Lent Bible Reading Series Week 3

Lent Bible Reading Series  5 March 2014 to 20th April 2014 Week 3/7: by Major Kath Jones, Asst. Spiritual Life Development Secretary

Welcome to the Lent Bible Reading Series
by Major Kath Jones - Asst. Spiritual Life Development Secretary

Week Three

 Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as in heaven

Monday 17^th

Bible Reading – Mark 1: 14 – 15, Matthew 25: 31 - 46

The Kingdom of God was the constant theme of Jesus’ teaching. He spoke of the Kingdom of God being here and now and also as a future event when Jesus would return to bring his glorious Kingdom in. Tim Chester in ‘The Message of Prayer’ says, ‘everything about the Lord’s prayer resonates with Jesus announcement that Gods Kingdom is breaking into the story of Israel and opening up Gods promised new world and summoning people to share in it.’

Consider: The Kingdom of God exists wherever people live by and model its principles of justice, love and peace.

Pray: Father how we love you; we lift your name in all the earth. May your kingdom be established in our praises, as your people declare your mighty works. Blessèd be the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come; who reigns forever more.

Tuesday 18^th

Bible Reading – Isaiah 40, Luke 16: 1 -17

‘They all were looking for a king to slay their foes and lift them high; Thou cam’st a little baby thing that made a woman cry.’(George Macdonald). The expectation was that God’s kingdom would be established by a mighty warrior King who would bring judgement upon those who oppressed the people of God. However Jesus, when he spoke about the Kingdom of God did so in terms of the kingdom coming not by force or might, but by his spirit.

Consider: Do you see evidence of God’s Kingdom on earth?

Wednesday 19^th

Bible Reading – Matthew 13 1: 23, Psalm 78, 1-8

When Jesus described the Kingdom of God he often spoke in parables to help his listeners in their understanding. Parables are descriptive illustrations, usually from everyday life; a teaching tool which preachers use in sermons to emphasise a particular truth. On one occasion Jesus spoke about the coming Kingdom of God as a tiny mustard seed and on another occasion as yeast in dough. By this he meant that it was a gracious and sometimes hidden coming, thus giving opportunity for personal realisation and commitment, ‘now being the accepted time’.  But he also spoke about the fact that one day there would be a harvest, at the appointed time, when the King will come in power and glory.

Consider: Contemplate Maranatha “Our Lord come” and your response.

Pray: Help us Lord to proclaim the good news of your Kingdom.

Thursday 20^th

Bible Reading – Luke 6: 20 – 42, Matthew 6:23 - 34

Today’s reading from Luke is known as the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus here describes the qualities or attitude of those who belong to the Kingdom of God. Love being the most important value, quickly followed by not judging others. In considering membership of the kingdom of God Joanna Collins in ‘When you Pray’, says, ‘sometimes we have become so comfortable in our world that we struggle to adopt a heavenly perspective, or we feel that we can never be good enough therefore not entitled to receive the Kingdom’.

Consider: What does it mean to be a citizen of the Kingdom of God?

Friday 21^st

Bible Reading-Revelations 21: 1 – 5,

To pray ‘thy will be done on earth as it is heaven’ is illustrated well for us in today’s reading. This will be a time when heaven will come down to earth and God will dwell with his people. Tom Wright in ‘The Lord and His Prayer’ remarks ‘pray not merely that certain things might occur within the earthly realm that would coincide with plans that God had made in the heavenly realm, but that a fresh integration of heaven and earth would take place.”

Consider: Heaven and earth cry out your name, nations rise up and see your face; and your Kingdom is established as I live to know you more. Is this your experience?

Saturday 22^nd

Bible Reading – Matthew 28: 16 – 20, Matthew 16: 21 – 28

Today’s reading from Matthew contains the mission statement Jesus gave to the first disciples ‘to go and make disciples’; and primarily this is our mission too. Many corps and centres have compiled mission statements that are relevant to the community in which they serve. Such statements are usually displayed as a reminder of intent. Do you have a personal mission statement? Today may be a good day to think about this as you read through the great commission.

Consider: Uniformed Salvationists wear an ‘S’ on their lapels, this is to indicate that they are saved to save! Catherine Booth said ‘Every man saved, every man at work to save others, this is the quintessence of Salvationism. If the Salvation Army should decline it will be because self-denying love for souls has dwindled in the heart of Salvationists’. There is mission in my living; there is meaning in my word.

Pray: Lord may your Kingdom come, may your will be done, in and through me.

Sunday 23^rd

Bible Reading – Mark 14: 32 – 42, John 3: 10 - 21

‘Abba father’, Jesus said, ‘everything is possible for you; take this cup from me, yet not what I will, but what you will’. These are the anguished words of Jesus as he prayed knowing he was to suffer a horrific death. Scripture tell us that Jesus fell to the ground as he prayed, as he earnestly sought to obey his father’s will. John 3 makes clear what his Father’s will was; ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him’. There was no other way, ‘there was no other good enough to pay the price of sin, He only could unlock the gate of heaven and let us in’.

Pray:

He was wounded for my transgressions, acquainted with sorrow was he,

 In the garden he prayed, and sweats great drops of blood,

To save a poor sinner like me.  (John Lawley SASB 137)

Lent Bible Reading Series Week 2

Lent Bible Reading Series  5 March 2014 to 20th April 2014 Week 2/7: by Major Kath Jones, Asst. Spiritual Life Development Secretary

Welcome to the Lent Bible Reading Series
by Major Kath Jones - Asst. Spiritual Life Development Secretary

 

Week Two

Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be Thy name.

