August 21

“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvellous – how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day in my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed” (Psalm 139: 13-17).

A while ago, a British clergyman posed the question “Is the internet God?” - apparently he was impressed by the web's seeming access to all existent knowledge. Of course, it isn't! Regardless of the amount of data on the web, it could never contain all the works of God, and could never know us as intimately as does our God. His knowledge is, and always will be, “too wonderful” to contemplate or comprehend (v 6).

Take the miracle of birth, for miracle it is. As pregnancy progresses, the God-given miracle of Science brings the opportunity for parents to listen to the baby's heartbeat as they watch their off-spring to be on the ultra-sound monitor. Parents treasure these scenes as, over the weeks, they observe the foetus developing in the womb, until finally a fully formed baby emerges to continue life's journey. The parents have counted their child's fingers, toes, eyes and dimples weeks/months before the delivery – they know their child – all of his/her features are imprinted on their hearts and minds. Yes, parents now know us in the womb, but God knew us long before we were a twinkle in our parent's eyes – before egg and sperm united, He knew everything about us (Psalm 139).

God's perception is total (vv 1-6). He knows our motives, strengths, weaknesses, failures, hopes and fears. God's presence is global (Vv 7-12). Whoever we are, wherever we may be in the world, He never moves from our side. He's present in the darkest and the fairest days of our lives. Sometimes He can feel very close, at others far away, but He is still there....didn't Jesus say “I will never leave you or forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5-6).

Of one thing we can be certain, God's plans for us will be fulfilled (vv 13-18) because His patience is long (vv 19-24). Our Creator God takes our genetics and life-experiences, and weaves them together to turn us into unique individuals capable of incredible feats, - one-off people, no duplicates, with a desire to praise, worship and serve Him. All of this doesn't make us perfect, but it does make us important, and brings with it a genuine freedom of choice.

Bryn's choice today is Hayley Westenra singing “Amazing Grace.” Click on the picture to hear this – it really is a beautiful rendition.

     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