July 11-12
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong, and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” - Joshua 1:9
How many times do we hear people say, either of themselves or their circumstances, “this is what I am, nothing is going to change now – what you see is what you get?” It reminds me of Popeye the Sailor-man – remember him? Popeye turbo-charged himself at breakfast every day by eating a squeezed tin of spinach. He was blessed with arm muscles the size of grapefruits. His bearded rival Brutus, stood no chance. Clenching a pipe between his teeth Popeye made mincemeat of him! But what he saw in his lady friend Olive Oyl escapes me. Olive Oyl, tall, scraggy as a slat – enough, I think you have the picture. Despite his seeming confidence all was not well with Popeye. He sang a hopeless song, “I yam what I yam!”....a sad lament, he was what he was, change for him was out of the question. (Ortberg, John 2003 “The Life You've Always Wanted).
Popeye was wrong. The very fact that there is a God who cares about us means we can grow, we can change. This God accepts us as we are, where we are at right now, then gives us grace and power to change, to accept change – the freedom to become.
Talk it through with Him. Let go, and let God.
Today's song choice is “Where the Roses Never Fade” by Selah, and speaks of a place that will be so perfect, it, and we, will never need to change.
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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
