Saturday, August 2, 2008

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Shining Like Stars

When God appeared to Abram and told him to leave the place where he was living and go to a new place that God would show him, he promised to bless him and make him a blessing, promised to give him land, and promised to make of him a great nation.

"He took him outside and said, 'Look up at the heavens and count the stars — if indeed you can count them.'  Then he said to him, 'So shall your offspring be.'  Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness" (Genesis 15:5-6).

In his believing, his exercise of faith, Abram became not only the Father of the nation of Israel, "but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham.  He is the father of us all" (Romans 4:16).  Paul says, "Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham" (Galatians 3:7).  And, when we choose the way of faith as Abram did, we have righteousness credited to us just as it was to him, and more than that, the blessing that was to Abraham now rests upon us.  We like him are blessed that we might be a blessing to all nations.

That in itself is wonderful, but God showed me something else excellent in these verses.  Do you realize that if you are a person of faith, some 4000 years ago, when Abram looked up at the sky to count the stars as God had told him to, one of those stars he saw had your name on it!  One of them had mine too!  And God has made that star burn every evening since then as a testimony to the promise that he made to Abraham, waiting for me and you to come on the scene and fulfill our God-ordained destiny!  And if that is already mind boggling, did you know that we have each been in the mind of God since before the world began, and that the star that Abraham saw 4000 years ago has been burning since the fourth day of creation, however many thousands of years before Abraham!  We can never say that we don't have a place in this world or in the universe!  We are not a random accident!

Now, as descendants of our father of faith, we are to work out our salvation during our days on earth, knowing that God is working alongside of us at all times (Philippians 2:12-13).  We have a calling and a destiny to fulfill,

". . . 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" (Philippians 2:15-16).

That special star that was named for you has been shining since it's creation and has been shining even brighter since Abram saw it 4000 years ago.  However, history has been waiting for you and I to arrive on the scene and as we walk out our faith on this earth the way that Abraham did, to shine like those stars of ours in the universe.  Now is our time to shine!  Show your faith real and let your life shine.  As the Newsboys sing:

Shine
make em wonder whatcha got
make em wish that they were not
on the outside looking bored
shine
let it shine before all men
let em see good works and then
let em glorify the lord

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