Created on Purpose

ANGELS IN DISGUISE
By: Joseph J. Mazzella

I have been seeing so many more angels lately in my life
that Earth is starting to seem a lot more like Heaven. Now
by angels I am not talking about the ones in paintings with
wings, halos, and robes. I am talking instead of those angels
that love to hide behind a human form. They are what I joyously
call angels in disguise.

These angels are everywhere. They hide in the bodies of your
family, your friends, and the stranger you meet on the street.
They greet you from behind the checkout counter and serve
you dinner at your local restaurant. They look at you from
behind the eyes of a ninety year old and a newborn infant.
They come disguised as the rich, the poor, the vital, the
sick, the healthy, and the handicapped. They smile at you
from behind beautiful faces and genius intellects and also
from within deformed bodies and disabled minds.

How can you tell who they are? It is simple. They are the
ones who are radiating love to all those around them. They
are the ones who are sharing joy with everyone they meet.
They are the ones who are making the world a better place
just by being in it. They are the ones who are giving us all
a glimpse of Heaven while we are still here on Earth.

Do you want to know something wonderful? You can be an
angel in disguise too. It is true despite your arguments to the
contrary. Yes, you are a human being, but you are also a
Child of God. Yes, you do live here on Earth, but the Kingdom
of Heaven is within you. Yes, you have made a lot of mistakes
in your life, but you can do a lot of good in it as well. Be an angel
in disguise then. Look in the mirror and see the halo around your
heart. Choose and share love and joy like an angel on Earth should.
God loves you so much. Why wait until you reach Heaven to be His angel?

"I was created on purpose. I was given the gift of choice. When what I was created to be and what I choose to be is one in the same...I am in harmony with life." Bob Perks

John Calvin

For until men recognize that they owe everything to God, that they are nourished by His fatherly care, that He is the Author of their every good, that they should seek nothing beyond Him — they will never yield Him willing service. Nay, unless they establish their complete happiness in Him, they will never give themselves truly and sincerely to Him.

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters" Gen 1:1-2

"Daddy, where did fish come from?"
"God created them."
"Where did water come from, Daddy?"
"God created it."
"Daddy, where did God come from?"

That's a question that has been asked since the beginning of time. Oh, by the way, how did God mark time before the creation of the sun and moon? Where did time come from? What existed before time began?

I'm sure many of us have asked those questions and more.
And, to be honest, I'm not going to give you an answer --
because I don't know. It's easy to say "God has always been."
But the skeptic will always come back with, "How do you know?"

Some things are better accepted by faith. The existence of
God is one of those things. But this I will respond to, "How
can I know my faith is in the right place?" And the answer is,
"Because we can test it. We can try our faith in God. Early
on in my faith, I would ask God for a parking space in front
of the store where I was headed. I believed God would provide
it -- and He did -- at least enough to prove my faith. Eventually
I realized how selfish that prayer was and quit asking. Well,
in extreme circumstances I will still ask. And He still provides.

A little later in my faith, I would ask God to help me with
something much more serious than a parking space. It
may have been a healing, or salvation of a loved one, or
wisdom, or what ever. I always found that God would
answer my prayers. Oh, some times he wouldn't answer
the way I wanted, that is part of the maturing process.
But I always knew that God answered. He usually made
it clear to me in one way or another. And sometimes it
took a long time for me to understand the answer.

Now my faith in God is strong -- because I have tested it.
And I still test it. Worse than having a weak faith is having
a faith that has never been tested under fire. Imagine the
army sending our soldiers into battle with weapons that
had never been tested except on a rifle range. No one
would know if they would work in the battlefield. So it
is with our faith. It must be tested. It must be tried in
the furnace of affliction. Only in that way will we know
that our faith is strong when we face the inevitable trials
of life.

Is your faith being tried? Are you right now in the fires
of affliction? Do you wonder if you have the strength to
hang on? Trust in God. When your strength fails, His
will become strong in you.

LIVE NOW
By: Joseph J. Mazzella

My wife and I have done a wonderful thing the last two weekends.
Each weekend we have packed the children into the car and
headed out for a fantastic road trip. We have done this without
any major planning or worrying. We have just begun with a strong
determination to enjoy ourselves and a beautiful desire to live now
and not later. Each trip has been different, but both of them have
taken us to the same place: a glorious little destination called Joy.

It is amazing to me how many people are just sitting there watching
life go by when there is so much living that they can be doing right
now. Some of them are so busy planning for the future that they
forget that they can only live today. Others are so busy worrying
about their problems that they forget that they can choose love
and joy in spite of them. Still others have given up altogether and
are merely waiting for death. They don’t see that life, love, and joy
are only a choice away and that God wants them to Live Now.

There is a wonderful quote that says, “How do you know if your
mission on Earth is finished? If you are still alive then it isn’t.”
Are you going to stop living before God wants you to? Are you
just going to sit around waiting to die or are you going to live now?
What are you waiting for? Start living now. If you haven't taken
a day off to enjoy yourself in forever then do it now. If you haven't
played with your children in a long time then do it now. If you
haven't smelled a flower or hugged a tree lately then do it now.
If you haven't told those you hold dear that you love them in a
while then do it now. If you haven't hugged your children,
grandchildren, friends, loved ones, pets, or even yourself
in days then do it now. If you haven't loved, laughed, sang,
danced, cared, helped, smiled, or enjoyed yourself today
then for crying out loud do it now. Life is too short to waste
doing nothing. God wants us to Love Now and God wants
us to Live Now.

AAmazing Grace Devotional
http://aamazinggrace.org