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I was born to reflect the image of a God who is powerful enough to create my universe, attentive enough to hear my prayers and loving enough to be defined by self-sacrifice. I find my greatest fulfillment on a journey toward purpose and wholeness.

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Seventh-day Adventist beliefs are meant to permeate your whole life. Growing out of scriptures that paint a compelling portrait of God, you are invited to explore, experience and know the One who desires to make us whole.

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January 19

       The priests and elders of Jerusalem were not as ignorant concerning the birth of Christ as they pretended. The report of the angels' visit to the shepherds had been brought to Jerusalem, but the rabbis had treated it as unworthy of their notice. They themselves might have found Jesus, and might have been ready to lead the magi to His birthplace; but instead of this, the wise men came to call their attention to the birth of the Messiah. "Where is He that is born King of the Jews?" they said; "for we have seen His star in the East, and are come to worship Him."

                   Desire of Ages, page 62 from the chapter, 'We have seen His star'

     Up till now you have been thinking that the priests were just ignorant of the Word of God. They were just reading the Old Testament and had become just too busy doing ‘work’ and ‘ministry’ to advise the Magi, and Herod, correctly.

     The truth is that they were ignoring the Truth. They already knew about the angels. We are told that the priests knew about the angel’s visit. We hear that the rabbis did not think that the event was unworthy of their notice.

     I would have thought it worthy of my notice! Wouldn’t you? Now consider. What have you seen that is worthy of note recently? Have you seen God at work?

     You could tell someone about this and been able to encourage someone, just think. The priests missed out on that blessing.

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.