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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.
Philippians 2:15
'Shine like stars in the universe’. Do we do this?
We all know of little Sunday
school songs and children’s songs that talk about shining; ‘This Little Light
of Mine’, ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’. We can think of the concept of shining to be
childish, unnecessary, cute, or not for the mature. These views are not
accurate simply because the whole concept of shining came from God Himself (through
Paul), with no reference to age, maturity, life experience, gender, marital
status etc. He has described all those belonging to Christ to be shining like
stars in the universe.
The verb shine means to be ‘of the sun or another source of light’; ‘to glow
or be bright with reflected light’; ‘be bright with emotion’; to ‘direct (a
torch or other light, the dictionary states) somewhere in order to see something
in the dark.’
A bit of a recap on English for a
moment, a verb simply is a word used to describe an action or the state of
something.
So what Paul is telling us here is
that we are to be in the action of shining, we are to be seen or found in the
state of shining. In the action of glowing brightly with the reflected light of
Jesus; being bright with His emotions; we are to be the one’s shining bright enough
with His light to those who need to see through the darkness; we are also to
shine our light to find them in the darkness.
But how? How are we to keep shining like we are meant
to? Paul tells us one way to do this. Back up in verse 15 he tells us to 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.
Everything without complaining or
arguing … that is pretty hard for us. I am reading this book at the moment that
is all about thanksgiving. About recognising the things that are in our life
that come to us right from the hand of God and then going one step further and
verbally thanking Him for it. Not just recognising the good things, but voicing
our thanks for these things. The author goes one step further again and writes
down all these good things as a written record of the goodness of God in her
life. Thanksgiving and thankfulness are the opposite of complaining and
arguing. Thanksgiving and shining go hand in hand. Thanksgiving makes way for
the shining.
If we are to be shining like stars
in the universe so that others may be made aware of His grace and mercy and
salvation; yet all we do is complain, whinge, argue and sometimes flat out
refuse to give God our thanks for all the many amazing exceedingly above all
that we ever hoped or asked for or imagined blessings; the thankfulness that He
deserves, then aren’t we in fact dimming our lights? Becoming less effective in
our witness? Becoming a little flicker instead of a full on blaze of His
reflected light.
Jesus himself in Luke 22:19 ‘Took
the bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them’. Jesus saw the
importance of giving thanks to His Father even while awaiting his crucifixion,
knowing that His suffering would manifest the glory of God. Do we follow the example of Christ and offer
thankfulness in all things, good and bad, just as Christ offered thanks to His
Father before the excruciating torture that left Him unrecognisable to man took
place?
This is what makes our shining so
important, so vital, and so necessary.
Isaiah 53: 5 says , ‘But he was pierced
for our transgressions; he was
crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us
peace, and with his wounds we are healed’.
Paul follows up in verse 16 that we
‘shine like stars in the universe, as we hold out the Word of life – in order
that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labour for
nothing’.
We are to shine and hold out the
Word of life. When we are actively reflecting the light of Jesus in our lives
by offering audible thankfulness, it is near impossible to grumble and complain
and argue and we are more effective in holding out the Word of life who is
Jesus – because our words are life.
Jesus will be made known on the face of this earth and in our communities and in
our homes and our workplaces and our schools when we choose to offer our
thankfulness to Him in all that He has and will continue to do for us. Good and
bad. We will shine brightly, His salvation will be made known to those who have
been drawn out of the darkness by our shining words of thankfulness to Him.
David knew how to give thanks,
despite the unthinkable hardships he faced.
I will give to
the LORD the thanks due to his
righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the LORD, the Most High.
Psalm 7:17
Proclaiming
thanksgiving aloud, and telling all your wondrous deeds.
Psalm 27:6
That I may sing
your praise and not be silent.
O LORD my God, I will give thanks
to you forever!
Psalm 30:12
But we your people, the sheep of your
pasture, will give thanks to you forever; from generation to generation
we will recount your praise.
Psalm 79: 13
If Jesus sees giving thanks when
facing crucifixion as necessary, then how much more thanks should we gladly give
God? We who will never have to face this crucifixion because He has done it all
for us. He walked that long steep hill, agonising under the weight of that massive,
splintering cross that gouged itself into the raw, open wounds of his flesh. He
was the One who felt the sting and the burn on His skin as they tore out the
beard that adorned His face. He was the One who was on humiliating, naked
display torn and dripping red with the cleansing blood of the spotless lamb. He
was the one who gave us eternal life through the death of Himself.
May we never stop giving him
thanks; may we never stop being those shining stars in this dark, depraved
universe, for His glory.
Yesterday we took part in one of our most loved family traditions ... the decorating of the Christmas tree while listening to our favourite Christmas music.
