A crucial thing today, one we all need sometime: How as a Christian (not, as part of my conversion, but…
Can Reading The Newspapers Make You Go Blind?
A newspaper front page is, in essence, a religious object. Of course that isn’t what we think we’re buying. But…
Why Believe The Bible?
Why believe the Bible? Your church probably has a statement of faith affirming (among other things) the total trustworthiness of the Bible, as originally given,…
2 Sam 7: The Leader And Grace
Today another key lesson from our 2 Samuel leadership manual; vital indeed for anyone at all whom God is going…
2 Sam 9: This Is What Grace Is Like
Last week we explored something seriously vital to anyone God will use: our sense of God’s grace, His colossal, undeserved,…
Leadership And Power In 2 Samuel
Some of us have to find our way in sometimes murky areas – the politics in management, in education; even,…
Romans 6>8 (#1): There’s No Wrongful Behaviour We Cannot Break Free From!
I remember when I first discovered Romans 6 as a student. It felt like wonderful dynamite! `Sin shall not have…
2 Sam 11 (and 13 etc): The Leader And Sex
Today part of our 2 Samuel leadership manual that might be crucial one day for lots of us… A sex…
Romans 6>8 (#2): There’s **No** Wrongful Behaviour We Cannot Break Free From!
In Romans 6 God makes an incredible – and if, or since, this is God speaking: highly practical – promise…
2 Sam 12: The Way To Repentance
A crucial thing today, one we all need sometime: How as a Christian (not, as part of my conversion, but…
Romans 6>8 (#4): Why Then No Instant Triumph? (ch7)
We fed last week on God’s dramatic revelation in Romans 6, so crucial to its guarantee of our liberation from…
Romans 6>8 (#5) Liberation: The Three Steps Forward On Our Side
Recently we’ve fed on God’s amazing promise that we can be liberated from all – all! – negative behaviours (Rom…
Liberation in Romans (#6): Deepening Our Grasp Of The Spirit’s Agenda (chs12,13)
Here’s the last of our posts exploring God’s amazing promise that there’s no negative behaviour, at all, that we cannot…
2 Sam 18:33: This Is What Our Father Is Like
Folks, hello. Something unusual (and brief) this week – just one short verse, as I find it so thought- &…
Matthew 24: Jesus On the End-Times?
Matthew 24, and its parallel in Mark 13, are arguably the most significant Bible chapters on the end times, and…
Romans (#10): A PS On Chapter 9 – A Troubling One??- Undeserved Glory!!
The tough parts of Scripture often turn out the most worthwhile. Or, as C S Lewis puts it: the foxhunter…
2 Sam 22: Model For Our Life-Song
Today something else different from usual!- David’s life-song in 2 Sam 22. Watchman Nee says one thing that really matters…
