Star Gazing

I have always loved the night sky. The array of stars and planets, and even our own moon, make for fun gazing. I remember as a kid driving out in the country and being stunned at how bright the sky can be.

David wrote about this in Psalm 8 ...

When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers — the moon and the stars you set in place — what are people that you should think about them, mere mortals that you should care for them? Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor. [Psalm 8:3-5. NLT]

A few years ago my wife bought me a telescope from an on-line auction and I'm just getting into using it a bit more. We live a little further out of town now so the night sky is brighter than what it is in suburbia. You can even see a great deal with the naked eye and even more with a basic pair of binoculars.

There is an excellent computer program called Stellarium for those who like to learn a bit more about the night sky. You can download it here for free. Click here to access a web site which is a good beginner's guide to astronomy.

The Lord counts the stars and calls them all by name. How great is our Lord! His power is absolute! His understanding is beyond comprehension! NLT [Psalm 147:4-5]

 

Comments

[Rhiannon Sepssy]

Hi Mark and Nicole,
I follow your website from a distance. We are pastors at Pakenham Christian Church. We've had a rough trot these last couple of weeks but through it all we have seen God at work.
When you look at the sky you realise how awesome God is. He really knows what He is doing. Here is my story:
www.pinkhope.org.au/minigen/default.asp?contentID=285
God has really been working things out. Last week a story was published in the Sydney Morning Herald:

www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/lifematters/family-fight-to-halt-cancer-gene-20100313-q52w.html

Now this story created so much interest in the Pink Hope website and what do they see on the home page - my testimony.
Had a rough trot this past few days. Just got out of hospital again.
(fourth time in two weeks) I've only had three nights at home in past 14 days.
I developed some lumps under my armpits that were growing so rapidly
the Doctors had never seen anything like it before.
At one stage I felt like I was starring in my own episode of
HOUSE ( that medical drama with Hugh Laurie- my favourite program). four
different doctors came to look at me in a 24 hour period on a Sunday
tooo!!!!! It got pretty intense as I know they had to call them in on their
day off. They were all conferring in front of me in my hospital room. It was
quite surreal. My hospital room was next to the nurses station so I could
hear my name being mentioned all the time. And people making phone calls and
stuff talking about me.

Sunday night I got so scared to even to go to sleep. I felt so strange and
thought I might die in my sleep. I remember trying to make sure I my life was
right with God. I even wrote my goodbyes in my journal!!! It was 3am my last
memory of being awake. Then the next thing I knew I woke up in a pool of
sweat but was so relieved that I'd woken up. I suddenly started to feel so
much better. I knew people had been praying for me. Praise God I am home
now!!!

I'm on the mend again. I realised that through the night was actually still
day time in the UK where my family live and everybody would have been at
church - praying for me when I was feeling so low. I definitely believe that
God has done something in me!! This weekend they did every test under the
sun and I have to go back to hospital tomorrow to get the results. So pray
for me that the results are all good. I 'll find out if they need to do
anything further but I'm believing that God has healed me and that I won't
need chemo or radiotherapy.

[MarijaThornton]

Hi Rhiannon,

Thank you for sharing your awesome testimony. Your faith is so refreshing... Nothing is impossible with God. My heartfelt prayers are with you. I have two daughters who have been battling breast cancer, one for 10 years now, since she was 22. God is taking us to a new level of faith and trust in Him. Praying all goes well for you. Keep trusting and believing.

Mark, thank you for the timely reminder of how awesome and glorious our God is... Love watching the stars and stand in awe of His Majesty each time I look up at the night sky :)

[Michael A]

Hi Mark,

If you ever wondered "What's that bright blue star over there?", and happened to have an iPhone or iPod touch (or can beg, borrow, or, er, temporarily appropriate one and return it nicely), with an excellent app called Star Walk (only 3.99) you can just point your iPhone to the sky, and you can find out!

This is because it knows your precise location on earth (via GPS), the precise angle at which you're holding up the iPhone to the sky (via accelerometers), and the precise time of day at your location, it provides you with an interactive display of the night sky you're looking at. Just tap at that star, and it tells you!

One of the most impressive and yet least-expensive of astronomy tools available on the iPhone or otherwise.

Here's a review: http://www.macworld.com/appguide/app.html?id=66943. And here's its homepage: http://vitotechnology.com/star-walk.html

Michael