Kings
The difference our choices make
2 Kings 20:12-21 When I was a child and we watched movies as a family, sometimes Dad would reassure us, children, when we were worried about how the story would end. I wondered at the time how he could know…
Life out of death: The God who is for us
2 Kings 20:1-11 All of us have regrets in life when what we had hoped for did not happen. Some grieve over not having found a life-partner, others struggle with childlessness or single parenting, yet others long for a career…
The secret of the trusting weak against the strong
2 Kings 19:20-37 Last week, we saw Hezekiah’s growing trust of God as he took steps, albeit tentative, towards Him. Today, we hear God’s answer, His perspective, and learn about His character. This immediately raises the question for us: what…
How to grow trust in God after failing
2 Kings 19:1-19 On 21 December 1989, a fierce storm hit the northern coastline of Brittany, France. The waves crashing into La Jument lighthouse were 30 metres high (about 100 feet). The next morning, a photographer hired a helicopter to…
Clever tactics of discouragement and how to resist them
2 Kings 18:17-37 In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis imaginatively describes the tactics of Satan to discourage and lead Christians astray. His fictional character, Screwtape, is an experienced senior demon, who instructs his nephew in the art of temptation. The…
The challenge of faith and how we respond
2 Kings 18:1-16 According to Greek myth, Achilles’ mother dipped his baby son in the water of the Styx, the river that runs through the underworld, to make him invulnerable. His only exposed area was on his heel where his…
What makes for an effective witness about God
2 Kings 17:24-41 I have an old print that I bought during my gap year in Israel when I fell in love with an original painting that I saw in an artist’s shop. Since I could not afford the real…
How sin empties us out and the choice we face
2 Kings 17:1-23 I have mentioned on this blog C.S. Lewis’ imaginative treatment of heaven and hell in The Great Divorce, as busloads of hell-dwellers get a chance to visit heaven. These people experience heaven as a beautiful but unbearably…
How quick fixes can destroy us
2 Kings 16:1-20 A student at a Bible college where I taught was in his last year before becoming a pastor. He was having trouble submitting his last assignment in time and, in desperation, he copied substantial parts of someone…
Heeding God’s warning signs in time
2 Kings 15:1-38 When I was about twelve, my family spent a week’s holiday by a branch of the River Danube. The first day when we went down to one of the beaches nearby, my brother and I were about…