2 Sam 23 & 24: So Many Final Lessons!!
So we reach 2 Samuel’s last chapters; and there’s a huge, worship-inspiring amount for us here, as we’ll see. But…
Mark 1 and intro
I find something uncanny as I read Mark’s Gospel. I might not have expected it, yet I keep finding it…
Proverbs intro
Suppose there was someone who you knew was the wisest man on earth. And, he’d put his life-wisdom into a…
2 Corinthians(1): Stress And What We Can Get Out Of It (Ch1)
I’ve enjoyed journeying here through the `vision of God’s ultimate` in Ephesians! But sometimes we feel a million miles from…
Luke resource
This site started out as an archive of ideas on some of the Bible’s chewier parts, in the old testament. …
2 Corinthians(2): How Paul Copes With Stress – Beyond The Measurable Goals (Ch2)
We’re feeding on 2 Corinthians, where Paul is having a very difficult time and writes on the very edge of…
2 Corinthians(3): Do We Know We Each `Minister The Spirit`?! (3:1-6)
Now in ch3 we find the third anchor that gives Paul, and us, real `confidence’ (3:4) amid the stresses that…
2 Corinthians(4): We Point The Wonderful Way Right To The Heart Of God! (3:7-18)
Is there a fourth `anchor’ here that helps Paul survive the stresses, and means WE too surely won’t `lose heart`…
2 Corinthians(5): You Want Transformation? This Is How It Happens… Channelling Glory! (3:12 (again!)-4:1)
Amid all the pressures we encounter, Paul’s been saying, we’ll be seriously strengthened if we grasp the incredible privilege of…
2 Corinthians(6): Our Indispensable Weapons (4:1-6)
Summary so far: among all his problems, Paul doesn’t lose heart; and this is because he knows the Word he…
2 Corinthians(7): Broken Pot Spirituality (4:7-11)
I’m glad some of us are finding this magnificent, profound epistle as lifegiving as I do. As we’ve seen, Paul…
2 Corinthians(8): Now Let’s Learn About The Glory! (4:12-5:8)
Here’s a lifegiving idea: in the new testament, suffering and glory seem to go together like the two sides of…
2 Corinthians(9): Turning Vision Into Lifestyle! (5:9-21)
As usual with Paul, mysticism, vision, turns into action, as 2 Corinthians continues. Or, we might equally say, faith comes…
2 Corinthians(10): Sixfold Transformation!(1) (5:16-7:1)
`If anyone is in Christ`, says Paul (and indeed, God), `they are a new creation’ (2 Cor 5:17)! And as…
2 Corinthians(11): Sixfold Transformation!(2) (chs7-9)
So now vision is turning into passion, into action! In these chapters we watch Paul embodying the transformation he’s been…
2 Corinthians(12): God Actually _Plans_ On Our Weakness, In This World Where The Cross Happened! (chs 10-13)
This is our final post on 2 Corinthians. And here, perhaps, comes the heart, the ultimate gift to each of…
Ephesians(3): God Says We’re In Heaven Right Now!? (2:1-7, 1:13-14)
There’s so much more in Ephesians’ glorious first paragraphs! Not surprisingly, since Paul is expressing the vision of the ultimate,…
Ephesians(4): Grasping The Cosmic Plan, And Our Own Place In It (1:9-12)
We caught last week something of the wonder that we’re already seated with Christ `in the heavenly realms` (see Eph…
The Loss Of God As Key To Western Culture: (1) Basis For Identity & Self-Worth
What are the most important questions in your life? (This is an extended post!) Do you identify with this? The…
The Loss Of God As Key To Western Culture: (2) Basis For Purpose & Desire
What are we living ‘for’? Where are we wanting to go, what is there worth doing? ‘Are we not wandering through…
Ephesians(6): `Church`, She’s Not Quite What We Think – The Body (1:22-23, 2:15-16, 4:11-16, 5:28-30)
We are Christ’s Bride (last week): what more could we ask or imagine? Yet there’s more! If we speed-read through…
Questions For Debriefing Your Missionary
It’s very important, when missionaries we support come home (temporarily or longterm), that they feel their home church really cares…
Ephesians(7): `Church`, She’s Not Quite What We Think – God’s Masterpiece, God’s Workmanship (2:1-10)
We the Church aren’t what we appear. We’ve seen Ephesians bringing us one profound image after another as Paul labours…
The Loss Of God As Key To Western Culture: (3) Basis For Ethics
`There are altogether no moral facts… Morality is merely an interpretation of certain phenomena – more precisely, a misinterpretation…’ –…
Deuteronomy 4 and intro
Deuteronomy is a challenging book, and maybe many of us avoid it! I don’t think l preached it during many,…
The Loss Of God As Key to Western Culture: (4) Basis For Truth
`There are no facts’? ‘What about these conventions of language? Are they really the products of knowledge, of the sense…
The Loss Of God As Key To Western Culture: (5) Basis For Love
‘Maybe there’s a God, maybe there isn’t. It doesn’t matter much.’ But as we’ve seen, it does matter. And the…
`Till We Have Faces`: Why Does God Not Speak Clearly?
