How to nurture hope in despair
1 Kings 4:1-34 In the Harry Potter stories, there are hooded shadowy creatures called the Dementors who feed on human happiness and suck joy and hope out of people’s lives. The only defence against them is to think of a…
What kind of wisdom did Solomon have?
1 Kings 3:16-28 Hearing discussions about the gifts that God gives to His people in the New Testament left me confused as a young Christian. It seemed to me that the lists included a wide variety of categories, often in…
Early warning signs and how to avoid falling away
1 Kings 3:1-15 Every now and again one hears of a prominent Christian leader going off the rails. Whether the issue is sexual sin, abuse, or embezzlement, their actions typically rock the Christian communities they are involved in. The questions…
Submitting to the king and why it matters
1 Kings 2:28-46 In my last year at secondary school, we got a new physics teacher, a young woman straight out of university. She wanted to be liked and popular and could not keep discipline or deal with troublemakers. Her…
Discernment, wisdom, and God’s involvement
1 Kings 2:10-27 During my gap year working in a Christian youth hostel in Israel, I encountered a Christian life that showed God’s grace and love, which opened my heart to live for the Lord not out of fear and…
How to resolve unfinished business
1 Kings 2:1-12 A friend fought to escape her controlling mother by moving to a different city. Yet, when she married and had a daughter, she was confronted with her own controlling behaviour towards her child. She suddenly realised that…
God’s overruling sovereignty in the face of our failures
1 Kings 1:1-53 Prior to my doctoral studies, I was given much well-meaning advice about where to get funding. None of it seemed appropriate to me and I felt a little lost about what to do. Supporting higher academic study…
Introduction to Kings
In our Bibles, Kings is divided into two parts (1-2 Kings), but it is meant to be read as one book. The division is purely for practical reasons at roughly the half-way point because ancient scrolls became unmanageable beyond a…
The difference that hope in God’s promise makes
Amos 9:11-15 There used to be a memorable advert for Hungarian Airlines whose tagline was, ‘We give wings to your dreams’. I think of hope as the wings that carry us through dark patches in life and keep us going.…
What happens when we become complacent
Amos 9:1-10 Towards the end of my first degree, I was teaching English as a second language part-time in a grammar school. One of my students was the son of a colleague and as such, he knew himself to be…