The story of Hagar is one of the Bible's small domestic tragedies. It arises when Abraham's faith wavers. He has believed God will give him a son, but nothing seems to be happening so with Sarah's encouragement he takes matters into hi...

According to the story, Abraham's faith in God has by now been severely tested. It is 13 years since the birth of Ishmael, and there is no sign of a son for Sarah. Now the sign of circumcision is to be imposed on all the males of his household a...

This chapter begins a story of high drama. Sitting at the entrance to his tent, Abraham receives angelic visitors, sometimes envisaged as representing the Trinity, as in the famous icon painted by Andrei Rublev in the 15th century.

The men – only two of them by now – who'd visited Abraham were now with Lot. They were faced with sexual assault, which Lot tries to avert by offering his virgin daughters instead. The potential offence against the ancient code of hospital...

One of the shocking things about some of the Old Testament stories is how routinely women are treated as property. This was normal in the ancient world, but implicit in the way these stories are told in the Bible is God's condemnation of this be...

The opening words of the Bible are perhaps the most famous ever written: in the beginning, God created. The rest of the chapter unfolds as a picture of every part of creation being carefully made to fulfil its own purpose. There's a refrain that...

The second chapter of Genesis is a different creation story, complementing the first. This one focuses not on the grand architecture of the universe, but on the human world. The first man is formed from the dust of the ground: he is of the earth, lik...

My wife and I have been married for four years. We have an end-of-the-day pray and we often pray Psalm 127 which says, ‘It is useless to work so hard for a living, getting up early and going to bed late, for the Lord provides for those he loves, wh...

When I was 20, and a student nurse in London, I attended a Bible study class, where I heard that scripture was inspired by God. The verse was 2 Timothy 3.16-17, ‘All scripture is God-breathed and it is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and ...

As a comedian, I sometimes wonder if I look for irony or it looks for me. Those ‘God-incidences’ (I wish that was a less clunky word) crop up so often, at times life sounds stranger than fiction. On that wretched day at the start of this crisis -...

‘I've always liked Ecclesiastes 1.2: “‘Meaningless! Meaningless!’ says the Teacher” – even though it's melancholy and depressing, which I am not. The book talks about how ordinary things are “smoke in the wind”. At the end t...

The perks are great – daily inspiration; light bulb moments as you see how the whole thing fits together; plus the big achievement fist pump at the end. But reading the Bible all the way through can be tough.

Also called the holocaust, the burnt offering was a twice daily sacrifice in the temple in which the entire animal was burnt with fire.

John’s Gospel is the most reflective and overtly theological of all the Gospels. It begins with a beautiful poem on the Word made flesh and continues to interweave stories about Jesus with deep theological reflections on what he means. The stories ...

Sporting Life: Reflections on Sport, Culture and the Church

I love Psalm 91, because, as a mum, I have been quite fretful over things. My daughter lived in New York for six months and my son was in Spain for a year at university. So, I spoke this over the kids before they went away. It was such a security. Wh...

The verse that means the most to me is Romans 8.28. It says, “We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose”. I see it as a special promise that God will work for good through the o...

I was diagnosed with cancer in January 2018. I hadn’t had a voice for a couple of years. The doctors thought it was psychological. But there was a tumour on my vocal chords. I had treatment all of last year and was cancer free, and thought I could ...

Ephesians is a letter that's been compared to a sermon – it's so full of deep thinking about the implications of the gospel for the daily life of the Christian.