October 17
     “The earth was dark through misapprehension of God. That the gloomy shadows might be lightened, that the world might be brought back to God, Satan's deceptive power was to be broken. This could not be done by force. The exercise of force is contrary to the principles of God's government; He desires only the service of love; and love cannot be commanded; it cannot be won by force or authority. Only by love is love awakened. To know God is to love Him; His character must be manifested in contrast to the character of Satan. This work only one Being in all the universe could do. Only He who knew the height and depth of the love of God could make it known. Upon the world's dark night the Sun of Righteousness must rise, "with healing in His wings." Malachi 4:2.”

Desire of Ages, page 21  from the chapter, 'God with us'

            In the light of all that we can have revealed to us about God through nature and in the presence of Jesus the earth still lacks illumination about God. Where does the darkness emanate from? Satan’s deceptions in heaven are reflected in this earthly darkness.

            The natural human response to opposition is a tough reaction. Two neighbours have an overhanging tree in common. The normal method the neighbours may use to resolve the issue is to use a few well chosen words. The words may be uttered with a slightly higher pitch to the voice as two people stand slightly closer than normal.

            God could set out to deal with the darkness on this earth, we might imagine, using force. That isn’t a method God could actually use. That would go beyond the limits that His character would allow. God’s method is not to use force, but love. Just because Lucifer did not respond to God’s love does not mean that the method does not work and should not continue to be applied.

            Human beings live in the darkness Satan created. The darkness is seen in that people don’t understand the true nature of God. You will have heard people ‘blame’ God for natural disasters or consider that they are being punished by God for their failings. People don’t have a clear picture of God.

            God’s choice to restore people’s understanding of God is to show love. We might choose to show love to reveal the character of God in our own way. Our way won’t completely reveal God’s character, so let’s let God be God. Only one Being, Jesus, Immanuel, can fully reveal the character of God.

            That brings us onto the scene. We are the people who need to see the light. Assume you have no clue as to the contents of the next paragraph in the book. Assume you can trust me. Your job is now to decide that you are going to trust that Jesus is going to give you the most accurate picture possible of God. The obvious conclusion is that for us to not be misled means we are to do two things.

            We are on  the scene in this great drama. We are the people who need to reveal the light  We are to make sure that we get our picture of the character of God across to other people.  We are to make sure that the Bible character we get to know best is Jesus. The next step is to ensure that if we are going to tell people about God we make sure that we do that by using the same method that Jesus did. We are to use love as the method to awaken love – not discussion or argument.

            How can you do that today? I suggested a little task. I called it ‘Mission Possible – number 1’. The idea is to give a loaf to someone, to show a little love. How about you having a go at baking some bread today, and giving it to someone tomorrow?

     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.