Daily Bread: January–March 2018

By Angus Moyes, Ron Frost, Jon Gemmell and 6 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 17, 2017
• ISBN: 9781785065743

Ron Frost

Ron Frost currently serves with Barnabas International (USA). He travels worldwide as a teacher and ministry consultant. He previously taught historical theology and ethics at Multnomah Bible College in Portland, Oregon, for 20 years.

Book preview

DB-JM18-cover.jpg

Table of Contents

What is Daily Bread?

How to use Daily Bread

Editorial

SU article

Way in to Matthew 5–7

Monday 1 January

Tuesday 2 January

Wednesday 3 January

Thursday 4 January

Friday 5 January

Saturday 6 January

Sunday 7 January

Monday 8 January

Tuesday 9 January

Wednesday 10 January

Thursday 11 January

Friday 12 January

Saturday 13 January

Sunday 14 January

Way in to Leviticus 1–25

Monday 15 January

Tuesday 16 January

Wednesday 17 January

Thursday 18 January

Friday 19 January

Saturday 20 January

Sunday 21 January

Way in to 1 Corinthians 8–10

Monday 22 January

Tuesday 23 January

Wednesday 24 January

Thursday 25 January

Friday 26 January

Saturday 27 January

Sunday 28 January

Way in to Matthew 8–10

Monday 29 January

Tuesday 30 January

Wednesday 31 January

Thursday 1 February

Friday 2 February

Saturday 3 February

Sunday 4 February

Monday 5 February

Tuesday 6 February

Wednesday 7 February

Thursday 8 February

Friday 9 February

Saturday 10 February

Sunday 11 February

Spotlight on... the love of God

Way in to 2 Samuel

Monday 12 February

Tuesday 13 February

Wednesday 14 February

Thursday 15 February

Friday 16 February

Saturday 17 February

Sunday 18 February

Way in to Acts 20–23

Monday 19 February

Tuesday 20 February

Wednesday 21 February

Thursday 22 February

Friday 23 February

Saturday 24 February

Sunday 25 February

Monday 26 February

Tuesday 27 February

Wednesday 28 February

Thursday 1 March

Friday 2 March

Saturday 3 March

Sunday 4 March

Way in to Matthew 11,12

Monday 5 March

Tuesday 6 March

Wednesday 7 March

Thursday 8 March

Friday 9 March

Saturday 10 March

Sunday 11 March

Monday 12 March

Tuesday 13 March

Wednesday 14 March

Thursday 15 March

Friday 16 March

Saturday 17 March

Sunday 18 March

Way in to Matthew 26–28

Monday 19 March

Tuesday 20 March

Wednesday 21 March

Thursday 22 March

Friday 23 March

Saturday 24 March

Sunday 25 March

Monday 26 March

Tuesday 27 March

Wednesday 28 March

Thursday 29 March

Friday 30 March

Saturday 31 March

© Scripture Union 2017, Trinity House, Opal Court, Opal Drive, Fox Milne, Milton Keynes, MK15 ODF

ISBN 978 1 78506 604 7 (EPUB ebook)

ISSN 2050-5361 (Online)

ISSN 0963-4797 (Print)

Cover design by Heather Knight

Cover image: © goir/Shutterstock

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton.

About Scripture Union

Scripture Union logo

Scripture Union is an international Christian charity working with churches in more than 130 countries.

Thank you for purchasing this book. Any profits from this book support SU in England and Wales to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to children, young people and families and to enable them to meet God through the Bible and prayer.

Find out more about our work and how you can get involved:

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

A new year,

a new you?

Maybe every year you intend to be more consistent with your Daily Bread readings? Maybe you never miss a day? Or maybe this is the first time you’ve ever picked up a copy? Whoever you are, I want to challenge you this New Year to go deeper. For years Daily Bread notes have included at the bottom of each page a ‘Bible in a year’ plan for readers to follow. This year we want to encourage more to do this, so a pull-out plan to keep track of your reading is available in the centre of this issue. Pull it out, keep it in each quarter’s copy of Daily Bread, and after you’ve focused in on the main reading and note, go deeper by reading the whole Bible this year. Of course, in the early days, following a list of daily readings was more or less what it meant to be a part of ‘the Children’s Scripture Union’. For more inspiration, enjoy Ron Frost’s introductory piece, ‘Sam’s gift’, where he recounts his formative experience of meeting an older man who knew God and his Word so well, simply because he read it and read it.

New Year’s resolutions often fail, and the reality is, that is because there is something deeply wrong with every one of us – we do not do what we want to do, but what we hate to do (Romans 7:15). Who can rescue us from these bodies of death?

Jesus can! So let’s daily remember that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, and that his Spirit lives in us. And then each day come to his Word to be renewed and refreshed, guided by these excellent notes, and going deeper into God. And then let’s go out as his hands and mouthpiece into a world in desperate need of him. That would be a good start to the new year.

Photo of Angus Moyes

Angus Moyes

Editor

SU article

Sam’s

gift

Each morning Steve and I were invited to breakfast with the Cassels at their beachside cottage before work. Almost every morning – with just a little stir – Sam happily offered an impromptu survey of a biblical theme. At our first breakfast, for instance, I noticed the impressive trees near their house. He smiled and talked about the importance of trees in the Bible, beginning with Eden, then the tree theme in Galatians and, finally, the reappearance of the Tree of Life in Revelation. The next morning he picked up on something else I said and used it to review all the Bible references to Melchizedek. I was impressed and enriched.

His broad awareness of the Bible was always personal and practical, with a depth that had me reflecting on the conversation for hours afterwards. I finally asked him where it came from –thinking of a possible college course – and he laughed.

‘I just read my Bible.’

He had been reading his Bible, front to back, for 30 minutes each day since he came to faith 50 years before. The result? Two or three ‘read-throughs’ each year – with the outcome of almost 150 readings in his Christian life. And it showed!

I pressed Sam for more of his story. When he and his bride were both newly converted in 1916, they wanted the Lord to be at the centre of their new marriage. So Bible reading was something they shared each day. Not necessarily by reading aloud together – though they did that at times – but by sharing some of their favourite verses of the day at dinnertime. It was a firm feature of their