February 26
"So long as He lived among men, our Saviour shared the lot of the poor. He knew by experience their cares and hardships, and He could comfort and encourage all humble workers. Those who have a true conception of the teaching of His life will never feel that a distinction must be made between classes, that the rich are to be honoured above the worthy poor."
Desire of Ages, page 73 from the chapter, 'As a child'
Our Sabbath School lessons recently are encouraging us to spend time reaching ordinary people. They are receptive. They are the people Jesus was able to reach. Nevertheless we live in a star-struck age. We would love the Lord Mayor to become a Seventh-day Adventist. Our dream would be for a famous footballer from a good team, like Arsenal, to become a Seventh-day Adventist. Apologies to supporters of other good football teams – but I couldn’t think of any.
We give undue deference to the stars of our day. We believe the lies told about them when we ought to realise that they go to the toilet just like we do and like chocolate as much as we do.
There is an antidote to hero worship. We don’t just learn the lessons as we hear about fallen stars, we can learn lessons from the life of Christ. There are the words in the reading we should take note of: “Those who have a true conception of the teaching of His life …”
We aren’t just star-struck, we are class conscious creatures. We estimate distinctions between peoples as of great importance. Take note of the life of Christ. Jesus was taken far away from the Princes of His age that He might be our Prince. Our Lordliness comes as Jesus anoints us as His sons and daughters, princes and princesses in the Kingdom of God.
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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
