27 books in 27 days: 2012

Monday 31 December 2012

Day 1: Matthew

Estimated reading time - 2 hours
Biblical text (choose the version you like) : http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+1&version=NIV

Video of the book - 4 hours 20 mins
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ3tOWBJ_IE

Background music as you read
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=475pqwwbZ1w

Matthew, the Jewish tax collector, quotes from the Old Testament and writes about money. Matthew was written for the Jews as evidence that Jesus was the promised Saviour, Messiah, King of Kings.
How does knowing this about the writer help you appreciate this book better?

Day 2: Mark

Estimated reading time: 1 hour 30 mins
Biblical text (choose the version you like): http://nasb.scripturetext.com/mark/1.htm

Mark the Evangelist, Apostle Peter's companion, wrote this Gospel for the Romans.

After reading Mark, consider what you think of these snapshots of Jesus. Are they what you see in the Gospel of Mark?

http://catholic-resources.org/Art/Dore-Mark.htm

http://freechristimages.org/biblebooks/Book_of_Mark.htm

Deep Thought
In the 8th century, visual representations of God were strongly discouraged to prevent the worship of graven images. Today, in a world where creative visual imagery dominates, should/could Mark's narrative snapshots of Jesus be made visual? How?

Day 3: Luke

Estimated reading time: 2 hours
Biblical text (choose the version you like): http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Luke-Chapter-1/

In the prologue, we learn that this book, written in Greek, is addressed to Theophilus and gleaned from many sources, in order that there is certainty about the truth. Luke is probably a physician, Gentile Christian and companion of Paul. Many believe that Luke and Acts books originally constituted a two-volume work. You may like to jump forward and read Acts tomorrow to complete the two-part series.

Godzone
TSCF has produced a rugby themed version of Luke called Godzone. Click here for Scotty Donaldson's review. If you have friends who love sports or who is interested in Jesus, you may want to read this book with them. Copies are available from your staff worker.

Day 4: John

Estimated Reading Time: 2 hours 40 mins
Biblical text (choose the version you like): https://www.bible.com/bible/1/jhn.1.kjv
Video version: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=UUsn0VQ1LTMnnSY8fxezM_6g
2 hours 15mins

" Many other signs therefore Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name" (John 20:30-31).

Deep thought
If you are interested in the idea of signs, click here for an interesting summary. (Disclaimer: I haven't read the rest of the blog only this page. This is true of all blog pages used in this challenge)

Day 5: Acts

Estimated Reading time: 4 hours
Biblical text (choose the version you like): http://biblia.com/books/esv/Ac

Video version: 3hours 15mins http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlfLZtQ8ApI
3 minutes funny American summarized version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJIHgMR7LP0

Acts of the Apostles

The book of Acts should come with a warning label reading, "If you are open to God, this book will call you to new life." IVP press
How would you summarise what you have read?
Some have summarised the book of Acts in this way. Which statements are reductive or inaccurate? Why?
1) This book is really about the life of Peter and Paul.
2) This book is about the early church and a model for how churches can grow.
3) This book is about miracles and how we can exercise miracles today.
4) This book is about missions and world Christianity started.
5) This book is an historical account of a faith community.
6) This books the dispensational work of God.

How would you summarise the book?
What have you learnt?
Here's what a preacher learnt from the book of Acts.

From Monica http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JidvoGMj4BY

Day 6: Romans

Estimated Reading Time: 1 hour

Biblical text (choose the version you like): http://www.devotions.net/bible/45romans.htm

Deep Thought
Creative responses to this book.
The book of Romans in 45 tweets: http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/the-book-of-romans-in-45-tweets

Questions asked in the book of Romans
http://thegoodbookblog.com/2012/oct/18/every-question-paul-asks-in-romans/

Max Lucado's story illustrates Romans 1-3
http://www.angelfire.com/sc3/we_dig_montana/Gracech1.html

A slideshow that shows famous church leaders who impacted by this book. the http://www.examiner.com/article/how-the-book-of-romans-impacted-many-church-leaders

Day 7: 1 Corinthians

Estimated Reading Time: 1 hour
Biblical text (choose the version you like):http://carm.org/kjv/1Cor/1cor_1.htm
If you have time for bible study http://www.shenango.org/Bailey/guides.htm
Word Art

Responses to 1 Corinthians through word art. You may like to post your own.