Among C S Lewis’ many great books are some superb fictions. A favourite of mine is Voyage to Venus, also…
Ephesians(9): The Vision Of The Incredible Love Of God (2:11-22, 3:14-21)
In these last weeks we’ve absorbed the amazing vision God gives us in Ephesians of `Church`. Now the revelation gets…
Ephesians(10): The Vision Hits The Road! (4:1-6:9)
Now marriage, sex, workplace, family: in Ephesians God shows us how authentic doctrine (when it’s really from God, not manmade)…
How The West Tried To Replace God: A History – (1) Literature
Early in the new millennium, our western culture feels, as Thomas Hardy suggested, like a cemetery of dreams. And the…
Ephesians(11): Won’t Survive Without These (6:10-22)
Like we’ve seen, having presented the cosmic vision, Paul says: You’ll need to do something practical about it, in marital/sexual…
How The West Tried To Replace God: A History – (2) Rock
In the last post we’ve begun looking at how the dreams have died in our western culture – and at…
Ephesians(12): The Summit! (6:23-24)
As we’ve seen throughout this series: Ephesians’ vision is of a cosmos that one day will be gloriously freed from…
Genesis 5
After the Bible’s profound first four chapters, whatever can we learn from something like the genealogy in Genesis 5? Well,…
Genesis 6
This site’s aim, we’ve said, is partly to learn what we can from the Bible’s chewier parts… So can we…
Genesis 6 and 7: The Flood
What practically do we, Jesus’ disciples, learn from the Flood? It’s always good to ask, what does the new testament…
Genesis 7 – the Flood again
Sometimes people say: However can you Christians believe in the flood? Well: we can’t prove it; we don’t have videos…
Genesis 11 and 12 – Part 1
Genesis (with Exodus) is the deeply foundational book of the old testament, as we’ve seen from its opening chapters: What’s…
Genesis 11 and 12 – Part 2
The tower of Babel speaks straight into my own life! How? There’s nothing more vital than that we `live by…
Genesis 12 to 14
Abram’s story again: What’s God’s first massive lesson for us about growing in faith? Genesis has lots to show us……
Genesis 15
Today we’re with the key new testament verse about Abram, embodying the very heart of our gospel: ‘Abraham believed God,…
Genesis 16 and 17
So what’s our third great lesson in faith from Abram? It’s Genesis 16: the classic story of how not to…
Genesis 18 and 19
Ok, Sodom’s history now. How can we `everyday Christians` be fed from these events? Genesis 18: The Lord in human form…
Genesis 22 – Part 1
So now we come to Abraham’s last huge lesson in his lifelong growth in faith; Genesis 22. Some things in…
Genesis 22 – Part 2
Faith is utterly central to our Christian life; God’s people `live by faith`, we’re told. So God is very motivated…
Genesis 24
OK, Genesis 24, time for a love story: how Isaac gets a wife. And there’s this, from Abraham: `The Lord,…
Is Jesus Anti-Gay?
Is Jesus anti-gay? This question is hard to talk about for several reasons. First, because it can hit some very…
`God And the Gay Christian`: A Review
Matthew Vines` book God and the Gay Christian is a good example of a book that seeks to argue that…
Managing Our Time
Here’s a vital topic for us to grapple with if our lives are to be fruitful! God has put enormous…
Why Didn’t God Simply Stop Covid?
`If your God is all powerful and all knowing why doesn’t she get rid of Coronavirus?? And if she can’t…
Pioneering Student Outreach: What Are We Trying To Do Here?
