Most parents have a certain dream for their children. They hope that they grow up to be nice, well-adjusted people. They hope that their children are respectable and, ideally, wealthy. The parents want them to be good to other people. If someone had a child who grew up into a nice, middle-class, friendly person, they …
I have recently published my second book! The cover looks like this: What is this book about? While the topic is retirement, this book explores what the Bible says about older age more generally. Here is the official blurb: Most of us assume that when we reach a certain age, we will retire from …
I recently led a short theology class on singleness, love sex and marriage. The second session explained the Biblical teaching on sex. There were 27 people in the room, most of whom had grown up in Christian households. As part of this, I asked the group how many of them had their parents make some …
I don’t have a lot of hair, which means that this short episode in 2 Kings 4 catches my eye: 23 He [Elisha] went up from there to Bethel, and while he was going up on the way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, saying, “Go up, you baldhead! …
One of the greatest cultural crimes you can commit today is to be intolerant. We must be accepting of everyone’s beliefs, whatever they might be. Now to most of us who have grown up in this world that seems perfectly reasonable and rational. We’re all free to make our own decisions about things, and we …
In 1 Kings 22, King Ahab had a decision to make. The king of Syria had promised to return a series of cities to him, and after three years one key city had not been returned to Israelite rule. Should he ignore this breach or go to battle over it? He sought advice from four …
We read about the call of Elisha the prophet in 1 Kings 19. Elisha is a man who is busy doing what most people of his culture did: farming. Specifically, he was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen when Elijah came along and appointed him as an apprentice. That’s a lot of oxen in a …
Obadiah is a little-known figure from the Old Testament, but he gives us a useful template for serving God in ungodly times. We meet Obadiah in 1 Kings 18, when the prophet Elijah returned from three years away from the kingdom of Israel. We are told that Obadiah was “over the household” of Ahab (v3), …
Rod Dreher has noticed a connection between what is happening in our cultures today and what has happened in the past. In his latest book, “Live not by lies”, Dreher compares the rise of “soft totalitarianism” and identity politics to the situation Christians found themselves in under the communist regimes of the 20th century. …
All Nations Presbyterian Church, the local church that I serve, is starting a second church service this coming Sunday. After having one service for many years, we have decided to start up an afternoon service. This is an intentional move that will stretch us but which we believe will be good for the spread of …