Jer 11:18-23; 12:1-17 During my gap year working in a Christian youth hostel in Israel, the manager went with his family on a six-months furlough to the States. His deputy, installed for the interim, turned out to be a difficult…

Jer 11:1-17 At first glance, this chapter reads as if the relationship with God were conditional on obedience. Do as I say and then you will be my people (Jer 11:4). Christians raised on the doctrine of salvation by grace…

Jer 10:17-25 Testimonies of how people come to faith in God can be immensely fascinating, particularly when the person describing the experience can do so in a way that brings home the reality of how God touched their lives. I…

Jer 10:1-16 We tend to think of addiction as having chemical hooks that keep users trapped in the habit. In a TED Talk I heard recently,[1] the speaker explained that this narrative is based on an experiment in the 20th…

Jer 9:12-26 When disaster strikes, whether on a grand scale (e.g. war, earthquake, flood) or on a personal level (illness, loss of a loved one, misfortune), the most commonly asked question is ‘why’. Why, God? Why me? Why now? Why…

Jer 8:18-22; 9:1-11 When I was in my early teens, my Dad started teaching me English. As I had a flare for languages, I often depended on it to carry me through rather than on doing the work. As a…

Jer 8:1-17 An old song from the seventies describes an extra-marital affair and concludes with the plaintive refrain, ‘How can this be wrong when it feels so right?’.[1] At least the lyrics acknowledge that such a liaison is wrong, or…

Jer 7:16-34; 8:1-3 A former colleague shared his experiences after a visit to India where one of his Western team members became exasperated with the way Indian Christians still maintained the caste distinctions in their church context. ‘Why can’t you…

Jer 7:1-15 The great truth of the Reformation was the understanding that our salvation and relationship with God are based on His grace alone. We can come to God because He redeemed us from our self-centred way of life through…

Jer 6:16-30 A university friend’s sister was suicidal and sometimes also slashed her wrists to ease her internal pain. When my friend tried to reason with her to get help from a professional counsellor, the sister refused. She was really…