A student in Hamilton has tried to start writing a bible study on Christian Unity on campus (1 Corinthians 1:1-4) but has become too swamped with responsibilities to finish it. If you have a heart for this topic, you might like to help finish it. This is where we've got to so far in terms of collecting material http://4psandl.blogspot.co.nz/2012/06/1-corinthians-1.html. Message me.

Day 8: 2 Corinthians

Estimated Reading time: 30mins to 1hour
Biblical text (choose the version you like): http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=2Cr&c=1&v=1&t=RSV#top
Audio Reading 50mins: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLI3w_jL4bY
Deep Thought
Does the letter to the church in Corinth seem irrelevant to your church situation? Consider this quote:

But we are in a Corinthian world, a polyglot, pluriform culture with different people going off in different directions doing different things with personality cults; with issues about money and sex; with rediscovering the sacramental universe but then not knowing what to do with it and getting it upside down and inside out; and with the question of resurrection, and what you mean by that. And the problem, then, in the church, is that when somebody tries to speak a gospel word, which is both a healing and a rebuke, into the culture, the culture hates it. And the Christian culture hates it. And you move very rapidly from 1 Corinthians to 2 Corinthians.

My church has just been doing that. My church is right now in 2 Corinthians mode, where it’s saying, “What is this authoritative thing anyway? We don’t actually like that.” I see my good friend and colleague Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams as being right now like Paul writing 2 Corinthians. It’s a deeply, deeply painful pastoral and personal thing. Paul would much rather not be writing 2 Corinthians. But it’s what happens when you wrestle with the big issues — you say the hard things that have got to be said, and the church doesn’t want to hear them. And that’s where the Anglican communion is right now. So I sense that the Corinthians locus is where we have to go and find ourselves re-inhabiting Paul’s world. And it’s painful. It’s tough. But it’s the only place to be right now.

said N.T. Wright during a visit to Seattle Pacific University

Respond by praying for church.

Jars of Clay (2 Corinthians 4:7) Consider other songs that capture God's truth applied in the lives of the song writers. Share them here or on your own page.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLyUqUQNJgY&list=PL9E5CCF14A02023AF
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3lgJrLhb5Y 2 cor 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

In Singapore, 2 brothers were run over by a cement truck and died. http://singaporeseen.stomp.com.sg/stomp/sgseen/this_urban_jungle/1579332/brothers_killed_by_cement_truck_600_people_bid_final_farewell.html

This was their mum's response at the funeralhttp://daneshd.com/2013/02/01/transcript-of-mrs-yap-the-mother-nigel-and-donovan-the-boys-in-the-tampines-accident/

Day 9: Galatians

Estimated Reading time: 30mins
Biblical text (choose the version you like): http://bibledatabase.com/exec/online/webster/48_001.htm
Background
Background to letters and authorship is interesting. This is a fairly clear resource: http://www.abu.nb.ca/courses/ntintro/IndexNTIntr.htm

Taken from http://www.vibblespace.com/studies/pauls-letters/galatians/

Day 10: Ephesians

Estimated Reading time: 10mins (Zane is right at least 30 mins if you want to understand it)
Biblical text (choose the version you like): https://net.bible.org/#!bible/Ephesians+1

Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians and Philemon are considered Paul's prison letters. Since these are short, you may like to read these with a bible commentary such as this one:

www.ibiblio.org/freebiblecommentary/pdf/EN/VOL08.pdf or the IVP commentary.
Reflect
You may like to think about Paul's use of the word "walk".

Pray

Because you are reading one of Paul's prison letters, consider those in prison for their faith. You may like to respond in prayer for the persecuted church.

Day 11: Philippians

Estimated Reading time: 20 mins
Biblical text (choose the version you like): http://www.biblestudytools.com/gnt/philippians/1.html

An interesting word to study is the word "joy".
Behind the scenes
If you like travel pictures, you may like to see biblical sites of Paul's missionary journeys in this blog: http://www.welcometohosanna.com/PAULS_MISSIONARY_JOURNEYS/1mission_1.html

I highly recommend the book "How to read the bible for what its worth" by Gordon Fee.
If you are interested here are audio talks by him on the book of Philippians.

