"When the moon is not full, the stars shine more brightly." Unknown

I was gone last week to see my parents and the best sister that anyone could ever ask for so I didn’t get a chance to tell you what God had shown me last week. I figured out a little bit about why God sent me to see them. They were on a mission trip in New Orleans so they were a little bit closer to me than they normally would have been. I believe that I got a chance to go down and see them to see how our lives, as Christians, should really look.

You see I was driving down to New Orleans and I was going across Lake Pontchartrain and I got a clear view of how a Christian’s life is supposed to look. As I drove across, what seemed like a 15 mile bridge, God showed me how my life was supposed to reflect the Son's. The sun was setting and you couldn’t really see any sky in between the sun and the water. All you could see is what looked like one big sun. The reflection of the sun in the water looked so much like the sun that you couldn’t tell them apart. So that got me thinking about what else reflected the sun in that way? The Moon! The whole purpose of the Moon is to reflect the light of the sun. So that got me thinking about the creation story in the Bible. Look with me at Genesis and see what you think about this.

Genesis 1:1-5

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. And God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

I then looked and saw that it wasn’t until the fourth day that God created the stars, moon, and the sun.

Genesis 1:14-18

Then God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years; And let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth"; and it was so. And God made two greater lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. And God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, And to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good.

So just think before God created the stars, moon, and the sun it had to be pretty much pitch black dark during the night. So you have three full nights with no light in the world. What I find very interesting is that the Bible tells us in 1 John 1:5 "And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all." So the whole reason for the creation of the moon is to reflect the light of the sun so that there would be no darkness at all in the world.

The more that I thought about this and the picture of the water reflecting the sun, the more I figured out the reason for the creation of man. Our one purpose in life is to reflect the Son. Romans 2:19 says that we are a light to those who are in darkness. So why is there still so much darkness in the world if God's children are supposed to reflect His Son? Then it hit me. A full moon reflects the maximum amount of sunlight. It is easy to see your way in the night when the moon is full. As the earth comes in between the moon and the sun, the moon reflects less and less sunlight until the moon is completely dark. The same thing goes for Christians today. The more and more world that we have that gets in between us and God the less of the Son that we reflect. In Matthew 5:14-16, Jesus said that we are the light of the world and that we are to let our light shine before men which would glorify God the father. It is our job to reflect the Son's light in a world filled with darkness. The sad fact is that sometimes we have a hard time reflecting that light. The same thing happens with us that happens with the moon. It only takes a little bit of the world to creep in and start eliminating some of the Son's light.

So is your Christian walk really reflecting the full amount of the Son's light? Can people tell a difference between the real Son and the reflection of that Son in your life? These are a few questions that I had to ask myself about my walk, and now I ask you. Luke 19:40 says if our lives don’t reflect the Son and cry out for Him to this dark and lost world, then the rocks will cry out for Him.

"When the moon is not full, the stars shine more brightly." Since the purpose of our lives are just like the moon, and we are supposed to do nothing but reflect the Son, what does your life look like? Are the stars shining more brightly than the full life that God has given you through His Son?

"People think it is holding on that makes you stronger, but sometimes it's letting go." Anonymous

Has anything ever happened in your life that you just couldn't understand why God would let it happen? Like the mine explosion in New Zealand. Almost 30 people died that day and one was a teenager who had just turned 17 years old. Many people lost their jobs and families and can you imagine how they tried to figure out why it happened. How do you figure out what to do when your world is falling apart? Job knows exactly what it felt like to loose his family, house, health, friends, and his ability to work, but if you read the book you will see that Job was frantically looking for answers. Job was looking for more than just, why did this happen, or, why me, but he was looking for God to help him understand the situation. He was looking for something to hold on to when life falls apart. He was looking for wisdom and understanding. Job said "People know where to mine silver and how to refine gold. They know here to dig iron from the earth and how to smelt copper from rock...but do people know where to find wisdom? Where can they find understanding?" Job tells us that wisdom is "...not found among the living...it cannot be bought...its a priceless treasure from above." He also says that "only God understands the way to wisdom, and He alone knows where it lives."

