Churches should carry a health warning: Getting hurt is guaranteed. Disagreements and misunderstandings are inevitable. Every member is a work in progress. But remember, the person who rubs you up the wrong way is God's sandpaper, working on your character on his behalf. Having said that, we must protect our hearts. It's easily to trust people you hardly know and then get wounded when they let [...]

God’s training programme usually involves the Silent Years. He removes us from the crowd, strips us of our props and pretences, and puts us in a crucible of rigorous reality. Just us and him. Scary? It can be. The stonemasons who built the temple in 1 Kings 6:7 worked on the stones away from the building site. God does the same with us. He take us [...]

We don't know what effect Jesus' birth had on the supporting cast once the star dimmed and the angels left the stage. Maybe the shepherds discovered their sheep had been ravaged by wolves while they were off worshipping this minute messiah. Saviour? They may have wondered if he would save their jobs when the high priest found out they had abandoned the flock. But ... they [...]

When I was a kid, my dad hid my Christmas presents around the house. Some were hard to find. I didn't discover one of them until March! In the same way, my father God hid Jesus when he gave him as a gift to the world. No royal proclamation and trumpets. He made him hard to find. The shepherds trudged round Bethlehem before they discovered him [...]

One Christmas, some friends gave me four distinctive mugs. But I didn't like them. So, I rewrapped them and gave to another couple the next day. Unfortunately, my friends turned up by chance while this other couple were opening them. Even worse, I was there, too. Embarrassing. Jesus was the first person to receive Christmas presents. The Three Wise Men bought him gold, frankincense and myrrh. [...]

Our burdens can be too heavy if we carry them on our own. Elijah was a loner. He killed 850 pagan prophets single-handedly. Then he went off - alone - and declared: “I have zealously served the Lord God Almighty ... I am the only one left ...” (1 Kings 19:10). God had to remind him that he had 7,000 other reservists on standby, plus an [...]

Some Bible families would have felt at home on the Jeremy Kyle show. Would you want Lot and his incestuous daughters in your house group? Or how about hanging out with Joseph’s barbaric brothers, or Eli's sex-mad sons? The Waltons they were not. Violence, vendettas and villainy are common in God's families. They didn't need to watch Jeremy Kyle on TV. They wrote the scripts. ​ [...]

Sometimes the enemy gets you on the run and you don't know why. It's hard to break through and find victory. This might be because you are fighting him in the wrong place. But Jesus gives you the authority to decide the 'turf', not him. In 1 Kings 20: 23, the king of Aram attacked the Israelites - and lost. So, his officials advised him: 'Their [...]

I get nervous when I hear Christians saying they're going to take on the devil. He'll happily accept the challenge. And fighting him in your own strength will end badly. You are not strong enough to fight him. No-one is. You can only fight the powers of darkness with the authority of the name of Jesus. And even then, just reciting the words 'in the name [...]

Paul advised Timothy (1 Tim 5:22) not to lay hands on people hastily when he appointed leaders. But he also mentioned a principle that applies in all 'hand-laying' circumstances. He said: 'Do not share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure.' He was saying that if you lay hands on someone who is impure, you may pick up bad influences. Now, we shouldn't be afraid of [...]