I only began to follow Christ in my 20’s. Up until then, I’d lived a life that was very far from the Lord and I’d done things I was not proud of, but after giving my life to Jesus everything changed for me. Perhaps that’s why I love the woman who poured out her jar of perfume on Christ’s feet in Luke 7. She reminds me, of me!Jesus was eating at the home of Simon, a prominent Pharisee in Galilee. I...  Read More

I was reading an article the other day in which the writer gave a list of parental phrases  and then asked how many of them you recognized from the mouths of your own mother or father. Believe it or not, one of the top responses was: “Stop crying, or I’ll give you something to cry about!” I remember my own parents saying that quite frequently to me and my siblings! And occasionally they used to fo...  Read More

There are times in life when we find ourselves up against things we would far rather not face; and when that happens we may struggle to understand God’s purposes. God has really spoken to me about how to deal with times like that through a passage of Scripture in Mark 4:35-41.Jesus was on the shores of the Sea of Galilee; and as He often did when the crowds were pressing in, He had spent the day t...  Read More

Acts 4:11-13I was born in a very small, remote mining town in the middle of the African wilderness. Recently I tried looking for my childhood home on an internet map and even I struggled to find it! When I was growing up our house had seemed so large and so beautiful but when I found the old run-down dwelling on a dusty street it was very different to how I had imagined it. I am a nobody who came ...  Read More

There are many interactions between Jesus and ordinary people in the Scripture that I find meaningful because they not only show us who Jesus is, but they also reveal His kindness and grace to those who could never measure up to God’s standards in their own strength.One such encounter was when a certain father brought his son to Christ’s disciples asking that they set him free from the demonic spi...  Read More

There’s a particular story in Exodus 17 that illustrates something I am reminded of every day: we cannot do what we do for the Lord alone. We need others.  Read More

The New Testament tells us of a man named Saul. He was a deeply religious man who tried to obey all of God’s commands as well as the traditions of the religious leaders; but he was so focused on religious purity that he had somehow lost sight of God. The followers of Jesus at that time were known as “the Way” because Christ had identified Himself as “the way, the truth and the life” and openly dec...  Read More

After we have placed our faith in Christ, God calls us to die to self and live for Him. That’s what Paul means when he says in Romans 12:1 that “in view of God’s mercy” to us we are to offer our “bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God” and that this is our “true and proper worship” of Him. It is as we continually die to our selfish desires and live according to Christ’s will that w...  Read More

John 18:39-40At Passover God’s judgement passed over every door that was covered by the blood of the sacrificial lamb. The Apostle Paul told us in 1 Corinthians 5:7 that Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed and in a similar way, every individual who has prayed for the blood of Jesus to cover them, will be spared God’s judgement also for Christ has become our substitute. In 2 Corinthians 5:...  Read More

After what has turned out to be a very difficult week, I am left thinking about how the deepest wounds so often come by the hand of a friend. There have been several instances in my life when relationships I was so sure about have not worked out at all as I envisaged, but I am comforted by the realization that Jesus perfectly understands how I feel — for He Himself has suffered in this very way. A...  Read More

When I became a follower of Christ, a very simple Scripture found in Romans 10:9-11 helped me to understand what must be done in order to be saved. It says, “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” That seems so simple doesn’t it? And there is a part of us that wonders if that’s really all there is to it...  Read More

My husband and I enjoyed many safaris together while we lived in Africa. We had a four-wheel-drive vehicle; we had all the necessary gear for such excursions (tents and coolers and cookstoves and such); and we had maps for where we were going – so why not head off into the wilderness alone? Among other things, those journeys taught me a lot about the need for prayer, because we very soon learned t...  Read More