The New Year is a great time to recommit to regular quiet times. Here are a few helpful tools.

Open up The Bible

The Good Book Company have expanded the Open up the Bible campaign. They have launched a new website – www.openupthebible.com – so that “wherever you are, whenever you can, open up the Bible”. The website is packed with articles, video interviews and free downloads to get people started. Check out the video below.

Going Deeper

Feeling spiritually dirty, unclean, a little dishevelled, unkempt or just untidy at the start of 2012…? Perhaps what you need is to wash yourself in the S.O.A.P of God’s Word. A month ago a friend and mentor of mine raved about this and suggested I try it out. I love it! It’s a super simple way to study and pray the Bible every day but is so, so good.

Here’s how it works in general but please adapt it to suit you.

Get yourself a notebook or journal (I got myself one of those nice A5 Moleskine ones. Seriously, a nice notebook will actually help a little).

Ask God to lead you to a part of Scripture that you’d like to read through for a couple of months or so. (I started with 1 Samuel 18 following on from a recent preach I enjoyed, to walk the walk with David – and God of course. Is there a Bible character you’d like to get to know and walk with them, as together you walk with God through your highs and lows, challenges and joys?) It would be helpful to do a bit of background research to get some idea of the context. For example, check out the introduction to the book in an ESV Study Bible, or you might even want to get yourself a good Bible Dictionary and Commentary (the IVP ones are a good place to start).

Read more »

We’ve just launched a great new way for people to support our mission, called Give as you Live. You can download the Give as you Live shopping app to send, on average, 2.5% of every £1 you spend online to Westminster Chapel. This means you can turn every grocery delivery, every holiday and every pair of new shoes into a donation to us. Shops include: Tesco, Sainsburys, Asda, HMV, John Lewis, lastminute.com, British Airways, iTunes and many more.

If you’re a Christian outside of London or the UK who uses our website and/or our podcast regularly we would appreciate your support to build upon the excellent foundations laid by respected bible teachers, such as Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones and Dr RT Kendall, to establish an Antioch church (see Acts 11 and 13) where every member plays their part to facilitate gospel mission across London and the world. To find out about more ways to give, click here.

Check out the video below to get a better understanding of how it works.

This is an extract on fasting from our Prayer Guide for our Prayer Week on 19-23 September, particularly to help those who have not fasted before.

What is fasting?

Fasting is a biblical practice, not a biblical command. It means ‘going without’, which can include all food, luxury foods (e.g. chocolate, see for example Daniel 10:2-3), television or a favourite hobby. It is the principle of denying yourself a good thing in order to attain something better. It is a good exercise in self-discipline that helps us to rely on God and experience greater intimacy with Him. Francis Anfuso says, “I don’t fast to see how spiritual I am; I fast to see how spiritual I’m not. Fasting peels off the veneer of godliness. All pretence is starved out, and I’m left with the real me. Fasting helps to loosen me from those things to which I am attached.

Read more »

Please don’t be alarmed if you look at our About Us – Who’s Who page over the next couple of days (from Fri 29 Jul). For a bit of fun all of us on staff and others who are willing to join in have changed their profile picture to a cartoon character of their choice – someone they look like, are like or admire. Everything will be back to normal on Monday (1 Aug).