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Gleanings From The Word

Category: worship

  • Patron Saints, Luck, and Guardian Angels

    Patron Saints, Luck, and Guardian Angels: What Are You Worshiping?

    A lottery ticket in a hand with patron saint medallion and "lucky" angel"

    Without ever knowing it, she managed to push several of my hot buttons at once. I stood behind her at the convenience store checkout. As her purchases were being rung in, she kissed her patron saint medal and rubbed her guardian angel pin. She said to the cashier, “For luck!” Then she ordered her lottery ticket.

    I’m not a fan of lotteries and regard them as a tax on the greedy and poor. I’ve seen many families and lives ruined by gambling, including by “harmless” lottery playing. However, there is no biblical prohibition on gambling, so I recognize that as being my issue.

    I don’t believe in “luck”. I believe in a sovereign God who is ultimately in control of all things. There is such a thing as divine providence and blessing, but not luck. Again, my issue.

    Patron Saints! Now that’s a problem. It’s a man-made system of idolatry. The saints are all who believe in Jesus Christ, not a select class voted on by denominational elite. Every reference in the Bible to saints (68 of them) refers to the body of believers.  In every instance but one, the word is plural, not singular, referring to more than one person. Praying to patron saints is a direct affront to God.

     “You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
    Exodus 20:3-6 ESV

    Guardian angels? The jury is still out on the whole concept of guardian angels. You can’t prove or disprove their existence from Scripture. In any event, God is sovereign over everything, so he doesn’t need an angel to intercede for us. If they exist, their role isn’t to be worshipped or to tend to our whims. Angels are under the sovereign command of God. Certainly, their role isn’t to make us “lucky”.

    Over the past number of years, the public at large has developed a huge and unhealthy fascination with angels. There are people who track “angel sightings”. You can buy prosperity angels, good luck angels, fertility angels and more. You can go to see New Age practitioners who will give you angel readings and special messages for you from your personal angel.

    Most of it is promoted by people just out to make a buck and the odd fraud artist. I don’t doubt that some of those things are from angels. Fallen angels. Evil spirits and demons.

    The fascination with angels has become a form of worship. 

    For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. Romans 1:21-25 ESV

    What are you worshipping? God alone is worthy of our worship.

    Until next time, praise God for His love and His patience with us.

    May God pour out His abundant blessings on you,

    Kevin

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    SUMMARY

    A woman ahead of me at checkout kissed her patron saint medal, rubbed her guardian angel pin, and bought a lottery ticket “for luck.” It sent me back to Scripture on luck, patron saints, and guardian angels, and to the real question underneath it all: what are we worshiping?

    TAKEAWAY

    Luck and gambling aren’t biblically prohibited, but Scripture points to a sovereign God who governs through providence, not chance

    “Saints” appears 68 times in Scripture, almost always plural, always describing the whole body of believers, never a select class chosen by denominational vote — making patron saint devotion a man-made system

    Guardian angels can’t be confirmed or denied from Scripture, but if they exist, they serve under God’s command, not ours; today’s cultural fascination with angels has drifted into a form of idolatry

    YOU MIGHT CHECK THESE OUT

    Bible Gateway – a free online bible, easily searchable in many translations

    Got Questions – a great source for quick answers on a wide range of Christian/Bible questions

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    Why no one can say they didn’t know the truth

    How do you know what the Bible says? You read the Word

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  • Open Gates – Welcome the King of Glory

    Open Gates – Welcome the King of Glory

    I have been reading in the Psalms and stopped to meditate on Psalm 24. It’s a Psalm of ascent; that is, it was sung on the way up to the temple and is often overshadowed by its more well-known neighbor, Psalm 23.

    The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof,

        the world and those who dwell therein,

    for he has founded it upon the seas

        and established it upon the rivers.

    Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?

        And who shall stand in his holy place?

    He who has clean hands and a pure heart,

        who does not lift up his soul to what is false

        and does not swear deceitfully.

    He will receive blessing from the Lord

        and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

    Such is the generation of those who seek him,

        who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah

    Lift up your heads, O gates!

        And be lifted up, O ancient doors,

        that the King of glory may come in.

    Who is this King of glory?

        The Lord, strong and mighty,

        the Lord, mighty in battle!

    Lift up your heads, O gates!

        And lift them up, O ancient doors,

        that the King of glory may come in.

    Who is this King of glory?

        The Lord of hosts,

        he is the King of glory! Selah Psalm 24 ESV

    The Psalm opens with the recognition that everything that exists belongs to God. He is the creator and sustainer of everything in the created universe. With that recognized, the psalm moves quickly to God’s calling for personal righteousness.

    Who can come before the Lord and receive His blessings? Only “He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.“

    Of course, we know, as did the ancient people of Israel and Judah, that no one can meet those requirements. They trusted in YAHWEH by faith to redeem them and take away their sin, so they could stand before the Lord. They did not yet know Jesus by name, as He had not come, but they knew the Lord had promised a savior and trusted that promise.

    The very city itself is called to open its gates for the coming King. The King of Glory, the Lord of Hosts, is coming. Jesus has come now, but we know He is returning. The King of Glory is coming back to the place He owns.

    Will we have clean hands and hearts to be in His presence and receive His blessings?

    Will we open our hearts and gates? Will we make Him welcome, or will we close up and try to hold out against His undefeatable power?

    With Christ’s imputed righteousness, we too can come before the Lord and be blessed. We must trust in what He has done by faith. He’s coming for the believer and unbeliever, one to eternity in His presence and blessing, the other to eternal separation and damnation.

    Let’s be found with open gates, clean hearts and singing praises in anticipation of the day He comes back.

    Be blessed, Kevin

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    SUMMARY

    As I sat with Psalm 24, I was struck by how quickly it moves from declaring God’s ownership of all creation to asking who is fit to stand in His presence, and the answer is a standard none of us can meet on our own. I’m reminded that only through Christ’s imputed righteousness can we approach the King of Glory with clean hands and open hearts, ready for the day He returns.

    TAKEAWAY

    Everything that exists belongs to God as Creator and Sustainer, which sets the stage for the Psalm’s call to personal holiness

    No one meets the standard of clean hands and a pure heart apart from trusting in the Lord’s promised redemption, first by faith in YAHWEH’s promise and now through Christ

    The ancient call to “lift up your heads, O gates” points forward to Christ’s return, and the question becomes whether our hearts will be open or closed when the King of Glory comes back

    Soli Deo Gloria (For the glory of God alone) 

    © 2001, 2026 K.F. “Kevin” Corbin, “Gleanings From the Word.” All rights reserved. 

    From Gleanings From The Word (Kevin Corbin, 2001– ), a Scripture-based devotional work.