Joy Among the Angels

From next Sunday's assigned Gospel reading:

"Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." (Luke 15:10)

I've reached the turning point of the novel I mentioned Wednesday: Frank Peretti's Piercing the Darkness.  On pages 318-321 we have Sally Roe's salvation day, the day when she surrendered her life to the Lord Jesus Christ.  What joy!

Here is a part of Sally's prayer--the prayer that made the angels sing and shout and dance!

    "....I've been told that You love me, and that you've arranged for all my wrongs to be paid for and forgiven. I've come to understand that Jesus died to pay my penalty... 
    "I've wronged You.  I've ignored You.  I've tried to be a god myself.  I have served other spirits.  I have killed my own offspring.  I've worked so hard to lead many away from you...
    "But if you will have me . . . if you will only accept me, I would be more than willing to hand over to You all that I am, and all that I have, whatever it may be worth... 
    "Jesus . . . I want you to come into my heart.  I want you to forgive me.  Please forgive me."

Then the novel takes us deeper and higher...

    She was crying and she couldn't stop... with a new freedom the heart of stone became a heart of flesh, and she and the Lord God began to talk about things as the minutes slipped by unnoticed and the world around her became unimportant.
    Above, as if another sun had just risen, the darkness opened, and pure rays of light broke through the treetops, flooding Sally Beth Roe with a heavenly light, shining through to her heart, her innermost spirit, obscuring her form with a blinding fire of holiness.  Slowly, without sensation, without sound, she settled forward, her face to the ground, her spirit awash with the presence of God.
    All around her, like spokes of a wondrous wheel, like beams of light emanating from a sun, angelic swords lay flat upon the ground, their tips turned toward her, theirhandles extending outward, held in the strong fists of hundreds of noble warriors who knelt in perfect concentric circles of glory, light and worship, their heads to the ground, their wings stretching skyward like a flourishing, animated garden of flames.  They were silent, their hearts filled with a holy dread.
    As in countless times past, in countless places, with marvelous inscrutable wonder, the Lamb of God stood among them, the Word of God, and more: the final Word, the end of all discussion and challenge, the creator and the Truth that holds all creation together--most wondrous of all, and most inscutable of all, the Savior, a title angels would always behold and marvel about, but which only mankind could know and understand.
    He had come to be the Savior of this woman.  He knew her by name; and, speaking her name, He touched her.
    And her sins were gone.
    A rustling began in the first row of angels, then in the next, and then, like wave rushing outward, the silken wings from row upon row upon row of warriors caught the air, raising a roar, and lifted the angels to their feet.  The warriors held their swords Heavenward, a forest of fiery blades, and began to shout in tumultuous joy, their voices rumbling and shaking the whole spiritual realm.
    ...Then the wings took hold, and the skies filled with warriors, swirling, shouting, cheering, worshiping, their light washing over the earth for miles around.

It's just a novel--but a picture of the truth--what joy when one repents and receives the forgiveness of God!  Will you pray now for God's grace to wash over you and set you free?  Will you recognize that you can't help yourself, that you need the Lord?  Pray, and then tell someone.  Share the joy!

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