February 4
“As a child, Jesus manifested a peculiar loveliness of disposition. His willing hands were ever ready to serve others. He manifested a patience that nothing could disturb, and a truthfulness that would never sacrifice integrity. In principle firm as a rock, His life revealed the grace of unselfish courtesy.
With deep earnestness the mother of Jesus watched the unfolding of His powers, and beheld the impress of perfection upon His character. With delight she sought to encourage that bright, receptive mind. Through the Holy Spirit she received wisdom to co-operate with the heavenly agencies in the development of this child, who could claim only God as His Father.”
Desire of Ages, page 68 from the chapter, 'As a child'
The emphasis in the blog today is on the last few lines of the reading. Can I take out the essence of those words? Mary sought to encourage Jesus as she received wisdom to help develop her child.
Have you thought that having a child takes planning? A child doesn’t just grow like a weed. Take Jesus’ parable about the sower and the seed. The best seed grows in the best ground. How do you get the best ground? You aim for that ground when you scatter the seed, you prepare the ground in advance by making sure that enough nutrients are added – and that the drainage is good, with the right amount of sunlight and shade.
Without going too deeply into the possible teachings in the passage how on earth will you make sure that the soil is prepared for your child?
The first issue is that we are to receive wisdom. That word ‘receive’ is interesting. Just take the English at face value. The way you ‘receive’ is to be given something. If you want wisdom from God you need to receive it – from God.
If you have children (your own, borrowed as grand-children or loaned as a blessing at church) then you need to ask God for wisdom, then plan, with God’s help, to encourage the bright receptive minds around you.
Encourage? Don’t assume that your child is the church of the future. Those children are the church of the present. With the gifts that God gives please assume that as you present children with opportunities, and as you ask, then God will use those children as wonderful ministers who may well,
“… manifest a patience that nothing can disturb, and a truthfulness that will never sacrifice integrity. In principle firm as a rock, their lives revealing the grace of unselfish courtesy.” – just as Jesus did.
That takes planning. Start today.
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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
You are going to wonder where I am going with this blog, blame the dog, it was his idea. While Ludy is at a big family reunion in the Philippines I am dog sitter number 1.
I had my orders, “Don’t overfeed Milo, the dog.” Milo has his own take on that. His whole life is built around food. He stands by his bowl when I am in the kitchen. He has these eyes that simply say, “You really need to feed me because I love you very much.” Food is the greatest experience of his life.
When your life is built around one major thing that is all that you think about.
Herod’s life was built around conspiracy and defending himself against conspiracy. That was what he lived with and that is what his life was built around. When he heard of a new baby he didn’t think about presents and a visit with the wife. His thought was, “Get rid of the rival to the throne.”
What is the centre of your life? Work? Then that is what you will think about. How about a different centre to your life? “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and ….” Well, I’ll leave you to fill in the rest. However you might recognise that if you centre your life on God you get a manufacturers guarantee, and so many side-benefits.
If someone tells you that you are naïve, take that as a compliment. The Magi were naïve. They simply couldn’t believe that a King would mislead them. Sadly kings are just as good at deceit as anyone. Perhaps the Magi had a more child-like attitude? Perhaps their privileged position as Magi meant that they only met truthful people?
What is noteworthy is that God made sure that when he wanted to tell His friends, the Magi, to take the direct route home He would not communicate via a star. This time the message was more direct, they had a dream. At least they could sleep, I would be too excited for dreams.
God also sent a similar message to Joseph. Perhaps Mary was too busy looking after Jesus? When God chose parents he chose a couple. Mary was not the star turn, they had equal billing. Both had gifts God needed for His Son's development.
However maybe we need to be a little bit more careful in our reading. When we think ‘dream’ we have a certain understanding. God would never communicate with me through a dream. I never remember my dreams. Some people tell me about their dreams, those dreams don’t appear to come from God. Too scary.
Both the Magi and Joseph had similar dreams. The message was given by a messenger, an angel. There were words in the message. The importance was clearly understood.
When God speaks to us the message is completely clear. When God speaks to you, a child, please listen. You will be saved from deceit.
