Daily Bread: April–June 2021

By Peter Mead, John Grayston, Mike Archer and 5 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: Feb 28, 2021
• ISBN: 9781785068119

Peter Mead

Peter is one of the pastors at Trinity Chippenham and a mentor with Cor Deo. He teaches at Union School of Theology and at the European Leadership Forum. He has written several books, including Pleased to Dwell and Lost in Wonder (both with Christian Focus). He is married to Melanie.

Book preview

Contents

Introduction

Bread for the journey, by Emlyn and ’Tricia Williams

John 19–21

Job done, by John Grayston

Haggai and Zechariah

Hope in difficult days, by Peter Mead

Romans 9–11

An amazing puzzle, by David Bracewell

Romans 12–16

Making the truth ugly, by Mike Archer

Exodus 28–34

Meetings, mayhem and Moses, by James Davies

Exodus 35–40

Taking care of the details, by Tanya Ferdinandusz

Matthew 8,9

Jesus’ restoring power, by John Grayston

Job 1–3

Spiritual pain by, Phil Winn

SU article

Forward in faith

Spotlight on…

Facing change

About Scripture Union

Scripture Union is a Christian charity, inviting children and young people to explore the difference Jesus can make to the challenges and adventures of life.

Through a wide range of activities and initiatives, we provide opportunities for young people to explore the Bible, respond to Jesus and grow in faith. Having been established in England over 150 years ago, Scripture Union is now a global movement active in over 120 countries.

We believe every child should have the chance to discover Jesus. And, with an estimated 95% of children in England and Wales not part of a church, we’re working harder than ever to take the good news of Jesus beyond the church in exciting and culturally relevant ways.

Thank you for buying Daily Bread. We hope you’ll find it a real blessing as you delve regularly into God’s Word.

Scripture Union – beyond Bible reading guides

By purchasing this Bible reading guide, you are helping to support Scripture Union’s mission to reach the next generation with the good news of Jesus. All profit made from the sales of this resource are used to introduce children and young people to Jesus in a whole range of exciting ways. Thank you for the part you’re already playing in that.

Get further involved

If you’d like to find out more about Scripture Union, or you’d like to get further involved, go to www.su.org.uk/beyondbibleguides

This edition of Daily Bread copyright © Scripture Union 2020

ISSN 0963-4797 (Print)

ISSN 2050-5361 (Online).

ISBN 9781785068119 (EPUB ebook)

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of Scripture Union.

Scripture Union, Trinity House, Opal Court, Opal Drive,

Fox Milne, Milton Keynes MK15 0DF, UK

Tel: [phone] Email: [e-mail]

Website: www.scriptureunion.org.uk

Scripture Union is a member of the worldwide Scripture

Union international community.

Website: https://scriptureunion.global

Daily Bread is also available on memory stick, DAISY CD

and in Braille from Torch Trust, Tel: [phone];

Website: www.torchtrust.org

Printed by Thomson Press, India

Design by The Smithy Creative

Cover image: Atakan/iStock

Daily Bread toolbox

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

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

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

Explore the meaning of the passage, listening for what God may be saying to you. Before you read the comment, ask yourself: what is 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

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 and read the whole Bible in one year?

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible,

New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 Biblica, Inc.

Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton.

Introduction

Crucial times

In this Daily Bread we pick up the Easter story in the midst of Holy Week. What a crucial time – literally! In the wider world, Easter gets much less attention than Christmas. Yet as Tom Wright wrote, ‘This is our greatest festival. Take Christmas away, and … you lose two chapters at the front of Matthew and Luke, nothing else. Take Easter away, and you don’t have a New Testament; you don’t have a Christianity.’* Perhaps then, we should see Easter Day not as the end of the holiday, but as the start of a season of celebration, rejoicing and … new life. We start our readings by continuing the last quarter’s journey in John’s Gospel into and beyond Easter Day.

The coming of the Messiah had long been foretold, as we will see in Zechariah and Haggai. Difficult days for the Jewish people echo our own time. The call to us is the same: put God first and trust him for the present and the future. Such faithfulness involves the long haul and attention to detail, as we’ll see in the construction of the Tabernacle in Exodus. Yet, although the Messiah’s coming was long expected, a puzzling question is why so many of God’s people neither recognised nor accepted Jesus when he came. Paul tackles this in his letter to the Roman believers – and also challenges us about how we also are living in this diverse world as his disciples. The encounters with Jesus recorded in Matthew remind us of who makes that life possible.

Finally, in these crucial times when the world is reeling from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Job’s story gives us a glimpse of faithful living in the light of the risen Messiah.

Emlyn and ’Tricia Williams

Editors

*Tom Wright, Surprised by Hope, London: SPCK, 2007 p268

’Tricia & Emlyn Williams

worked with Scripture Union for many years. Emlyn led schools ministry, then worked with SU International. ’Tricia was also part of the schools team and later worked for SU Publishing, developing, writing and editing Bible resources. Having recently completed research in the area of faith and dementia, she continues with writing and editing faith resources. Retired from his role as discipleship pastor in a local church, Emlyn now continues his writing and talking ministries.

SU Article

Forward in faith

These are exciting times for Scripture Union England and Wales as we begin to implement our new strategy. The strategy builds on our renewed commitment to envision and equip local churches to engage with the 95 – those children and young people who aren’t engaged with church.

A key element of this strategic plan is the Faith Guide – a term we are using to describe people who are committed to building relationships with the 95 and journeying with them towards a vibrant, personal faith in Jesus.

Jesus invited his disciples to follow him – to walk with him, learn from him and become like him. Through Jesus’ interactions with Peter we see how this relationship forms, grows and empowers Peter to go on into further ministry.

In equipping and releasing Faith Guides, we are defining faith formation in four stages:

Connect: A relational opportunity, with a Christian identity and increasingly deeper explicit Christian content.

Explore: Time to uncover greater understanding from the Bible about Jesus, the Bible itself and the Christian faith.

Respond: Further exploration of the Christian faith and a clear invitation to respond to Jesus.

Grow: A culturally appropriate, worshipping community that enables the faith of the 95 to flourish in their commitment to Jesus, embraced, supported and nurtured by the local church.

As we read about Jesus and Peter’s relationship in this context, we see how Peter’s faith and understanding develop along the way.

Connect

Peter is first introduced to Jesus by his brother, Andrew, a disciple of John the Baptist. In John 1:35–42, John the Baptist introduces Jesus as ‘the Lamb of God’ and Andrew, convinced by the teaching he hears, runs home to tell his brother he has found the Messiah.

This initial introduction sets up the relationship between Jesus and Peter to be incredibly positive. Both John the Baptist and Andrew have described Jesus in culturally significant terms – they obviously respect him and his teaching. These endorsements encourage Peter to meet Jesus with high expectations. Later, Jesus meets the brothers by the sea and invites them to leave their nets and follow him (Mark 1:16–20). The positive first connections between Peter and Jesus must surely have made the decision to follow much easier.

Jesus’ first reaction to Peter is just as significant. Jesus sees potential in him instantly, saying, ‘You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Cephas [Peter]’ (v 42). Right from the start, Jesus establishes Peter as The Rock – a name that even Peter would only understand in hindsight.

The first contact our Faith Guides have with the 95 is crucial too – it’s important that the children and young people respect them and want