(REFLECTIONS ON Galatians 3:6-29, Galatians 4:1-11) 6 So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” There is a children’s song called “Father Abraham.” The lyrics speak of Abraham being father of many sons: “Father Abraham had many sons, many sons had Father Abraham.” We may think of Abraham as the father […]
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 […]
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! […]
10–16 July 2016. 1 Kings 1 (click to read). In the ancient world, people believed a king’s power to rule was linked to his sexual abilities. That’s one reason kings and rulers had so many wives. So 1 Kings opens with a serious problem: David is now so old and weak, even his sexual abilities […]
31 January – 6 February 2016. Exodus 1 (click to read). Sometimes when my family and I walk down the street, a Taiwanese person will yell at us, call us names, and tell us to go back to our own country. Sadly this is an experience that many foreigners have had here. While most Taiwanese […]