Saturday, August 10, 2002

Daniel 12:3

"And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever."
Daniel 12:3


Building on yesterday's scripture, which talked about being resurrected to life or shame... happiness or misery, this seems to talk about other choices that we make.  If we choose to learn, and gain wisdom, we'll be shiny :), and if we help others to choose righteousness, then we'll be even shinier.  Light, truth... the more of it the better, right? :)  Yesterday we talked about how we make the choices in our lives every day that lead us in one direction or another... and those choices also affect other people.  We can influence them towards happiness or misery, draw them closer to or further away from the truth... through our everyday conversation.  What we talk about, what we're excited about, what we love, what we believe in.  We affect each other, especially when there is affection or power involved in the relationship. And those things affect our eternities as well. If we helped a lot of people to be happy in this life, we'll have a great time together after our lives are over. If however, we contributed to the corruption of a lot of people, I imagine that our guilt and shame will only be worse.
The good thing about this story is Christ. Even if we have chosen straight misery for 40 years, and fed misery to our friends and family for as long, we still have a choice, because of Christ. We can turn around and start practicing happiness, and repent of our mistakes, and Christ will wipe the misery of a lifetime away, and let us start over with a clean slate. What matters is what we are choosing this minute, right now.  How we are influencing each other today.  We *can* change the past... by living well in the present.

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