Sing Hallelujah

Sing Hallelujah is a nationwide project which encourages people to find their voice and discover the joy of singing through Handel's famous "Hallelujah Chorus". Sing Hallelujah is a project from the BBC, led by BBC Radio 3, and English National Opera (ENO).

Everyone from beginners to established choirs is invited to learn the Hallelujah Chorus, with the help of the BBC and ENO, and encouraged to perform the work during November and December 2009 to help mark the 250th anniversary year of Handel's death.

The Story of Creation (via Twitter)

If God tweeted the story of Creation…

Note the entry for Day Seven: [no tweets]

Pray the Bible

An online edition of Matthew Henry’s Method of Prayer is available on the Internet. Matthew Henry's method, quite simply, is to “pray the Bible” and so the website is full of prayers composed almost entirely of Scripture. In addition to prayers of adoration, of confession of thanksgiving and intercession, in addition to prayers for many occasions. These include: morning and evening, and for Sundays and more specifically: “For Those Weighed Down and Burdened” or “For Those Who are Sick and Weak.” If you want to grow in your practice of prayer - and who doesn’t? - do check out this site today.

"Let nothing be wasted"

In today's Thought for the Day, Bishop James Jones discussed the vast amount of food we waste in the UK, linking this to the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand.

"Long before people realised the earth wasn't a limitless larder and centuries before the word 'sustainability' appeared on anyone's lips Jesus was warning against a lifestyle groaning with greed and waste."

The 2011 Trust

2011 will be a significant year for the Bible with many projects happening through the 2011 Trust to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, which was completed in 1611. There have been few more important single publications and its impact through history has been colossal. The aim of the Trust is to celebrate its impact in history and on language, particularly in this country, but also throughout the English speaking world.

Knowledge of the Bible is poor

Knowledge of the Bible is poor, according to a survey undertaken by Durham University, on behalf of CODEC (Communication in the Digital Environment). Over 900 people, from faith and non-faith backgrounds, were surveyed at various locations throughout England and Wales about their knowledge of the Bible.

62% of respondents did not know the parable of the Prodigal Son and 60% were not able to recall anything about the Good Samaritan. There was also a lack of biblical knowledge among churchgoers, with 72% knowing nothing about Daniel in the Lions’ Den. However, three-quarters of people surveyed said they owned a Bible. Just under athird said that the Bible was significant in their lives today, and many said they still turn to the Bible for support and guidance at key moments.

60 years of Bible distribution in Britain

2008 marked 100 years of worldwide Gideon Scripture distribution, with over 1.3 billion copies of the precious Word of God placed and presented around the world. In Gideon's diamond, read about how the United Kingdom became a ‘Gideon’ country in 1949, and by 1975 was a self-supporting National Association. The Gideons' website resources include Bible Helps, Daily Bible readings, and a two-year Daily Bible Reading Plan.

Historic Bible pages put online

About 800 pages of the earliest surviving Christian Bible have been recovered and put on the internet. Visitors to the website www.codexsinaiticus.org can now see images of more than half the Codex Sinaiticus manuscript - written in Greek on parchment leaves. For 1,500 years, the Codex Sinaiticus lay undisturbed in a Sinai monastery until it was found in 1844 and split between Egypt, Russia, Germany and Britain.

The British Library is marking the online launch of the manuscript with an exhibition - which includes a range of historic items and artefacts linked to the document.

Seeking first the Kingdom

At Holy Trinity, Leicester we have recently begun a sermon series on the Sermon on the Mount(downloads here) and Emmanuel Church, Loughborough looked at the Beatitudes last summer (search on blessed here). Recently we've been singing Tim Hughes' song Living For Your Glory, which fits in with the focus of these sermons on the Kingdom:

And take my life, let it be everything, all of me
Here I am, use me for Your glory
In everything I say and do, let my life honor You
Here I am living for Your glory
Seeking first the Kingdom of my Lord

Why you don't read your Bible

Dan Hames suggests three reasons why we don't read the Bible:

• ‘You don’t have time’
• ‘You think the bible’s all about you’
• ‘You think your bible reading is for God’s benefit.’

