The Road He Traveled

 Disclaimer: Obviously I am not an actual angel. However, I feel like God speaks to my heart and I would love to share it with you. Please enjoy.

If you enjoy my blog but are not currently receiving my email notifications, you can send your first and last name, and your email address to austinlass1948@gmail.com and I will notify you each time I post something new. I promise I will never give your information out to anyone or use it for anything other than my notifications to you. Please share my blog with your friends and family to help me spread the words from my heart with others. Also, if you have any family or friends who you believe might enjoy my blog posts and live in another country, I would especially love to have you share it with them. I am trying to reach more countries around the world. Your help would be greatly appreciated. 

Comments are greatly appreciated. If you leave a comment please include your name. Otherwise I won't know who you are.

Thank you. Janice Austin Bates

  The Road He Traveled

 

Three shepherds watched their flock out in a field one starlit night

When suddenly up in the sky there was a brilliant light.

An angel floated in the air and they were so afraid

Its voice fell lightly on their ears and this is what it said.

 

“Fear not, for God has come to man as a little baby boy,

And all who worship at His feet will have exceeding joy.

A virgin of the house of David gave birth to Him today.

This star so bright will lead to where He’s on a bed of hay.”

 

So, they left their flock and traveled east, following the star.

They searched and found the child one night, though it was very far.

And though they had no gifts that day they worshiped for a while

Then Jesus looked into their eyes, and gave a little smile.

 

The shepherds went back to their flock, their hearts were all aglow.

Joseph took Mary and the babe, ‘twas time for them to go.

They raised Him up along beside His sisters and His brothers

But knew He was the Son of God and nothing like the others.

 

And when the time was come for Him to do His Father’s plan

He left and walked from town to town and witnessed man to man.

He told the people of God’s love, so rich and full and free.

He turned water into wine, and calmed an angry sea.

 

He preached upon the mountain top and fed five thousand men

With five loaves and two fishes, then He preached to them again.

A man was raised up from the dead, and demons driven out

This truly was the Son of God, of that there was no doubt.

 

But one day as He walked along the road, this Nazarene

He met a leper crying out, “Unclean, unclean, unclean.”

Then Jesus laid His hand on him and said, “My son, be well.”

His sores dropped off, he cried for joy, at Jesus feet he fell.

 

A blind man standing close could hear the man cry out with glee

And said, “Oh, Master, if You will, I know You can heal me.”

Jesus touched his eyes and gave him back his sight that day.

He turned to His disciples and began to walk away.

 

But a man with a withered arm said, “If You only will, my Lord,

You can heal my arm with Your touch or Your spoken word.”

Then Jesus said, “Take heart My son, your faith hath made you whole.”

With two good arms he hugged Christ and said, “Thank You with all my soul.”

 

Then the three men said, “You won’t recall, for You were too young to know,

But we knelt down at Your manger bed, many long years ago.

Our shepherd’s life has been unkind, and made our bodies this way.

But by chance You came along and healed all of us today.”

 

“It was not by chance”, Jesus gently said, “that I came down this road.

For, long ago, when you knelt down, I felt your heavy load.

I looked into your eyes that day and saw what lay ahead.

I could have traveled another road, but came this way instead.”

 

“From the manger bed I set My path to meet with you today.

For I saw what life would do to you, and I couldn’t turn away.

I’ve searched for you for many years, just like you searched for Me.

Now live a full and healthy life, for you have been set free.”

 

We must still seek the Son of God, and worship at His feet.

For there you’ll find exceeding joy that makes your soul complete.

Yes, life can be cruel and bend you low, but God’s love, time can never erase.

For once you have knelt at Jesus’ feet, He never forgets your face.

 

                                                        Janice Austin Bates

                                                        December 13, 2003

1:51 AM

 

Merry Christmas and God bless us everyone.

Angels On The Hillside

 Disclaimer: Obviously I am not an actual angel. However, I feel like God speaks to my heart and I would love to share it with you. Please enjoy.

If you enjoy my blog but are not currently receiving my email notifications, you can send your first and last name, and your email address to austinlass1948@gmail.com and I will notify you each time I post something new. I promise I will never give your information out to anyone or use it for anything other than my notifications to you. Please share my blog with your friends and family to help me spread the words from my heart with others. Also, if you have any family or friends who you believe might enjoy my blog posts and live in another country, I would especially love to have you share it with them. I am trying to reach more countries around the world. Your help would be greatly appreciated. 

Comments are greatly appreciated. If you leave a comment please include your name. Otherwise I won't know who you are.