I want to encourage you this morning with all that is going on in our world today that God still knows what He is doing. "People think it is holding on that makes you stronger, but sometimes it's letting go." I want to encourage you to just let everything go, whether you understand it or not, and just let God take you where He wants you to go. I want to let you read how capable God is to take and fix the problems that are going on in your life right now. Check out Job 28:25-28. "When God gave power to the wind and measured the water, when He made rules for the rain and set a path for a thunderstorm to follow, then He looked at wisdom and decided its worth; He set wisdom up and tested it. Then He said to humans, 'The fear of the Lord is wisdom; to stay away from evil is understanding.' " If God gives power to the wind and sets the paths for the thunderstorms, which He does, then I do believe that He can take care of anything we have to throw His way. God tells us that wisdom is to fear the Lord and understanding is to stay away from the life that doesn't walk with Him. I want you to look a little further with me though. This blew me away. These next couple of verses put my thinking back in perspective. I try and handle anything that comes my way and we, as a Christian nation, have put the work of God into our hands and we are not capable of that task. I want to point out to you what God says to Job about trying to take things into his own hands. Look at Job 40:9-14. "Are you as strong as God? Can your voice thunder like His? If so, then decorate yourself with glory and beauty, dress in honor and greatness as if they were clothing. Let your great anger punish; look at the proud and make them humble. Brush the wicked wherever they are. Bury them all in the dirt together; cover their faces in the grave. If you can do that, then I Myself will praise you, because you are strong enough to save yourself." If we could save ourselves, and if we could understand why things happen to us, and if we were strong enough to overcome this world, then why did Jesus have to die? Listen Jesus paid the price to save you and me and He is just waiting on you to let go of the things you have been holding on to and let Him take care of everything in your life. You still wont have the answers but you will have true wisdom when you understand the power that God has and that should be enough for us all.

Isaiah 1:18 "Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool."

Well I have lived most of my life in lower Alabama until just a little over a month ago. My wife and I moved to north Louisiana and we have seen some things over here that we haven't seen in a long time. SNOW!! We have been here a month and we have seen snow twice. It would have taken a couple of years to see snow twice in Alabama. My wife and I were driving around in the snow and I told her that I was going to steal something that she said to me in the car. Her exact words were "snow makes everything look so beautiful". When she said that Isaiah 1:18 came in my mind and it literally blew me away. Have you ever wondered how God could forgive you for some of the things that you have done in the past. I mean I can understand God forgiving me for stealing a piece of candy when I was little but what about the other things I have done. I have done somethings in my life that I am not proud of and how can He forgive me for doing them. Then I remember 1 Peter 3:18 "For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God". He died once to cover all of my sins and make me clean. He doesn't have to die a more brutal death for my "bigger" sins. He doesn't have to die again and again for the sins I will commit tomorrow or next week or next year, He paid the price once and that was enough. His blood was enough for everything that you and I could ever commit. Its just like the snow my wife was talking about the other day. We saw everything from nice two story houses to some homes that have been run down for years, but the funny thing is they all looked really pretty covered in snow. Snow makes everything look so nice and inviting. Our lives were nothing but old raggedy houses until the snow "blood" of Christ was scattered all over them. Today the snow had melted off of those old homes and the true colors presented themselves. The were nothing but "scarlet" homes. We all have two eternal choices in life. You either have Heaven or Hell, there is no in between and there is no option of getting out of one of those. I want you to look deep into your own life today and I want you to consider where you would go today if this was your last. What does your "home" look like? Is it rugged and ran down? Does it not look so nice from the road or are you covered in the "snow"? God's clouds are ready to rain down the snow that you need on your life today.

"God I thank you so much for how you show yourself to us. Thank you for showing our salvation to us. Thank you for being so willing to cover us in your snow. Please let us remember these snowy days even during the hot summer days. Let us remember that your love is so much more than we could ever ask for. Thank you for everything that you have shown me in the past couple of days."