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Up until this point we have met Jonah, heard his call from God, seen his foolish attempt to run away, and witnessed God's supernatural power in saving even the pagan sailors. This week brings us to the most well-known part of Jonah, the big fish, and his prayer from inside its belly. Jonah's prayer is framed by the fish; let's read this fish sandwich:

'And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, saying, “I called out to the Lord,…  ( Click for more )

Right, I am back after last week's faux pas and hopefully we are ready to dig deep into God's Word. In week one we met Jonah, illogically attempting to run away from God. This week we see him on the ship he boarded last time:

'But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was…  ( Click for more )

Since part one last week I have been looking forward to moving on through the book of Jonah; this week we are in Jonah 1:4-16. After seeing last week Jonah's call and subsequent escape attempt we experience with him the time he spent with the pagan sailors. Let's have a look at the passage:

'But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had…  ( Click for more )

We begin our study of Jonah with Jonah 1:1-3. While I am sure you are able to find the passage yourself and indeed that you may know Jonah's story inside-out I like my translation the best so here's the passage for this week:

'Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 'Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.' But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish,…  ( Click for more )

The people have spoken: recently I have received many requests to write more shorter series rather than longer ones; the series on John has been going for twelve weeks now and although it has been great learning more about Jesus we have only just got to the end of chapter one and, perhaps understandably, there is a desire for something new! With that in mind we are about to embark on a slightly shorter journey - turn with me in your Bibles, if you will, to the short Old Testament book of Jonah. This wonderful book's story is well-known to many Christians but there are still truths…  ( Click for more )

It has been my observation recently that the vast majority of preaching seems to take place directly out of big, meaty, theological chunks halfway through books. And, of course, there are some exceptional messages that have come from this. However, I believe 'all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness' (2 Timothy 3:16-17). I therefore decided I would study the first verse of Philippians to see what truths we could pick out from Paul and Timothy's greeting.

Philippians 1:1 'This letter is from Paul and Timothy,…  ( Click for more )

Last week we saw that Jesus is the Son of God. This week we see that he is the Son of Man, and we are finally at the last study of John chapter one - rest assured that the rest of the book will not take as long as this part has! The Son of Man is a title familiar to most Christians because it was Jesus' favourite title for himself; he used it over 80 times. It is, however, one we tend to know little about - so let's see what we can find out.

The actual phrase is taken from Daniel 7:13 and is a title clearly used for one with messianic qualities. It is firstly important therefore…  ( Click for more )

Well happy new year everybody! I know we're firmly in 2009 now but I have not had the chance to welcome in the new year here yet - and what better way to kick off a new year than recognising perhaps the most extraordinary truth of the Christian faith? We're back in John 1, verse 49: 'Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”'

This is the wonderful truth: God has a Son.

Sometimes I think we get so caught up in saying similar words every Sunday morning that we actually miss some staggering claims that the Bible makes. One…  ( Click for more )

For the regulars to this article you will notice that a break has been taken from the current series in John - well done for noticing! The series through John will continue in the New Year but I'm going to take a bit of a Christmas break so thought I'd bless you with a holiday message - this will run for three weeks so come back for the next article on 10 January 2009!

I'd love it if we could look at Luke 2:8-18. While I would normally quote from my preferred translation, the ESV, today this is from the NIV:

'And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping…  ( Click for more )

For the regulars to this article you will notice that a break has been taken from the current series in John - well done for noticing! The series through John will continue in the New Year but I'm going to take a bit of a Christmas break so thought I'd bless you with a holiday message - this will run for three weeks so come back for the next article on 10 January 2009!

I'd love it if we could look at Luke 2:8-18. While I would normally quote from my preferred translation, the ESV, today this is from the NIV:

'And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping…  ( Click for more )

For the regulars to this article you will notice that a break has been taken from the current series in John - well done for noticing! The series through John will continue in the New Year but I'm going to take a bit of a Christmas break so thought I'd bless you with a holiday message - this will run for three weeks so come back for the next article on 10 January 2009!

I'd love it if we could look at Luke 2:8-18. While I would normally quote from my preferred translation, the ESV, today this is from the NIV:

'And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping…  ( Click for more )

Here we encounter Jesus doing something miraculous and wonderful. Upon meeting Nathaniel Jesus exclaimed 'Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!' As complimentary and generic as this may seem it must have hit a chord with Nathaniel, because he immediately asked 'How do you know me?' Jesus answered him, 'Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.' Jesus here is demonstrating one aspect of the fact that he is God; he knows things that the rest of us don't! Jesus' words make it clear that his knowledge of Nathaniel were not a guess, but something…  ( Click for more )

Yes, we are still in chapter one...when John was writing his book he intentionally started it with as much deep theology as possible to set the foundation for the rest of the book - you have my word that once we leave this chapter you will wish we were back here because we'll be at the end before long! The verse we see this week is John 1:45, which says: 'Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”'

I am sure that many of us are already aware of Jesus' knack…  ( Click for more )

So we continue our discovery of Jesus' character through the book of John. Andrew had heard John the Baptist talking about Jesus, and had decided to follow him. He is identified as the 'first evangelist' by many through this verse, John 1:41. 'He [Andrew] first found his own brother Simon [who would be called Peter] and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ).'

