“As Simeon enters the temple, he sees a family presenting their first-born son before the priest. Their appearance bespeaks poverty; but Simeon understands the warnings of the Spirit, and he is deeply impressed that the infant being presented to the Lord is the Consolation of Israel, the One he has longed to see. To the astonished priest, Simeon appears like a man enraptured. The child has been returned to Mary, and he takes it in his arms and presents it to God, while a joy that he has never before felt enters his soul. As he lifts the infant Saviour toward heaven, he says, "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word: for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel."
Desire of Ages, page 55 from the chapter, 'The Dedication'
"I told you about Simeon. His whole life was indeed wrapped up in waiting to see the Christ. But look at the whole sequence of events. There is Mary, the young lady, by young we probably mean 14 years old or so. She has a formidable memory, more to the point she has the ability to turn those memories into treasures. Dutifully she takes her little son to the temple. The priest does his duty – a poor show of a thing, and we are left hoping that later he finds out the importance of what he has done. Mary takes her child back, but oh so briefly – because this old man with joy shining in his face gently takes her little one.
This is the presentation that was meant to happen. The person with the right attitude and saying just the right things. Simeon doesn’t just quote one verse from the Old Testament – he strings a whole series of verses together. It is obvious that he has thought this through.
It is also obvious that he has enough faith in God to prepare to succeed, and does not have the expectation of failure.
I also like the very calm delivery, no histrionics here. Hearing some people express their joy on television sounds completely over the top. Simeon has been waiting for this event throughout his life. He has considered the event, practiced what to say and delivered his piece with love in his heart and pride in his voice.
So what have you prepared to say when Jesus comes the second time - or are you hedging your bets and hoping to ‘wing it’ on the day should it ever come?"
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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
