before long the church, mainly gentile, would understand that worship of God could be done anywhere, anytime. The only prerequisite is that we worship in Spirit and in truth.

This Spirit that he spoke of is the Holy Spirit that was poured out at the day of Pentecost. The truth, we know, is the word of God. So the only prerequisite to worshipping God authentically is that we must worship Him in Spirit (being filled with the Holy Ghost) and in truth (according to His word).  

Many people want to worship God but don't know how. According to what Jesus said, just any way will not do. We must search his word to find out how God wants to be worshipped. And we must worship him with Spirit. So if we want to worship God today in 2014 we can do so no matter our heritage. We can worship him not matter our social status or location. We can worship any time of day or night and on any day of the week. But we must worship him in Spirit and in truth. For the father seeketh such to worship him (John 4:24, KJV).