May 11
As a prophet, John was "to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." In preparing the way for Christ's first advent, he was a representative of those who are to prepare a people for our Lord's second coming. The world is given to self-indulgence. Errors and fables abound. Satan's snares for destroying souls are multiplied. All who would perfect holiness in the fear of God must learn the lessons of temperance and self-control. The appetites and passions must be held in subjection to the higher powers of the mind. This self-discipline is essential to that mental strength and spiritual insight which will enable us to understand and to practice the sacred truths of God's word. For this reason temperance finds its place in the work of preparation for Christ's second coming.
Desire of Ages, page 101 from the chapter, 'The voice in the wilderness'
We go straight to the point. There is a whole range of views about health within and without the church. Some people are careless about health while some would take health so seriously that they would understand that you can’t enter the kingdom of God without perfect health.
Take a view from the above paragraph. We are those people at the end of time who are to prepare the way for the Lord’s Second coming. Like John we are to be ‘temperate’.
The meaning here is that we are to exercise self-control over our whole lives so that we have mental strength and spiritual insight. Temperance isn’t just about eating and drinking certain foods. Being a temperate person means that we make choices in all areas of our lives so that we are best equipped to be servants of God and friends to man.
As we have seen John started this lifestyle as a child from his parents. We may start later than childhood, but we can still make good decisions that will help us be more effective for God.
Heaven is our real home. I had heard of Loretta Lynn but never heard her sing, I’m glad that Bryn has chosen her singing, ‘In the Sweet by and By.” 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
