July 20, 2013. Another star has been added to my heavens.

July 20, 2013. Another star has been added to my  heavens. You see, I have written before about the stars that are in my sky, they are stars that shine like a ‘cloud of witnesses that surround me’ and they speak. Oh, yes, their voice still speaks!
I have heard it said, “We glorify the Lord when we endure trials in a heroic way.” The stars in my sky did just that. And each of the stars in my sky are heroes. And each had their own individual ‘song of deliverance’ but ultimately the words of their song was, “The joy of the Lord is my strength.” Neh 8:10.
Yes, I can clearly see from their witness that surrounds me that ‘if we sow in hope, we will reap in joy.’
We all know that when it is darkest, the stars shine the brightest. And the stars tell of the glory of God. And ‘day after day they tell their story…and their message goes out through all the world.” Ps. 19:1,3.
And their voice rings out with brilliance and reminds us, “Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” Ps. 37:3-4.
And our heroes endured their trials and have glorified the Lord. Yes, we can see His faithfulness by their voices that tell their story, and we remember their witness when they were with us, “So we do not give up. Our physical body is becoming older and weaker, but our spirit inside us is made new everyday. We have small troubles for a while now,”
(and we know that their troubles were far from small),
“but they are helping us gain an eternal glory. that glory is much greater than the troubles. So we set our eyes not on what we see but on what we cannot see. What we see will last only a short time. but what we cannot see will last forever.” 2 Cor 4:16-18.
And we watched them in their trouble, and we hear their voices; this is the speech of our heroes: “So we always have courage. We know that while we live in this body, we are away from the Lord.
We live by what we believe,
not by what we can see. So I say that we have courage. And we really want to be away from this body and be at home with the Lord.
Our only goal is to please God.
We want to please Him whether we live here or there.” 2 Cor. 5:6-9.
Oh, how their lights shine, how their voices encourage us, as they point to the One who loves,  as they point to the One Who is able, as they point to the One Who overcame. Their speech can be heard now, this is how they speak, our stars that have been added to our heavens beam with encouragement:
“Run the race that is before you and never give up. Remove from your lives anything that would get in the way. And remove the sin that so easily catches you. Look only to Jesus. He is the one who began the faith in you and He will make your faith perfect. (Their words are God’s very words. Hebrews 12:2. Children’s Int. Version.)
The night sky is so dark without the stars. Our stars remind us that Jesus suffered. He suffered for each of us. ‘But he accepted the shame of the cross as if it were nothing. He did this because of the joy that was before Him. And now He is sitting at the right side of God’s throne.’ Hebrews 12:2. And our heroes are right there with Him!

Thank you Paul Loures for always pointing to Jesus.  And you still are. We can hear you saying, “Look to Jesus’ example so that you will not get tired and stop trying.” (Heb. 12:3.) Your star is shining,  and it will forever, and forever… is a long time!