March 19

The words of Jesus had moved their hearts as they had never before been moved by words from human lips. God was seeking to give light to those leaders in Israel, and He used the only means by which they could be reached. In their pride they would have scorned to admit that they could receive instruction from anyone. If Jesus had appeared to be trying to teach them, they would have disdained to listen. But they flattered themselves that they were teaching Him, or at least testing His knowledge of the Scriptures. The youthful modesty and grace of Jesus disarmed their prejudices. Unconsciously their minds were opened to the word of God, and the Holy Spirit spoke to their hearts.

         Desire of Ages, page 80 from the chapter, 'The Passover visit'

     The thirteen year old is at the front of the class. This thirteen year old has been brought up ‘in the sticks’. He isn’t worldly-wise and experienced. He is young, he is modest and He has a disarming manner.

     Consider how you would feel if a 13 year old tried to teach you in your Sabbath School class. There might be the completely natural reaction to let your eyes glaze over.

     Jesus knew that if He were to try and get His message across He had to win His audience. He had to use that disarming nature to full effect. My guess, that is all it can be, is that Jesus was well brought up. His Mother and Father had taught Him how to behave with adults. This stood Him in good stead now.

     You are more likely not going to find yourself sharing your faith with the Rabbis and teachers of our day. However all people need treating with some care. How about talking to your prayer partner today? Take a little time to pray and then work out a really tactful way to talk to the people on your interest list so that they won’t feel you are trying to teach them.

     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