Thank you. Janice Austin Bates

Do you ever have times when you feel like you are in a place or situation where there is no way out? You feel like you are surrounded and alone. Well, don’t despair. That is exactly how Satan wants you to feel. He wants you to lose hope and give up.

In 2 Kings chapter 6, God tells us about the king of Aram fighting against the Israelites. The king of Aram realized the king of Israel knew, ahead of time, everything the king of Aram was going to do and he thought there was a spy in his army. When he was informed that the prophet Elisha was telling the king of Israel what they were doing, the king of Aram was angry and decided to kill Elisha.

Elisha’s servant got up one morning and saw that they were surrounded by the Aramean army. He was afraid and ran and told Elisha. Then Elisha, who was used to being taken care of by God, asked God to open the servant’s eyes. Suddenly the servant saw the hills were filled with angelic soldiers in chariots of fire. He was no longer afraid.

Have you ever thought about when Lucifer tried to take over heaven? God told the angels to choose who they wanted to serve. One third of the angels chose to follow Lucifer, who is now Satan. The other two thirds of the angels chose God. That means two things. First, God’s army is twice as big as Satan’s army. But, way more important than that, Satan’s army is lead by Satan, while God’s army is lead by God. So which army do you think is stronger?

How can we ever be afraid of Satan and his army when we know we are protected by God and His army. That Satanic army cannot ever win, and God’s army cannot, and will not ever fail. We have nothing to fear. You have nothing to fear.

When the Aramean army went after Elisha and his servant, although they didn’t have the spiritual eyes to see it, they were actually sandwiched between God’s servants on the inside, and God’s army on the outside. They couldn’t be in a worse position than that.

In our church we sing a song that says when we think we are surrounded, we are surrounded by God.

When people decide whether to serve God or to serve Satan (everyone is serving one or the other, there is no middle ground) we are also deciding who’s army we are serving in. If you are serving in God’s army, you have no reason to ever be afraid. If you are serving in Satan’s army, you should be terrified. Who do you want leading the army you are fighting with, Satan or God?

Think about it.

Secret Place

 Disclaimer: Obviously I am not an actual angel. However, I feel like God speaks to my heart and I would love to share it with you. Please enjoy.

If you enjoy my blog but are not currently receiving my email notifications, you can send your first and last name, and your email address to austinlass1948@gmail.com and I will notify you each time I post something new. I promise I will never give your information out to anyone or use it for anything other than my notifications to you. Please share my blog with your friends and family to help me spread the words from my heart with others. Also, if you have any family or friends who you believe might enjoy my blog posts and live in another country, I would especially love to have you share it with them. I am trying to reach more countries around the world. Your help would be greatly appreciated. 

Comments are greatly appreciated. If you leave a comment please include your name. Otherwise I won't know who you are.

Thank you. Janice Austin Bates

When you pray do you ever feel like your prayer is hitting a brick wall? Do you feel like God isn’t even hearing you? Maybe that is your imagination, or maybe it is really true.

We know from the Bible that some people put on an act of being holy and serving God, but it is mainly for show. They put ashes on their head and tear their clothes trying to look sincere, but their prayers never go higher than their ceiling.

If you feel empty when you pray, perhaps God is trying to show you something. You might be praying very hard for God to draw you closer to Him, and yet you feel dead inside.

Maybe the problem is something else entirely.

Do you have something in your heart that you haven’t given up? It could be an action, an object, or even a person. If there is an obstacle in you way that you can’t quite let go of it can prevent God from being able to draw you closer. It can cause a dead spot in your soul. You might not even recognize it for what it is, but it is there just the same.

If there is an action you like to do even though you know it is wrong, you might be telling yourself it isn’t hurting anyone. After all, what people don’t know won’t hurt them. Right? Okay, maybe that is true, but who does know? Well, you know. And then of course, God knows too. If you are hiding something, you might fool yourself, but you will never fool God.

God had to throw Lucifer and a third of the angels out of heaven. Why did He have to throw them out? Not to punish them, but because He is so holy that He cannot allow sin to be in His presence. They had brought sin into their hearts, and into heaven. God could no longer commune with them. The link between God and them had been blocked. Heaven could never be pure as long as they were there.

Because they had been perfect and chose to go into sin, there was no forgiveness for them. They walked into it willingly, with their eyes open.

Thank God there is forgiveness for us. Because we are born into sin God knows we are tempted and we cannot always resist. But, even though God is willing to, and wants to forgive us, in order for that to happen we must give it to Him. He will not take away our sin by force. We have to give it up.

If you are praying about one thing, but refusing to give up something else, the sin you are not willing to give up can stop your prayers at the ceiling, just like it feels.

