April 13

"Jesus loved His brothers, and treated them with unfailing kindness; but they were jealous of Him, and manifested the most decided unbelief and contempt. They could not understand His conduct. Great contradictions presented themselves in Jesus. He was the divine Son of God,and yet a helpless child. The Creator of the worlds, the earth was His possession, and yet poverty marked His life experience at every step. He possessed a dignity and individuality wholly distinct from earthly pride and assumption; He did not strive for worldly greatness, and in even the lowliest position He was content. This angered His brothers. They could not account for His constant serenity under trial and deprivation. They did not know that for our sake He had become poor, that we "through His poverty might be rich." 2 Cor. 8:9. They could understand the mystery of His mission no more than the friends of Job could understand his humiliation and suffering."

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

     What brothers! We sometimes despair of our own children. I would guess that Joseph and Mary saw what was going on. As we saw earlier the two parents tried to encourage Jesus to listen to the Rabbis. Still, what brothers Jesus had. Jealousy criticism and an attitude that was frankly unkind.

     Will our children change for the better? Consider the tale of those brothers a moment and then skip forward in your memory to the book of Acts. Who was it who took the lead at the Jerusalem Council? Which of the disciples was it that was the arbitrator between two sides in the discussion?

     James is that influential and Godly man. He is the brother of Jesus. There is hope for all siblings – but it took the cross for one brother to see that the man on the cross was not just his brother but his Elder Brother. Thank God for the cross.

    Bryn has chosen one of my favourite songs for today’s musical moments – the heart of worship

. Please click on the picture of the Sea of Galilee to listen to the song.

     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