October 13
"In the beginning, God was revealed in all the works of creation. It was Christ that spread the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth. It was His hand that hung the worlds in space, and fashioned the flowers of the field. "His strength setteth fast the mountains." "The sea is His, and He made it." Ps. 65:6; 95:5. It was He that filled the earth with beauty, and the air with song. And upon all things in earth, and air, and sky, He wrote the message of the Father's love."
Desire of Ages, page 20 from the chapter, 'God with us'
I had this idea, “I’ll build a wall in the garden”. I should have realised at that point that I should have had another idea, but the thought stuck. You have never seen such a horrible wall. In fact, it was so horrible that I had to cover the block wall with wood to hide the slight curve, dip and twist of my creation. Ah well.
Jesus had this idea, “I’ll create everything”. Of course, because He was sensible He had discussed the project through and had thought everything out beforehand. You have never seen such a beautiful construction. The stars were magnificent, He took special pride in the group of stars we know as Orion (which was pictured yesterday). The flowers in the fields were a sight to behold. The Lilies of the Valley were extraordinary. Those mountains, purple-headed from a distance, gave texture to the landscape. No wonder God sat back and said, with His Son, “That’s good.”
Humans were just as good. Artistically created and mechanically perfect, they were also made with love.
The next time you think about yourself don’t run yourself down. Those varicose veins weren’t there originally. The slight limp was not a design feature. The slight amount of extra padding was not part of the original plan for your life. You can think of those as reminders that Jesus will reconstruct the slight flaws. For now they are simply reminders that this world isn’t quite the way that it should be.
Remember this. “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” That gives us inestimable value and a beauty in God’s eyes we should never forget. Good morning Prince. Good morning Princess.
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.
