Week Fourteen, 2019
FOLLOW THE STAR
By Florida Senator John Grant (Retired)
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” (Matthew 2:1-2).
Perhaps you have noticed when you get on an elevator and push a floor button, one floor and one floor only has a star on it. This is required by law. It is not for convenience now is it to advertise the most popular floor. Rather it is for safety and depicts that floor where a person can get off and escape to the nearest building exit. It is the star one should follow in case of an emergency.
Recently I was on an elevator and happened to focus on the star and thought how it was reminding me what to follow if I needed a quick exit. I thought of the world’s first admonition to follow a star more than two thousand years ago when the Magi were told that if they wanted to find the “Miracle of Bethlehem” they should follow the star.
There are many stars in the world today and I am not talking of those in the heavens. Some follow the stars of Hollywood. One singer has 107 million followers on Twitter. Some follow the stars of sports…. hundreds of thousands on Twitter. Some follow stars from city to city. Celebrity worship syndrome. (CWS) is an obsessive addictive disorder in which a person becomes overly involved with the details of a celebrity’s personal and professional life and follows them everywhere.
Some people just follow the crowd, often not really knowing what or whom they are following. Some follow power, possession and position. After all, they are what the people think are so important to follow.
Over two billion people worldwide profess to be “Christians”, but not everyone has the same definition of what being a Christian means. Some people say they are Christians because they were born into a “Christian” family or go to church. Others explain being a Christian in terms of a religious denomination. Some claim to be Christians because they have done certain religious acts like pray a prayer, have been baptized, or give to charity. None of these definitions, though, fully explain what it means to be a Christian, according to the Bible. These people follow family tradition and religious institutions of significance.
No wonder many people are faith confused. Christians believe in justification by faith – that through their belief in Jesus as the Son of God, and in his death and resurrection, they can have a right relationship with God whose forgiveness was made once and for all through the death of Jesus Christ.
Who or what star are you following?
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SOMETIMES TRUE STORIES
World Birth and Death Rates
Birth Rate Death Rate
131.4 million births per year; 55.3 million people die each year
360,000 births per day; 151,600 people die each day
15,000 births each hour; 6,316 people die each hour
250 births each minute; 105 people die each minute
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Have you ever prayed:
• For success without effort?
• To pass the driver’s license without your glasses on?
• Have you ever prayed for your favorite team to win?
• For bad things to happen to a bad person?
• Finding a parking spot?
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30 million pages headed for the moon:
Israel launched its first spacecraft recently. “Beresheet” (Hebrew for Genesis) will be the smallest craft to land on the moon, but it is carrying something of great significance: the so-called Lunar Library.
This is a disc containing twenty-five thousand books, a full copy of Wikipedia, and information on understanding earthly languages—in total, a thirty-million-page tome. The “library” is intended to preserve humanity’s knowledge and history long after we’re gone.
Did your story make the Lunar Library? On the day of your salvation, you joined a faith family that will be alive in Paradise ten thousand millennia after the moon and everything on it perishes.
Here’s the point: what makes history seldom makes headlines.
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The San Antonio City Council recently voted 6–4 to prevent Chick-fil-A from opening a restaurant at the city’s airport.
Councilman Robert Trevino, who made the motion to exclude the restaurant, stated: “With this decision, the City Council reaffirmed the work our city has done to become a champion of equality and inclusion. San Antonio is a city full of compassion, and we do not have room in our public facilities for a business with a legacy of anti-LGBTQ behavior.”
Chick-fil-A responded: “The press release issued by the councilmember was the first we heard of his motion and its approval by the San Antonio City Council. We wish we had the opportunity to clarify misperceptions about our company prior to the vote. We agree with the councilmember that everyone should feel welcome at Chick-fil-A.”
The statement added, “In fact, we have welcomed everyone in San Antonio into our 32 local stores for more than 40 years.”
Snoopy
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QUOTES YOU CAN USE
Some people who the world calls mature are among the most immature people I have ever met. —Ken Whitten
Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. —Mark Twain
The more people reject God’s truth, the more they need to hear it.
Worship begins with a heart that is obedient.
Little is much when God is in it.
One in three divorces begin through online affairs.
Currently there are 199 countries in the world.
There’s more to life than buying stuff.
Research has shown us that having too many toys reduces creativity and negatively impacts a child’s ability to focus.