Courage to Follow Your Star
Article by Dr. Les Hollon, Pastor, Trinity Baptist Church
A long journey requires courage. And so it was for the magi.
These people of a priestly class from the Eastern culture required courage to follow a star in the sky and travel west to see what the star meant for them.
God has a star for you to follow. Do you see it? Are you following His lead for your life?
Overcoming Fear to Follow Your Star
Living requires courage. Courage for you to enter 2010 and be the person whom God is creating you to be and to doing God is calling you to do.
Along the way of courage, fear always shows up. God speaks directly to our fears. Isaiah said of God, “Fear not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed for I am your God. I will help you. I will strengthen you. I will uphold you in the right hand of my righteousness.” The prophet spoke to people caught in exile not far from where the wise men would come from centuries later.
Light Shows the Way
Matthew chapter 2 tells the story of magi who had seen a unique star in the sky. We’re not sure how scientifically to explain this star. The great watcher of the sky, Kepler said, “It was in this time that Saturn and Jupiter were in a unique alignment with each other.” Maybe that’s what the wise men saw. They followed the light they could see to travel to where they needed to be. The Lord gives enough light for us to see how to get from where we are to where we need to be but not so much light that courageous faith is not required.
These magi knew their fear but they were not paralyzed by their fear …
They followed the light to take them to Jerusalem. They went to Jerusalem and asked the question, “Where is the One to be born King? We have seen his star in the east and have come to worship Him.” All of this troubled King Herod. He was the worst, most dastardly king of Israel’s history. When Herod heard that there were people traveling from the east looking for the Christ child, he pulled together all those court appointed folk and asked them, “Where is this to take place?” They looked into the Scripture and said, “Well, it’s to be in the homeland of Ruth and David. It is to be in Bethlehem.” So Herod told the magi which way to go.
But we are not born to fulfill the dictates of another human being. We are born to fulfill God’s great purposes for our life. We are created to love. We are called to serve.
Herod wanted to control the magi. They discerned Herod’s deceit. They recognized him to be what he was and not what he pretended to be. He was a wicked tyrant. False power brokers always are. The Magi knew how to benefit from what he was telling them without being controlled by him. There are always folk in this world that want to control us and turn us into slaves of worldly systems.
Jesus’ light shows us how to be free and live differently. Christ said of Himself, “I am the Light of the world. Whoever follows me will not be alone to walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
Following God’s Light to Your Destination
After the magi went to Bethlehem and offered symbolic gifts, they were warned in a dream to avoid Herod … so they traveled back to Persia a different way. Joseph was also warned in a dream to flee. He was to take his family to Egypt. Joseph hadn’t planned on going to Egypt but that’s where God was leading so he went.
There are times in life when it seems like all the ways that we want to travel are blocked. But when we really ask, seek, and knock - asking so that we may receive, seeking so that we may find, knocking so that the right door will be opened - then the answers come …
The way forward is opened by giving the courage to follow God’s star as our star.
Pastor Les Hollon
The Visit of the Magi
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 in the east and have come to worship him.”
When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written: ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.’”
Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
This article was written by Les Hollon, Pastor of Trinity Baptist Church. For more information about God and your place in His world, contact Dr. Hollon, click over to Trinity Baptist Church.
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