30 December 2018 – 5 January 2019. Hebrews 12:1–13 (click to read). When we look back over the past year we see that there have been good times but also difficult times – times of stress, sadness, and even suffering. Hebrews 12 talks about the way suffering can be used by God the Father to discipline […]
23–29 December 2018. Hebrews 5 (click to read). From the perspective of organized religion, Jesus and Paul – the two greatest people in the New Testament – are both controversial figures. Paul was the greatest theologian of the early church, the one who shaped the beliefs and doctrines of all Christianity and put the church on […]
16–22 December 2018. Ecclesiastes 10 (click to read). The Bible talks a lot about the importance of wisdom. And many of us really do appreciate just how valuable wisdom is. Sometimes we even sit back confidently and think how wisdom has a great power to shape our world and our lives. But sadly, the situation […]
9–15 December 2018. Ecclesiastes 3 (click to read). Sometimes we find ourselves in a moment when everything is just perfect. Our plans have worked out, we have reached that goal we were after, we are together with the person we love, and our lives feel full of hope and peace. When that happens, we just […]
2–8 December 2018. Psalm 87 (click to read). Psalm 87 is one of the so-called “Songs of Zion”, hymns that praise Zion (another name for Jerusalem) for its role in God’s work of ruling and blessing the world. Jewish scholars tell us that Psalm 87 may have been sung by pilgrims on their yearly journey […]
25 November – 1 December 2018. Psalm 80 (click to read). When things go wrong in our lives, we often want to know why. Why did it happen? And if God really loves us, why didn’t he protect us? The problem is that there are no easy answers to this “why” question. Maybe that’s why […]
18–24 November 2018. Psalm 74 (click to read). Sometimes one of the hardest things about being a parent is not giving our children the things they want. Because we love our children, we want them to be happy. But sometimes the things that little children want just aren’t good for them. They want to eat […]
11–17 November 2018. Daniel 1–2 (click to read). The Book of Daniel is not an easy text. The second half of the book is full of mysterious prophecies that talk about the evil role that many empires played in the ancient world. But the first half is easier and also more familiar to us. In Daniel […]
4–10 November 2018. 1 John 2 (click to read). Many years ago I was invited to participate in a church meeting. The thing I remember most from that day was one church elder who stood up and shouted at others, angrily waving his arms around, pointing his finger at others, and aggressively attacking and criticizing […]
28 October – 3 November 2018. Job 37 (click to read). When it comes to the problem of Job’s suffering, the young and foolish Elihu thinks he has all the answers. Many of the answers Elihu offers Job are not so different from ideas on suffering we still hear from people today. In chapter 37, […]