Daily Bread: January–March 2019

By Tanya Ferdinandusz, Alison Allen, Elaine Duncan and 3 more

Daily Bread is the Bible reading guide that aims to help you hear from God as you read the Bible. If you've ever asked the question, 'What possible relevance can this verse have for me today?' or 'What difference does this passage make to my life?' then read on...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scripture Union
• Release date: Oct 19, 2018
• ISBN: 9781785067099

Tanya Ferdinandusz

Tanya and her husband Roshan have been married for 25 years, and they have two grown sons, Daniel and Joshua. Tanya has been writing Bible reading notes, articles and devotionals for 20 years and is now excited to be working towards publication of a booklet for married couples.

Book preview

What is Daily Bread?

Daily Bread is the Bible reading guide that aims to help you hear from God as you read the Bible. If you’ve ever asked the question, ‘What possible relevance can this verse have for me today?’ or ‘What difference does this passage make to my life?’ then read on…

Why read the Bible?

Reading the Bible is about developing a relationship with God, through dependence on the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit helps us to engage with the Bible and to face God’s challenge in the here and now. He will always point us to Jesus Christ, the heart of God’s Word to us, the one who shows us who God is.

Why read Daily Bread ?

Everyone needs a little help when reading the Bible. Sometimes the poetry and prose, history and revelation, or parables and proverbs need some explanation. Daily Bread provides real inspiration each time you read it. Our writers are from all kinds of backgrounds with all kinds of perspectives. We’re sure you’ll be challenged, encouraged, surprised and inspired as God uses the notes to speak into your life.

How to use Daily Bread

Way in

This page introduces both the notes and the writer. It sets the scene and tells you what you need to know to get into each series.

A day’s note

The notes for each day include five key elements: Prepare, Read (the Bible passage for the day), Explore, Respond and Bible in a year. These are intended to provide a helpful way of meeting God in his Word.

Prepare yourself to meet with God and pray that the Holy Spirit will help you to understand and respond to what you read.

Read the Bible passage, taking time to absorb and simply enjoy it. A verse or two from the Bible text is usually included on each page, but it’s important to read the whole passage.

Explore the meaning of the passage, listening for what God may be saying to you. Before you read the comment, ask yourself: what’s the main point of this passage? What is God showing me about himself or about my life? Is there a promise or a command, a warning or example to take special notice of?

Respond to what God has shown you in the passage in worship and pray for yourself and others. Decide how to share your discoveries with others.

Bible in a year

If your aim is to know God and his Word more deeply, why not follow this plan to read the whole Bible in one year?

Editorial

Above all

else

What are your plans for 2019? What do you hope to achieve this year? I’m a perfectionist, and I hope to avoid my perfectionism! Each year I begin with high hopes – in 2017 I declared I would ‘Do less, but do it better.’ After a year of doing more, 2018 began with a commitment simply to ‘Do less…’! (At the time of writing, that’s not going very well either!) Resolving to build healthier habits or routines, better diary management, learning to say ‘no’, etc, etc. At the beginning of a new year our minds can be filled with thoughts about ‘being a better you’. But, in January 2019, where does God want our focus? Of course, not on ourselves, but on him and on his Son. Faced with the hopes and fears of a new year, and all we could be and do, it’s easy to forget that all of it actually flows from one source – our heart. ‘Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it’ (Proverbs 4:23). ‘See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God’ (Hebrews 3:12). This should be our focus as we look to a new year: to keep our heart set on, fed from, close to, full of faith in the Living God.

I pray that these readings will help you do that. Reflect on what’s important (Ecclesiastes), where your priorities are (Luke 3–6), the awesome God we follow (Ezekiel), his example of self-sacrifice (1 Peter), the call to mission (Acts 24–28), and where an unguarded heart can lead (1 Kings 11–22). Set your heart on Jesus, whatever 2019 brings.

Photo of Angus Moyes

Angus Moyes

Editor

SU international

A fresh

perspective on faith

‘NUA is an interesting fresh new way to learn about God in this day and age, it’s relevant for young people and super encouraging. The questions we discussed really made me think, and helped me explore the Bible and more about my faith. I would recommend it to everyone out there, Christian or not.’ Irish teenager

The NUA Film Series is a high-quality production with eight episodes covering the core questions that young people are grappling with regarding the Christian faith. It is a resource created by Scripture Union Ireland and I had the privilege of leading and hosting the project.

Over the years I’ve been a schools worker with SU Ireland, I’ve noticed that young people have similar questions about Christianity. We chose eight core questions that kept coming up, and NUA was born!

NUA is for anyone who is interested in learning more and asking tough questions about the Christian faith – it’s designed for young adults, but a critical mind of any age would benefit.

It starts with science and faith. We look at the complexity of the universe, and ask: does all this exist due to mind-boggling chance or breathtaking design? We also tap into our search for meaning: why do we seem to have this inbuilt longing for the ‘Why?’ Why are we so fixated on it?

Episode two turns to the four Gospels. We explore the history of the Gospels, how they were written, who they were written by, what their agenda was. We point out characteristics of the text that show that the story it tells is authentic. For example, we look at the disciples and their foolishness – ‘If they were fabricating the Gospels, why did these guys, who went on to be the leaders of the early church, not fix those parts?’

The third episode considers the conspiracy theories against the resurrection, asking, ‘What have been the best efforts to disprove it over the past 2,000 years?’ This looks again at the disciples – they were cowards before Jesus’ death, but courageous after it. What changed them?

Episode four is a character assessment of Jesus. When we were recording street interviews for NUA one girl said, ‘I bet Jesus wasn’t a fun person.’ The episode considers whether we’d actually like Jesus if we had known him during his mission, pointing out that how he treated people reveals his character. It examines his encounter with the woman caught in adultery, the woman who was bleeding for 12 years, and ‘doubting’ Thomas. 

NUA image

The second half of the series begins with an episode about Christian stereotypes, asking, ‘Why is there so often a disconnect between Christians and the Jesus they follow?’ It’s a reflection on how easily Christians can drift from Jesus’ ways into arrogance, judgementalism and legalism.

The sixth episode addresses the subject of suffering, which is probably the single biggest issue raised by young people with doubts about Christianity. While the episode does glance at some intellectual arguments around the issue, its heart instead is more a reflection on where God stands regarding suffering. That is, suffering hurts and life can sometimes hurt, so where is God in the midst of that? 

Episode 7 reflects on the history of the church, observing that a functioning church is made up of broken people, and sometimes those broken people make horrendous mistakes. We stress that it’s not Jesus who makes those mistakes – it’s the people. Yet when God’s people have lived and loved like Jesus did, they have done some incredible things down through the years!

The final episode ultimately asks what all this should mean for us. It’s a reflection on Jesus’ message, and on what his death might mean for us. It looks at the effect that sin has on us as we struggle with issues of identity, self-worth, even our drive in life. God wants to draw us back to himself, speak into our identity, and give us a hope and a purpose.

Drafting the eight scripts was a huge undertaking for me – but I wasn’t alone. There was a theological committee and review team of 30 people to make sure the scripts were biblically credible.

Since our launch event back in March 2017 over 1,200 resource packs have been distributed in Ireland and over 400 secondary schools are using the resource as part of their Religious Education. Churches of all denominations are benefiting from it also.

Other Scripture Union movements around the world have adopted and adapted NUA to work in their contexts. The USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have all made use of NUA in various ministry contexts – from church youth groups, to school groups, to camps. We’ve also translated the course into French, Spanish, Finnish, Norwegian and Portuguese, with many other languages in process.

Find out more about using NUA in your area at www.nuafilmseries.org.

Writer