Seasonal
The parting of the sea: God makes a way
Exod 14:5-31; Rom 6:1-7 In the church where I came to faith, the cross loomed so large in the teaching about redemption through Jesus’ death that the resurrection seemed almost an afterthought. It took me a few years to appreciate…
The meaning of the Passover: Christ our Passover Lamb
Exod 12:1-13; Matt 26:17-19, 26-29 Increasingly today, family members no longer eat together but consume their meals in their different corners, watching television or being absorbed by their phones. There is something so sad about this, as gathering around a…
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…
How can we know God’s power in us? (Eph 1:18-23; Psalm 110)
Eph 1:18-23; Ps 110:1-7 A common greeting at Easter is the jubilant little exchange of ‘He is risen!’ answered with ‘He is risen indeed!’. But why does the resurrection matter at all? Is not the cross and atonement for sin…