5 Minutes with Jesus is a daily devotional series for people in the midst of real life, whether facing anxiety, grief, questions of purpose, or simply needing encouragement and connection. Hosted by Sheila Walsh, each five-minute episode offers Biblical truth, honest reflections on faith and emotions, and closes with a moment of prayer.
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| Sheila Walsh: Joy to the World | 5 Minutes with Jesus | December 11, 2025
- You know, it says in first peter chapter one.
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- It's also wonderful that even
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- The angels are eagerly watching these things happen.
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- Notice how peter writes that the angels are watching.
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- Not that they were watching on that night alone.
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- They're watching now.
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- The angels are watching.
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- When you walk through heartache
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- And still get down on your knees and worship.
- 00:00:19.432 --> 00:00:22.068
- They're watching.
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- When it feels as if your prayers are not being answered.
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- But you still trust god.
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- We have part of god's ongoing celebration with the angels
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- Until christ returns in triumph to take us
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- Home.
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- Suddenly,
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- The angel was joined by a vast host of others,
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- The armies of heaven, praising god and saying, glory to god
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- In highest heaven,
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- And peace on earth to those with whom god is pleased.
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- Suddenly, without warning,
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- You know, we had to suddenly of our own
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- Just some time ago, probably last year.
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- Barry and i love to watch the rain
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- From the comfort of our covered porch.
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- Somehow the air just smells different when it's raining.
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- Well, that afternoon, the drops began to fall gently at first.
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- To those of us in texas who experienced multiple days
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- In a row with temperatures over 100 degrees.
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- Any time it rains, it is a welcome gift.
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- Well, as the rain intensified, i came inside
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- And i turned on the local news to see
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- What was being said about the storm.
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- And i saw the strangest sight.
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- Someone just outside the area where the storm was hitting
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- Had taken a short video and sent it into the station.
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- The storm is sitting stationary right over our dallas area,
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- And it looked like a gigantic alien spacecraft
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- And suddenly unloaded all of its cargo
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- In a giant rain bomb right over downtown.
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- It was as if a tsunami descended not from the ocean,
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- But from the sky.
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- Sheets of water
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- So intense that we couldn't see the streets below.
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- And then the wind arrived with brutal force.
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- Trash cans spun up into the air and disappeared.
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- Trees were ripped out by the roots.
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- Power lines were torn apart
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- And sparked menacingly in front of us.
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- And then, as quickly as i arrived, it was gone.
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- Silence.
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- Following morning,
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- Our governor said that it was a 1 in 1000 years storm,
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- Dropping over 15in of rain in less than an hour.
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- The suddenness of the storm was breathtaking,
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- But i'm pretty sure it pales in comparison
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- To what appeared in the sky over bethlehem
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- On the night that jesus was born.
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- There was no warning
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- For the shepherds that a world changing event
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- Was about to happen.
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- No evening news
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- To let them know about something unusual in the atmosphere.
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- No chatter in the town
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- Suggesting that god was about to speak again.
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- After all, there had been no word from god
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- For over 400 years.
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- False messiahs and prophets had shown up,
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- But it was clear they didn't speak for god.
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- Disappointment, despair.
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- When would the promised one appear?
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- There was nothing really extraordinary about that night.
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- They were simply shepherds doing their normal shepherd thing.
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- Perhaps some were taking a nap
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- While others chatted around the fire.
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- Maybe an elderly shepherd was complaining about his back
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- When suddenly an angel of the lord appeared.
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- The dividing point of human history with no warning.
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- What a wonder.
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- Scripture doesn't tell us much about
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- What angels actually look like, but we know
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- It must be a terrifying sight when they appear, as they
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- Usually begin by saying, fear not from the very beginning.
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- Think about it.
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- The angels sing it all.
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- They've been watching pure wonder as god unfolds
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- Our history.
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- They witness the perfection of eden
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- And the devastating fall of adam and eve.
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- They saw the sinfulness of the children of israel,
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- The idol worship and disobedience.
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- They watched as kings and queens attempted to snuff out
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- A royal line
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- So that the promised one would never come.
