Round the Bible Reloaded

Around 1000 people accepted my challenge to read “Round the Bible in 40 days” cover-to-cover during Lent this year. We all travelled at different speeds and some are still en route, and we all got different things out of it. It was nearly always an encouragement, but the Old Testament often posed questions to us that we hadn’t wrestled with for a while.

Forty ministers, lay and ordained, wrote a daily reflection to go on the RTB40 blog. They were too good to lose, so I have now gathered up their fragments into a single booklet that you can download here (A4) and here (A5 booklet that works on some printers!).

I have also produced a version of the introductory booklet (with reading plan and general bible notes) that is not tied to Lent but can be used at any time. You can download that  here, so – if you haven’t already – why not take up the challenge too and Read Round the Bible in 40 Days.

Certificates on request for those who complete – or download your own here.

Filed under: Bible, Bible Study

Cambourne Church in Action

Jean and I were over at the new church in Cambourne this morning. It was great to see it full of people and buzzing with life. People of all ages and from many backgrounds and parts of the world too. Terrific. And a new coffee shop has just opened in their foyer (mornings I think) – called “19”, because of the speed limit signs saying that which used to pepper the roads!

They are thinking about Life Balance this Lent, and this week’s theme was Rest. So we read the “Jesus’ Day Off” story together, and then thought about Elijah on the run, and how he needed to face up to his desire just to roll over and die and find instead a new sort of life from God; how he needed to let God (through an angel) touch him and renew him; and how he needed to let that happen not just once but over again, to build up a new rhythm of life that was sustainable. Resurrection, Renewal and Restoration. Then God could really get to work. Here’s the bible bit we used:

1 Kings 19.3-9

³ Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, ⁴ while he himself went a day’s journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. "I have had enough, Lord," he said. "Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors." ⁵ Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep.

All at once an angel touched him and said, "Get up and eat." ⁶ He looked around, and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.

⁷ The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, "Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you." ⁸ So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he travelled for forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. ⁹ There he went into a cave and spent the night

Filed under: Bible Study, Christianity, Churches, Sermons and Talks

New editor for Bible Study Blog

The Bible Study Blog has now been transferred to the editorship of the Revd Phil Sharkey who blogs as Kryptora. He hopes to start it up again for Lent. Do email him if you’d like to share in the work. Meanwhile please don’t get too confused by the fact that the transfer seems to have also attributed all the blogs I made on Mark to him!!

Filed under: Bible Study

Blogging the Bible

Over the summer I’ve quietly started up another blog, posting the daily New Testament reading from Common Worship Morning Prayer and adding a comment. I’ve chosen a format that makes it fairly easy for you to add comments too, with the hope that a community of readers and commentators might evolve. A lot of clergy and lay people as well, in the diocese of Ely and beyond, are after all reading the same Scripture day by day, and pondering it, but often not in a context where those ponderings can be shared. At the moment we’re working through Mark’s Gospel and are just reaching some really interesting bits in chapters 6-8 (I’ve just written the comments for the coming week!).

Now launching it quietly in the summer means I have had the time to do it, and I intend to carry on until we reach the end of Mark in October. But it also means that not too many people have caught up with the project, and if it is to continue it will probably be necessary as well as beneficial to share the blogging around a bit.

So for now, do drop across to The Bible Study Blog at http://thebiblestudyblog.wordpress.com/, have a read, add a comment!, and consider whether you fancy being part of its future.

Ta!

Image by Wonderlane via Flickr

Technorati Tags: Bible Study,Blogging,Church of England,Common Worship

Filed under: Bible, Bible Study, blogging, Church of England, Resources