What are we trying to do in pioneering student outreach? This post was originally written to summarize our purpose for…
Genesis 26 and 27: Isaac
Abram’s story has shown us a huge amount about what faith means. What can we learn from Isaac’s story? Two…
Student Outreach: Dream Big Dreams! (part one)
This post was originally written when I had the privilege of involvement in the growing IFES student ministry in Europe.…
Ecclesiastes: a possible intro
The book of Ecclesiastes is one of the hardest to understand in the Bible. `Everything is meaningless!’, announces the Teacher…
Genesis 25 to 28: Jacob
Genesis, we’ve seen, is the vital book of foundations. What is God like (ch1)? What does it mean to be…
Student Outreach: Dream Big Dreams! (part two)
THINKING STRATEGICALLY We’ve thought about exposing God’s life within us by individual friendships; and exposing God’s life within our collective…
Marrying Cross-Culturally: Some Things To Think About
More and more people today are going joyfully into cross-cultural marriages. But when we ourselves did, there was little advice…
Jesus’ Return: What Does It Mean For Me?
Jesus will come back openly to earth as King! History as we know it will reach its end, its climax.…
Genesis 32
Ever thought of Jesus as a wimp? Well, today in Genesis 32 we see Jesus as a wrestler. We’ve seen…
Genesis 37 to 41: Joseph
So, the next of Genesis’ big lessons for us, how God rescues people: how do you sort out a conceited…
Genesis 39: sex, and Joseph
Last time we started on Joseph. So this time, sexual temptation… Part of Joseph’s salvation and training involved him being…
Genesis 48 to 50
When I was an English literature student I was taught that, to grasp a great book, you must work on…
John: Five Starter Thoughts
This post cannot offer to be a full-scale `introduction` to John, when John’s deeply profound gospel could be said to be…
Joshua 1 (part one) and intro
Today we start feeding on Joshua. I’ve been looking forward to this! Joshua’s story is a book about adventurousness, and…
Acts resource
This site started out as an archive of ideas on some of the Bible’s chewier parts, in the old testament. …
Joshua 1: What Leads Into Victory? (part two)
Like we said last week: Joshua is a magnificent, joyful book about victory, about God’s people coming into the promised…
Joshua 1: What Leads Into Victory? (part three!)
Like we’ve said: Joshua is a hugely helpful book about victory; about God’s people coming into the place where the…
Exodus intro
God has given us two great foundational books to the Old Testament. Exodus is the second, full of utterly vital…
Joshua 2: Lessons From A Hooker
What marks God’s people if we’re moving into victory? Part 4! Joshua chapter 2: Joshua sends spies to Jericho. They…
Exodus 1 and 2
We said about Genesis: to grasp a Bible book we need to grasp its beginning and end. So now Exodus,…
Exodus 2 to 4 – part 1
As we gaze into the future – as we all do sometimes – and think what God wants to use…
Joshua 3 and 4: Unexpectedly Profound!
Joshua is an unexpectedly profound book, and today’s chapters are a great example. But some of its stories can seem…
Reasons For Faith Course: ReadMeFirst
This is an introductory post with resources for a course you could call ANSWERING TOUGH QUESTIONS: on the reasons we…
Exodus 2 to 4 – part 2
God wants us every one of us to have a really significant life. But how does He prepare us so…
Exodus 2 to 4 – part 3
How does God train someone – you or me – to make a real impact for His glory? We’ve been…
Joshua 5: `Get Circumcized Now!` – ???
Joshua: What marks God’s people if we’re moving into victory? Part 6! There are two things God commands His people…
Joshua 5:13: God Is Not Part Of My Team??
Today’s a focused post. About a final preparation for victory at Jericho: but (I think), one of the most powerful…
Exodus 5 to 11 – God and Pharoah
We’ve been feeding on how God trains up Moses. But mighty Pharaoh is the centre of Exodus’ next chapters: Egypt’s…
Reasons For Faith Course: session 1, leader’s notes
Always open in prayer to God who cares about what we’re doing! INTRODUCTION BY GROUP LEADER: This course is called…
Joshua 6 to 8: How (And How Not) To Demolish Strongholds
`The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world`, says Paul; `They have divine power to demolish…
Reasons For Faith Course: session 1 handout
`Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for your hope!’ (1…
Exodus 12 – Passover, part 1
So now we come to – arguably – the most important event in the old testament: the only one Israel…