Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with timbrel and dancing, praise him with the strings and pipe, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.

Psalm 150:3-6

I was listening to Sam Leith’s interview of Paul Kildea on the Spectator Books podcast while I was driving. Their discussion turned to some of the reasons that Chopin’s 24 Preludes probably sounded very different when played today compared to when he played them on his piano’s, while composing them, …

“All this I have told you so that you will not fall away.”

John 16:1

Here Jesus is referring to his previous teaching of the disciples, specifically to his teaching in the previous chapter in which he prepares his disciples for persecution to come. Jesus knows he will not always be with his disciples in the flesh, because he knows his time of self-sacrifice is coming. He is able to put that aside though to take time to prepare his followers for the trials they will face.

In this action we see an important leadership trait being demonstrated, that of …

But afterward they changed their minds and took back the slaves they had freed and enslaved them again.

Jeremiah 34:11

In the thirty-fourth chapter of Jeremiah we find the tragic story of how many among the Israelites went back on their word and re-enslaved their fellow Israelites who they had set free from bondage. This entirely selfish action on the part of so many grieved the heart of God so much that he proclaimed the ruin of the guilty parties.

I will deliver [the leaders of the Israelites] into the hands of their enemies who want to kill them. Their …

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” Ecclesiastes 3:1

As I write this in New Zealand the roses are blooming in people’s gardens and the rose garden at the cemetery is looking particularly splendid. As I was walking among the cemetery’s rose garden today it occurred to me, as I know it has to many others, that working with roses is sometimes an apt illustration for working with people.

Roses have thorns that prick and poke when you are working amongst them, making tasks like pulling weeds from among carpet roses a painful …

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.”

Ecclesiastes 3:1.

It is winter here in New Zealand and consequently a lot of the trees in the backyard have lost their leaves. I was looking out at our backyard and noticed that in one of those leafless trees was a couple of missing toys clearly visible. They likely have sat there for most of the previous summer unnoticed, because when the tree was in leaf they were invisible. With the branches bare of leaves though the toys, in this case a rugby ball and a …

The list of celebrities that take their life by their own hand seems only to increase. Today we wonder in shock why one of the most memorable singers of our generation would take their own life in the midst of seemingly unstoppable success.

The news of Chris Cornell’s death immediately took me back to 1994 when Nirvana fans received in shock the news that emerging rock genius Kurt Cobain had died by his own hand. Grunge music had barely got started before its maestro was nowhere to be found. It seemed the evolution of rock had suffered a catastrophic setback, …

Hebrews 2:14-15 says,

Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death.

We do a lot of teaching about the power of demonic beings and evil spirits in the church worldwide today. The intention is to equip the saints to deal with attacks by the devil and his minions, so that we can live victorious Christian lives. To remain …

Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.

Isaiah 30:18

Here the prophet Isaiah cuts straight to the heart of how Israel can dig itself out of the hole it has dug itself into.

God will act for those who wait for him, he will deal kindly with those who put aside their own agenda to take time to listen to him.

The preceding verses speak of the Israelites own perceived need to …

In the last verses of Ephesians chapter 3 Paul relays his absolute belief that the Lord is able to do great things, over and above what his people ask of him as their God:

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Eph 3.20-21)

The most startling thing about these comments are that Paul wrote them from prison, a dark and gloomy Roman prison. …

When God looks down and sees dozens of people shot dead in a nightclub he cries, bitterly weeps. He doesn’t dwell on their lifestyle, he doesn’t reason away their deaths, he weeps and regrets the loss his children have inflicted on one another.

God knows what it feels like to have your family slaughtered, your love ones taken from you. Two thousand years ago he sent his son with a message of love and hope, but his child was killed, slaughtered, by an impassioned crowd. In the present day a terrified crowd is slaughtered by a maniac, and his actions …