March 24

"How is it that ye sought Me?" answered Jesus. "Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?" And as they seemed not to understand His words, He pointed upward. On His face was a light at which they wondered. Divinity was flashing through humanity. On finding Him in the temple, they had listened to what was passing between Him and the rabbis, and they were astonished at His questions and answers. His words started a train of thought that would never be forgotten.”

         Desire of Ages, page 81 from the chapter, 'The Passover visit'

    I have been a Christian for over 30 years now and have read the Bible many times. I have read the Desire of Ages a few times. I have read this passage before. I have never noticed what you are about to notice in either the Bible or the Desire of Ages, before.

      “Wist ye not that I must be about My Father’s business?” Jesus is not saying that it is about time He and Joseph head back to Nazareth to get back to work.

      We have seen that Jesus had gone up to Nazareth for one of the Great Festivals and had ‘come of age’ at this time. We noticed from the beginning that as Jesus walked through Jerusalem and saw the temple and the sacrificial rituals taking place He grew at a great pace.

      I have been suggesting you construct a service to mark a change in your own spiritual status. What might spur you to construct just a service? In the case of Jesus we note a wonderful, yet sad, growth in His spiritual development. Before Jesus came to Jerusalem His Father was Joseph. He was the son of his father. Then He grew apace at the behest of the Holy Spirit and now made His statement, “Wist ye not that I must be about My Father’s business?” Joseph had passed out of his paternity. Now Jesus realised who His Father was. Now Jesus was the Son of the Father in heaven, and now had a different path to follow.

      Poor Mary and Joseph as they heard these words. Blessed Mary and Joseph as they hear the words. Their Saviour had now taken up His mantle.

      Who is your Father? Can you celebrate that?

     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