Shalom Challenge
The Adult Education Committee would like to announce the start of our Old Testament Shalom Challenge. The reading road maps are available in the narthex or as a PDF download below.
Why start our Old Testament readings with the Psalms? The Psalms contain many of Hebrew scriptures that are best known and widely used within the Christian church. John Wesley noted that the Book of Psalms is “one of the choicest parts of the Old Testament, wherein there is so much of Christ and his gospel, as well as of God and God’s law, that it has been called the summary of both Testaments.” Martin Luther said it could be called a “little Bible”; adding that few other scriptures “give you the words, expressions, and sighs of the saints, ….. having collected together, as it were, the lives, groans, and experience of many thousands, whose hearts God alone sees and knows.”
Yet, when John Wesley abridged the Anglican Book of Common Prayer for the use of American Methodists, he eliminated close to a third of the Psalter “as being highly improper for the mouths of a Christian Congregation.“ What was his concern? Clearly there are some differences and background to consider as we approach the collection of Psalms.
For more info please contact Marcia Ketner at 972-231-1005 ext. 13 or
marcia@arapaho-umc.org.
