April 23

"Mary often remonstrated with Jesus, and urged Him to conform to the usages of the rabbis. But He could not be persuaded to change His habits of contemplating the works of God and seeking to alleviate the suffering of men or even of dumb animals. When the priests and teachers required Mary's aid in controlling Jesus, she was greatly troubled; but peace came to her heart as He presented the statements of Scripture upholding His practices."

          Desire of Ages, page 91 from the chapter, 'Days of Conflict'

      So there are times when you are under pressure. Your peers want you to do one thing, your heart wants you to do another thing – and the Holy Spirit is telling you another thing. The stress increases.  “When the priests and teachers required Mary's aid in controlling Jesus, she was greatly troubled.” Even the mother of Jesus finds herself under stress.

     I love the reassurance that we get from this passage. When we are under stress we lack peace in our hearts. The key seems to be this. We should test the sure word of the Scripture against the conflicting feelings and appeals we get from those who would have us follow them – rather than God.

     The result will be that our hearts will return to their normal peaceful state.

     I do hope you appreciate the songs Bryn chooses for us each day. He tells me that he is blessed as he chooses. The music video is by Bill & Gloria Gaither performing ‘You Don't Love God if You Don't Love Your Neighbour’ (featuring Rhonda Vincent & The Rage)

     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