Matthew 8 contains a series of miracles and encounters with Jesus, each of which illustrates something of his power and his character. This little story is multi-layered. In demonstrating his power over the tempest, it refers back to Old Testament im...

The healing of the man at the pool of Bethzatha, or Bethesda, makes a very rich story. The pool is known as a place of miracles – it was believed that an angel disturbed the waters from time to time, and that the first person in the water after tha...

Jesus' miracles impress the people. But when he starts to talk about eating his flesh and drinking his blood – veiled references to his sacrificial death, and to the sacrificial meal worshippers shared – he loses them. They can't believ...

Prasad’s life was a mess until the Holy Spirit guided him out of a pit of despair and into the pulpit. He wants to share his amazing testimony with Bible Society supporters and thank them for their kind giving, which enables his crucial ministry in...

Psalm 23, 'The Lord is my shepherd' has always seized the imagination of film-makers, musicians and poets.

The famous Southern Steps led up to the temple, the holy place where God’s presence dwelt. Jesus and his disciples ascended them and entered the temple to celebrate events like Passover...

Pilate asks Jesus whether he is the 'king of the Jews' (verse 2). Jesus gives a very interesting answer: 'So you say.' In Greek it is literally, 'You say.' Apart from that, he doesn't answer his accusers (verse 9) a...

Elijah, one of the greatest of the prophets, has some of the best and most exciting stories in the Old Testament. He's an Israelite, and his career is marked by a conflict with Israel's wicked and semi-pagan King Ahab. He's introduced ...

Somewhere in the last few decades, it seems we lost the ability to lament. It's not hard to see why.

David is still a fearsome opponent. Absalom has the services of his turncoat counsellor, Ahithophel, but David has a mole in the enemy camp – Hushai. In scenes of low cunning and high drama, Hushai succeeds in overturning Ahithophel's advice a...

After having spent some time with Jesus, the disciples must have thought they had a pretty good idea of what he was about, until at the drop of a hat he began to talk about suffering and dying. Peter voiced what everyone else was thinking: the Messia...

The missional environment in Britain has changed, perhaps in more profound, challenging and hopeful ways than we yet realise. We are seeing a spike of interest in the Bible, in prayer, and in Christian faith.

At this point in John's Gospel, Jesus is facing a lot of opposition from 'the Jews', as some translations say – it was really the Jewish leaders, who were threatened and worried by his revolutionary message, and modern translations t...

John Newton's great hymn Amazing Grace quotes from the story of the healing of the man born blind: 'I once was lost, but now am found/ Was blind, but now I see.' He uses it as a picture of grace.

This is an extraordinarily moving story, because it shows so clearly the reality of grief. A loved brother has died, and his sisters are prostrated with sadness – and they're confused and resentful, because they believe Jesus could have saved ...

At first glance, a passage about food sacrificed to idols might not have much to say to twenty-first century readers. In Paul's time, animals would routinely have been dedicated to a particular god or goddess when they were slaughtered and the m...

The crossing of the Red Sea is an event of tremendous drama. Older generations might remember Charlton Heston in the famous scene in The Ten Commandments (1956), in which the water literally forms walls in the sea on either side of the fleeing Israe...

The Song of Miriam is an outpouring of praise to God for his great act of salvation in bringing the people out of Egypt. After this high, however, there comes another low – three days of wandering through a waterless wilderness.

This chapter is sometimes mined for its teaching about marriage. But step back from the details, and what strikes us is its common-sense approach not just to marriage, but to living faithfully in the world as it is. Perhaps Paul is dealing with peopl...

The Lord's Supper, or Communion, Eucharist or Mass, is meant to be the point at which the whole Church comes together. The number of names for it indicate that it's often the point at which we're most divided, as different traditions a...