Now it would, I am sure, be very easy for us to dwell on this verse in terms of being stirred evangelistically, but that is not what we will be looking at today. However life-changing…  ( Click for more )

We're still in John 1, and this week we get to look at a great aspect of who Jesus is. In response to the question asked by the disciples in verse 38, 'where are you staying?', Jesus says, 'Come and you will see.' This phrase is similar in many ways to the often-quoted phrase of Jesus, 'follow me'. Very often we will ask Jesus a question and we find that the answer comes in following him. So today we are going to look at Jesus, the Leader.

Now there are many different styles of leadership. Jesus practises many of them, but this verse in particular highlights the way he leads…  ( Click for more )

I am sure that some readers at this point will begin to give up on the current series, studying Jesus' character in John, because we seem to be moving so slowly! It has been a number of weeks and we are still in chapter one, and I can tell you now that we will remain here for a couple of weeks more - WHY?! Well, firstly we know from 2 Timothy 3:16 that 'all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,' so the fact that we're only spending one week on each of these points doesn't do justice to…  ( Click for more )

Continuing on our journey of Jesus' characteristics in the gospel of John we come across these verses:

'And John [the Baptist] bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptises with the Holy Spirit.’' John 1:32-33

While it is important to note at the outset that God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are different Persons in the Godhead, in terms of Jesus' earthly ministry…  ( Click for more )

For those of you who are unaware, we are currently working our way through the gospel of John, identifying characteristics of Jesus along the way; this week, week four, we skip a few verses but are still firmly grounded in chapter one! John 1:29 says 'The next day [John the Baptist] saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"'

So here's the truth for this week - as was said a couple of weeks ago, often the simplest language carries the weightiest doctrine, and this is no different: 'the Lamb of God'.

The…  ( Click for more )

Third week, and still in John 1 - I promise this will start moving faster soon but there's so much here I can't just skip over it with a clear conscience! Let's have a look at John 1:14-18.

'And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.'") And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through…  ( Click for more )

This is the second week of our study through John. I am sure that we will begin to move a bit more quickly when we get to see some of Jesus' teaching and miracles but, for the moment, there is an enormous amount of weighty doctrine that we must look at. Last week we saw that Jesus is 'the Word', and that He 'was in the beginning with God', and even more than that 'was God' - the awesome truth that Jesus is Creator! This week we will look at the next verses (John 1:4-5,9-13):

'In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness…  ( Click for more )

This week we begin a new series, which is always an exciting time; I have been thinking about what I would like to study and share with you and am excited to announce that we will be starting a study of the gospel of John! This will not be a verse-by-verse commentary, but rather will be a study through John with a strong theme. I had the idea a couple of weeks ago to read through a gospel, highlighting to myself aspects of Jesus' character based on the contents, but have decided to do this through the medium of liveasif.org, and share the experience with you; I hope that it is an…  ( Click for more )

This is the final chapter of Ezra, and in reaching this point one cannot fail to think that it is a bit of an anti-climax...the Israelites have wonderful faith and leadership and build the temple, then end up marrying outside of the Israelites - the book finishes with a list of those who inter-married! Not the most instantly rousing stuff but I believe that all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable so we will stufy this passage together and finish our time in the book of Ezra before starting a new journey next week. Before then, however, let's allow God to change us by His…  ( Click for more )

Ok, here it is. Only chapters nine and ten left, when this happens: Ezra is told that the Israelites have started marrying people who are not Israelites. This appalls Ezra so much that he literally just sits in shock until the evening, when it is time for the sacrifice. When the sacrifice happens, he prays quite a substantial prayer! That's the high level view anyway. Let's look at this passage a little more in depth.

Ezra's initial response (Ezra 9:1-4)

As soon as Ezra heard that 'the people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have...taken some of their [unbelieving]…  ( Click for more )

The story so far...A non-Christian king made a decree that the temple in Jerusalem was to be rebuilt, so the Israelites all gathered together and began to build it. However, opposition arose against them so they stopped. A little while later, another unbelieving king made the same decree again, so the Israelites rose up again to begin building. However, an investigation was carried out to see if the king had really made this decree so building was stopped a second time until the truth was discovered, the temple was finished, and the Israelites could celebrate the Passover together.…  ( Click for more )