Day 12: Colossians

Estimated Reading time: 10 mins
Biblical text (choose the version you like): http://www.esvbible.org/search/Colossians%2B1/

Some gems from Colossians
http://pinterest.com/pin/262756959481490614/
http://pinterest.com/pin/39406565459484676/
http://pinterest.com/pin/85920305362908503/
http://pinterest.com/pin/82120393176497543/
http://pinterest.com/pin/150518812517073087/

In your life, how sufficient is Christ for you?

Respond in prayer for your needs and others around you.
If you are not sure who to pray for why not start by praying for your friends on Facebook.

Day 13: 1 Thessalonians

Estimated Reading time: 10 mins

Although a little cheesy, picture yourself in this situation to help understand the background to this book.
Imagine you were kicked out of university and the only job you could find was in another city, Thessalonica, with no church and no Internet connection. You gather some student interested in learning more about Jesus. You call yourselves Thessalonians Students CF and meet them for three weeks. All of a sudden you lose your job but regain a place in university. At uni, you are so busy catching up with your studies you have not had time to visit Thessalonica, so you send two of your closest friends. They return with news that TSCF is doing well you and decide to write them a letter, the first one of this sort you have ever written. What would you say? Now read the real thing...

Biblical text (choose the version you like): http://biblia.com/books/nrsv/1Th

Singing it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgOYArq1FY8 Consider how you could encourage people to sing the words of the bible.

More visuals of verses from 1 Thessalonians.http://pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=1+thessalonians
This time think about how reading the whole book of 1 Thessalonians and knowing its background adds to the meaning of each verse. Taking verses out of context, dilutes the richness of the many layers of meaning found in the text.

Day 14: 2 Thessalonians

Estimated Reading time: 5 mins
Biblical text (choose the version you like): http://www.biblestudytools.com/msg/2-thessalonians/1.html

Most religious text are tied to one particular language and cultural context. The bible is found in many languages. These are just a few translations of 2 Thessalonians. Isn't it wonderful how God meets us where we are at and in a language we can understand?
Hindi http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2TwK1_yri0
Japanese http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TDeS7LBPk4
Greek http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6HVqqGfojI
Burmese http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMrp-gPSlpE
Hokkien http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MaFPAF5I88

With the Mayan prophecy passed and ecological disasters mounting, how is Paul's warning in this letter helpful?

Day 15: 1 Timothy

Estimated Reading time: 10 mins
Biblical text (choose the version you like): http://www.biblica.com/bibles/chapter/?verse=1+Timothy+1&version=msg

Timothy and Titus are Paul's pastoral letters. He writes to his closest companions encouraging them on. Meredith and Janet are TSCF student presidents in 2013; they regularly write to student leaders. Meredith asks, "As a student, what do you feel this book is saying to you? Pray for your CF and its challenges and triumphs of 2012 and the hopes and plans for 2013."

A story from Bhojpuri N. India. A 70 year old man planted 40 churches. He said, "Every morning my great niece reads to me from the Bible for one hour- I can't read so she reads for me. Then I think about what she read until lunch. I think about what it means and what God wants our family to do. When everyone comes in from the field for lunch, I tell them what God said through His Word to our family. Then I tell them to tell everyone they know what God said to our family that day. And they do. That's all."
Taken from Perspectives http://www.perspectives.org.nz/

Day 16: 2 Timothy

Estimated Reading time: 5 mins
Biblical text (choose the version you like): http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/book.php?book=2+Timothy&chapter=1&verse=

This is possibly Paul's last letter before his execution.
Contrast
The movie The Bucket List, the book Tuesdays with Morris and the last lecture by Randy Pausch are modern last words.

Compare these three modern ‘last words’ with 2 Timothy, Paul’s last words, in the form of a personal letter.

Day 17: Titus

Estimated Reading time: 5mins
Biblical text (choose the version you like): http://www.intervarsity.org/mx/item/4833/

Picture taken from

http://www.foundationsforfreedom.net/References/NT/Pauline/Titus/Titus0/Titus_Introduction.html.

When you think about leaders who comes to mind?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UV1fs8lAbg MLK?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SakitCoNYc Ghandi?
When you think of inspiring speeches what comes to mind?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvsz_XkPRR4 Russell Norman?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJNwVKCdWR8 The Queen?
Does Titus suggest something different?
Pray for development of godly leaders in your CF, church, campus, city, NZ and abroad.