Tuesday, 17 March 2026
Bringing the Power of the Gospel – SAINT PATRICK
After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. (Luke 10:1-3)
The man we know as St Patrick was probably the greatest Christian missionary since St Paul. This was because he took the Gospel beyond the bounds of the Roman Empire. The Romans had conquered much of Britain, though Scotland was always a bridge too far. But if Scotland was a…
Monday, 16 March 2026
Believing in the Power of God’s Word – Monday of the fourth week of Lent
Now there was a royal official whose son lay ill in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my little boy dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way. (John 4:46-50)
The prophetic voice we hear is Isaiah who prophesied after the return from the Babylonian exile. What they found when they returned to Jerusalem was depressing. The city was in ruins and the task of rebuilding seemed impossible, given the scale of what was required and the meagreness of their…
Sunday, 15 March 2026
See with the Eye of God – 4 LENT
Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.” He said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshipped him. (John 9:35-38)
Seeing is very important in the Bible, or more particularly how we see; and Scripture makes it clear that God sees differently than we do. Our task, therefore, is to bring our seeing into line with God’s seeing, to see with the eye of God. Samuel is told that “the…
Saturday, 14 March 2026
My Need for God’s Mercy – Saturday of the third week of Lent
“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Luke 18:10-14)
The Pharisee wasn’t necessarily a bad man, but he was the product of a bad religious system. He performed all his religious duties with scrupulous care and prided himself on that. But he had never gone down into the depths of his heart and discovered there his own sinfulness and…
Friday, 13 March 2026
The Lord Our God Is One – Friday of the third week of Lent
Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31)
Throughout the Bible there is a struggle between the false gods and the one true God. This goes back to the entry of the People of God into the promised land. The God who had led them to the new land was understood as a desert God, good and trustworthy…
Thursday, 12 March 2026
Reading Kingdom Signs – Thursday of the third week of Lent
But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.” Others, to test him, kept demanding from him a sign from heaven. But he knew what they were thinking and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself becomes a desert, and house falls on house…But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out the demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you.” (Luke 11:15-17, 20)
The opponents of Jesus are like those condemned by the prophet Jeremiah. The prophet says they will not listen to the voice of God or do what God asks. They “walked in their own counsels and looked backward rather than forward” (Jeremiah 7:24). The only voice they listen to is…
Wednesday, 11 March 2026
Gift of Remembrance – Wednesday of the third week of Lent
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.” (Matthew 5:17-18)
In the Bible, amnesia is always a danger, and ‘forgetting’ is one of its prime words for sin. And in the epicentre of Christian worship, the Eucharist, we hear the unforgettable words of Christ: ‘Do this in memory of me’. In the Book of Deuteronomy, the call is to remember…
Tuesday, 10 March 2026
No Limit to God’s Forgiveness – Tuesday of the third week of Lent
Then Peter came and said to him [Jesus], “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy times seven.” (Matthew 18:21-22)
It’s not easy to pray in the heart of a fire, but Azariah does, and at some length. The fire in which he stands is the sin of the people to whom he belongs, the effects of which have been devastating. But he stands in the heart of the fire…
Monday, 9 March 2026
Called into a Much Bigger World – Monday of the third week of Lent
When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way. (Luke 4:28-30)
The rulers of the earth are powerful, but there’s a limit to their power. At first, Naaman couldn’t see beyond the royal power, coming to the king to cure his leprosy. But the king recognises the limits of his power. He is not God, though some of the kings of…
Sunday, 8 March 2026
Thirsting For God – 3 LENT
Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14)
Once on a journey through the Negev desert south of Jerusalem, we were told we had to drink nine litres of water a day to replace the moisture lost from the body through evaporation. Otherwise, we would dehydrate and eventually die. So, the desert is the land of death, and…