by Commissioner Jolene K. Hodder I love salad. Just thinking about the cool crunch of fresh vegetables and the flavorful collision of complementary tastes makes my mouth water. I love the fact that the combinations of fresh greens, vegetables, legumes, grains and dressings are endless. Constructing my salad makes me feel like an artist, painting […]
by Commissioner Jolene K. Hodder
“Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” (Matt. 2:2 ESV)
In the 19th century, there was a theory that claimed constellations represent the gospel God gave to man. They called this view the “gospel in the stars.” According to this theory, God presented his full plan of salvation to Adam, and either Adam or his early descendants preserved that knowledge by naming the constellations and stars. With the coming of the written Word of God, the gospel message in the stars was no longer needed and faded from use. With the passage of time, ungodly men perverted the original gospel in the stars, mingling it with pagan mythology and ultimately turning it into the religion of astrology.
I don’t have an informed opinion on this particular theory, and I’m certainly not a believer in astrology. But I do believe that each one of the Messengers of the Gospel are stars preparing to spread the gospel of Christ to all parts of our territory—and perhaps to the world. And as a follower of Jesus Christ myself, I too am a star called to shine.
Countless men and women are lost and searching for hope, desperately looking for something to believe in. All of God’s children can be a light in the darkness if we will only shine where God calls us, where he has placed us.
When you think about it, God provided a star for each of us—someone to lead us to Christ. It might have been a mom or dad. It might have been a work colleague, a neighbor, a close friend, a teacher, or a Salvation Army officer. But all of us who are Christians can retrace our spiritual journeys and say, “Without that person, that pastor, that teacher, that friend, I doubt I would ever have found Christ.”
God sent someone to each of us whose light was bright. He sent someone whose love was real. He sent someone whose faith was so compelling that we found ourselves trusting that star to lead us to Christ.
For those of you who are still seekers, let me give you a word of encouragement. Chances are, God has already put a star in your life. Chances are, if you were to scan the horizon of your relationships, you probably already know someone whose spiritual light burns bright, whose love is real, whose faith has caught your attention more than once. That person may very well be God’s gift to you—your own personal star. Let them lead you to Christ so that you too can worship him.
As Psalm 148:3 says: Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars.
