February 17
"Christ was the only sinless one who ever dwelt on earth; yet for nearly thirty years He lived among the wicked inhabitants of Nazareth. This fact is a rebuke to those who think themselves dependent upon place, fortune, or prosperity, in order to live a blameless life. Temptation, poverty, adversity, is the very discipline needed to develop purity and firmness."
Desire of Ages, page 72 from the chapter, 'As a child'
Take this literally! Don’t take it too literally! The paragraph doesn’t mean that the way to a blameless life is to be under temptation, living in poverty and coping (or not) with adverse conditions.
What we are being told is that we shouldn’t think that bad conditions, or good conditions, are what determine a blameless life. Jesus happened to live in a difficult place. He lived a blameless life. If He had lived in a palace He would have lived a blameless life.
As we saw, God wanted Him to be stronger so sent Jesus to Nazareth, out of the way of unwelcome Rabbinical guidance.
Take this literally! You haven’t lived a blameless life, though God, of course, forgives. But your readings during this chapter are not about you but are designed to help equip you to help your children to choose to be blameless.
It is all too easy to want the best for your children, it is the natural thing. I know how hard my dad worked to put me through school. However the desire for the best in life should not overtake the need to model the Christ-like life.
Better a little poverty than time away from your children ... reading with them.
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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
