June 11
In the time of John the Baptist, Christ was about to appear as the revealer of the character of God. His very presence would make manifest to men their sin. Only as they were willing to be purged from sin could they enter into fellowship with Him. Only the pure in heart could abide in His presence.
Desire of Ages, page 109 from the chapter, 'The voice in the wilderness'
Many people are afraid of God. Because they are afraid of God they have a particular way of understanding God and words about God.
Look at that short sentence in our reading, “His very presence would make manifest to men their sin”. If you are afraid of God you will understand from this that when sinners meet God they will respond with fear at an angry God.
On the other hand if you understand that God is a beneficent designer you will read the words, “His very presence would make manifest to men their sin.” and realise that when God does reveal himself to sinners the idea is that God wants to build a person into a new creation.
It is true that sinners cannot abide the presence of God and will finally call for rocks and mountains to fall on them. However before that event happens we have to realise that God wants to bring people to himself.
God spent years encouraging His people to remain as His people. Eventually God resorted to allowing disaster after disaster to befall His people in order to encourage them to turn back to a loving God.
Bryn has, by accident, or perhaps God’s design, chosen a song that relates to our reading. Listen to, “Your showdown is coming” by Lloyd Snow. Please click on the picture to listen
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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
