1 Sam 23:15-29 After four years of theological study in the UK (undergrad and masters), I was running out of financial support. What money I had saved went into previous years of study and my home church was not interested…

1 Sam 23:1-14 One of the side-effects of suffering, whether it is ongoing illness and pain, a loss of a loved one or injustice and hurt, is that what is happening to us can become all-consuming. There is no emotional…

1 Sam 22:1-23 In my previous post (The Way Out of Playing the Victim), we have seen Saul’s complaints, his finger pointing, while he laid the blame for his difficulties on others. In the process, he greatly deceived himself and…

1 Sam 22:1-23 I was working on reception duty at a Christian youth hostel in Haifa, Israel, when three tourists walked in. ‘Don’t tell her we have any money’, muttered one to the other in Hungarian. They missed their cruise…

1 Sam 21:1-15 How is it that when it comes to judging someone’s motivation whom we dislike, we see it in the worst possible light, but when it comes to our own, we attribute the best intentions to ourselves? Motivation…

1 Sam 20:1-23 In my gap year, when I was a volunteer in a youth hostel in Israel, I worked together with a girl my age who had come to faith not long before I arrived. She had a lot…

1 Sam 19:1-24 In secondary school, I had a teacher who seemed a bit slow on the uptake. After a particular incident, I made a mocking comment about her in the break, which was overheard by another teacher. He gave…

1 Sam 18:1-30 My father came from a well-to-do family and before World War II, his parents entertained in the grand style and lacked no luxury. Dad told me once that he was so spoilt as a young boy that…

1 Sam 17:31-58) When as a teenager I started going to a Bible study group, I was amazed at the stories I heard from others there. At prayer time, many shared personal experiences of what God was doing in their…