When I walk out our back door at night, I see a clear sky. We live on the outskirts of a large city where the stars shine brightly. There is no pollution, just clear nights with shining stars. The beauty of God's heaven shines clearly without the pollution of civilization. When you look at the sky in the city at night, you don't see the stars, but they are there––just not shining through.
There are days that I am polluted too. Jesus can't shine through. Do you know the feeling––maybe tired or complaining and grumpy too? Philippians 2:14-16 says "Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life..."(NIV)
My friend Debi once asked me (20 years ago), "If you won the lottery, what would you do?" Kind of hard to win if you never buy a ticket. At the time, we were raising support to come back to Bolivia. We didn't know if God would bring us back to Bolivia or if He had another plan for us. We prayed for His plan but in our hearts we hoped to return to our ministry in Bolivia.
Before I could answer Debi's question she said, "You don't have to answer––you'd go to Bolivia, right?" Right! We wanted to hold out the Word of Life for the Bolivian people and shine like stars for Jesus––showing His light through us. God gave us the desires of our hearts.
We are stars for Jesus––those who know Him as Savior and Lord. Somedays we may not shine as brightly as other days. But it should be our hearts' desire to shine for Him so others may see Jesus shining through us as we hold out the Word of Life. Then, they too may become a shining star for Him.
Wouldn't you rather be a Heavenly Star with eternal rewards instead of a Hollywood star with only earthly rewards? I know not many of us have a chance to become Hollywood stars, but we all have the choice to become Heavenly Stars––shining for Jesus.
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