October 29
For more than a thousand years the Jewish people had awaited the Saviour's coming. Upon this event they had rested their brightest hopes. In song and prophecy, in temple rite and household prayer, they had enshrined His name. And yet at His coming they knew Him not. The Beloved of heaven was to them "as a root out of a dry ground;" He had "no form nor comeliness;" and they saw in Him no beauty that they should desire Him. "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not." Isa. 53:2; John 1:11.
Desire of Ages, page 27 from the chapter, 'The chosen people'
The plan had been prepared well with nothing left to chance. The future of an entire Kingdom and the happiness of heaven depended on the success of the plan. God, the Father had worked with His Son and the Holy Spirit to cope with all eventualities.
The elements of the plan had been revealed through the ages to men and women on planet earth. The best means of communication had been employed. Prophets and angels had been well employed, co-operating with the Holy Spirit in preparing the way.
Then came the time for Jesus to be, “God with us”. What a great day that should have been.
Sadly the great day came and went without worship. The succeeding years showed that the majority of the people hadn’t understood the message. Jesus was not ignored. He was abused. Only a faithful few followed him.
But the plan still remained in place. Jesus still died in my place. I can’t ignore that.
I read 1 Peter 1:22 today.
“Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart.”
The motive for this is the act of purification Jesus has made for you – so that you might love one another deeply, from the heart.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
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.
