Category: Bible Study

The secret to good sleep

When we were going through a particularly challenging period, I remember an older pastor asking me “Are you able to sleep through the night.”  Insomnia is of course a significant emotional health warning and many of us will have at different times struggled with it, finding ourselves unable to drift off or alternatively being suddenly… Continue reading The secret to good sleep

A Biblical Theology of Marriage, Sex and Relationships

Note: You will probably have read most of this material over the past week as it pulls together some of my recent articles in response to the book “Beautiful Union”. However, I wanted to gather it together as it will form one of the chapters of the E-Book/ teaching sessions I’m putting together on the… Continue reading A Biblical Theology of Marriage, Sex and Relationships

Stronger than the storm

This week at our Life Group, we invited everyone to share one of their favourite Psalms, it was a fantastic feast as we read, reflected on and prayed Scripture.  On a side note, I’d encourage you to try doing this in your life/community/home groups sometime.  Anyway, one of the Psalms shared was Psalm 93 which… Continue reading Stronger than the storm

The New Testament on Sex, marriage and intimacy

In recent weeks, I’ve been engaging with Josh Butler’s book “Beautiful Union” which seems to try and set out a kind of theology of sex.  I’ve argued that whilst Butler’s aims might be lofty and whilst some of the criticism of him may be unfair, that he ends up falling seriously short and in a… Continue reading The New Testament on Sex, marriage and intimacy

A model Psalm study

Read Psalm 1 through twice: – As wisdom literature  -like Proverbs – Structure and framing a. Within the whole book, Psalm 1 and Psalm 150 b. As part of a specific section Book 1: Psalms 1-41 Book 2: Psalms 42-72 Book 3: Psalms 73-89 Book 4: Psalms 90-106 Book 5: Psalms 107- 150. How do… Continue reading A model Psalm study

Reading the Psalms: Digging into the detail

In my last article I talked about how we read the Psalms by reading them in context but just like with any other book of the Bible, we also have to step in to the detailed exegesis.  Here are some further hints to help us with our Psalm reading. First, if you want to read… Continue reading Reading the Psalms: Digging into the detail

1 Chronicles and the big picture background to the story

This week’s podcast Here are the notes: Introduction 1 Chronicles 1-9 covers the whole of world history and specifically the history of God’s people up until the end of King Saul’s life.  It does this by recording the family trees of key people with occasional, pithy commentary. It would be helpful as we reach the… Continue reading 1 Chronicles and the big picture background to the story

Roots and Branches

Here’s the next part of “What Matters” – a teaching series on 1 and 2 Chronicles The narrative seems bare.  We cover the equivalent of most of Genesis in 1 chapter.  However, it may tell more than we first spot. Notice that significant attention is given to Judah and particularly on David’s line (ch3). Ch4:9-10,… Continue reading Roots and Branches

Leaders at risk

These reflections were prompted by a conversation with my dad who has been reading through 1 Samuel over the past few weeks.  We were talking about Saul and his response to David’s popularity, his jealousy when David is praised for killing more Philistines than him. On one level, there’s some practical questions.  How should a… Continue reading Leaders at risk