March 5

"Among the Jews the twelfth year was the dividing line between childhood and youth. On completing this year a Hebrew boy was called a son of the law, and also a son of God. He was given special opportunities for religious instruction, and was expected to participate in the sacred feasts and observances. It was in accordance with this custom that Jesus in His boyhood made the Passover visit to Jerusalem. Like all devout Israelites, Joseph and Mary went up every year to attend the Passover; and when Jesus had reached the required age, they took Him with them. "

Desire of Ages, page 76 from the chapter, 'The Passover visit'

Why did the blog take a break? It’s not a joke. Ludy, my wife, and I went to the far, far north to help empty a house for Ludy’s son. We had to stay in a hotel overnight. You can tell that you are getting older when the hotel takes it upon themselves to supply it’s older clients with the following helpful items, a giant button telephone, a seat to help you take a shower and special handles to help you move around the room safely. We all pass through different stages in life. My wife and I are healthy enough not to need the aids but we did realise that we have reached a new stage in life.

Jesus’ growing maturity is what we will mark over the next few days. We now call the ceremony a Bar Mitzvah. Jesus saw the event as a new stage on His life as He progressed on to His role as Messiah.

While we cannot replicate the event in our own lives could we begin to think that during the next few days of reading the blog we might mark the progress God is making on our lives in some special way?

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