Stars

Do you remember having a teacher tell you about the various constellations? She would show you two or three stars and say: “This is three soldiers and the four friends sitting down to lunch.” To which you would reply: (silently of course) “All I see is five stars.” Of course I am being facetious here, but the point is the same.

Now don't deny that at some point you have wondered how they got those intricate designs out of a few stars. I have too. After an evening church service some years back when she was still young, my oldest daughter pointed to three stars in the sky and informed me that it was Orion's belt. I responded that I would hate to have only three buttons holding up my pants. We then talked about this very issue, how so few stars can be made into a very involved configuration with a little bit of imagination. My son mentioned a few others that he was aware of and we got in the car to go home, still discussing how easy it is to build whatever you want when you have no guidelines.

Some people build their Christian life in the same fashion. There is no guideline, no standard, and no source of objective truth by which to determine their course of action. Consequently you arrive at all sorts of strange behavior. What right have you to call something wrong they believe is perfectly fine? What right do I have to do something someone else deems to be wrong? What right indeed, unless there is a final authority. What right, unless there is a source of objective truth that can be assimilated.

For the believer, Scripture must be that source. Do you have a good idea? I'm glad. But unless you can clearly substantiate it with Scripture, please don't be angry if I do not embrace it. That does not mean it is wrong, it just means I do not agree. Ultimately I may be the one who is wrong. That is okay, we can agree to disagree can we not? I will extend you the same grace. Because I am sure I will have many good ideas that others will not agree with. That is okay.

Paul told Timothy that all Scripture was “God breathed,” and “was profitable for doctrine . . .” Let me give you a slanted Terry phrase of that verse. “Scripture is objective truth by which to guide your life.” That provides us some limits on how far you can stretch the Christian life. It isn't what you feel. It is what does Scripture say? Unlike the constellations, with only the faintest hint of a guideline, we have a guideline for designing our life. Okay, some issues are not as clear as we would like, but God did give us a brain that He expects us to use. That does not negate the principles that are at work, however.

Design your life carefully. It will determine the nature of your influence on someone else's life and tells more about you than you realize.

Choose your lines of demarcation circumspectly, they tell who you are more than you care to admit.

Be careful at the lines you draw in the sand. You may end up fighting battles that you do not care to fight, and should you win, you have actually won very little and lost a great deal . . . perhaps the smile of Christ.