October 31
But the Israelites fixed their hopes upon worldly greatness. From the time of their entrance to the land of Canaan, they departed from the commandments of God, and followed the ways of the heathen. It was in vain that God sent them warning by His prophets. In vain they suffered the chastisement of heathen oppression. Every reformation was followed by deeper apostasy.
Desire of Ages, page 28 from the chapter, 'The chosen people'
But God still continued to care for His people. God does the same today. This blog arose when Upper Room Seventh-day Adventist Church in Nottingham were led into a time of revival and reformation. They chose to use the 40 days of prayer concept. Prayer by the members really worked.
Today’s reading shows that reformation can be followed by failure. Failure can be followed by revival.
Earlier this year God gave me a very strong impression to pray for a man called Philip Wren. I had not seen him for over 35 years, he was not what you would call a friend. I just knew him at church. I did remember him, and God may well have decided to use that simple link to His advantage. I prayed. Nothing happened, as far as I knew – but I prayed then and on a few other occasions.
Yesterday I had an email from a Pastor friend in the Lake District asking me to send greetings to a man called Philip Wren. There can’t be too many Philip Wren’s on this planet.
It would appear that earlier this year Philip returned to church and was now asking to be baptised. I don’t know if it was as a result of my prayer, or the result of many prayers that brought Philip back to God. What I do know is that God never gave up on Philip.
There is that verse in the Gospels which shows that God has his eye on the sparrow. God also has His eyes on the Wrens of this world as well.
Take time to pray today. You may never know the result on this earth, but you may be the instrument God uses this day to restore one of His people.
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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.
