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cember 13 and 14
“The story of Bethlehem is an exhaustless theme. In it is hidden "the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God." Rom. 11:33. We marvel at the Saviour's sacrifice in exchanging the throne of heaven for the manger, and the companionship of adoring angels for the beasts of the stall. Human pride and self-sufficiency stand rebuked in His presence. Yet this was but the beginning of His wonderful condescension. It would have been an almost infinite humiliation for the Son of God to take man's nature, even when Adam stood in his innocence in Eden. But Jesus accepted humanity when the race had been weakened by four thousand years of sin. Like every child of Adam He accepted the results of the working of the great law of heredity. What these results were is shown in the history of His earthly ancestors. He came with such a heredity to share our sorrows and temptations, and to give us the example of a sinless life.”
There are a number of Bible passages that Ellen White says we should spend time with. We should spend thoughtful hours with 1 Corinthians 13, we should spend similar hours contemplating the closing scenes of Christ’s life. We can do the same with the opening hours of the life of Jesus.
Let us say that this Christmas season you have some time to spare, hours, rather than minutes, and you can find this time over a few days. Find your quiet corner. Take your Bible and a notebook and perhaps a drink. Settle down to some imaginary reportage. Become a newspaper reporter for the moment.
A newspaper reporter is a professional nosey-parker. A newspaper reporter asks many questions to find out what is going on. They have a brief to get a quote or two from many people.
You can do the same with the Bible. Ask yourself the same questions that reporters do. Who, what, where, why, when and how are the questions you will use. Build up a picture of what you see and who you see. Dress your characters in clothes and paint a picture of the way they behave. Let them live.
For instance, in our passage today we are told that we can, “marvel at the Saviour's sacrifice in exchanging the throne of heaven for the manger.” Ask your questions and you will start to realise what is going on in God’s heavenly plan. You could take a similar Bible passage, ask your questions and then develop your findings into something really helpful.
You can take a step further. Take your short passage with all your questions answered. Now you can turn it into a truth for yourself. You might decide you write this. “Jesus could have stayed in His beautiful peaceful palace but chose to come and live with human beings like me.”
Write the truth down for yourself and think carefully about it. What will you do with that thought? Worship God … or say, “pass the turkey?”
Spending thoughtful hours with Bible passages and finding the truths for today benefits you. It brings you closer to God and changes your life. Try it this Christmas season.
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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
