March 10

     At midnight all the first-born of the Egyptians were slain. Then the king sent to Israel the message, "Rise up, and get you forth from among my people; . . . and go, serve the Lord, as ye have said." Ex. 12:31. The Hebrews went out from Egypt an independent nation. The Lord had commanded that the Passover should be yearly kept. "It shall come to pass," He said, "when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? that ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord's passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when He smote the Egyptians." Thus from generation to generation the story of this wonderful deliverance was to be repeated.

         Desire of Ages, page 77 from the chapter, 'The Passover visit'

       I have friends who have decided to mark a long married life with a renewal of their marriage vows. The ceremony might include a wedding dress, an exchange of rings and a repetition of the vows. The aim is not to create a romantic holiday for a couple but to genuinely mark a milestone in life.

     Please note that the Passover was to be celebrated at a yearly interval. When you come to make your decision to celebrate a deeper relationship with God try to include in your planning a yearly reminder of the new relationship.

     Is a yearly reminder enough? Rick Warren, in his book, ‘The Purpose Driven church’, suggests that we ought to remind ourselves of visions that are set for us or which we set for ourselves at much shorter intervals. The idea, apparently suggested by the book of Nehemiah, would be that we should keep our minds alert by reminding ourselves of our vision every 26 days. That works for me.

     By the way, check out, as a reminder, the Conference Strategy, based on the opening chapters of the book of Nehemiah.

     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