The apostle Peter had been through a lot in Matthew 16. He had confessed that he believed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus had made promises about his involvement and importance in establishing the church. He was then called ‘Satan’ for rebuking Jesus for his speaking about suffering and …
What would Jesus do? It has turned up on bracelets now for decades, and many Christians find it a helpful thing to consider. After all, Jesus was without sin, and if we want to live a life that pleases God, surely Jesus is a useful example! And yes, of course we see aspects of Jesus’ …
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 …
In 1 Kings 21, King Ahab was sulking. He wanted to have a field next to his palace for a vegetable garden, but the owner of the field had refused to sell it to him. He acted like a toddler. He “lay down on his bed and turned away his face and would eat no …
“Do not covet” is one of the ten commandments (Ex 20:17). That word, to covet, is not a word that we tend to use much anymore. It means to want something that is not yours. In Exodus 20, we are given the examples of a range of things that belong to your neighbour: his wife …
We always tend to see the sins and shortcomings of other people more clearly than we see our own sin. As Jesus said, we are the kind of people who notice the speck in the eyes of others rather than the plank in our own eyes (Matthew 7:3). It is hard to honestly assess our …
In 1 Kings 19, Elijah is having a hard time. He is on the run for his life from Queen Jezebel. He has been working hard to proclaim the message of God but has had little response. He is alone, far from home, hungry and tired, and he doesn’t see hope for the future. What …
Most of us would love to have a clear, personal experience of God. Wouldn’t it be great to see a vision, or be visited by an angel, or to have some miracle happen in front of us? We’d all like the spectacular things we see sometimes in the Bible to happen to us. There are …
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 …
Many of the songs we sing in church are happy songs. We sing of Jesus being Joy to the World, of the wonder of Amazing Grace, and of how great our God is. And yes, of course, these are great things to sing about! But if that is all that we sing, we might be …