November 18
“Outside of the Jewish nation there were men who foretold the appearance of a divine instructor. These men were seeking for truth, and to them the Spirit of Inspiration was imparted. One after another, like stars in the darkened heavens, such teachers had arisen. Their words of prophecy had kindled hope in the hearts of thousands of the Gentile world.
You mean that the fields are not only white for harvest but that the Holy Spirit is given to people who are not Christians?
Years ago, many years ago, I sat in my first class at Newbold College. I hadn’t been baptised for too long and had so much to learn. I was certain that I was in the right place and doing the right thing.
God had moved me from Coventry, to Great Missenden to Ascot. Each move brought me closer to Newbold College to study Theology. I had no choice. I had been chosen.
That first class was ‘Life and Teachings of Christ’ taught by Dr. Steve Thompson. That first class had this interesting fact that lodged in my mind – and has stayed there all this time. The coming of a messiah figure was prophesied some 40 years before the birth of Christ, and that by a Roman poet.
Here we read that the poet, Virgil, was not the only prophet. People were listening to them.
What do we recognise? When our life is difficult we ought to be taking prophetic writings more seriously. That’s a hint!
That Bible verse I would love you to learn this week. We are to look for the coming in glory of Jesus Christ. What is the prophetic voice there calling us to do?
“For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope – the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.”
Titus 2:11-14
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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
From October 21st this site will continue going through 'Desire of Ages' - but begin to advance rather faster than one paragraph at a time.
Our sister site, at the Upper Room, will progress at a rather slower pace - one paragraph at a time. If you want to head to our sister site for the slower trip through an excellent book you will eventually follow a link to the Upper Room. This will start on October 21st.
