January 30
This act of cruelty was one of the last that darkened the reign of Herod. Soon after the slaughter of the innocents, he was himself compelled to yield to that doom which none can turn aside. He died a fearful death.
Joseph, who was still in Egypt, was now bidden by an angel of God to return to the land of Israel. Regarding Jesus as the heir of David's throne, Joseph desired to make his home in Bethlehem; but learning that Archelaus reigned in Judea in his father's stead, he feared that the father's designs against Christ might be carried out by the son. Of all the sons of Herod, Archelaus most resembled him in character. Already his succession to the government had been marked by a tumult in Jerusalem, and the slaughter of thousands of Jews by the Roman guards.
Desire of Ages, page 66 from the chapter, 'We have seen His star'
Preaching training is taking place at the moment throughout the Conference, yesterday’s lesson found the class learning about the ‘take home thought’. The practice text was 2 Corinthians 12:1-10 … Paul talks about his thorn in the flesh but is reminding us that the problems we have can really serve to strengthen us.
Imagine Joseph’s history. He has taken a wife with ‘issues’. They head off to take part in an almost unheard of census, had their baby greeted by a bunch of shepherds, met a trio of Magi and then had a vision from God – ‘go to Egypt’. Now he comes back, hears that Archelaus. The son of Herod, is just as bad as his father. If thorns make you strong Joseph must have been a superman!
We hear tomorrow what happened to Joseph, but wouldn’t you guess that God cared!
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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
