King David was the greatest king over God’s people in the Old Testament. But David’s kingdom did not come out of nowhere, it was actually more than 1000 years in the making.  Really, the idea of David’s kingdom was first conceived in just one small chosen family, living in slavery under an empire in the […]

In the beginning, we are told, God created the heavens and the earth.  And, in the beginning of Daniel’s book, we were told, God delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into Nebuchadnezzar’s hand.  And so, from the very beginning, we have understood that the God who created everything also controls everything — he even allowed the […]

In the beginning, when God created Adam and Eve, he made them in his image and crowned them with glory and honour. And those crowns — that image of their Father that they contained — were all the clothing they needed: Moses told us that Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt […]

Six months ago we began reading Peter’s first letter to the churches in ancient Roman Asia. And right from the beginning it was clear that Peter’s purpose was to change our perception of the world, and change our understanding of how we fit into this world. And he started by saying that, really, we do […]

So we have endured two cliffhangers over the last two weeks.  First we left the people of Israel standing at the foot of Mount Sinai, waiting while God decided what to do with them, hoping that he will decide to renew the covenant they broke and restore their relationship.  Then, last week, we left Moses […]

Thirteen years have passed since we last saw Abram. In the last verse of the last chapter, Abram was 86 years old. Now, he is 99. And these 13 years have been happy years for Abram. Long before this, when Abram was 75, he took an incredible risk: he left his father’s family, his father’s […]

In the eastern Mediterranean Sea there is a large island named Crete.  Now, we do not know what people first came to the island and settled it, but we do know that they found it to be an island paradise: a wilderness of fertile soil and no large predators to contend with!  So those earliest […]

In the bible there is a story about a young man who was anointed king by a prophet from God. That means the prophet poured olive oil on the young man’s head — a kind of baptism! — that symbolized God’s choice of that young man to be king. It also symbolized how God’s Spirit […]

In the beginning, Adam produced three sons: Cain, Abel, and Seth. Cain murdered his brother Abel and then produced a line of corrupt and violent kings who conquered the rest of mankind and used them as slave labour to build cities centered around the worship of themselves. Things went from bad to worse very quickly. […]

So, in the morning, at the beginning of Chapter 11, Jesus’ disciples saw him praying and they said, “Hey, teach us to pray like you!” And Jesus did: he taught them what we now call the Lord’s Prayer. But the most important part of that teaching was the fact that God is the disciples’ good […]

So the first thing we have to remember today is that in the ancient literary world, things that are repeated three times are very significant. Two times now in the book of Luke, Jesus has deliberately healed on the Sabbath and the Pharisees have objected. The first time was back in Chapter 6, when Jesus […]

The Book of Ruth begins with this sentence: [1] In the days when the judges ruled… But if you are not very familiar with the Old Testament this does not mean very much to you. So allow me to explain: Moses led the people out of slavery in Egypt, across the Red Sea, and into […]

Is This Friendship? One bright spring day the leader of the Republic strode confidently across the square. He was on his way to the Senate where he would give a speech prior to his departure, for he was leading the armies east to engage the enemies on the eastern front. He had already proven himself […]

In the beginning, God planted a garden in the east, in the land of Eden, and this garden was designed to act as God’s earthly temple, the connecting point between earth and heaven, the place where creation could come and worship the Creator. And so, of course, the garden-temple needed a priest who would lead […]