Every Day with Jesus

One of the great privileges of going to church is to meet elderly saints, the kind who have walked with Jesus for so much of their life that it seems to shine through on their faces. This is how I picture Simeon and Anna, two devout prophets who yearned to see the coming of the Messiah. Anna is described as ‘very old’ at ‘eighty-four’, and she’d enjoyed only seven years of marriage before becoming...

Unfortunate residents of Slough are forever blighted by the infamous poem by John Betjeman, which suggests that the town is so awful it should be razed to the ground. Though literary critics say it’s a protest poem against industrialisation, nevertheless, several mayors of Slough have objected to it. 

Do evil people live longer lives? Former president Robert Mugabe, initially celebrated as a progressive anti-colonialist ruler of Zimbabwe, committed genocide against approximately 20,000 Ndebele people. Social scientist Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann wrote there was ‘clear evidence that Mugabe was guilty of crimes against humanity’,* and Uganda-born John Sentamu criticised his ‘unjust and brutal regime...

Christmas can be a joyful time with church and family, full of happiness. However, it can also be a painful time, full of loneliness and sorrow. If we have endured grief, loss, or trauma during the year, this will be the time we feel it acutely. If we have had painful Christmases in the past, it’s hard to celebrate without those memories casting shadows on the present. 

Despite the Magi having to stop in at Jerusalem and ask for directions to Bethlehem, they didn’t actually need that information. God was the one who ended up leading them. They had seen the star originally when Jesus was born, charted the approximate location, and ended up in Jerusalem. 

A theologian once asked her class for biblical metaphors for waiting. The men spoke first and listed growing plants, harvesting and farming. The theologian nodded but kept asking for more suggestions. Finally, a woman spoke up. ‘Pregnancy,’ she said, and cited Romans 8:22, which describes all of creation in labour pains. The men looked at her in astonishment. That metaphor would never have occurre...

The long wait for a Messiah began at the beginning. When Abraham was promised a descendant who would bless all peoples, the world waited for a son. When Moses, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Micah, Hosea and John the Baptist rebuked God’s people for continuing to sin and abandon God’s instructions, the world waited for a saviour from those sins. 

For the avoidance of controversy, pick your own favourite football team, and imagine them playing in a cup final. The fans are yelling, cheering them on in the stands. Just then, it’s announced that the most skilful football player who ever lived (again – you pick!) is coming to play on your team. 

In many parts of the world, it is illegal for Christians to worship God or share their faith. To protect their lives, Christians must meet together covertly. In 2022, Open Doors USA made a list of what it considered the most dangerous countries for Christians to live in. 

In June 2023, two tragedies occurred at sea. Five people died in Titan , a submersible designed to explore the wreckage of the Titanic . Millions of dollars were spent trying to rescue them. Meanwhile, 650 people, mainly women and children, drowned in an overcrowded boat that sank in Greek waters. 

Anyone who faces uncertainty in life needs an Elizabeth by their side. Before Mary had to face the music with Joseph and tell him she was pregnant, and before anyone else knew, God had tipped her off that one of her relatives was also having a miracle pregnancy. 

Some people seem to have a very hard furrow to plough in life. Whether it’s a tough job where you do the right thing but face criticism, or the call to be a prophetic voice when people don’t want to hear you, it can feel like you’re on your own and it’s just too demanding. 

When God says something good about you, you should believe it. That seems obvious. And yet so many of us struggle to truly receive God’s gifts and blessings because something in our spirit stops us from believing them. Perhaps you have no trouble believing that God has a good plan for others, but, deep inside, you don’t know if you can trust God to be good to you. 

If Jesus were to return tomorrow, would you be ready for Him? This is a fairly terrifying question that preachers ask at Christian conferences, and it can cause us to re-examine our priorities and character (as well as perhaps secretly feeling disappointed that we’d miss out on that party next month). 

The experience of auditioning for a primary school play used to be very intimidating. The speaking parts were scarce, so if you didn’t get picked, the rejection would sting. Nowadays, schools seem to have plays written so that every child can play a part, even if it’s one line. Everyone gets to join in and play. 

All leadership involves power. As Lord Acton famously said, ‘Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.’ A recent study, reported in The Atlantic , showed that the more powerful you are, the less empathetic you become.* Leadership should not be embarked upon lightly, and those of us who are leaders should regularly evaluate our practice and character.

Have you ever been in a situation where you felt stuck, with no escape? It could be where you’re living, a frustrating job, or even a difficult marriage. It could be that your health has deteriorated, and you feel helpless. It could be that parenting or caring for others is taking too much of a toll, but there’s nothing you can do about it.

What does it feel like to live ‘in the land of deep darkness’ (v2)? Depression or grief can feel like a life where someone has switched all the lights out, and there is no joy. Darkness can also mean a feeling of lostness – we can no longer see our way ahead and don’t know which step to take next. It can also imply evil – we may be surrounded by evil people and desperate situations, with no way ou...

It is hard to envisage anything so bad that a parent would choose to turn away from their grown-up child, but addiction is surely one. Severely affected addicts can be so destructive and manipulative that in the end the parent, in tears, is forced to stop contact with them until they become clean. It’s a drastic and devastating action, taken only when all other options have been exhausted. 

If you’ve ever been asked to read from Micah 5 at a Christmas service, you’ll know that the word ‘Ephrathah’ is very hard to pronounce, and that no one seems to know what it means. Like the Isaiah 7 verse about the virgin giving birth, often that’s the only verse that people remember, and the original context gets lost. 

In its original context, the verse about the virgin giving birth is NOT about Jesus. Let me explain. The challenge for any political leader is to know which powers to align yourself with. Ahaz, King of Judah, was anxious about the threat of attack from Aram and Israel (vv1–2). So God sends Isaiah to reassure Ahaz that those two countries are spent as powers, and not to worry (vv3–9). Ahaz only nee...

Rosalind Franklin was a scientist who helped discover the double helix structure of DNA. Sadly, she contracted cancer and died at the age of thirty-seven. She never won a Nobel Prize. After her death, three of her male colleagues collected the Nobel Prize instead, and only recently has her part in the research been recognised. It’s all too common that people can dedicate their whole life to one pa...

Reading maps well is an acquired skill. A wiggly, winding road from point A to point B seems pointless when you could go straight, unless you’re very carefully examining the contours, seeing the numbers increase and realising that going straight would mean ploughing through the middle of a sizeable mountain. Similarly, the symbols for marshes are also worth learning. (I may be speaking from experi...

There’s nothing like teaching a children’s Sunday school group to keep you theologically sharp, because children don’t shy away from asking difficult questions. One pesky question about the whole process of the Exodus is why God had to send quite so many plagues, with Pharoah hardening his heart and God allowing it. Why such a long wait while the Israelites endured more hardship?

When we look at difficult situations in the world, our prayers can feel so puny. ‘Dear God, please bring peace to Europe’ is a short prayer about a large and complex issue, and at times it may feel pointless to pray this way. We look to the heroes or people in power to do something about it, because who are we, as ordinary people, to influence history on the grand stage?