If we are unwilling to give up a sin, even though it might feel trivial to us, it can sabotage our entire prayer life. Even if no one else knows about our sin, and it feels harmless, sin is sin and there is no such thing as harmless sin.

If you feel a dryness you can’t get past, perhaps you need to examine your heart. Are you hiding something because you can’t quite let it go? As long as you hold onto it you are putting your entire eternity at risk. Is it worth it? Of course not. So what do you do about it?

You have to make up your mind to let it go. Then you have to confess it to God and ask for forgiveness. You might feel the burden of sin lift immediately or you might have to pray for quite a while to truly let it go.

Don’t give up until you know it is right between you and God. Even if it isn’t something that will send you to hell, it can still be an attitude in your heart that will prevent the closeness that God wants to have with you.

I am giving you a link to a song on Youtube that might explain it better than I can. It is beautiful and hopefully the words will move you.

Think about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xI33izOgRdY

The Fight before Christmas

 Disclaimer: Obviously I am not an actual angel. However, I feel like God speaks to my heart and I would love to share it with you. Please enjoy.

If you enjoy my blog but are not currently receiving my email notifications, you can send your first and last name, and your email address to austinlass1948@gmail.com and I will notify you each time I post something new. I promise I will never give your information out to anyone or use it for anything other than my notifications to you. Please share my blog with your friends and family to help me spread the words from my heart with others. Also, if you have any family or friends who you believe might enjoy my blog posts and live in another country, I would especially love to have you share it with them. I am trying to reach more countries around the world. Your help would be greatly appreciated. 

Comments are greatly appreciated. If you leave a comment please include your name. Otherwise I won't know who you are.

Thank you. Janice Austin Bates

This is a poem I wrote years ago. It is in the style of the poem "The Night Before Christmas". I hope it helps people remember to put the joy of Christmas first in this season.

The Fight Before Christmas

‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house

The tension was bad as I fought with my spouse.

The stockings were hung, and the presents were there.

The tree lights were shining, but I didn’t care.

 

She had said something that had made me mad,

Unless she said “I’m sorry” this fight would be bad.

The children were hiding upstairs in their beds,

While loud angry voices whirled ‘round in their heads.

 

She had been wrong and I knew that she knew it

This fight would go on until she said she blew it.

My wife went upstairs, brushed her teeth and her hair.

I decided I’d sleep in my reclining chair.

 

My eyelids were closed but my mind wouldn’t rest.

The anger sat there like a brick on my chest.

When all of a sudden, from somewhere outside

I heard such a wail you’d think something had died.

 

I jumped from my chair and my feet hit the floor,

I stomped through the house and threw open the door.

The moonlight reflected on new fallen snow

As my eyes became focused on objects below.

 

And there on my porch, surely up to no good,

Stood eight tiny snot nosed brats from the hood.

They were all bundled up, their eyes full of glee

As they sang Christmas carols, mostly off key.

 

Two were dressed up like Joseph and Mary,

In the little girl’s arms, a wee doll she did carry.

They sang Silent Night, and Away in a Manger.

They had not a clue of my justified anger.

 

I started to scold them and send them away.

Who could have joy on this miserable day?

But, just as I opened my mouth to implore

That they take their miserable singing next door.

 

 

A wee voice said, “Mister, do you know the reason

That we celebrate during this Christmas season”?

My head dropped in shame, I said, “Tell me about it”.

He replied, “When you hear it, you never will doubt it.

 

Did you know that Jesus came down from above

To live among us with a heart full of love?

He left all His riches to live here on earth

And started this life with a poor, lowly birth.

 

He had to come down because we had been bad.

He didn’t place blame, it just made Him real sad.

He died on a cross where we should have died.

The people who loved Him were sad, and they cried.

 

He rose up again and to heaven He flew

And we can all go there to live with Him too.”

They said “Merry Christmas”, as they walked away.

Their singing was precious, I wished they could stay.

 

I suddenly realized that I had been wrong,

This fight with my family had stolen my song.

My anger had drowned out the sweet Christmas spirit.

The song was still there, but I couldn’t hear it.

 

I knew that I had to make up with my wife,

To tell her “I’m sorry” and stop all this strife.

I climbed up the stairs and swallowed my pride,

And gathered my wife and my kids to my side.

 

As I asked for forgiveness and started to weep,

My wife said, “I love you, now let’s get some sleep.”  

We all settled down for a nice winter’s rest.

I thought of my family, and knew I was blessed.

 

My children are nestled all snug in their beds,

While memories of Christmas songs float in their heads.

‘Tis the night before Christmas and everything’s good

Because of eight twinkle eyed kids from the hood.

 

Janice Austin Bates

December 2, 2011 11:26pm