15–21 October 2017. Psalm 96 (click to read). Have you ever noticed that in so many ads and on so many billboards the models are almost never smiling? Look through any fashion magazine and you will see photo after photo of models with serious expressions, angry and dramatic faces, but hardly ever a real smile. That’s […]
8–14 October 2017. 2 Peter 2 (click to read). Today we come to one of the strangest texts in the New Testament. The so-called “Second Letter of Peter” uses Peter’s name and claims to be written by Jesus’s disciple Peter, but from the very beginning church leaders knew that wasn’t true. As a result, during […]
1–7 October 2017. 2 Samuel 23–24 (click to read). As David’s life comes to an end, what’s left over from his reign? What is it about David that we will remember the most? Is it his poetry and songs, his military battles, or his many failings and sins? When historians sit down to write about […]
24–30 September 2017. 2 Samuel 12–13 (click to read). Most of us don’t wake up in the morning planning to commit terrible sins, or to injure and hurt others. So why do we commit such serious sins? Often these big sins happen because we first opened the door to little sins. We allow a first little […]
17–23 September 2017. Philemon (click to read). In a big city, when we walk down the street we rarely pay attention to other people. Sometimes it’s like they aren’t even there. When we go shopping, we interact a little with the salespeople, but we still often don’t pay them much attention. We just hand over […]
10–16 September 2017. 1 Samuel 31 (click to read). In just a few short sentences at the end of 1 Samuel we read about the downfall of King Saul and his family. We followed Saul’s story, we watched him become king, and now it’s all over. Jonathan and his brothers are hunted down and killed. […]
3–9 September 2017. 1 Samuel 19–20 (click to read). In 1 Samuel 20:1 David turns to his friend Jonathan, King Saul’s son, and in despair he asks: “What have I done? What is my crime? How have I offended your father that he is so determined to kill me?” In ch. 19, Jonathan had managed […]
27 August – 2 September 2017. 1 Samuel 5–6 (click to read). In the Bible days, it was common for people to think that each country had their own gods. Israel had a god, but so did the Philistines and the Egyptians and all of their other neighbours too. When countries went to war, people […]
20–26 August 2017. 2 Corinthians 12 (click to read). For years Paul had been suffering. He doesn’t tell us what his problem was, only that it was a “thorn in the flesh”, something that hurt him deeply and brought him great pain. In v. 8 Paul tells us that he prayed earnestly to God three […]
13–19 August 2017. 2 Corinthians 4 (click to read). We have a saying in English: “No good deed goes unpunished.” We go to so much effort to be nice to others and treat them well, and the only thing we get back from them is meanness and aggression! We try our hardest to help people, […]