May 2
The words of the angel, "I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God," show that he holds a position of high honour in the heavenly courts. When he came with a message to Daniel, he said, "There is none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael [Christ] your Prince." Dan. 10:21. Of Gabriel the Saviour speaks in the Revelation, saying that "He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John." Rev. 1:1. And to John the angel declared, "I am a fellow servant with thee and with thy brethren the prophets." Rev. 22:9, R. V. Wonderful thought--that the angel who stands next in honour to the Son of God is the one chosen to open the purposes of God to sinful men.
Desire of Ages, page 100 from the chapter, 'The voice in the wilderness'
Do you want to feel good about yourself? I like to watch ‘Masterchef’. I compare my beans on toast with some marvellous creation and determine to do better next time. The celebrity guest tore the hard work of one competitor to pieces. He must have felt awful. We know how to build such people up. Our aim is not to flatter to deception or to utter soothing words. We would try to build a person up with the love and presence of God.
One way we could do this is to recognise that we are so important to God that he chose to send the head of all of the angel hosts to convey a special message to the whole of mankind. We are valuable to God.
Does it matter that we are abused or treated like second-class citizens? What really matters is that God values us and that He reveals this love in the Scriptures. What also matters is that we are told of our value in the writings we are reading.
If you know someone who needs to know they are of value to God – then you know how to let people know they are valued.
The song for today is my choice but has Bryn’s endorsement. We come back to Don Francisco, but this time the song is ‘He’s alive’. Just you wait for the last 30 seconds. Take the experience and turn to worship. 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
