Encounter with God: January–March 2019

By John Harris, Tanya Ferdinandusz, Jennifer Turner and 3 more

Encounter with God is Scripture Union's daily Bible reading guide designed to lead you to a deeper understanding about what God is saying to you and to his world today. You'll find its thorough and energetic investigation of the whole Bible inspiring and stimulating. And you'll discover that its biblical exposition is complemented by pastoral warmth from a strong field of writers and contributors. As well as daily content, feature articles provide insights into Christian spirituality, tackle contemporary issues, and profile teachers who inspire.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scripture Union
• Release date: Oct 19, 2018
• ISBN: 9781785067112

John Harris

John Harris, author of Britpop!: Cool Britannia and the Spectacular Demise of English Rock, has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo, Q, The Independent, NME, Select, and New Statesmen. He lives in Hay on Wye, England.

Book preview

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Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version (Anglicised edition) Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 Biblica (formerly International Bible Society). Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Publishers, an Hachette UK Company. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from The Message copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189 USA. All rights reserved.

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This edition of Encounter with God copyright © Scripture Union 2018. All rights reserved.

ISBN 978 1 78506 711 2 (ePub edition)

ISSN 2050-537X (Online)

ISSN 1350-5130 (Print)

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About Scripture Union

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contents

Editorial: A year of joys and sorrows

The writers

Using this guide

A year of joys and sorrows

Sally Nelson, editor

What is the most amazing thing you have experienced in the past year? A beautiful art installation? A wonderful sunrise? Two people in love? An act of selfless giving?

And what is the most disturbing thing you have come across? Urban gun violence; terrorist attacks; natural disaster; civil war; or someone being deliberately dishonest or thoughtless?

We begin this new year’s readings with Psalm 33, praising God’s creativity and unique power; but by 2 January we are straight back into the ponderings of the Teacher in Ecclesiastes, beginning with the words: ‘So I hated life … [work] is meaningless …’ Not the most uplifting continuation! Yet life is often just like that: full of tensions. There is a roller-coaster ride of hopes, fears and anxieties which are side by side in our readings, just as they are in our lived experience.

It can be hard to manage our fears and anxieties – they may easily dominate and overpower the hopes and joys even if we are blessed; and for many people in the world, there may be little that is hopeful. Here the psalmist helps: he reminds us that ‘The Lord foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples’. We may be victims (or perpetrators) of fears and anxieties, but nothing can change the fact that God is God.

In this quarter the plight of refugees arises more than once. Losing one’s security, home, family and culture is to be rendered powerless in the eyes of the world. Everything happens ‘to’ refugees, who have no power to change the outcome. Yet the same psalmist reminds us that it is God who dispenses eternal justice, and all will be restored in his kingdom.

This brings us to the second key recurring theme of this quarter: the imperative to mission. Hope can only triumph over fear and anxiety if we live the story of salvation: God is Lord and he is always good, and we know this because of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Be inspired and encouraged by the unchanging and steadfast love of the Lord this new year, whatever you might be facing today.

Sally Nelson

Editor

Angela Grigson

Content Project Manager

ON THE COVER ‘God is a worker and calls us to work in his wonderful but broken world’ (Worldview).

Writers

Tanya Ferdinandusz 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.

John Harris is Senior Biblical Consultant for Bible Society Australia. Retired, he continues his involvement in the translation of the Bible into indigenous Australian and Pacific languages. John is married to Judith and they have three children and six grandchildren.

Marian Raikes is retired from the faculty of an Anglican theological college. She is enjoying her freedom in the small but beautiful city of Ely, where she now lives and worships.

Jennifer Turner is retired from pastoral ministry, and combines teaching overseas and in Australia with church and grandmothering responsibilities.

Fran Beckett obe is a community activist, and a speaker and consultant in leadership, governance and charity development. She is also chair of Orbit Housing and Urban Expression.

Daniel McGinnis is the Vice Principal of St Hild College, and leads the Barnabas Teaching Centre in Sheffield. He is also the Director of the Leeds School of Theology. He loves the book of Acts, and has a passion for seeing today’s church inspired by the earliest church. He also enjoys teaching theology, particularly New Testament studies and hermeneutics.

Mark Roques is the director of RealityBites (realitybites.org.uk) and is the author of The Spy, the Rat and the Bed of Nails: Creative Ways of Talking about Christian Faith (Thinking Faith Network, 2017).

Using this guide

Encounter with God is designed for thinking Christians who want to interpret and apply the Bible in a way that is relevant to the problems and issues of today’s world. It is based on the NIV translation of the Bible, but can easily be used with any other version.

Each set of readings begins with an Introduction to the section you are about to study. The Call to Worship section at the start of each note should help you consciously to come into God’s presence before you read the passage. The main Explore section aims to bring out the riches hidden in the text. The Growing in Faith section at the end suggests ways of applying the message to daily living.

The Bible in a Year readings at the foot of the page are for those who want this additional option.

