[Discoveries] 12-29-08 Do not be afraid -- Luke 2:8-10

[Inspiration in Your Inbox]

/*For those struggling financially ...*/
/*Never stop helping other people. No matter how destitute you become, 
God will show you a way to enrich someone else. After Hurricane Katrina, 
I had the honor of serving some of the people of the state of 
Mississippi. I arrived at Waveland, Mississippi a few days after the 
hurricane. We set up shop in the parking lot of a K-Mart. Right next to 
us was a field hospital surrounded by rolls of razor wire and a pile of 
cars bulldozed together. The people we met had lost everything. For most 
of them, their uninsured houses were wiped clean off the face of the 
earth without a trace remaining. They were hungry, dazed, tired, 
sleeping in the streets. Yet, from them I learned the meaning of real 
wealth. If they had two bottles of water, they offered me one. If all 
they had left was a smile, then it was given away freely. I went away 
feeling indebted to them, rather than the other way around. Even on the 
cross, Jesus, stripped of everything, offered eternal life.*/

/*And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping 
watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, 
and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 
But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid..." -- Luke 2:8-10*/

I don't know about you, but I think I would have been terrified also.

Without too much trouble, an angel put to death 185,000 Assyrian 
soldiers one night when a king got a little too uppity about the God of 
Judah. I heard a story once about an angel, sword in hand, who showed up 
in a bar down in Mexico to inform a certain man that he needed to give a 
certain widow the money he owed her. That would sober me up.

We may have all kinds of reasons to be afraid, but here in this 
shepherd's pasture, God skips over them, and assures us that terrifying 
us is not on His agenda.

One night I had a dream that heaven was opening, and I knew at any 
moment I would see God. I thought I would be scared witless. But I 
wasn't. Instead, I was filled with an awe I cannot describe. It would be 
something like seeing a thousand Grand Canyons all in one moment.

I hang on to stuff like this. To me, one of God's greatest gifts has 
been the words, "Do not be afraid ..."

Be encouraged!
Dwight

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