Bible reading notes
Seeing right: Where the real battle is
2 Kings 2:1-13 We continue with the series on the Book of Kings. For anyone new here, below are previous posts on Solomon, on the early divided kingdom and on Elijah’s career. And for a refresher, here is the introduction…
How to access God’s resources (Psalm 23)
Ps 23:1-6 Spending a week near a sheep farm a few summers ago, I noticed one evening a sheep that scrambled up the hillside and refused to budge from there when the rest of the flock was brought into the…
The Law and Jesus: from grace to grace
John 1:14-18 I always enjoy hearing how people ended up in a relationship and once asked an elderly couple I met in the UK, who shared their story. He was from England learning Spanish at university and wanted a penfriend,…
The Word became flesh and God’s extraordinary gift
John 1:14-18; Exod 33:1-3, 12-23; 34:1-10 Secular people in the West can feel resentful about the seemingly arbitrary Christian rule that only those who believe in Jesus can enter ‘heaven’. How can a loving God exclude even good people from…
What makes God’s Word life-giving?
John 1:11-13; 6:26-58; Deut 8:3 My uncle once filled up a rental car at a petrol station, but when he started the ignition, he heard clunking noises and despite pushing down on the pedal to accelerate, the vehicle moved sluggishly.…
God’s Word as Light
John 1:4-13; Ps 119:105 A woman I know shared in a Facebook group her struggles with stress and the physical effects this has on her body. Her request for advice, opened a floodgate of confessions from others who were similarly…
God’s Word: Lessons in wisdom and faithful giving
John 1:1-3; Prov 8:22-31 Imagine if everything we said came into existence! ‘Coffee’, we say, and hey presto, it materialises on our desk; ‘House’, we say, and the mansion we dreamed of is waiting for us with open doors. ‘Make…
The Word that makes things happen
John 1:1-3; Isa 55:10-12 In my early days of studying theology in the UK, I had to apply for a visa on entering the country. Once, there was a delay, so that two weeks before Christmas I still had no…
The missing ingredient that leads to transformation (Psalm 43)
Ps 43:1-5 My husband regularly teases me about the conversational jumps I make that seem to come out of the blue. The truth is that after saying something, the thought continues in my head so vividly that I forget I…
The way forward when God feels absent (Psalm 42)
Ps 42:1-11 As life expectancy increases, more people encounter the effects of dementia. Seeing a loved one forget details of their lives or confuse the identity of even their nearest and dearest can feel like witnessing the slow death of…