Sarah and Her Doppelgangers
She was a complex character. She gave her husband permission to get with her maid, but turned and blamed him for the consequence![1]Genesis 16:4-5 She
She was a complex character. She gave her husband permission to get with her maid, but turned and blamed him for the consequence![1]Genesis 16:4-5 She
The Bible speaks loudest on issues about which it is silent. One of the biggest questions that have preoccupied students of scripture is the effect
Amy Biehl had been on a Fulbright scholarship working on projects to facilitate democracy and social justice in South Africa. A day before she was
Oskar Schindler was a faithful hedonist. This paradox was right up the biblical alley. He was a man to whom the Jewish imagination could relate;
“He prayeth best, who loveth best All things both great and small; For the dear God who loveth us, He made and loveth all.” –
The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead.[1]Proverbs 21:16 In the first instalment on understanding,
Wisdom is the principal thing. Get wisdom, and with all thy getting, get understanding.[1]Psalm 4:7 Asaph unleashed upon the making of scripture, a combined arsenal
In Sophocles’ Greek tragedy, Thebes is overcome by a plague. The oracle reveals that a murder and an incestuous relationship are the causes of the
“If God is unable to prevent evil, then he is not all-powerful. If God is not willing to prevent evil, then he is not all-good.
They told on him. He’d been bad. He was wasteful, said some. Unjust, posted others. His boss was having none of it. His head was
Yahweh was on a mission. He set out to upend man’s age-old approach to knowing and relating to Him. Then, and even now, gods and
A Divine Prop There was the legend of the stick that turned into a snake, a bosom that made hands leprous and a mantle that
The Shaken Leaf As the children of Israel journeyed from Egypt to Canaan, they overcame large armies and defied nature. They were vectors of the
The Blind God Going by the first words that Goliath spoke to David, you knew it wouldn’t take a ‘David’ to knock Goliath out. Anyone
Joseph was God’s ‘sleeping’ partner, literally. Moses had the burning bush and Saul, the road to Damascus. But for the poor carpenter, no such moments
“Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody,” said Benjamin Franklin. Wrong, says the Bible, and so begins a story that is
“For it is better to marry than to burn,” [1]1 Corinthians 7:9 Apostle Paul wrote in response to questions the Corinthian church posed to him.
John Claypool draws on a medieval fable to illustrate, amongst other things, how circumstances often subvert our sense of self. In ‘The Stories Jesus Still
Oscar Schindler went about his life without Jesus Christ on his radar. The hard-living, womanising, war-profiteering Austrian amassed huge wealth off the back of deprived
They came from all Israel. Scripture called them “mighty men of valour”. A few thousands from here, several thousands from there. Each tribe, eager to
The Prophet Jonah is every man of the covenant faith. All he desires is to save God from God. God suffers from an irrepressible urge
Everyone has a scriptural go-to character in a quest for the blessings of heaven. Everyone of these biblical figures has a peculiar anointing or specific
Puah and Shiphrah do not feature in any list of Bible’s biggest characters. They don’t get nearly as much mention on pulpits as does Jabez,
“The Church exists to draw men unto Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the Cathedrals, clergies, missions, sermons,
Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? But whom say ye that I am? [1]Matthew 16:13,15 Those questions posed Christ Jesus
“Both read the Bible day and night, but thou read black where I read white.” William Blake (1757 –1827) We are advised that the fear
God does not play dice with the universe, Albert Einstein said. He obviously didn’t read the book of Job. In that book we read that
There’s nothing in Lawrence Sanders’ story to make one suppose he’s joining the world of faith in a search for meaning. While the scene set
Dear child of God, You are loved. You are cared for. The great and the good are fully engaged in a thankless task of saving
Were I a poet, then would my words distil as dew upon parched scrolls of the Nile’s papyrus. Had you made me a story teller,
The story of Jephthah’s daughter dramatises the perversion of faith occasioned by a lack of knowledge. Did he? Did he not? The question is perennial.
Idolatry was one of God’s major headaches. The fact that those to whom he revealed Himself through signs and wonders and a lavish display of
A conversation at a convention near you… What’s new in God’s world. His mercy. It is renewed daily. His blessings, we’re daily loaded with the
The prophets of Israel were activists. They did not reveal much that was new. Their calling was to hold a mirror to society, mostly to
“Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you.” [1]Leviticus 25:24
Jesus Christ had a challenge. It had nothing to do with the Pharisees or Sadducees. Neither Herod nor Pontius Pilate had anything to do with
Who wrote the Hebrew Bible? For whom was it written? Why? When? How? Were some of the accounts in the books of 1Samuel – 2Kings
Dear King Saul, Perhaps I should start by congratulating you on a rather excellent public relations machinery you had going. More so in an age
Ruth-less-ness is a state of not being like the biblical Ruth. She was famed for her uncommon capacity for love, compassion, patience, industry and faithfulness.
In the beginning: A New Interpretation of Genesis is more than just a pathology of the patriarchs. It reminds us that the first book of the bible is a rejoinder to ancient myths.
Cyrus ticked all the wrong boxes. For starters he was an idol worshipper. Although he did things for the ‘God of heaven’, history has it
There’s a god on the Pentecostal shelf. It needs you to be god. Your faith is it’s fuel. The more of it you have, the
We are called “to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.”
This is the story of an incurable optimist. A God who acts in hope in the face of abject hopelessness.
The challenges and conflicts we come across are designed to equip us for enemies with potential to drag both our form and essence to Sheol. Often they are within and not without.
The world of God remains an open-ended challenge for spiritual and intellectual expedition. Both faith and science are the gifts of God to us for such a quest.
God’s love, it would seem, is not based on us being on our best behaviour. It is based on the terms of a filial covenant. He said that though we were perpetually inclined towards evil, he would nonetheless remain merciful.
God’s intention for establishing the role of ministers, and indeed any other type of religious leader, is primarily to feed his children with the knowledge and understanding of Him and ultimately for the edification of the church.
Confession and profession of faith without due regard to works Jesus loves avail nothing.
“I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards: I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of
“God is known by knowledge and by unknowing; of him there’s understanding, reason, knowledge, touch, perception, opinion, imagination, name and many other things, but he’s
Prophet Jeremiah did not care much for his heritage. He was born into the Priesthood. He was raised as one and prepared for the task
Dear Lord, Your church needs divine intervention. May I leave salutations for later? These are desperate times in your church and I need you to
It’s time we stopped this ‘God of the Old Testament’ and ‘God of the New Testament’ theosophy. Let’s grow in the knowledge that God, the one God of Heaven and earth, revealed in the Torah, the Gospels and the Epistles is one.
Dear Prophet Malachi, I don’t think Jesus likes you very much. Pardon me, but this is no time for niceties. For over two thousand years
Dear Apostle Paul, Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Billy, a gentile of the Church of Jesus Christ and a student of your
Dear Daniel, I have a message for you; more like a question if you will. But before I deliver the Lord’s message, allow me to drool
Miriam and Aaron perfected the justification for the “Touch not my anointed” brigade when they challenged Moses’ decision to take an Ethiopian wife. That has
The word of God is not about replacement, displacement or supercession. It is a journey of reconciliation.
God does not suffer unsolicited advocates gladly. The principle is: If God didn’t say: “This is why I’ve done it,” don’t say it for Him. The