Introduction

Ecclesiastes

Everyone’s Search for Meaning

‘Everything is meaningless!’(1:2; 12:8). Why would a piece of writing that is bookended by such a cynical outlook (and ‘meaningless’ is repeated some 35 times) be included in the Bible – whose purpose is to offer good news of joy, hope and meaning?

Ecclesiastes is the record of a search for meaning – not in an organised, systematic, textbook style but more like a personal journal, tending towards repetitious ramblings and musings. However, ‘Everything is meaningless’ is not a final conclusion, merely a hypothesis. The crucial qualifier, ‘under the sun’ (recurring 29 times), signals that the hypothesis only holds within earthbound horizons. The ‘Teacher’ – either Solomon or one who dons ‘the mantle of a Solomon’¹ – draws on ‘Solomon’s experiences of wisdom, pleasure, and achievements and used them as the core of his curriculum’.² He observes, examines and explores each of these potential avenues to meaning; then demonstrates how each leads to a dead end. Life ‘under the sun’ is life apart from God, which, the Teacher rightly concludes, is ‘meaningless’ (the Hebrew word suggests futility, absurdity, lacking substance). This despair is symptomatic of our need for God, in whom alone we find ultimate meaning. Ecclesiastes pronounces this bad news and paves the way for the good news – but stops short of proclaiming it. For while the book contains brief glimmers – ‘drippings of grace’, in CS Lewis’ words – pointing to life above and beyond the sun, the fullness of grace and truth³ must await the coming of Jesus.

The book may be considered under three broad headings: problem declared (1:1–11), problem discussed (1:12 – 12:8) and problem decided (12:9–14).⁴ Its very disorderliness underscores its message: Life is messy! The Teacher thinks aloud as he thinks things through. During these next two weeks, you are invited to wonder and ponder along with him.

Tanya Ferdinandusz

For Further Reading

Michael Eaton, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries: Ecclesiastes, IVP, 1983

Derek Kidner, Message of Ecclesiastes: A Time to Mourn, and a Time to Dance, 1976

¹ Kidner, 1976, p17 ² D Hubbard, Mastering the Old Testament, Word Inc, 1991, p19 ³ John 1:14 ⁴ W Wiersbe, Be Satisfied, Victor Books, 1990

Tuesday 1 January

New Year, New Song

‘You’re my place of quiet retreat; I wait for your Word to renew me.’¹

Psalm 33

In the world, and all too frequently even in the church, we tend to chase after novelty. The Teacher in Ecclesiastes laments the lack of anything truly new,² but the psalmist’s invitation, ‘Sing to him a new song’ (v 3), is not about innovative music; it’s about a heart-song that arises out of a fresh awareness of just how awe-inspiring and praiseworthy our God is.

Sin hinders praise. Psalm 32 taught that confession and cleansing are required before the ‘upright in heart’ can once more be glad and sing praises.³ Spiritual dryness also inhibits the kind of heartfelt praise the psalmist calls for here. Staleness may steal away the spark from any relationship; rekindling that spark takes determination and dedication. Is this New Year’s Day an opportune moment to take a fresh look at old familiar realities: God’s works of wonder in creation (vs 6–8) or his words of wonder in the Scriptures (v 4)? After three days of the Teacher’s pessimistic outlook on life ‘under the sun’,⁴ Psalm 33 offers an ‘above the sun’ perspective, inviting us to look up to the Creator, look around at his wondrous works, look back and recall his deliverance and recognise his sovereign rule. Despite all that is ‘crooked’ or ‘lacking’ on earth,⁵ the God who looks down from his dwelling place in heaven (vs 13,14) remains in complete control. Although the Teacher pronounced life ‘meaningless’⁶ the psalmist is convinced that ‘Earth is drenched in God’s affectionate satisfaction’ (v 5b, The Message).

The psalm began with a call to praise; it closes with an affirmation of hope. We place our hope in a God of unrivalled power as well as unfailing love; a transcendent God, wholly holy, but also God-with-us, involved in every aspect of our life.

Read Psalm 33 in The Message. Let its message come alive in the freshness of contemporary language and imagery. Praise God with your own new song!

¹ Ps 119:114, The Message ² Eccl 1:9,10 ³ Ps 32, particularly vs 1,11 ⁴ Eccl 1:9 ⁵ Eccl 1:15 ⁶ Eccl 1:2

Genesis 1,2; Matthew 1

Wednesday 2 January

A Ray of Hope

‘The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.’¹

Ecclesiastes 2:17–26

‘So I hated life’ (v 17). Here is the Teacher at his most despondent. All his pursuits (as detailed in the reading of 31 December) have turned out to be dead ends, leaving him disappointed, disillusioned, despairing, perhaps even depressed or suicidal, as he laments the futility of gruelling days and restless nights (v 23). Not only does the Teacher despair of life, he begins to resent his toil, frustrated over his lack of absolute or ultimate control over the fate