the waiting country

When Adam and Eve sinned, the weight of their shame was intolerable. It had been noted at the end of the previous chapter that they “were bo...

"Richard, you’re on mute!"  Whoops. It’s happened lots of times, to many of us. Recently I had the experience of not being able to...

I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes. I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precep...

All sorts of thoughts and questions swirly around the ultimate destiny of Christians - the nature of heavenly life, what life on a renewed e...

David’s prayer in Psalm 5:8 gets right to the heart of so much of our need and longing: “lead me, LORD, in your righteousness.” The reason ...

“Like cold water to a weary soul Is good news from a distant land…” (Proverbs 25:25) A weary soul. I guess we know what that’s like - insid...

Psalm 74 portrays the experiences of the people of Israel in the most graphic terms. Their enemies had roared against them, had smashed the ...

Paul writes to the church in Rome about his hopes to come to them, on his way to Spain. His confidence is this: “I know that when I come to ...

You’ve got plans that need to be made, steps forward that need to be taken. You glance in the direction of heaven and hope that, somehow, th...

It’s said that on a clear day you can see forever. But we live in a world that is frequently opaque and whose skies seem to be filled with t...

During the course of an (entertaining) interview about what books he's currently reading, Carl Trueman made the point about his non-use...

The perspective of Joseph on his sufferings at the hands of his brothers is quite stunning. When he reveals himself to them they are (to par...

We have enemies, within and without. The Bible couldn’t be plainer on this point. Whatever terms it might use - “the world, the flesh and th...

“Can these bones live?” Can this life be turned-around? Can hope be embedded in the heart? Can these bones live, the dry bones we see all a...

Pleading your own righteousness is a mug’s game. Anyone who has any awareness of their own fallibility, their own propensity to sin and dece...

As you offer yourself to the Lord each day, in worship and as a living sacrifice, how do you see yourself? What image comes to mind, what de...

Matthew tells us about fear at the empty tomb of Jesus - the guards who experience the earthquake and see an angel of the Lord come down and...

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was formless and void and darkness was over the surface of the deep....

“He saved others but he can’t save himself!” It was an insult hurled at a dying man, hung between two criminals. A man who had healed the s...

The fact that the Psalms never clearly report a change in external circumstances is one mark of the Bible’s persistent realism. Prayer is no...