March 7 and 8

The time of the Passover corresponded to the close of March or the beginning of April, and the whole land was bright with flowers, and glad with the song of birds. All along the way were spots memorable in the history of Israel, and fathers and mothers recounted to their children the wonders that God had wrought for His people in ages past. They beguiled their journey with song and music, and when at last the towers of Jerusalem came into view, every voice joined in the triumphant strain,--

"Our feet shall stand
Within thy gates, O Jerusalem. . . .
Peace be within thy walls,
And prosperity within thy palaces."

Ps. 122: 2-7. "

Desire of Ages, page 77 from the chapter, 'The Passover visit'

I was reminded that we are heading up to Easter, many people are observing Lent, a time to give something up to help prepare for Easter. That isn’t the theme today but will be reflected as we prepare a personal moment of passage to a deeper relationship with God.

In our reading for today we find ourselves walking up to Jerusalem in a caravan. People travelled together on great spiritual occasions for fellowship and safety. The thought that we live in dangerous times pales into insignificance as we remind ourselves that we can travel alone around the towns and cities of the United Kingdom and realise how safe we are.

Were we in that caravan old friends would be greeted with the highs and lows of the year discussed and mulled over. Talk would be replaced by psalms. The fragment of a psalm quoted above is one part of a psalm of ascent. There are 14 such psalms in the Old Testament and were used to prepare the people for their entry into Jerusalem.

We are preparing for our own rite of passage. We want to mark a movement on to a new phase of life. In this reading you may take your pick of ideas to help mark the event. We can note a special destination, time taken out of your life for a celebration and fellowship with like-minded brethren. We could also be drawn to discuss the idea that this celebration was no spur of the moment event but had a plan and a goal.

My thoughts are drawn to a part of the Bible that is special for you. The thought for you is to find yourself a short passage of the Bible that is not a ‘favourite text’. To mark your passage to a deeper life could you look for a Psalm that you could use just before your big decision? Could you find a Psalm that says, “I’m on my way to you Father, I’m about to enter your realms?” Find the passage, write it down, make it special for you. Then save it for your special rite of passage that you will share with Jesus.

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