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- They saw the prophets crying out,
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- And then god's people being carried off into captivity.
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- And after the final prophets spoke.
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- Silence for 400 years.
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- Nothing.
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- We don't know exactly what was happening
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- In the courts of heaven during those years.
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- Yet isaiah gives us a powerful glimpse.
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- It was in the year king uzziah died that i saw the lord.
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- He was sitting on a lofty throne,
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- And the train of his robe filled the temple.
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- Attending him were mighty seraphim, each having
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- Six wings, with two wings that covered their faces.
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- With two
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- They covered their feet, and with two they flew.
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- They were calling out to each other.
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- Holy, holy, holy is the lord of heaven's armies.
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- The whole earth is filled with his glory.
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- There was no silence in heaven.
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- There was only worship until that day when gabriel
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- Was summoned and the clock began ticking down.
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- The myriad of angels watched and listened in
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- Wonder as gabriel was given his assignment.
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- He was sent to zechariah, an aging priest
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- Serving the temple, to tell him that his wife elizabeth,
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- Who was in her 80s, would give birth to a baby boy.
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- Then he was sent to marry a teenage girl to tell her
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- She would give birth to the savior of the world.
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- Joseph, mary's fiancee, received this unprecedented news
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- And a dream in which he was told it was okay to marry her.
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- For the child she carried was conceived by the holy spirit.
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- Gabriel's assignment was stunning.
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- Messiah was coming, but not the way anyone expected
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- Messiah would come.
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- Human.
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- A baby, a fragile little one.
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- How would this work?
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- How could christ be lured into
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- The darkness that the world had become?
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- What would happen to him?
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- How would he return?
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- I've often wondered
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- What the angelic conversations were like at this
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- Outrageously glorious mission began to unfold.
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- Wonder. pure wonder.
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- Well,
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- At first the angel of the lord appeared to the shepherds alone.
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- I'm sure, out of deference for their humanity.
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- This was the first. suddenly.
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- But then came suddenly.
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- Number two, the greatest sky show
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- That has ever been so far.
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- A vast host of angels.
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- The armies of heaven. they couldn't help themselves.
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- They burst into our world in absolute, unprecedented joy.
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- Their message.
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- Glory to god in highest heaven and peace on earth.
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- To those with whom god is pleased.
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- First they sang glory to god.
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- Then they sang peace to us.
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- Peace to those who would receive this wondrous
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- Gift of a savior.
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- Think about that.
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- The news the angels brought was for you and for me.
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- It was almost too much for them to bear.
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- You know, it says in first peter chapter one,
- 00:07:03.402 --> 00:07:05.338
- It's also wonderful that even
- 00:07:05.338 --> 00:07:07.306
- The angels are eagerly watching these things happen.
- 00:07:07.306 --> 00:07:11.344
- Notice how peter writes that the angels are watching.
- 00:07:11.344 --> 00:07:13.980
- Not that they were watching on that night alone.
- 00:07:13.980 --> 00:07:16.616
- They're watching now.
- 00:07:16.616 --> 00:07:18.751
- The angels are watching.
- 00:07:18.751 --> 00:07:19.952
- When you walk through heartache
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- And still get down on your knees and worship
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- And watch him when it feels as if your prayers
- 00:07:24.524 --> 00:07:26.659
- Are not being answered.
- 00:07:26.659 --> 00:07:27.660
- But you still trust god.
- 00:07:27.660 --> 00:07:30.596
- We have part of god's ongoing celebration with the angels
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- Until christ returns and try to take us home.
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- Let's pray.
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- Lord jesus, i can't imagine what that night was like
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- As the sky was lit up by a myriad of angels,
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- Bringing the good news to the boys on the hill.
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- The least likely.
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- And lord, that's just like you.
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- You come to those of us who feel like the least likely.
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- And so i pray right now for anyone who feels like
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- They are the least likely not the one that would be chosen.
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- They would know that that is why you came,
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- That you chose them and brought good news to all men.
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- Thank you in jesus name.
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- Amen.
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