Something really unusual happened to Jesus in Matthew 26. He was having dinner with his disciples and some friends when a woman poured some incredibly expensive perfume on his head. By incredibly expensive, I mean that most scholars estimate the value of the perfume at around a year’s salary for a worker. A year’s salary! …
In some circles, Christians are directly taught that if they are faithful to God, they will be blessed with an abundant, happy and healthy life. It is a compelling message. We’d love it to be true. A neat life where faithfulness directly leads to an easy life right now sounds fantastic! And this is not …
When the Bible describes the local church, it often uses the language of family or body. We are the household of God, brothers and sisters in Christ. We are a body with many parts, where every part is important (such as in 1 Cor 12 and Eph 4:15-16). These word pictures communicate our connection to …
All of us care what people think of us. Let’s be honest. We are built up by praise and torn down by criticism. And even when others do not tell us what they think of us, we look to see where we think we fit with those we know. How does our lifestyle compare to …
When you’re busy, you don’t tend to think very hard about your situation. You just have to get through that to-do list. You fall into a pattern with your life, doing the same things in the same way for a long time. That just feels normal and natural; it is what you do. Until you …
Reading seems to be a lost art these days. It is so easy to get busy with all kinds of things and never get around to it. And when we do have time to relax, so often it is scrolling through social media or binge watching the latest series on Netflix. If we want to …
As you reflect on 2023, how did your year turn out? How do you judge if it is a good year or a bad year? One measure is financial: did you meet your budget or your goals? Another is by achievement: did you get everything done that you hoped to? These are the kinds of …
Everyone I speak to at the moment tells me that they are busy. And it’s true; for many of us, December is a crazily busy time of year. There are work deadlines to meet. If you have children at school, you will have concerts to go to, graduation ceremonies, and end of year excursions. There …
The famous parable of the talents in Matthew 25 sounds a lot like it is teaching some kind of salvation by works. After all, three servants are given money to use. When the master returned, the two who used that money well were rewarded and welcomed into the master’s happiness. The one who did not …
Have you ever borrowed someone’s car or looked after their house while they have been on holidays? While it is a blessing to have use of a car or house that you don’t usually have, we feel the responsibility of it. We are nervous that something might go wrong with this important and expensive thing …