November 21

Among the Jews there were yet steadfast souls, descendants of that holy line through whom a knowledge of God had been preserved. These still looked for the hope of the promise made unto the fathers. They strengthened their faith by dwelling upon the assurance given through Moses, "A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; Him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever He shall say unto you." Acts 3:22. Again, they read how the Lord would anoint One "to preach good tidings unto the meek," "to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives," and to declare the "acceptable year of the Lord." Isa. 61:1, 2. They read how He would "set judgment in the earth," how the isles should "wait for His law," how the Gentiles should come to His light, and kings to the brightness of His rising. Isa. 42:4; 60:3.
          Desire of Ages, page 34 from the chapter, 'The fulness of the time'

     What came first, the chicken or the egg? How do you get to be a steadfast soul? Do you start off steadfast or create steadfastness as you preserve a knowledge of God? You decide for yourself. What we do see here is that steadfastness was preserved by ‘dwelling on the assurance given by Moses …’

     Yesterday I encouraged you to memorise passages from the Bible. Now I’m letting our passage from Desire of Ages give you an idea of which passages you might use if you want to share your faith, or develop your own faith.

     On the other hand you might have a Bible verse you would think excellent to share – and you can let me know what that verse is using this link. There is a special treat, and then a surprise, for you if you click on the link

     There is a new video you can watch, “Not tired but energised”. My guess is that the people who are sharing their faith are some of those people who are doing things for God because they have a hope in their hearts – created as they store up the Word of God in their daily worship.

 

     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.