SHINING FOREVER.

Do you feel like a "nobody"?

I sure do.

In fact I cannot even make "a has been".  I am a

"never been", a no body.  But while browsing around

in the book of Philippians I find an encouraging thought.

"... Work hard to show the results of your salvation,

obeying God with deep reverence and fear.  For God

is working in you, giving you the desire and the power

to do what pleases him."

(Philippians 2:12b, 13 NLT)

Now some translations say it this way;

"... work out your own salvation with

fear and trembling."

That makes it sound like we have to work to

be saved.  That of course is not the case.

The apostle Paul the writer of the book of

Philippians is also the author of the book

of Ephesians where he said;

"God saved you by his grace when you believed.

And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift

from God.  Salvation is not a reward for the 

good things we have done, so none of us can

boast about it.  For we are God's masterpiece.

He created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can

do the good things he planned for us long ago."  

(Ephesians 2:8-10 NLT)

But back to the point at hand.

If I am a true Christian, a child of God he is saying;

God is working in me.  God is giving me the desire

and power to live in a pleasing way to him.

As a child of God, I may be a NOTHING the way

the people of the world look at things.  But God

is working in me and I am to;

"Do everything without complaining and arguing,

so that no one can criticize you.  Live clean, 

innocent lives as children of God, shining like

bright lights in a world full of crooked and 

perverse people."  

(Philippians 2:14,15 NLT)

Did you catch that?

If we do nothing more than live the way God

wants us to, i.e, a good "Christian" life we really

are like "... shining bright lights ..." in this old

dirty sinful world.  Now that is far better than 

being a "movie star" or some celebrity.

Further, our day is still to come in the near 

future.  The prophet Daniel when speaking of

the time in which we live says there is coming

a time when;

"Many of those whose bodies lie dead and buried

will rise up, some to everlasting life and some to

shame and everlasting disgrace.  Those who are

wise will shine as bright as the sky, and those who

lead many to righteousness will shine like the 

stars forever."  

(Daniel 12:2,3 NLT)