Dear <<First Name>>
I hope that the long series looking at the Acts of the Apostles since Pentecost has been useful; it’s not often we read through such a long book and make links between our own age and the exciting, fast moving, world of the New Testament. It has been suggested that we make this series available as a booklet. The material is all archived on the URC website – devotions.urc.org.uk and if anyone wished to make a resource from the material they are more than welcome to do so.
Tomorrow, we start to read through St John’s Gospel. This is a work that we’re not as familiar with as we should be given it’s size and prominence in the New Testament. The devisors of the Lectionary most Churches use didn’t give St John a year of its own and slot various passages into the Church’s year. This is means we lose some of the focus of St John’s Gospel if we just hear those parts that are read on Sundays.
From tomorrow we will work our way through St John and be both comforted and disturbed by its insights and style. It can be startling to see how confrontational Jesus is in this Gospel – the editor sets him above Moses in the prologue (shocking to Jews) and very early on Jesus confronts the authorities by the cleansing of the Temple. The die is set and the Gospel moves towards Jesus’ betrayal and death with unremitting pace. The team of writers have worked hard on this series and we hope that you continue to find the Devotions a source of blessing.
If you’d like to read any old Devotions, or recommend them to a friend, you can use this link
where people can read and sign up for the Daily Devotions so they are emailed to them each morning. If you are a user of Facebook you can like and follow the DailyDevotion Facebook page and share devotions so that your Facebook friends see them too.
You may want to ask for the link and the following to go into your church’s newsletter.
Daily Devotions from the URC
Every morning a reading, reflection and prayer are sent out to over 1600 people by the United Reformed Church. A team of 100 or so people with different perspectives and from different places in our denomination collaborate to create this useful resource. People read them on their phones as they undertake their daily commute, on their computers at work, or with a coffee at home on a tablet. If you’d like to read some, or sign up to receive them, simply go to devotions.urc.org.uk
with every good wish
Andy
Andy Braunston
Coordinator, Daily Devotions from the URC project
Minister, Southside Cluster, Synod of Scotland