Fear's of a child
Lately my daughter has had difficulty sleeping. She is eight-and-a-half and will be nine in July. When my older daughter was around the same age, she too had difficulty sleeping. They both have an undescribable fear. Perhaps it has something to do with turning nine. All they were able to express was that they were afraid. Beyond that they could say no more.
So last night, as I was putting her to sleep, I said a small prayer with her, one to strengthen her for the coming night and to deal with the coming fear. A small prayer for her guardian angel.
As night draws near, and darkness falls,
To you I turn my gaze
My hand it reaches out for yours
To hold, and feel I'm safe.
For in your warmth I travel safely
Throughout the dark of night
For in your light I always feel
The warmth of love so bright.
So together we walk, hand in hand
Across the darken skies
For with you always by my side
I feel safe and warm inside.
So for all adults struggling with eight or nine year olds, may this small verse help them all with their fears of night, their fears of losing their childhood.
posted by raph lazo @ 6:54 AM
1 Comments:
Are There Angels Among Us?
It happened so quickly. Deep in thought and oblivious to her surroundings, Marilynn strolled onto the railroad tracks. Suddenly, she heard a loud rumbling. She looked up, only to discover that she stood directly in the path of an oncoming train! Marilynn froze, paralyzed with fear. The train was so close that she could see the blue eyes and terror-struck face of the conductor. Marilynn never forgot what happened next. “It was as if a giant pushed me from behind,” she said. “I went flying off the tracks and fell down on the cinders just beyond.” Slightly bruised, Marilynn got up to thank her rescuer—but no one was in sight! Her conclusion? “My guardian angel saved my life,” Marilynn says. “Who else could it have been?”
A SKEPTICAL world seems suddenly obsessed with angels. In recent years, heavenly beings have been the subject of television shows, movies, and even a Broadway play. Books about angels are high on the list of religious best-sellers. There are angel clubs, seminars, and newsletters. Workshops have been formed to help you—as one article puts it—to unleash “your ‘inner angel.’”
Conveniently grabbing the coattails of the angel movement are opportunist merchants touting an endless stream of consumer products. “Anything with angels on it is hot stuff,” says a shop co-owner in the United States. In addition to a flood of books, she lists “angel statues, pins, dolls, T-shirts, posters and greeting cards”—all racking up what one journalist calls “heavenly profits.”
But this is not just a fad, insist the angel advocates. To back up their claim, they present one testimonial after another—“true-life” encounters with angels. Some say that they saw an angel in human form. Others saw a light, heard a voice, sensed a presence, or felt an urge that was, they believe, angelic. Many, like Marilynn, say that an angel saved their life.
What is happening? “I think there’s a resurgence of spirituality,” says Joan Wester Anderson, who has written two books on “supernatural” encounters. Alma Daniel, who helped to author another book, takes it a step further. She says that angels are “under instruction now to make themselves known so that more and more people can be touched. The reason we’re seeing so much about them is because they want it that way. They’re doing it.”
Is this really so? Or is something else behind the current fascination with angels? To find out, we must examine God’s Word. The Bible contains the truth about angels, as we will see.
The Truth About Angels
Becoming acquainted with someone usually includes learning something about that one’s family. It is the same with coming to know Jehovah God. More is involved than simply learning his name. We must also come to know something about his “family” in heaven. (Compare Ephesians 3:14, 15.) The Bible calls the angels God’s “sons.” (Job 1:6) Considering their significant role in the Bible, we should want to know more about them to understand their place in God’s purpose.
A NEW subculture is developing. Not only are more people saying that they believe in angels; an increasing number are claiming to have been touched by them in some way. When 500 Americans were asked, “Have you ever personally felt an angelic presence in your life?” almost a third answered yes. Surprising too is the number of youths who profess belief in angels—according to one poll in the United States, a full 76 percent! Evidently, people are interested in angels. But how does the current thinking about angels measure up to Bible truth?
Soft-Pedaling Satan’s Role
When speaking of angels, we should not ignore the wicked angels, heavenly creatures who the Bible says rebelled against God. Foremost of these is Satan. A popular book called Ask Your Angels suggests that Satan is merely “an aspect of God” who helps humans strengthen their “spiritual muscles” through constant temptation. Despite Satan’s “loving intentions,” the authors state, he has over the centuries become mistakenly identified with evil. They add that Satan and Jesus, “while not exactly complementary to each other, are at least on the same side, integral parts of the same whole.” These are astonishing assertions, but what does the Bible say?
The Bible makes it clear that Satan is not “an aspect of God” but an enemy of God. (Luke 10:18, 19; Romans 16:20) He defies Jehovah’s sovereignty, and his intentions toward humans are hardly “loving.” He heartlessly vents his wrath on God’s earthly servants. He accuses them before God day and night! (Revelation 12:10, 12, 15-17) Satan is intent on corrupting them at any cost. His merciless persecution of the righteous man Job exposed his callous attitude toward human suffering.—Job 1:13-19; 2:7, 8.
