My Shining Star

This morning I woke up with this chorus running through my mind:

    Honey, you are my shining star
    Don’t you go away
    Wanna be right here where you are
    Until my dying day

The chorus is from the song “Shining Star” by an old Motown group The Manhattans. I couldn’t understand why that chorus was so ingrained into my brain and so I figured the Lord wanted me to write about it.

If you read the lyrics to this song, the man is madly in love with his woman and gives the impression that she is his all and all. I mediated on that for a bit and wondered if that relationship in the song had the great Morning Star as their ultimate shining star.

I wondered about this because if any man or woman has placed their whole trust and dependence in their spouse, their man or woman, then they are surely in for disappointment. Don’t get me wrong; my lovely wife Karen is indeed my all in all in human form. My life is complete because of my wife; however we both have a love for Jesus that far outlasts our love for one another.

We have to be careful in placing too much trust in any human being to be our “guidance counselor”, unfortunately this goes with pastors. There are so many false teachers filling the pulpits across America that it is becoming more and more difficult to recognize the aletheia truth. The world is becoming a darker place day by day.

One of my devotional readers wrote me saying, “more should be taught about how to recognize false teachers.” This was of great concern to the Apostles; Peter, Paul, and John all wrote warnings against false teachers. Peter in his second letter wrote:

    “For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’ And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:16-21)

There are some teachings going around this country that are literally spell-binding Americans because these false teachers are spinning interesting and exciting “fables” or myths about who God is. As Steve Deace writes:

    We [the Church] have utilized Madison Avenue marketing gimmicks in our evangelistic outreach. We have absorbed the self-absorption of self-esteem psychobabble into our doctrines and sermons. Most of the most popular books at the local Christian bookstore are little more than “The Secret” with a few mentions of Jesus thrown in.

We have to be careful to protect ourselves from trusting only in our experiences over the Word of God. As Warren Wiersbe writes:

    “Experiences fade, but the Word of God remains! Experiences are subjective, but the Word of God is objective. Experiences may be interpreted in different ways by different participants, but the Word of God gives one clear message. What we remember about our experiences can be unconsciously distorted, but the Word of God remains the same and abides forever.”

Is “The Secret” really “the secret to prosperity, health, relationships and happiness”? Is it really “the secret to life”?

Or is Jesus Christ truly…

    “…the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)

If Jesus Christ is not the life and Rhonda Byrne is, then Jesus Christ is a false teacher; a liar. But if Jesus Christ is who He proclaims to be, then Rhonda Byrne is a false teacher; a liar.

If Jesus tells you it is not “Your Time” and Joel Osteen tells you it is, who is the false teacher; who is the liar? If Jesus tells you this door is closed and Joel Osteen tells you it is open, who is the false teacher; who is the liar? If Jesus tells you…

    “’You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’8 This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40)

…and Joel Osteen tell you your best life now is by following his seven steps to living at your full potential and they are in contradiction to the Bible, then who is the false teacher; who is the liar?

Beloved, we need to look to the Morning Star for clarity in a dark world. The Apostle John tells us:

    “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” (John 1:1-4)

Jesus is the Word.

Jesus is God.

Jesus is the Life.

The Life is the Light of men.

Are you following the Light?

Do you have the Life?

Is Jesus your God?

Are you following the Word?

If not, why not?

If not today, then when?

My shining star is the Morning Star.

Which star are you following?

In Christ
Dave
Ps. 37:4

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    Copyright © 2009 David Jeffers

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