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The Bible plays an important part in the life of our church at Highbury.
A central part of all our services is teaching based on the Bible. We run courses that are related to the Bible and regularly 'Open the Book' to share together in finding out more about the Bible.
Our conviction is that by reading the Bible together we can sense what God is saying to us individually and as a church family. More than that, we can discover what we sense God is saying to the world at large.
We recently worked our way through Paul's letter to the Romans. Romans gets to the heart of the Christian message--those Sunday morning sermons on Romans are summarised in a very condensed form here.
From Christmas to Easter 2004 we read through John's Gospel together. The last of our sessions before Easter took us through John's account of the Passion of Jesus Christ. We used Bach's St John Passion to help throw light on the meaning of John 18 and 19. Click to here to go to the text of the St John Passion in the NRSV.
It's sometimes good to allow single verses to stand alone and simply to allow the love of God to pour out of them. In one recent Bible study series we found that Handel's Messiah
Helped us to do that. Try playing just one piece from Handel's Messiah each day during your time of prayer devotions. Our Bible study notes suggested prayer reflections to go with each of the Messiah's sections. Find a CD of Handel's Messiah and use these notes as an aid to devotion and prayer.
One way to explore a biblical book is to use a commentary. Another way is to set it alongside another book and find a new meaning somewhere between the two. This is particularly rewarding in the Psalms.
It is because the Psalms touch every part of the human condition that they have been treasured down through the centuries as wonderful prayers. Written in powerful poetry they come alive in new ways if put alongside an anthology of poetry. Neil Astley's Staying Alive is a wonderful introduction to modern poetry. Set it alongside the book of Psalms and the poetry of the Psalms comes alive in new ways. Click here to find out more!
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