April 15

"Of the bitterness that falls to the lot of humanity, there was no part which Christ did not taste. There were those who tried to cast contempt upon Him because of His birth, and even in His childhood He had to meet their scornful looks and evil whisperings. If He had responded by an impatient word or look, if He had conceded to His brothers by even one wrong act, He would have failed of being a perfect example. Thus He would have failed of carrying out the plan for our redemption. Had He even admitted that there could be an excuse for sin, Satan would have triumphed, and the world would have been lost. This is why the tempter worked to make His life as trying as possible, that He might be led to sin.

But to every temptation He had one answer, "It is written." He rarely rebuked any wrongdoing of His brothers, but He had a word from God to speak to them. Often He was accused of cowardice for refusing to unite with them in some forbidden act; but His answer was, It is written, "The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding." Job 28:28 "

Desire of Ages, page 89 from the chapter, 'Days of Conflict'

Yesterday we noted that Jesus was playing the long game with his brothers. He infuriated them with His calm demeanour, His pleasant replies and His goodness. We would want to add a few words of rebuke or teaching.

Jesus, with all the mental abuse that He faced from His elder brothers, took a different view and approach. While His brothers did wrong Jesus rarely rebuked them. What we read is that Jesus had a word from God for His brothers.

We used to speak of prophetic writings as a hammer. A simple well-chosen quote driven home hard with the object of ending all discussion is the weapon of choice. The argument is won, the opponent destroyed.

Do you think Jesus would have such a word for His brothers? Take the sentence seriously, “He had a word from God”. What we see next is one of those words from God, "The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding." Jesus would put that into action, a kind word, a good word, a helpful word.

Would you be able to do the same? I would suggest a couple of things. The first is to saturate yourself in the word of God so that you can use it effectively. The second point is rather less easy. Don’t go for the quick, smart, cutting reply. Aim for the thoughtful pause, the quiet pray and a few beats of a clean heart to pass.

The song for this morning is really appropriate for the reading today. Bryn has chosen – ‘Create in me a clean heart’

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