Bible & Prayer
What is the Bible?
The Bible is a collection of books that teach us about God and His relationship with humanity. The Bible contains 66 books, divided into two main sections: the Old Testament and the New Testament.
The Bible is the record of God's self-revelation, supremely in Jesus Christ, and is a means through which he still reveals himself, by the Holy Spirit.
What is prayer?
Prayer is the communication, spoken and unspoken, that takes place between ourselves and God.
We believe that we were created for friendship with God and have been reconciled to him in Jesus Christ. Prayer is the natural expression of this loving relationship with God our heavenly Father. We pray to him because we trust him and want to do his will in everything. We pray to him because we depend on him and seek his guidance, strength and comfort.
The Bible and Prayer are two important parts of Christian life. There are many resources available to help us study the Bible and to support our prayers to God. This page list several resources.
Word In Time
The Methodist church runs a daily Bible study called Word in Time. The study takes a theme per week and has a reading a short study for each day. There are two ways that you can access the study.
The Bible study is linked to the Methodist Prayer Handbook.
Other Bible Study Material Online
Scripture Union makes two of its Bible Study Notes paper products available online.
- Daily Bread - A themed set of readings spanning several days.
- Closer to God - Weekly set of readings, starting on a Monday.
Online Bibles
There are online sites that provide the Bible in different versions. These sites include:
- Oremus Bible Browser - The resource used by the Methodist Church for the Word In Time studies.
- Bible Gateway - A US based resource offering a wider range of Bible versions and translations into other languages.
- Beibl.net - the New Testament in contemporary Welsh available online with study tools.
Lectionary
A Lectionary is a list of portions of the Bible that can be read in services. The Methodist Church makes use of the Revised Common Lectionary, created by the CCT (Consultation on Common Texts), which follows a three year cycle. The lectionary can be used by preachers as the text for a particular Sunday, although other texts can be chosen by a preacher. A second lectionary, based on an Anglican lectionary, is also used to provide additional readings for churches that hold more than one service in a day. The Word In Time materials also uses the Revised Common Lectionary as part of its structure of readings.
You can read the Common Lectionary online at the Vanderbilt Divinity Library. The reading is also available as a RSS feed.
Prayer Resources
The Methodist Church has a range of resources available for prayer, which can be found at the Prayer on their website. The resources include Ideas for Prayer, a Prayer Forum and a Prayer of the Day, taken from the Methodist Prayer Handbook.