Stars and Planets

Sunshine strikes the surface of the Earth, and does some wonderful things. Weather is created from the energy that pours into our atmosphere and onto the land and oceans. Plants and flowers and trees grow, and create food for trillions of creatures. Life is possible on earth because of that sunshine.

Look just below the surface, though, and the sun's effects are all but lost. Just below the surface, it's dark. Ten feet below the grass, the soil is a constant temperature year round. Besides that, earthquakes and volcanoes continue, based on enormous forces from down deep in the ground that aren't affected by the sunlight. Their effects sometimes show up in dramatic and harmful ways to us surface dwellers. So all that sunlight on the surface doesn't really change the interior at all.

Our sun, like other stars, is different. It runs on what we call nuclear fusion: the merging of two hydrogen atoms into one helium atom with the release of enormous amounts of energy. From the beginning until now, the process continues -- and it's the source of the sunshine we enjoy today, that makes life possible on Planet Earth.

Okay, so what's all this about? Pretty simple, really: Change in our lives comes not from the outside, but from the inside. In what we call the Old Covenant, God gave his chosen nation a set of rules and regs as a set of national laws to operate under. But he knew that those laws, good as they were, wouldn't change the people. He knew that their 'hearts,' their innermost selves (mind, emotions, and will) weren't really turned to him. That's why he said that they needed a whole new heart, so that they would be changed from the inside out. (See, for example, Jeremiah 24:7, Ezekiel 11:19, Ezekiel 36:26, and other scriptures.)

And that's what he did for us in the New Covenant. Jesus Christ has come to earth and lived in the flesh to gather up all humanity into himself and bring us back to fellowship with the Father. He died (and Paul says we all died with him, 1 Cor. 15:21-22, Romans 6:1-3) and when he was raised from the dead, then symbolically we were all raised also: "For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives." (Romans 6:4).

That new life is by the Holy Spirit: "Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace." (Romans 8:5-6).

It starts on the inside. All the human attempts to keep external regulations won't change your heart (Hebrews 10:1-4, for instance). But with the Spirit in you, guiding your life and giving you God's own mind in you, then you will desire the things of God, and you will really love him the way he designed humans to love him.

Becoming a mature Christ-follower starts with that inner change. Jesus has already done the really hard work of dying and being resurrected for us. He encourages us now to follow him by being baptized, filled with the Holy Spirit and then letting him continue to mature us from the inside out. And the light that he puts within you, pours out to others and warms them.

So which would you rather be? A planet, or a star?