However, "in the same way that skipping breakfast is more of a missed opportunity than a morally dubious choice; not going to the scriptures for nourishment is not a matter of calling down the anger of God, but of omitting to take advantage of His good gifts to his children".

Online Bible verses give hope in credit crunch

Words of hope and specially selected Bible verses have been added to the Church of England’s Matter of Life and Debt online initiative to help those suffering from the agony of hopelessness in the current financial situation. Finding hope when struggling with debt complements practical advice and resources for escaping problem debt with simple ways to develop a sense of hope for the future.

The new pages advise website visitors to look beyond the here and now, to count their blessings, and to remember that they are valuable to God, even if they lose the ‘status’ that comes with jobs and money. They will also find encouragement to pray to God about financial worries, with Psalms 42 and 130 offered as words of prayer.

“I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope” (Psalm 130)

Memorise more Bible

Eighteen tips to help you memorise more Scripture. These include:

• Read it repeatedly
• Visualize what you are reading
• Recognize patterns
• Start with the easy
• Build memorable associations
• Sing it
• Try mnemonic devices
• Type it
• Listen to it

A credit crunch text from the Bible

Have you listened to "What Is the Recession For?" yet? In it John Piper suggests that 2 Corinthians 8:12 might be the clearest "recession text" in the Bible, as it describes the roots of the joy of the Macedonian believers in their "recession".

In their "severe test of affliction" and "extreme poverty" their abundant joy "overflowed in a wealth of generosity". Their generosity didn't come from prosperity but from God's grace - and this grace rooted in "our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9).

Students need to know Bible's 'great stories': poet laureate

Children should be taught the Bible throughout their education because it is an "essential piece of cultural luggage" without which they will struggle to fully understand literature, according to the poet laureate, Andrew Motion in the article students need to know Bible's 'great stories'. Try the quiz: How much do you know about the Bible? and see also:

• Interview with Andrew Motion
• Poems which passeth understanding
• The essential Bible stories

Bible for Barack after Scripture-less swearing in

The Evangelical Alliance UK is sending President Barack Obama a new Bible after reports that one was mysteriously absent from his second swearing in. The new US President is being sent a copy of an edition of the Bible that highlights issues of poverty and justice: The Poverty and Justice Bible, published by Bible Society. This edition highlights more than 2,000 passages that speak of God’s attitude to poverty and justice. Prime Minister Gordon Brown was recently presented with The Poverty and Justice Bible at Downing Street, while in July 2008, hundreds of Bishops carried copies as they marched across Westminster in a campaign against world poverty.

The Brick Testament

Couldn't resist folowing up The Bible, but not as you know it with a link to The Brick Testament. If you want a fresh takw on the Nativity story, check out the Jesus Is Born section.

The Bible, but not as you know it

BBC website reports on "a wave of radical presentations of the Bible, including a manga version and a Lego gospel". The report concludes by saying "Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this new wave of Bibles is how sympathetic the church is to people messing about with its sacred scriptures, whether in wording or binding, no doubt reasoning that there can be some good in anything that gets people hearing its stories".

But then, didn't Paul say: "preach the word; be ready in season and out of season"? (2 Tim 4:2)

Bored with the US election?

While bearing in mind that we don't "do politics" on this blog, the intense media coverage of the US election means makes it impossible to ignore. Here's a website about the statistics behind the election and a prayer for the election. After all, whatever the result, this is what we are called to do:

I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone - for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Saviour (1 Timothy 2:1-3)

A Green Bible?

I recently came across an ad for The Green Bible - produced to "equip and encourage people to see God's vision for creation and help them engage in the work of healing and sustaining it". The editors point out that there are over 1,000 references to the earth in the Bible, compared to 490 references to heaven and 530 references to love.

The Green Bible includes the following distinctive features:

• Green-Letter Edition: Verses and passages that speak to God's care for creation highlighted in green
• Contributions by Desmond Tutu, the Bishops of Liverpool and Durham, and others
• A green Bible index and personal study guide
• Recycled paper, using soy-based ink with a cotton/linen cover

Renewed strength for the weary

Following an earlier post that sparked interest in it, some of Infusion watched Chariots of Fire last night. In the film, Eric Liddell reads from Isaiah 40:

Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

[stained glass window in St Bernard's Church, Wengen, Switzerland]