Stars

Nearly 3 years ago, I saw the stars like I never had before. We were in Addo, South Africa on a crystal clear night and virtually no light pollution. It was breathtaking and majestic.. I haven't seen the sky like that since.

My guess is Paul saw stars like this most nights. I assume he had a sky like this in mind when he encouraged the Christians in Philippi to "shine like stars." Not just a few bright ones that can be seen in a light-polluted place, but to shine in such a way that blesses and awes.

It would be easy to say that we aren’t doing that today - look at the divisions, look at the impressions that some in the church are giving the world (ahem...God doesn’t tell pastors they need a $54 million dollar private jet...but I digress), and so forth. However, to just go that route discounts the people who day by day are serving Christ throughout the world. I just was following a dear friend of mine who was with church planters in Ethiopia. I see others who daily are trying their very best to be faithful to the Lord. I had a friend who called me the other day simply to let me know that he’s praying for me. These are just a few examples of ways that people ARE shining like stars.