Do We “Shine Like the Stars?”
My honey is a big sports fan. If our TV is on over the weekend or in the evening, the odds are fairly good that there’s a sporting event on the screen.
We do watch the occasional movie or TV series together, but when we sit down on the couch, it’s a little challenging to find a show that we both find entertaining. I also have a hard time sitting and doing nothing for the duration of a movie. So whatever show we agree on needs to be worth my time. Otherwise, I’m up and looking for something “productive” to do.
One series that we’ve been watching over the years is “The Chosen,” a historical drama depicting the life of Jesus. While the stories are based on Scripture, artistic liberties are taken where Scripture doesn’t spell out details. So we do watch and enjoy the show with that in mind.
I’ve always been intrigued by the opening song and accompanying video. As “Walk on the Water” by Ruby Amanfu plays, a school of gray fish swims across the screen. One by one, a fish will occasionally flip around and start swimming against the current, changing color from gray to teal.
This signifies the followers of Jesus as the Christian life sets them on a new path and changes their identity. They receive a new calling. No longer do they blend in with the crowd or go along with the culture. They live not for this life, but for the next. The Holy Spirit inhabits them and makes His power available to them. They become more and more like Jesus. Everything about them is different.
In Revelation 2 and 3, John records letters that Jesus uses to communicate with seven churches. Of the seven, five are harshly reprimanded because, rather than stand out and be a witness to the glory and holiness of God, the people of God have become chameleons. Their behavior and speech are very much like the behavior and speech of the world, and Jesus comes down hard on them. These people are His ambassadors – His messengers to the lost - and they’ve dropped the ball. Rather than help the lost turn from their sin and embrace the forgiveness Jesus has purchased for them on the cross, they’re content to blend in and lay low. But how can the lost know that there’s another way, a better way that leads to eternal life if His representatives can’t even be distinguished from the rest of the world?
Today’s church has much in common with the early church. The mission to seek and save the lost still stands. The call to love and serve the family of God still exists. The beckoning of the Holy Spirit to walk in the light as Jesus is in the light still goes out.
Today’s church also faces a similar challenge.
As times grow darker, believers should “shine like stars in the universe as (we) hold out the word of life” in our motives, conduct, speech, and service. (Philippians 2:15b-16a) But what is all too often found is that we “light a lamp and put it under a bowl.” (Matthew 5:15) Like the early church, we may easily drift into secular patterns, behaviors, and worldviews. We often foolishly neglect “trimming our lamps” as the arrival of the Bridegroom grows ever nearer. (Matthew 25:7)
Brothers and sisters, this is not a time to blend in with the crowd, and if we mimic the behavior that drew Jesus’ rebuke in Revelation, we rightly deserve that same rebuke.
This is a time to nurture our faith and our knowledge of God – a time for radical obedience and outrageous love – a time for bold declaration of truth and prayerful presentation of the gospel.
1 Peter 2:11-12 reminds us: “…I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such godly lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.”
We are not of this world. The time is now to live wholeheartedly for the world for which we were created – our Father’s kingdom. As we swim against the current, may we radiate the light and hope of Jesus that draws others to join us in our journey to that other world.
