Scripture

This man had a very beautiful and lovely young cousin, Hadassah, who was also called Esther. When her father and mother died, Mordecai adopted her into his family and raised her as his own daughter.

~Esther 2:7, NLT

Quote

Be a living sacrifice: a gift given to the purposes of God.

~Jonathan Cahn

What is a star? How can we become one? When we think of the stars, we generally think of the burning masses of energy that light up the sky but we also use the word for those who shine in a particular profession. Actors, entertainers, athletes, etc. We are referring to those who have reached celebrity status. Most of these people have extraordinary talent: When you can sing like Celine Dion; you have a good chance of being a star. No doubt there are some who made it due to their appearance. I didn’t see a lot of talent in Marlyn Monroe. When we were young, we had idealistic dreams about greatness. Usually, at about age forty, reality slaps us in the face and we realize–I will never be a star; at least not the kind that we find in Hollywood. This doesn’t mean that you cannot be a star. Not all stars are visible to the naked eye. The ones we see at night are the ones that are closest to our galaxy and are huge in mass. The dwarf stars in outer space the size of our sun or small are not visible to us.

But what about the prospect of human stars. A great example of the STAR PRINCIPLE is Ester. Ester was an orphan girl raised by her cousin. She was young and beautiful. Her Jewish name was Hadassah which means myrtle. The myrtle is a small bushy tree that grows to the height of fifteen feet or so. It is a common plant in the Middle East. Her Persian name was Ester which means star. Ester was beautiful in form and face and was chosen to be the queen. She basically won a beauty contest to become queen. There were probably hundreds of contestants and yet Ester was chosen, so she had to be beautiful. When did Ester become a star? Cahn says she became a star the moment she committed to doing the right thing even though she knew it could cost her life. Her exact words were, “If I perish, I perish.” You see stars are luminaries, they shine. They shine because they burn. Stars are masses of energy expending themselves. We become luminaries when we become living sacrifices; making ourselves expendable. Romans 12:1 {NIV} changed my life…Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. If there is no offering, there is no worship. Make your life an offering: one you present daily. I am a dwarf star. I wasn’t created for the big stage, and I am more than happy with my lot in life. There is an old saying among preachers…bloom where you are planted. Well, we can say the same thing about burning: in whatever arena God has put you, burn for Jesus.

Extra

I was sitting by a man at the basketball game last week and he asks me what my name was…I said Jack Bailey. He said, “So you are the Jack Bailey that use to pastor the church across the road.” I said, “Yes sir, and the ball headed guy over there with the team is my son.” We got to talking and I found out he was a member of a sister Baptist church in Decatur. I started naming their former pastors and we talked about one in particular. Obviously, this is a good man because He had nothing critical to say about any of them. But he did tell me something that I already knew: one of the pastors he loved most burned out. That was his terminology, and I quickly agreed. How do we keep from burning out? There is only one way that I know, spend a lot of time alone with Jesus. If we don’t get renewed daily; we will burn out. Human initiative is not enough: we must have inspiration.

EXTRA

Great day yesterday: no complaints for sure. We were down a little at the Point but the girls said the house was full at DBC. We had good attendance and service at Sardis Springs last night. We will be there through Wednesday night teaching from the Psalms.

I hope you have a great day and thanks for reading the blog.

Questions About Luke

Someone asks me a question about Luke that I could not answer. I think it was Keith but I am not sure. I did a little research, and this is what I found. Luke was not an eyewitness. Evidence suggest that Luke was converted under the ministry of Paul or at least after Paul’s conversion. Paul was converted about three to six years after the crucifixion of Christ. A reasonable guess would be 36 AD. Although the Bible does not state it clearly, we believe that Luke was a gentile and a physician. Obviously, Luke had an affinity for history, and he became Paul’s secretary. I am fairly certain that Paul was Luke’s primary source of information, but I do think he interviewed others. Everyone {at least in the conservative ranks} accepts Luke as the author of ACTS and the gospel of LUKE but I and others think he wrote Hebrews. The Catholic Church insist that Paul wrote Hebrews, but scholars say that it is not Pauline in grammar. The theology of Hebrews is definitely Pauline but it goes a bit beyond Paul’s practice. Paul had a hard time letting go of Judaism. He got arrested for reverting back to Judaism, the very thing that he preached to others not to do. He was in the Temple fulfilling a Jewish vow. The writer of Hebrews doesn’t have that inhibition. If I am right, Luke wrote more of the NT than anyone. It may be the gentile in me that wants this to be true. It is one of those things we will not know until we get to heaven.