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How does a person become good?  This fundamental question has been exercising humanity since time began.  We are moral beings; we understand concepts of goodness and badness, we know that some lives are better than others, and some actions are better than others.  But knowing something is one thing: doing it is a different matter! Many huge … Read more

A 30-year-old man arrives for weekly worship in his home town. He’s lived there since he was a child, worked in the town with his father, and no doubt most of his family are sat with him that morning.  It’s his turn to read from the scriptures, and when the time comes he gets up … Read more

The opening chapters of Isaiah make for fairly sobering reading.  Whilst there are the great prophecies we treasure and read at Christmas – the virgin birth of ch7, the ‘Wonderful Counsellor’ of ch9 – Israel is largely challenged by God for its lack of attention to Him and His ways.  Isaiah prophecies that other nations … Read more

For most of us, 2020 was been a spring like no other.  The effects of COVID-19 have been long-lasting, and its memories will live with us for the rest of our lives.  And yet, alongside the pain and the challenges of that season, for many of us ‘a spring like no other’ held true in … Read more

King David was evidently a person of great spiritual anointing.  As a young man, the Spirit came on him in power when Samuel declared him king, and the following 30 or so years of his life were marked largely by success and godly fervour.  The ark (central to Israel’s worshipping life) was restored, enemies were … Read more

‘This is what the Lord says to his anointed, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armour, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut: I will go before you and level the mountains… I will give you hidden treasures, … Read more

On one of the shelves in my study is an old pocket bible.  It belonged to the first person for whom I took a funeral. He died without next-of-kin, and the care home where he was a resident asked if I would like to have it, otherwise it would just be thrown away.  It turns … Read more

For much of our driving lives, we’ve driven old cars.  For ten years, that was a pair of first-generation Nissan Micras.  Fantastically well-made, almost indestructible cars.  In fact, we only moved on to something marginally less old because it was getting hard to find replacement parts.  Woody (as we knew our previous car) was just … Read more

Poor old Saul.  One of the notorious tragic-comic figures of the bible.  A man who never really knew who he was.  Chosen to be king for his physical attributes – as if being tall and handsome was the best qualification for leadership! – we first encounter him wandering around the desert searching for his father’s … Read more

In the lists of people’s ‘favourite stories of the bible’, the story of Jephthah is not likely to be one of them.  And with good reason – it is a story of human brokenness from start to finish.  Broken families, broken promises; and with tragic irony the one thing that apparently can’t be broken is … Read more