DISCIPLESHIP (PART 1) | ANDY BOND
In Matthew 6.6, Jesus says, "But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."
Often at Werb’s we talk about how we are limited on time or we are distracted by things like our Insta feeds, but we are coming to a place where most of our distractions (and therefore excuses) are being stripped away (By the way - if you are a front-line worker, I realise that life will not be slowing for you at all - in fact you will especially need the support of the rest of us).
Recently I have been listening to a book called “Reappearing Church” by Mark Sayers and he speaks about moving from consuming to contending. At Werb’s we have been praying for revival for the past 2 and a half years and Sayers says that "personal renewal leads to corporate renewal", i.e. as we (individually and together) are renewed in our love and passion for Jesus, that is when it could go viral. Wouldn't it be incredible if COVID-19 were not the only thing to spread across the nation in these days?
I believe for myself and all of us who follow Jesus, this gives us an unprecedented opportunity to prioritise God in our daily lives - to close our doors and pray to our Father. So the question for many of us may be "How?" We have heard that it will help us to grow if we read our Bibles and pray everyday. But, if we are honest, we do not know how to do it. We have never had a rhythm or a good habit of doing this. So… over the next few weeks we are going to be writing about various ways in which we can personally engage with the Scriptures and in prayer.
The first thing with the Bible is to realise that it is not one book, but many (66) and it is made up of all kinds of different writing, some are letters, some are songs, some are history, some are prophecy, some are wise sayings. It is split into 2 main sections; the bit before Jesus is the Old Testament and the bit about Jesus and afterwards is known as the New Testament. The whole Bible tells the story of God and His interaction with the world.
This week I want to point us to a few free online resources which might help us in our engagement with the Bible:
Bible In One Year is an app by Nicky Gumbel (from HTB church in London, which we were “planted” out of). It has 3 daily readings and you can listen if you struggle to read. It works its way systematically through the Bible with a reading from the part before Jesus (Old Testament), the bit about Jesus and after (New Testament) and one from the Psalms (pronounced “Sarms” - which is like the old hymnbook of the Jewish people and is in the Bible - Jesus knew it and quoted it!):
https://www.bibleinoneyear.org
Lectio 365 is a more meditative way to engage with the Bible and prayer and again has something everyday:
https://www.24-7prayer.com/dailydevotional
The Bible Project is an incredible collection of short animated videos summarising Bible books or themes and is a great starting place to understand what a book is about:
https://bibleproject.com (you can also find some of their content on YouTube)
Dwell is an audio app where you can listen to the Bible with different voices. You normally have to subscribe but they have made it free for 60 days:
