January 20
"Now pride and envy closed the door against the light. If the reports brought by the shepherds and the wise men were credited, they would place the priests and rabbis in a most unenviable position, disproving their claim to be the exponents of the truth of God. These learned teachers would not stoop to be instructed by those whom they termed heathen. It could not be, they said, that God had passed them by, to communicate with ignorant shepherds or uncircumcised Gentiles. They determined to show their contempt for the reports that were exciting King Herod and all Jerusalem. They would not even go to Bethlehem to see whether these things were so. And they led the people to regard the interest in Jesus as a fanatical excitement. Here began the rejection of Christ by the priests and rabbis. From this point their pride and stubbornness grew into a settled hatred of the Saviour. While God was opening the door to the Gentiles, the Jewish leaders were closing the door to themselves."
Desire of Ages, page 62 from the chapter, 'We have seen His star'
The priests had a particular attitude. “We are the best”. That attitude became, "we are better than you". Were we to meet them later we would find them forcing people to stay under their control by determining where they worshipped. Then we would find them mocking people from Galilee for their uncouth sounding accents.
We find the reason for their attitudes in the words, “..they would place the priests and rabbis in a most unenviable position”. People will do many things to retain a position of trust and authority. They will tell lies. They will be disobedient. The priests decided to be ignorant about God when it suitedd them. That means that they ignored God. One would have thought that this would be tragedy enough.
They ignored God, they closed their minds to God. With that door half-closed, it was easy for them to close their whole mind to God and just continue with a form of religion.
How do we find ourselves getting closer and closer to God? The first point is to have a humble attitude. As we recognise that all men are equal in God’s sight we have a chance of keeping a good relationship with God. The second is to keep an open door to God.
My Father was not a God-fearing man. In my teenage years I said to him, “I don’t believe in God.” Though an atheist then he gave me these wise words, “Don’t be so sure of that. Keep an open mind.” Thank God I was able to have a mind open to God, and that led to a developing relationship with God.
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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
