October 11
"His name shall be called Immanuel, . . . God with us." "The light of the knowledge of the glory of God" is seen "in the face of Jesus Christ." From the days of eternity the Lord Jesus Christ was one with the Father; He was "the image of God," the image of His greatness and majesty, "the outshining of His glory." It was to manifest this glory that He came to our world. To this sin-darkened earth He came to reveal the light of God's love,--to be "God with us." Therefore it was prophesied of Him, "His name shall be called Immanuel."
Desire of Ages, page 19 from the chapter, 'God with us'
I have several friends called Emmanuel, or they have various versions of that name. While those friends are just that, friends, they can't be described as 'God with us'. As we set out to very slowly read through the book, Desire of Ages, the aim will be to find out why Immanuel, we know his name better as Jesus, should be called, 'God with us.'
The paragraph for today puts Jesus right at the heart of what we will read about. There are a number of people that I look up to, I respect them greatly and see one or two as role models. However the role model I really want to fashion my life after is Jesus. The reasons are obvious. He is the image of God, He is the 'outshining of His glory'. Jesus came to reveal the light of God's love to this earth.
I want God's love to be revealed on this earth and I want to be a part of that process. What better way than to pattern my life after such a wonderful person?
Housekeeping details for you
The point of this short blog will become clear if you decide to use this reading in the way we intend it. Netherfield Seventh-day Adventist Church believes in healthy churches. You can see what that means if you head to the relevant Healthy Churches page of the website. We also want other churches to be healthy. That means you can join in our campaign to create healthy churches, with healthy people serving the people in those churches.
A healthy church is one where Jesus comes first. A healthy church is one where the people work together to put Jesus first. One thing we are doing is to join people together to spread that news. I would like you to look at our prayer partners page. This will explain how we want you to use this short devotional. Very basically we want you to find a like-minded Christian friend who you will join with to : choose to pray together every day, decide together on a way to serve other people together, to help them grow as Christians - and to invite the Holy Spirit into your life every day. This blog that you will receive every day simply gives a common spiritual purpose. If you are a newcomer and want to join the blog with this object in mind click here
From October 21st this site will continue going through 'Desire of Ages' - but begin to advance rather faster than one paragraph at a time.
Our sister site, at the Upper Room, will progress at a rather slower pace - one paragraph at a time. If you want to head to our sister site for the slower trip through an excellent book you will eventually follow a link to the Upper Room. This will start on October 21st.