My great Aunty Ruby passed away this week ... her funeral is next Wednesday. While I didn't really have the chance to know her fully (as I was only a child when I spent most of my time with her), I still have fond sweet memories of her ... she will be sadly missed. She was my Nana's sister ... I have the best Nana in the world (No ... I don't want to hear it, mine is the best!! Don't you just love that gorgeous white hair!) and we have been told she has early dementia setting in (I try not to think of this too much) I can't imagine my life without her ... in almost every childhood memory, her love, grace, example, cheeky fun ways and unwavering faith and support have been weaved into the tapestry of my life. She is one of the main threads. All my grandparents are much the same, along with my other Great Aunty (who I am being silly with in the photo below!) And all of them have health concerns that will most likely take them to glory all too soon (for me).
This post is long winded I know, but it's hard to condense something that rings so true and something that you long to see echoed in the hearts of your sisters in Christ. Because I love you too. I want to see you and I living in the full abundant life that Christ has so freely given us ... not reserved for eternity only, but for now.
This year I have begun a special kind of journaling - well, it's special to me anyhow! I call it 'art journalling', although I'm not sure if that's the official name for them! It's definitely NOT a new concept that I have created, I have 'gleaned' this technique from many inspirational sources (I have added a few links below for your enjoyment!).
So how did I start? I took a much loved trip into town to the local Big W and brought myself a blank, black, spiral-bound, fresh, crisp white, clean smelling art journal (can you tell I am slightly obssessed with them ... have been for years!!) and I brought it home (after paying for it!!) and then went ... now what?!!!! It's funny how the blank white page can intimidate so much! I started with a truth that God had already shown me years ago, and which I think many of you will agree with, "It's the little things that make life wonderful" ... (I chose a little bird as I love them, and they are on my list of wonderful little things). I then went on to create others as I felt the need to put them on paper. Once you get started you'll soon fall into the flow and rhythm of it and you'll be addicted! You don't have to be an artist either, I see all the mistakes in mine, but they are personal reflections of God's goodness in the life of my family and I, and that's what is important. It's a simple practise that I do whenever I have a bit of spare time, and while it's not as beneficial as time spent praying and reading the Word, it's still effective in that I am acknowledging what God says to me in my life, and leaving it as a legacy for my children behind me (plus, I'd go crazy if I wasn't creating something in some form each day!) It's when I read, pray and worship that I can be inspired to sketch something new he's spoken to me.
My Granny brought me the stacked owl 'tea for two' teapot ... at first I wasn't that sure if it was really me, but I knew it came from a love-filled heart, and now it's grown on me and is actually one of my favourites!! One of my best friends gave me the little set with teapot, cream/milk and sugar pots; another best friend gave me the one with the gorgeous little red hearts; and my other best friend has given me the birthday cake one and the tall white one with the blue lace rim. My parents gave me the chicken one, my sister the blue and white one and my Aunty has given me some too. My most favourites though are the ones from my husband and children. The old-fashioned cream Maxwell and Williams one was a gift from my husband and the start of my collection. My children gifted me with the little pink and white flower one. The little one infront of the pink chicken is actually a little teapot box that opens up with miniature teapots, cups and saucers, and pitchers ... my girls are constantly asking to play with it (my oldest boy says, "girly stuff ... it's just something I'll never understand!") and they happily sip little droplets of water from the itty-bitty cups!
Please, pour yourself a cuppa, do your soul a favour, and click on the link below to read this blogpost, "What we all need to really breathe", over at one of my favourite blogs, "A Holy Experience".
And then, at the end of such a well spent day, we all gathered in the lounge-room to read our much loved series of books, 'The Barn Chronicles'. A wonderful non-fiction, adventure-filled story about the Booms, a family of 8 living in a 96 year old barn in New Zealand. It is an absolute gem! Our whole family has laughed so hard, and have enjoyed reading about so many of the incredible things this home-schooling family do. We read through the first in the series called "Where Lions Roar at Night", we are now almost at the end of the second "Where Arrows Fly", and we eagerly waited the release of the third in the series, "Where The Crickets Sing" and purchased it straight away! 
I am the mother of four amazing children, 2 girls and 2 boys. Our oldest is a boy, Mr S who is 10. Next is our little Miss P, she is 8. Then there's little little Miss J who is 5. Last of all is Mr R as he is 3. They are the most beautiful blessings in the world. (I'll introduce you to them more in a later post!) Being a mother has brought me so much satisfaction and joy! It truly is such a high calling to be trusted by God to train, nurture and discipline these little lives for His glory. Being a mother is a blessing from God. I just love being able to wrap my arms around their growing little bodies for a morning cuddle ... it sets such a lovely tone for the day.
Well I think that's enough for now! (The movie has grabbed my attention ..."Hey Josie, how do you spell ugly?!") I may introduce my family a bit more in the next post,or post about my faith,or my favourite books and movies ...or who knows? I'll just take it as it comes!!
