January 15
"The arrival of the magi was quickly noised throughout Jerusalem. Their strange errand created an excitement among the people, which penetrated to the palace of King Herod. The wily Edomite was aroused at the intimation of a possible rival. Countless murders had stained his pathway to the throne. Being of alien blood, he was hated by the people over whom he ruled. His only security was the favour of Rome. But this new Prince had a higher claim. He was born to the kingdom.
Herod suspected the priests of plotting with the strangers to excite a popular tumult and unseat him from the throne. He concealed his mistrust, however, determined to thwart their schemes by superior cunning. Summoning the chief priests and the scribes, he questioned them as to the teaching of their sacred books in regard to the place of the Messiah's birth."
Desire of Ages, page 61 from the chapter, 'We have seen His star'
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.
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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.