Far from being “on the same side,” Satan and Jesus are diametrically opposed to each other. Why, it was undoubtedly Satan who induced Herod to decree a mass infanticide—all in an effort to do away with the young child Jesus! (Matthew 2:16-18) And Satan’s relentless attacks continued right up until Jesus’ death. (Luke 4:1-13; John 13:27) Thus, rather than being “integral parts of the same whole,” Jesus and Satan are complete opposites. Bible prophecy shows that their enmity is inevitable. (Genesis 3:15) Fittingly, it is the resurrected Jesus who will destroy Satan in God’s due time.—Revelation 1:18; 20:1, 10.
Prayers to Whom?
Some advocates of the angel movement recommend meditation and other techniques in order to communicate with angels. “A sincere request for contact with any member of the celestial family will not go unheeded,” says one book. “Ask and you shall be answered.” Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, and Raphael are among the angels the book recommends for consultation.
However, Jesus taught his followers to pray to God, not to angels. (Matthew 6:9, 10) Similarly, Paul wrote: “In everything by prayer and supplication along with thanksgiving let your petitions be made known to God.” (Philippians 4:6) In their prayers, therefore, Christians do not approach anyone except Jehovah, and they do so in the name of Jesus Christ.—John 14:6, 13, 14.
Nondenominational Angels?
According to Eileen Elias Freeman, who presides over the AngelWatch Network, “angels transcend every religion, every philosophy, every creed. In fact, angels have no religion as we know it.”
The Bible, however, makes it clear that faithful angels do have a religion; they worship the true God, Jehovah, who tolerates no rivalry from other gods. (Deuteronomy 5:6, 7; Revelation 7:11) Thus, such an angel described himself to the apostle John as “a fellow slave” of those who obey God’s commands. (Revelation 19:10) Nowhere in the Bible do we read of faithful angels upholding any other form of worship. They give Jehovah exclusive devotion.—Exodus 20:4, 5.
“The Father of the Lie”
Many so-called angelic encounters involve communication with the dead. “I had the feeling that my uncle had found a way to reach me and let me know that he was happy at last,” says a woman named Elise after receiving what she felt was a sign. Terri similarly remembers a dear friend who died. “A week after the funeral,” she says, “he came to me in what I thought was a dream. He told me I should not mourn his departure, because he was happy and at peace.”
But the Bible states that the dead “are conscious of nothing at all.” (Ecclesiastes 9:5) It also says that when a person dies, “in that day his thoughts do perish.” (Psalm 146:4) Satan, however, is “the father of the lie.” (John 8:44) He is the one who originated the falsehood that the human soul survives death. (Compare Ezekiel 18:4.) Many people today believe this, which suits Satan’s purpose, for it negates the need for faith in the resurrection—a fundamental doctrine of Christianity. (John 5:28, 29) So, inquiring of the dead or seemingly receiving messages from them is yet another facet of the angel movement that is not approved by God.
Approach to Angels or to Demons?
Much of the current angel movement dabbles in the occult. Consider Marcia’s experience. “From September to December 1986,” she says, “I began to receive messages from ‘beyond the third dimension.’ I saw apparitions and had incredible ‘past life’ dreams. I contacted friends who had died and had many other psychic experiences in which I knew things about people I had just met. I also became blessed with the gift of automatic writing and transmitted messages from discarnates. Some, whom I have never met in their earthly lives, would deliver messages to others through me.”
The use of divination as a means to “communicate” with angels is not uncommon. One source outrightly encourages its readers to employ rune stones, tarot cards, I Ching coins, palmistry, and astrology. “Allow your inner knowing self to lead you to the right oracle,” the authors write, “and trust that an angel will meet you there.”
According to the Bible, however, whatever ‘meets you there’ certainly is not one of God’s angels. Why? Because divination stands in open defiance of God, and true worshipers—in heaven and on earth—have nothing to do with it. Why, in Israel divination was a capital offense! “Everybody doing these things is something detestable to Jehovah,” the Law stated.—Deuteronomy 13:1-5; 18:10-12.
“An Angel of Light”
It should not surprise us that the Devil can make divination appear beneficial, even angelic. The Bible says that Satan “keeps transforming himself into an angel of light.” (2 Corinthians 11:14) He can even fabricate portents and then make them come true, deceiving onlookers into thinking that the omen is from God. (Compare Matthew 7:21-23; 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12.) But all of Satan’s works—no matter how virtuous or how sinister they may appear—serve one of two purposes: to turn people against Jehovah or simply to blind their minds so that ‘the illumination of the glorious good news about the Christ might not shine through.’ (2 Corinthians 4:3, 4) This latter method of deception is often the most effective.
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