Daily Bread: April-June 2020

By Emlyn Williams, Tricia Williams, John Gay 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: Mar 27, 2020
• ISBN: 9781785067709

John Gay

John Gay was an English playwright and poet who is most famous for his satirical masterpiece The Beggar’s Opera. Originally employed in the government, Gay turned to writing after losing his position following the death of Queen Anne in 1714. From then on, Gay relied on his income from writing, building up a long list of patrons over the course of his career, and making contact with some of the most famous writers of the time, including Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope (and with whom he was a member of the informal society of authors and thinkers known as the Scriblerus Club). After losing the majority of his fortune to a bad investment, Gay eventually found his greatest success in The Beggar’s Opera, a ballad opera that satirized society and government, and which ran for sixty-two nights upon its initial release. Gay died on December 4, 1732, at the age of forty-seven, and is buried in Westminster Abbey.

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.

Editorial

A long

road

The process of writing, editing, printing and distributing Daily Bread is a long one. For example, we started commissioning the writers for this issue in late 2018 and the deadline for receiving the text was in April 2019. And yet over and over again, people find that through the Bible passage and notes, God speaks to them that day in a very specific way. As one writer told us, by the time he reads them in print he has often forgotten that he wrote them! He went on, ‘But amazingly God uses them very specifically and in a timely way.’ Our prayer is that over the next three months God will speak to you through his Word in that way. If you have examples of that timeliness, do let us know – we’d love to hear from you.

What’s in store then? Mark’s Gospel takes us with Jesus to the cross and beyond. Genesis goes back to our roots with more about Abraham and his family – our family too (Galatians 3:29)! In Joshua we see that although God’s promises are firm, the road to their fulfilment can be rocky. Hebrews challenges us to grow in faith as our appreciation of Christ grows. Acts conveys the sheer excitement of the earliest days of the church. We’re challenged by Mark to work to change the world as we follow Jesus’ urgent journey around the countryside. And finally, the Song of Songs celebrates God’s gift to humanity of romantic love, whilst reminding us of God’s intense love for us.

So, while the road may be long, let’s persevere to the end.

Photo of Emlyn and 'Tricia Williams

’Tricia and Emlyn Williams

Editors

SU article

Lost

and found

‘Is it like a parent’s love for a child that jumps in to rescue them? Yes, that’s what God’s love for his children must be like.’

Non-Christian young people, who didn’t know about Jesus’ death, were playing ‘The Way of the Cross’ in the Guardians of Ancora app,1 a biblically faithful retelling of the crucifixion story. This profound insight from one of them astounded the club leaders.

God can speak to all children and young people, not just those in churches. Through the Bible he longs to shape them up to play their part in his big story. They can trust in Jesus whatever their age, and live boldly for him in their own way: ‘I’m part of God’s great plan now, and I know where it’s all heading.’ This gives them significance, confidence and hope.

‘It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone’ (Ephesians 1:7–12, The Message).

Losing it

Ninety-five per cent of children and young people in England and Wales aren’t in church.² Of the 5% who are, many won’t be encouraged or helped to read the Bible. ‘60 per cent of self-declared followers of the Church admit they never read the Bible,’ reported a Church of England survey in 2017.³ If adults don’t, their children probably won’t.

Knowledge of the Bible has not only dropped out of society in general, but even for many Christians, reading it is no longer a priority.

But it’s not all bad news. Through its face-to-face and online work, Scripture Union is discovering that the 95% usually aren’t negative about Jesus and the Bible. They have few – if any – preconceptions. Often they’re excited to know what’s in the Bible, and may well be more open to God than we think.

Finding it

So in 2010 SU carried out research with parents and other adults about how best to help their children with the Bible. It became clear that traditional Bible reading notes were only working for a small minority. Online engagement, they said, was the way to go, and probably in the format of a game. Five years later SU launched Guardians of Ancora as a fun, interactive, immersive way of introducing children to Jesus, Bible engagement and prayer. So far the app has had about 1.5 million users globally.

Diary of a Disciple was another experiment that has become a key tool for helping the 95% engage with the Bible and meet Jesus. The books – visual retellings of Luke and Acts – include every verse paraphrased in language and images that 8- to 11-year-olds find compelling. Even unchurched children have been reading them from cover to cover – they can’t put them down!

SU works hard to develop good principles and practice for engaging the 95% with the Bible. For instance, back in 2019 a working group determined that two key principles are:

1 We help them see Jesus in the whole of the Bible, get to know him for themselves and become lifelong disciples. We major on the good news.

2 Our goal is not primarily about behaviour change, a particular moral world view or a knowledge of Bible stories, but about an encounter with Jesus that leads to whole-life transformation.

We don’t dumb down the Bible when we explore it with the 95%, but we do provide more guidance and support.

The mission statement of SU England and Wales captures our passion and expertise: ‘We create opportunities for children and young people to explore the Bible, respond to Jesus and grow in faith’, and we remain committed to finding innovative ways of doing it.

Getting involved

Pray that SU will continue to find new ways of helping the 95% explore the Bible for themselves.

To the children and young people you know, tell stories of your own encounters with God through the Bible, and of your life being changed.

Introduce children to Guardians of Ancora (see the footnote on page 7). If you’re a children’s leader, there are free resources available to help you run a Guardians of Ancora club.

Get a copy of Diary of a Disciple: Luke’s Story or Diary of a Disciple: Peter and Paul’s Story and read it with children in your family, church group or school club. Again, free resources are available to help you.

If you yourself are dreaming up new ways of exploring the Bible with unchurched children and young people, contact Scripture Union at [e-mail]. We’d love to hear your ideas!

Writer

Terry Clutterham

Director of Culture and Innovation, Scripture Union England and Wales

¹ Primarily for 8- to 11-year-olds. Available free of charge for iOS, Android and Kindle Fire, from the app stores. Search ‘Guardians of Ancora’, or follow the link from guardiansofancora.com.

² Peter Brierley, ‘UK Church Statistics 2, 2010–2020’, ADBC Publishers, Tonbridge, 2014

³ Church of England Mapping Survey 2017, ComRes

Way in to Mark 14–16

The show

must go on

Welcome to this series of Daily Bread as we walk with Jesus through the