December 24

“Spiritual things are spiritually discerned. In the temple the Son of God was dedicated to the work He had come to do. The priest looked upon Him as he would upon any other child. But though he neither saw nor felt anything unusual, God's act in giving His Son to the world was acknowledged. This occasion did not pass without some recognition of Christ. "There was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ."

                   Desire of Ages, page 55 from the chapter, 'The Dedication'

     The priest was just doing his job. He hadn’t thought about his responsibilities – but at least he did the job he was supposed to do. Perhaps, at a later date, he came to realise the part he had played in the little drama involving a shepherd, a young girl and her young child.

     Simeon on the other hand, well, he was different. Imagine, he has lived his life, perhaps he was an old man. At some stage the Holy Spirit tells him that he would see Christ.

     We think that the Holy Spirit descended some days after Jesus ascended, but here we learn that the Holy Spirit was giving wonderful, hopeful news to a man well before that great event. We would also need to recognise that the Holy Spirit was present at Creation and is also promised to us right now.

     What do we aim for? We should look to be just and devout, we should look to have a great aim in life. I don’t mean and iPad for Christmas or a perfect turkey in the oven – but something grand. How about looking to the Second Coming of Christ as your great event, the great event you will pray for and work towards?

 

     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