Monday 10^th

Bible Reading: Psalm 89: 26 – 29, Galatians 3: 26 – 29, 4: 1 – 7

In Old Testament prayer God is not usually addressed as Father. One reference however is found in Psalm 89, where the psalmist describes King David crying out to his father God, his rock and salvation. David recognised the awesome majesty of God, as clearly portrayed in Psalm 8. However in Psalm 89 it would seem David also shared in a father – child relationship with God, one in which he felt sufficiently assured to refer to God as Father.

Consider: How do you address God in prayer? Do you always use the same name?

Pray: Look into the night sky and proclaim Psalm 8.

Tuesday 11^th
Bible Reading – Jeremiah 31: 7 - 9, Romans 8: 15-16

Whilst to address God as Father was not usual in the Old Testament, it has been suggested that this was a term occasionally used in later Hebrew worship. Joanna Collicutt in her book, ‘When you pray,’ comments, ‘one Hebrew word for father, is ‘abinu’ meaning, ‘Our Father’ or ‘My Father’ this would have been a word familiar to Jesus in Temple worship.’ The word ‘abinu’ is interpreted as a father who is somewhat remote, residing in heaven, one whom we approach formally and dutifully.

Consider; To address God as father may not be easy for some whose relationship with their earthly father is not a positive experience.

Pray: For peace and healing for those whose father - child relationship is difficult for whatever reason.

Wednesday 12^th
Bible Reading - Luke 11: 1-2, Matthew 11: 25 - 30

When the disciples observed Jesus at prayer they were curious as to the intimacy with which he approached and addressed God. They often found him praying alone in the open air, or on a mountainside, or early in the morning, without any ritual or formality. They also heard Jesus address God with the Aramaic word for father, ‘Abba’ this being a more familiar expression for father. A comparable meaning for us would be Papa, loving yet respectful. The disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray in this less formal way.

Thursday 13^th

Bible Reading – Hebrews 10: 19 – 25, Mark 14: 32 – 36

Tom Wright in his book ‘The Lord and Prayer’ says, ‘The name Abba, as Jesus instructed the disciples to use, contains within it not just intimacy but revolution, not just familiarity but hope. To begin prayer by calling on the liberating father was to recognise in Jesus the beginning of the new exodus – a new liberation’. The disciples were introduced to a new order in which all may approach the throne of grace in prayer without fear or formality.
 

Friday 14^th

Bible Reading - Ezekiel 36: 22 – 28, Revelations 4

However we address God in prayer we are reminded that God’s name is to be hallowed, for his name is Holy. The reading from Ezekiel describes how the house of Israel failed in being the light to the nations by profaning the name of the Lord. The sovereign Lord is holy and he is to be approached with reverence and respect.

 Hugh Melinsky in his book ‘Modern Readers guide to the New Testament’ says, ‘God shall be God that man shall not whittle God down to a manageable size and shape’.  

Pray: Abba, as you hold me in your arms, may I hold your name holy.

Saturday 15^th

Bible Reading – Isaiah 6: 1-7, Philippians 2:1 – 11

I find this Isaiah reading very moving, especially if I accompany the words with an excerpt from Faure’s Requiem called Sanctus. I imagine Isaiah entering the Temple, feeling sad at the death of King Uzziah, not knowing that God would in that moment enter into his life in such a spectacular way. Isaiah’s response to his vision of God was to cry out ‘holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory’. Isaiah was overwhelmed by the majesty of God whilst being aware of his own unworthiness.  As Faure’s music crescendos it portrays for me a sense of the sheer immensity of Gods holiness, and causes me to think we can do no more than bow down in worship.

Consider: Take a walk in the country and appreciate the vastness of Gods creative power, or visit a large church or cathedral and observe how the architecture tries to express something of the glory of God.

Sunday 16^th

Bible Reading - Isaiah 53, Matthew 27: 45 – 55, Hebrews 5: 7 – 10

The reading from Matthew’s gospel records the one occasion when Jesus did not address God as ‘Abba’. He cries out ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthan, My God, My God, why have you forsaken me’. It is a desperate plea for help and speaks to us clearly of the humanity of Jesus; in the final moment of suffering a cruel and horrific death Jesus feels the most deserted and afraid. Tarjei Park in the book ‘Seven words for Three hours’ says, ‘the realisation that God is present even when God does not intervene is not a loss of belief in God. It is recognition of who God is and who we are. We are inextricably united to God, but in ways we often cannot detect. Jesus Christ suffered as a human being and that human experience is taken up into divinity, crucified humanity is taken up into divinity’. Jesus understands us when we feel the most lonely and afraid; he hears our cry of despair even when we feel abandoned of any sense of faith in a loving heavenly father.

The following words were found inscribed on a cellar wall in Cologne where some Jews had been hidden for the duration of the Second World War.

I believe in the sun, even when it doesn’t shine

I believe in love, even when I don’t feel it.

I believe in God, even when he is silent.

Pray: Read Psalm 139 to remind us that even if God does not intervene, he is still present.

Consider: The practice was to say the word ‘Abba’ at the commencement of a prayer then to pause, before continuing. This pause recognised the presence of God.