Category: Uncategorized

How much faith do you need? How do you get more? In Luke 17, the apostles ask Jesus to increase their faith. Just before this, Jesus has challenged them to give no offence and take no offence. He’s told them to be careful not to cause another believer to sin, he’s warned them how serious…

Whatever you make of what is happening in Israel, we can all agree it is awful to see such suffering. It is strange to be reading through the book of Joshua while all this is happening. What are we to make of the conquest of Canaan and the driving out of the nations? The first…

There’s two ways to be lost. One is more dangerous than the other. The first way to be lost is to break all the rules, but the second way to be lost is to keep all the rules! Which is more dangerous? The first way seems more dangerous and the second is certainly more respectable,…

Imagine you were planning a wedding, who would you invite? Or if you were planning a party? In Jesus’ day, people held banquets, these were an opportunity to celebrate, and perhaps a way to move up in society, or at least to get a nice invitation back for a dinner. It was a sort of…

“How long, O LORD will you forget me forever?” These words from Psalm 13 may well describe the dear lady Jesus met in our reading from Luke 13. She had had a disabling spirit for 18 years. Had she been crying out to God for 18 years? She hadn’t given up on God for she…

Our world is an anxious world. I don’t know the statistics but I imagine there is more anxiety today than at other times, or maybe it just feels that way? Maybe there is more pressure on people today than in previous generations, but anxiety is nothing new, otherwise Jesus would not have needed to tell…

Deuteronomy 23:1 is at first sight a troubling verse: “No one whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall enter the assembly of the LORD.” What are we to make of that?! It’s not the sort of verse you stick on your fridge is it! Why are these people excluded? Before…

Our world is very confused about how to live, it seems to live by the mantra, “Do whatever makes you happy.” But what if your happiness leads to someone else suffering? God’s law gives us a clearer answer. God’s law tells us to live for the good of others. In Deuteronomy we see lots of…

All sorts of voices compete for our attention, who should we listen to? There is so much confusion in the world, who knows what is best? There is so much suffering in the world, who can help us to navigate it? Our reading from Deuteronomy tells us that God will raise up a prophet like…

Can you remember what you heard at church on Sunday? Or what about what you read in your Bible yesterday? Well you may say, I can’t remember every meal I ate either but they still did me good! This is true, and its very hard to measure the impact of God’s Word in our lives.…