PENnED

Read: Philippians 2:12-18

¹⁴ Do everything without grumbling or arguing, ¹⁵ so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky ¹⁶ as you hold firmly to the word of life.

As part of the community of believers, we are “the light of the world,” says Jesus. Shining “like stars in the sky” among “a warped and crooked generation,” however, is not automatic. For us, children of God, to shine, we are to “become blameless and pure.” And part of how to become one is doing “everything without grumbling or arguing.” The question then becomes, How do we avoid such things?

The answer is found in vs. 12-13: “continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” Don’t get it wrong, salvation is not by human works but by God’s grace (Ephesians 2:8-9). But those that have received salvation as the gift of God are now “God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” In other words, as God’s living masterpieces, we ought not to stagnate, but we are to be spiritually renewed everyday. When we grow spiritually, then we bear spiritual fruit, and doing good works becomes second nature to us.

We’ve been saved not by our good works, but we’ve been saved to do good works. 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Fun Facts About Stars

• There are nearly 1 x 10 ^22 stars in the universe.
• Some of the stars in the sky are so far that the light from them takes million of years to reach us.
• Proxima Centauri is the closest star to our solar system and is nearly 4 light years away.
• Inside the nebula, when gases and dust condense, a new object is formed which is known as protostar.
• Depending upon how hot the white dwarf star is, its color varies from blue, white, yellow, or red.
• Supernova explosions are capable of destroying an entire star.
• Pulsar, a neutron star which was discovered in 1967 emits radio waves.
• Polaris, the north star, is the only star in the sky that doesn’t appear to move from night to night.