Have You Heard the Good News?
Jerry Branch
Luke 2:8-16
Read passage
2000 plus years ago, here were these guys standing out in some pasture, in the middle of the night, and suddenly this angel of the Lord comes on the scene.
I'll bet they came to their full senses in about one heartbeat.
I remember walking guard duty while I was in Army boot camp. It was dark as it could be, and our guard detail was walking around a bunch of old empty buildings at Indian Town Gap, PA...that was my first real encounter with PA...but as I was walking around the dark buildings I was assigned to guard (who knows why we were guarding empty buildings for anyway, but that was our job that night), and after a few moments out there, and my eyes adjusted to the darkness so I wasn't tripping over my own feet, I got into the swing of my guarding. And it was boring. Nothing going on. Just walk, seeing nothing. After a while, your mind starts to wander also. This went on for most of the shift, until suddenly, as I rounded one of the buildings, there's this bright shining light in my face...what a start that gave me...and no it wasn't an angel...it was our sergeant of the guard...he was checking up on us to make sure we weren't sleeping on our posts.
Well the shepherds were no doubt super terrified when the angel of the Lord appeared and the glory of the Lord shone all around them...they were terrified, and you and I would be also.
Good News can come in startling packages, but it's not to be feared.
Now had that not been God's messenger, he would have probably gone, ''BOO!'' trying to scare them out of their robes and sandals. But that is not how our God operates. Instead, recognizing their fear, the angel, says, ''Don't be afraid.''
Folks, God is just like that still today...He comforts His people. He is not the cosmic cop waiting for us to mess up so He can terrorize us with His paddle. He is the God Who loves His creation. In fact, that is why He was proclaiming thi ...
Jerry Branch
Luke 2:8-16
Read passage
2000 plus years ago, here were these guys standing out in some pasture, in the middle of the night, and suddenly this angel of the Lord comes on the scene.
I'll bet they came to their full senses in about one heartbeat.
I remember walking guard duty while I was in Army boot camp. It was dark as it could be, and our guard detail was walking around a bunch of old empty buildings at Indian Town Gap, PA...that was my first real encounter with PA...but as I was walking around the dark buildings I was assigned to guard (who knows why we were guarding empty buildings for anyway, but that was our job that night), and after a few moments out there, and my eyes adjusted to the darkness so I wasn't tripping over my own feet, I got into the swing of my guarding. And it was boring. Nothing going on. Just walk, seeing nothing. After a while, your mind starts to wander also. This went on for most of the shift, until suddenly, as I rounded one of the buildings, there's this bright shining light in my face...what a start that gave me...and no it wasn't an angel...it was our sergeant of the guard...he was checking up on us to make sure we weren't sleeping on our posts.
Well the shepherds were no doubt super terrified when the angel of the Lord appeared and the glory of the Lord shone all around them...they were terrified, and you and I would be also.
Good News can come in startling packages, but it's not to be feared.
Now had that not been God's messenger, he would have probably gone, ''BOO!'' trying to scare them out of their robes and sandals. But that is not how our God operates. Instead, recognizing their fear, the angel, says, ''Don't be afraid.''
Folks, God is just like that still today...He comforts His people. He is not the cosmic cop waiting for us to mess up so He can terrorize us with His paddle. He is the God Who loves His creation. In fact, that is why He was proclaiming thi ...
There are 8320 characters in the full content. This excerpt only shows a 2000 character sample of the full content.
Price: $5.99 or 1 credit
