7–13 October 2018. Job 16 (click to read). When we suffer, what hurts us most is often not really the physical pain – after all there is a lot of medication we can take for that. Instead what hurts us most is the emotional pain we feel in our hearts and souls. No painkillers can take […]
30 September – 6 October 2018. Job 9 (click to read). When things go wrong in our lives, that’s already bad enough. But what makes our suffering worse is knowing that there will always be people around us who will see our pain and be happy. When bad things happen, there will always be a few […]
23–29 September 2018. Job 2 (click to read). Human relationships are complicated and fragile. It’s not always easy to keep a relationship going, and they fail so often for many reasons. Sadly, far too many times I have seen people’s marriages fail. It’s gotten so bad that today many young people are even giving up […]
16–22 September 2018. Jeremiah 47–48 (click to read). When we read the news about what is going on in the world, it’s easy to lose hope. We watch as the strong do what they want, creating so much pain and injustice, and yet there never seems to be any consequences for their actions. Armies bomb […]
9–15 September 2018. Jeremiah 35–36 (click to read). Our lives are full of people who want us to listen to them. Teachers and bosses tell us what to do, advertisements tell us what to buy, and even our friends try to influence us to do what they want. Wherever we turn, people are trying to […]
2–8 September 2018. Jeremiah 23–24 (click to read). We Christians have a deep hope that everything will work out fine. We know that life isn’t easy, we know that day after day we have to face serious troubles and hardships. But despite all that we still trust God knowing that he is at work behind […]
26 August – 1 September 2018. Jeremiah 9–10 (click to read). Whenever people first meet, there is an immediate competition to see who is the best. We chat together, and we ask each other questions. But too often behind those simple questions is a subtle attempt to find out who is better. We want to […]
19–25 August 2018. Ruth 1 (click to read). Ruth is one of the shortest books in the Bible, but also one of the most beautiful. It’s so moving because at each step of the story we see the profound importance of kindness, compassion, and love. In chapter 1 we see this at two different levels. […]
12–18 August 2018. Judges 11 (click to read). The story of Jephthah is one of the most horrifying texts in the Old Testament. It’s a story full of pride and hatred, rejection and tragedy. The biblical writer begins the story by telling us directly that Jephthah was the son of a prostitute. Jephthah’s father also […]
5–11 August 2018. Judges 1–2 (click to read). Though we often call the Book of Joshua a “historical book”, we have to remember that it isn’t really what we think of today as history. It is more of a national story or myth. That becomes clear to us again as soon as we open the […]