April 11 and 12

"All this displeased His brothers. Being older than Jesus, they felt that He should be under their dictation. They charged Him with thinking Himself superior to them, and reproved Him for setting Himself above their teachers and the priests and rulers of the people. Often they threatened and tried to intimidate Him; but He passed on, making the Scriptures His guide."

          Desire of Ages, page 88 from the chapter, 'Days of Conflict'

    Life was not easy for Jesus as a youth. His older step-brothers, Joseph’s sons, thought they ruled the roost. Poor Jesus. Actually this may be a case of lucky us. Jesus had a tough time and so can understand us all the better.

     Would you like to take the time for a little extra reading? Have a look at Proverbs 28:16, “A ruler who lacks understanding is a cruel oppressor, but he who hates unjust gain will prolong his days.” Reverse things a little here, the ruler who has understanding will not be a cruel oppressor.”

     Let us remind ourselves that when we talk about God we are discussing the King of all Creation and that when we think of Jesus as the Son of God we are contemplating the life of our Prince. Because He understands us Jesus will be a wonderful ruler for us.

     The very fact that Jesus had a difficult few years at the hands of His brothers suggests that we are the ones to benefit. Jesus will be a wonderful Prince. Our thinking may well add this extra element of blessing, Jesus coped with His brothers because the Scriptures weren’t just His guide for what He should and should not do. The Scriptures also gave Him the encouragement to realise that His Father was at His side.

     The song for today is 'The ninety and Nine'. The song dates back to 1874 and is sung here in the setting of what is reconstructed as a Camp Meeting tent revival. The song, as usual was selected by Bryn. If you have a song to choose - you know were to send your selection - here. Please click on the picture to listen to the song.

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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