Leader: Anna Che

Anna directed our attention to Psalm 91 and read through the entire psalm for us.  She made the following points:

God is our Protector.

v.11 – Angels take care of us; we must ask for angels to be assigned to us each morning and when leaving the house.  Do we remember to ask for them?  Do we remember that angels are with us?  We must continue to be aware of them and ask our Guardian Angel to be around us.  We must engage them.

We must recognize that angels exist, even if we are not fully aware of them.  Hebrews 13:2 – “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that, some have entertained angels without knowing it.”

Psalm 91:14 – We must love God and acknowledge Him always; this is a condition of His words: “I will save them.”

  1. 16 – He will give us long life. This promise is like the Fifth Commandment: “Honor your father and your mother, so that your days will be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12).

 

On the theme of honoring parents, it was also mentioned that in Hispanic cultures people celebrate The Day of the Dead at the beginning of November, but it is a joyous celebration of the lives of relatives who have gone before us; there are various customs connected with this celebration.  Other participants described some of the African customs of honoring parents and those who have gone before us.

One point was that we are definitely not praying to the dead or asking them to pray for us.  One way to keep the focus on God is to honor our parents with celebrations in church.  In this way, we are giving the glory to God.

Returning to our main theme:

Deuteronomy 28:14-16 – Love, obey, and acknowledge God fully; we cannot pick and choose what we want to do, and we must not take His words lightly.

We spoke about the current pandemic.  It was mentioned that the word “corona,” as in “coronavirus,” means “crown” in Spanish; but this is not the kind of crown we want!  We need to think of Scriptural references, namely the crown of thorns that Jesus bore on the cross, and maybe we are going through our crown of thorns at this time; but that later He was crowned king, as reflected in the hymn “Crown Him with Many Crowns, the Lamb upon the Throne.”  (See also Scripture references at the end.)

We have to know God to love Him; we must also love and acknowledge other people.  Also, something in us should reflect His light; people need to see what makes us different; our actions show them.  We must exercise our faith.  We must pray and reach out to others.  We must also see God in other people.

Every night, we must thank God for the day that we have spent.

We need to sing!  We need to talk about Him without being ashamed.

One person said she has a sticker on her car that says “Jesus for life”; also, that she drives fast and realizes that people who see the sticker are watching her, so she has to work on it (not driving too fast).  A sticker represents the driver.

When we pray, we are led by the Holy Spirit.  We pray in different ways, but we must open our mouths, then it’s easier to talk to people.

Romans 10:9-10 – “…if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.”

God spoke things into existence; we must also speak; we must share with others.

 

God wants to hear from us. – Anna concluded by describing her morning routine: She reads the Bible with Maegan every day and relates the reading to a current issue.  They praise God and sing; “God and angels are dancing” when we sing; when we sing, we are praying at the same time.  She prays by name for the children and adults in Maegan’s school and asks for angels to protect them, commending them every day into God’s hands and reminding them about their assigned angels—we need to keep them busy!  At night, Anna also sings; and her prayer is that “anything that is above my capacity—You, God, take control!”  Everyone said “Amen!”

Some Scriptures from N.T. regarding “crown”: Philippians 4:1; 1 Thess. 2:19 2 Tim. 4:8; Hebrews 2:9; James 1:12;1 Peter 5:4; Rev. 2:10; 3:11; 6:2; 12:1; 14:14