Guidelines September to December 2011 (PDF Download)
Bible study for today's ministry and mission
Commissioned by Revd Dr Jeremy Duff, Edited by Lisa Cherrett
£1.00 Add to basket Buy nowThis regular reading of the Bible anchors my spiritual life. The Bible Reading Fellowship has consistently enabled me to hear God's word and I would not be without their help. I am deeply grateful to their editors and writers over many years.
Very Rev Professor Iain Torrance, President of Princeton Theological Seminary
Content
Guidelines is a unique Bible reading resource that offers four months of in-depth study written by leading scholars. Contributors are drawn from around the world, as well as the UK, and represent a stimulating and thought-provoking breadth of Christian tradition.
Instead of the usual dated daily readings, Guidelines provides weekly units, broken into at least six sections, plus an introduction giving context for the passage and a final section of points for thought and prayer.
On any day you can read as many or as few sections as you wish, to fit in with work or home routine. As well as a copy of Guidelines, you will need a Bible. Each contributor also suggests books for further study.
Published every four months (in January, May and September), commissioned by Canon Dr Jeremy Duff and edited by Lisa Cherrett.
PDF Download.
The Editor Writes...
Where is God? Many people, at some time in their lives, find themselves asking this question, whether in the quiet darkness of their silent suffering or in an anguished, heartfelt cry. When we look out on a world from which God's love and activity seem absent, it is hard not to doubt whether God himself has departed.
Most of our readings in this edition relate to this sense of God's seeming absence. We begin with the final part of Peter Walker's notes on Matthew. Here we find parables about the bridegroom's absence, followed by Jesus' betrayal, trials and death, culminating in the cry, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' Then we encounter Psalms 51 - 63, guided once again by Henry Wansbrough - psalms that express confidence in God even in times of great hardship or challenge.
A new contributor, James Harding, explores Revelation with us, a book which seeks to convince us that even if evil seems to be triumphing around us, God is actually in control. Then, accompanied by Grace Emmerson, we read Habakkuk, a lesser known Old Testament prophet, who speaks out in a violent world in which God seems silent.
After Habakkuk, we turn to something a little different and explore singleness with another new writer, Kate Wharton. Many people in our society and churches are single, whether never married, separated, divorced or widowed. What particular challenges and joys do they experience? What does the Bible have to say about singleness? Next, Jeremy Duff guides us through the book of Daniel. The book is set during the exile, that terrible time when the Jewish people came to terms with the destruction of the temple and their separation from the land, but it seems also to speak into later times, when further calamities overtook Israel.
For Christmas we are in the hands of Rosie Dymond, who brings traditional 'cock-crow lullabies' alongside the biblical accounts of Jesus' birth, to refresh our encounter with the Christmas story. Finally, we read the book of Haggai, again with Grace Emmerson. Here we find the Jewish exiles returned to the land, yet they are struggling and God's temple still lies in ruins. Why have things not turned out as they had hoped?
We hope this edition will help you understand and respond aright to the sense of God's absence, whether now is a painful season in your own life, or whether you need to be equipped to serve the people around you.
About The Editorial Team
Guidelines is commissioned by Jeremy Duff is a writer, teacher, and a vicar in the South Widnes Team, and edited by Lisa Cherrett, Managing Editor of Bible reading notes at BRF.
In this issue:
Matthew 25 - 28
Peter Walker
5-25 September
Psalms 51 - 63
Henry Wansbrough
26 September-9 October
Revelation
James Harding
10-30 October
Habakkuk
Grace Emmerson
31 October-13 November
Purely and wholly single
Kate Wharton
14-27 November
Daniel
Jeremy Duff
28 November-11 December
Cock-crow lullaby
Rosie Dymond
12-25 December
Haggai
Grace Emmerson
26 December-1 January
About the contributors in this issue
Peter Walker is Associate Vice-Principal and Director of Development at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, where he lectures in New Testament Studies and Biblical Theology. He has a special interest in the historical Jesus. As a qualified tour guide around Israel, he leads student groups on tours every other year.
Henry Wansbrough OSB is a monk at Ampleforth Abbey in Yorkshire. He is Executive Secretary of the International Commission for Producing an English-Language Lec-tionary (ICPEL) for the Roman Catholic Church, and lec-tures frequently across the globe.
James Harding is married to Katie and has two young children. He is the Anglican Chaplain to the students of the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University, and a licensed lay minister. He completed a PhD in 2006 on the use and influence of the book of Revelation, and, as part of his Anglican ordination training, is working towards a second doctorate in practical Christian Ministry at the University of Chester.
Grace Emmerson has had varied pastoral experience in situations ranging from the Canadian Arctic to urban and rural parish life in England. Her university teaching and writing have been chiefly on Old Testament studies and the Hebrew language. She is the author of Nahum to Malachi in BRF's People's Bible Commentary series.
Kate Wharton is priest-in-charge of a church in Everton, north Liverpool, and is also involved with ministry among deaf people in the Liverpool area. Before ordination she was a speech and language therapist, working with children with a variety of communication difficulties. She is and always has been single and counts it a privilege to speak and teach on this important but often neglected topic.
Jeremy Duff is a vicar in Widnes with a teaching and writ-ing ministry, which has included posts at Liverpool Cathe-dral and within Oxford University. His writings include Meeting Jesus: Human Responses to a Yearning God (SPCK, 2006) and The Elements of New Testament Greek (CUP, 2005).
Rosie Dymond is Rector of the Parishes of Bedwellty and New Tredegar and is excited about the many signs of God's kingdom in the beautiful post-industrial Valleys of South Wales. She is especially inter-ested in community ministry and the arts. She has an aca-demic background in neuroscience research and previously served as Assistant Chaplain at the Church of St John and St Philip in The Hague.
View items in similar categoriesEndorsements
This regular reading of the Bible anchors my spiritual life. The Bible Reading Fellowship has consistently enabled me to hear God's word and I would not be without their help. I am deeply grateful to their editors and writers over many years.
Very Rev Professor Iain Torrance, President of Princeton Theological Seminary
I find Guidelines a very useful resource for my personal devotions. The combination of an academic consideration of the text with practical comments on issues of faith and discipleship provides me me with helpful encouragement, stimulation and challenge at the start of the day.
Revd Dr Christopher Blake, Principal, Cliff College, Derbyshire
Reviews
I was introduced to the Bible Reading Fellowship by the late Ian Thomson about 40 years ago. Since then, I have read Guidelines daily. This regular reading of the Bible anchors my spiritual life. The Bible Reading Fellowship has consistently enabled me to hear God's word and I would not be without their help. I am deeply grateful to their editors and writers over many years.
Reviewed by Very Rev Professor Iain Torrance, President of Princeton Theological Seminary and a former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
From other Guidelines readers
'Always food for thought'
'I have read daily from Guidelines for many years and have always found it helpful and often thought-provoking.'
'I enjoy Guidelines very much.'
'Many excellent contributions'
'I have really appreciated each day and have found much to think about.'
'All your commentators are good, and I appreciate the daily notes very much.'
Book details
- ISBN: 9780857460028Z
- Published: 01 July 2011
- Status:
- Format: PDF Download
- Pages: 160
