July 17
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the works of His hands.” Psalm 19:1-6
“We know that God is everywhere; but certainly we feel His presence most when His works are on the grandest scale spread before us; and it is in the unclouded night-sky, where His worlds wheel their silent course, that we sense clearest His infinitude, His omnipotence, His omnipresence.” Charlotte Bronte.
Perhaps you have just gone through one of those periods in life where it seemed that everything that could go wrong went wrong – could be that is right where you are this minute. Your perspective has got up and left, along with your get up and go, and you probably feel that no-one cares. What is needed is a perspective re-fit.
On a clear, cloudless night, go outside and look up at the night skies. The sight is awesome – trillions upon trillions of stars - our solar system. But as immense as it is, what you see is just one small speck in the Milky Way galaxy. Even more amazing, the Milky Way is just an average galaxy among billions of others, far bigger. How big does that make our universe then? According to Joni Eareckson Tada, “If the Milky Way were the size of North America, on the same scale, our sun and its planets would fit into a coffee cup somewhere in a little corner of that continent.” Amazing, isn't it, out of billions of people on this tiny speck called 'the earth,' the Lord of the Universe, Creator of all this, came to earth for you, and me. Go outside tonight and look at the stars – perspective will return. 
Our song for today gives us real encouragement - “You Raise Me Up” - Selah. To hear it just click on the picture.
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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
