What does strain reveal about us? (1 Sam 13:15-23)
1 Sam 13:15-23 Experiencing culture shock in a foreign country can put a strain on relationships. My Mum once told me that when we were living in India as a family, she observed several marriages of other Hungarians there that…
Is God pernickety? (1 Sam 13:8-14)
1 Sam 13:8-14 The passage about Saul’s downfall is a disconcerting one. What exactly went wrong? When Saul was anointed, he was told to wait for seven days until Samuel came to offer sacrifices and showed him what to do…
When God seems absent (1 Sam 13:1-7)
1 Sam 13:1-7 We have all experienced times in our lives when we struggled to hear from God, our prayers seemed to bounce back from the ceiling and there was no particular sign that the Lord was working on our…
Moving from despair to hope (Ps 22:21-31)
Ps 22:21-31 When we are miserable and the world looks bleak, moving from despair to hope seems impossible. It is what the disciples must have felt looking at Jesus dying on the cross. In our lives too, when God’s power…
No fair-weather faith (Psalm 22:1-21)
Ps 22:1-21 Many non-Christians think of religion as a crutch. ‘How wonderful that you have faith to comfort you’, they say, as if faith were a magic pill that took the pain away. The truth is though that it can…
The way forward after a sinful choice (1 Sam 12:19-25)
1 Sam 12:19-25 Who of us doesn’t wonder about certain forks in the road where we chose a path that led to regrettable consequences? It is particularly sad if we had given in to sin whether it was lack of…
Correcting our vision (1 Sam 12:1-18)
1 Sam 12:1-18 I got my first glasses when I was about eleven or twelve and I still remember my sense of awe that suddenly I could read the board in class without squinting and all those blurry shapes on…
Overcoming a destructive heritage (1 Samuel 11)
1 Sam 11:1-13 A friend of mine had a very critical mother who constantly censured her for the way she dressed, talked, and acted. Although she understood as an adult that her mother’s reproaches arose out of a desire to…
The choice that makes all the difference (1 Sam 10:17-27)
1 Sam 10:17-27 Those who suffer from feelings of insecurity know how debilitating these can be. Irrespective of people’s real abilities, the sense of inadequacy can cause them to freeze or make self-defeating choices that confirm their impression of failure…
Can God’s enabling fail? (1 Sam 10:1-16)
1 Sam 10:1-16 I still vividly remember the news about a gifted pastor of a high-profile church, who left his wife and moved in with his secretary. The shock rocked Christians who knew the pastor and listened to his faithful,…