December 23

"The Shekinah had departed from the sanctuary, but in the Child of Bethlehem was veiled the glory before which angels bow. This unconscious babe was the promised seed, to whom the first altar at the gate of Eden pointed. This was Shiloh, the peace giver. It was He who declared Himself to Moses as the I am. It was He who in the pillar of cloud and of fire had been the guide of Israel. This was He whom seers had long foretold. He was the Desire of all nations, the Root and the Offspring of David, and the Bright and Morning Star. The name of that helpless little babe, inscribed in the roll of Israel, declaring Him our brother, was the hope of fallen humanity. The child for whom the redemption money had been paid was He who was to pay the ransom for the sins of the whole world. He was the true "high priest over the house of God," the head of "an unchangeable priesthood," the intercessor at "the right hand of the Majesty on high." Heb. 10:21; 7:24; 1:3.

                   Desire of Ages, page 52 from the chapter, 'The Dedication'

     Do you watch the religious channels on satellite TV? I don’t mean 3ABN or HopeTV. There are other providers which I won’t name but which I’m sure you would recognise. One channel seems to focus on Christian links with Israel. A presenter, apparently dressed as what we imagine as a Rabbi, describes the New Testament  background using Hebrew words and prayers aplenty.

    Our reading describes Jesus well, and uses some of the Old Testament descriptions to make the description come to life. We know about the Shekinah, the tamed version of the pillar of cloud and fire. We know of Shiloh (and make sure that we refer to the prophecy in Genesis 49) and understand much about Jesus as the Root and Offspring of David.

     What is the point? Don’t be fooled into thinking that a more authentic understanding of your faith can be found in using Hebrew terms or Greek words. The important point is understanding who Jesus is and expressing who Jesus in using words that people can understand a relate to.

     Last week, I think, we noted that Ellen White’s understanding of theology was thoroughly ‘Biblical’. Here we can see that when she sets out to describe who Jesus is, in prophetic terms, we can see that she is once again thoroughly Biblical – and modern – modern enough for anyone to understand.

     We should be doing the same with people we meet, making sure that people can understand us, without people wondering if we are speaking the same language as they are.

 

     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