Matthew 18:21-35 Summary: Peter’s question is profoundly relatable: how many times do I have to forgive? We’ve almost all had incidents in life where we might have secretly wanted Jesus to put a limit on what’s required of us. But as his parable so famously illustrates, the reason we must go on forgiving others is […]
Psalm 148 Summary: There is such a thing as a general spirit of gratitude aimed at no one in particular. In fact, it’s a sentiment that’s not uncommon around Thanksgiving Day–calls for us to be grateful but with no mention of the one to whom we should direct our gratitude. That kind of thanksgiving […]
Deuteronomy 8:6-20 Summary: Perhaps you’ve felt a bit odd sitting at a table full of food, next to a kitchen stocked with more than enough to get you through the rest of the week, and asking God for daily bread. As the catechism points out, the deepest purpose of this petition is to help us […]
Leviticus 16:1-34 Summary: It’s dangerous for a Holy God to take up residence with a sinful people. Leviticus 16 describes the one day of the year when the only man in Israel could approach the Most Holy Place behind the tabernacle curtain; the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur in Hebrew, which the Jews celebrated on […]
Genesis 3 Summary: Ever since the serpent convinced Adam & Eve to choose their own wills ahead of God’s will, history has been rattled by the human cry, “my will be done.” The third petition of the Lord’s Prayer is the antidote to the human condition. It reminds us that “your kingdom come” isn’t simply […]
Revelation 12 Summary: Revelation 12 reminds us that “your kingdom come” is a wartime prayer. This petition recognizes that we are living in the midst of a cosmic conflict between the desperate fury of a defeated dragon and the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so, as the Heidelberg Catechism outlines, it’s a prayer […]
Ezekiel 36:16-32 Summary: Parents know all too well that our reputations are intimately tied up–for good or for ill–in the behaviour of our children. God points out in Ezekiel that that same is true of His relationship with His people. Like Israel, our sin doesn’t just offend God, it dishonours his reputation. This is why […]
Exodus 3:1-15 Summary: By the time God appears to Moses in the burning bush, Israel had been in slavery in Egypt for hundreds of years. It’s easy to imagine why many might have concluded that God must have forgotten or changed his mind about the promises he made to their father Abraham. It’s here at […]
Exodus 2:1-10 Summary: The book of Exodus contains some of the most dramatic divine activity in all of scripture (e.g. the plagues, the Red Sea). However, God enters the scene very quietly here in chapter 2 through some very ordinary events; a birth, a bath, a breastfeeding mother. Yet the irony of these events (e.g. […]
1 Samuel 26:1-25 Summary: It’s probably hard for us to imagine the kind of restraint David showed in sparing Saul’s life now for the second time (the first is in chapter 24). It would seem he had every conceivable justification to end Saul’s treacherous hunt for his life. Yet David would not lift his hand […]