9–15 April 2017. Acts 8:26–40 (click to read). Today’s text starts with a strange command from an angel of the Lord who tells Philip to walk out into the desert. What a strange thing to do! But Philip listens, and when he gets out there, he finds a strange person: an Ethiopian. In the Bible […]
2–8 April 2017. Acts 4:23–37 (click to read). Today we often hear people talk about unity. Politicians and church pastors often encourage us all to join together, and we think this type of unity is great. Sometimes it really is! But is unity always good? Sometimes people join together to do evil, to promote injustice, […]
26 March – 1 April 2017. Genesis 50 (click to read). Now that Jacob has died, Joseph’s brothers start to really worry about Joseph taking his revenge. The brothers had treated Joseph so badly, and now that their father wasn’t there to keep everything friendly, what was Joseph going to do to them? The brothers […]
19–25 March 2017. Genesis 43 (click to read). The story of Joseph, with its dramas of family betrayal and loss, is one of the most moving stories in the whole Old Testament. Here halfway through the story in Genesis 43, we see so many heart-breaking images. We see Jacob as an old man whose heart […]
12–18 March 2017. Genesis 36 (click to read). In movies, we’re used to the way that the camera always follows the main character. After all, they are the hero of the story. They may meet other people along the way, and other characters may come and go, but the story always keeps us with the […]
5–11 March 2017. Genesis 27–28 (click to read). In chapter 27 we read the heart-breaking story of how Jacob and his mother Rebekah tricked Jacob’s father Isaac. Isaac loved his eldest son Esau and planned to give Esau his fatherly blessing. But Rebekah’s favourite was Jacob. So she came up with a plan for Jacob […]
26 February – 4 March 2017. Genesis 17–18 (click to read). In Middle Eastern culture, both in the Bible days and today, the social laws of hospitality are incredibly important. Guests and strangers must be welcomed, cared for, and honoured. It doesn’t matter if that’s a friend visiting from next door, or a complete stranger […]
19–25 February 2016. Genesis 5–6 (click to read). We human beings are such a mystery! On the one hand, the Bible tells us that God created us according to his image, to have value and dignity, and to stand just below God in honour. Not even the angels have the image of God – just us! […]
Bonus Devotional for February 2017. Luke 23:26–56 (click to read). Today we read about one of the most terrible events in all history: the crucifixion of Jesus. We followed Jesus’s story with so much hope and expectation. We watched as God left the glory of heaven to come be here with us as a small […]
12–18 February 2017. Luke 21:1–19 (click to read). We spoke last week about the dangerous temptation to look for signs of the end of the world. We saw how it distracts us from the work God wants us to do now, today. And even though this type of “sign reading” was popular in Bible times […]