February 3
“Wonderful in its significance is the brief record of His early life: "The child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon Him." In the sunlight of His Father's countenance, Jesus "increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." Luke 2:52. His mind was active and penetrating, with a thoughtfulness and wisdom beyond His years. Yet His character was beautiful in its symmetry. The powers of mind and body developed gradually, in keeping with the laws of childhood.”
Desire of Ages, page 68 from the chapter, 'As a child'
Every mother and father’s dream is a child who increases in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” Jesus, of course, had a special provenance. With God as His Father and the support of angels the future looked good from the beginning. His parents were specially selected, that helped as well. We will follow the growth of the child as He develops, but you know the story so there will be no surprises.
In Iceland they have a special app for smartphones. Iceland has a small population and everyone knows each other. In fact the population is so small that lots of people are related to each other. That is the point of the app. A couple who meet each other put in their surnames to find out how closely related they are and if a relationship is genetically sensible.
A word for the younger ones among us – have you got an app to choose a partner? No? Do you need something a little more reliable? If there is the thought that one day you might have children it is important to plan ahead. The nature vs. nurture debate applies. One – choose your partner really well, and then nurture the child with God at every turn.
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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
