A book I read years ago, that had a major impact on my life, called "23 Minutes in Hell", by Bill Wiese, came strongly into my mind during a 'wilderness' or complacent period in my faith and I revisited Wiese's warnings about the devil's agenda to snare, kill, steal and destroy, and the very grim reality of Hell. I read with renewed horror as Wiese described his experience of being taken to Hell, in an 'out of body experience', on November 23rd, 1998. He also preaches on this experience, in a youtube video, dated February 2018 . I highly recommend it.(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKniy8CCK ..read more

When Abishai, the hot-tempered brother of Joab, King David's Army Commander, wishes to kill King Saul, David is horrified. Abishai said to David, “Today God has given your enemy to you. Let me pin Saul to the ground with his spear. I’ll only do it once!” (1 Samuel 26:8) David prevents Abishai from murdering Saul in his sleep, even though Saul has been relentlessly pursuing him and would not have hesitated to kill David, whom he saw as a rival to his throne: But David said to Abishai, "Don't destroy him! Who can lay a hand on the LORD's anointed and be guiltless? 1 Samuel 26:9 Later, when Davi ..read more

Even though he was so favoured of God, King David did not dare, it seems, to confront directly the intimidating and rebellious Joab – or Abishai, Joab’s brother. Perhaps Joab’s military skill and political influence over the Judean and Jerusalem armies were so crucial, and his popularity among the men so strong, that David could not afford, tactically, to make Joab an enemy. And, of course, Joab and Abishai were David’s nephews – the sons of David’s sister, Zeruiah - so there was a strong family connection that perhaps explains Joab’s daring over-familiarity with his King. It is to Solomon th ..read more

When David is anointed King, he is supported and undermined in equal measure by Joab and Abishai, the sons of his sister, Zeruiah. Abishai is so powerful and hot-headed that the men in the Judean army agree to prevent his fighting alongside them, at one point in the Jerusalem/Judah civil war, lest he “quench the lamp of Israel” by killing the entire Jerusalem army! (2 Samuel 17) Abishai rescues David from a Philistine giant, in battle (2 Samuel 21:17) and in 2 Samuel, 23:18, we read: Abishai son of Zeruiah, the brother of Joab, was the leader of the Thirty. He once used his spear to kill thre ..read more

David got things wrong. Badly wrong. The debacle with Bathsheba springs to mind. Then there was his lack of judgement with his rebellious, bitter son, Absalom. And the ill-fated decision to take a census of Jerusalem’s men that cost 70,000 people their lives in a three day pestilence, visited on Judah by God, as punishment for this transgression. But where David excelled – intentionally at least, if not consistently - was in an area difficult to define but vital to explore, if we are to increase our understanding of God’s heart: David was essentially loyal to God. Saul made terrible mistakes ..read more

Image used with kind permission of Peter & Renate Nahum Agency(The Leicester Galleries)5 Bloomsbury Square (On Bloomsbury Way)London WC1A 2TA “So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, 30 come down from the cross and save yourself!” Mark 15:29-30 That there was a significant seismic event that occurred at the time Jesus died, is reported in the Gospel of Matthew: “The earth shook, the rocks split 52 and the tombs broke open.” (Matthew 27:51-2) and has been verified by geologists: “Annual layers of deposition in the sediments near the Red Sea reveal that at ..read more

Wordsworth, the great nature poet, also wrote this line, in 1802 – the same year he wrote ‘The World is too much with us’:“My heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky” (‘My Heart Leaps Up’, 1802)Just goes to show that depression – whatever its cause – can come suddenly and without warning. As can injury and tragedy. In a short period, Wordsworth’s mood had shifted seismically from childlike joy in nature’s beauty to a season when even the sea seems “a sordid boon” and: “… we are out of tune;It moves us not.” ('The world is too much with us', 1802)In ‘The world is too much with us’ Wor ..read more

“The World Is Too Much With Us”. William Wordsworth wrote this line circa 1802. It is the opening to a short poem in which he laments how ‘unspiritual’ and lacking in awe and wonder life can become when “We have given our hearts away”to – or, perhaps, allowed them to be 'filched' by - the world’s cares, and the decaying dullness that is mundanity. It is not something from which we can assume immunity, even if we are ‘born again’ Christians. We, too, are composed of what Shakespeare called this “too, too solid flesh” and all the “natural shocks” that “flesh is heir to” (Hamlet), even if we are ..read more

Psalm 91 talks of a "secret place" where those who have made the Lord their refuge can dwell, in confidence that they are inaccessible to 'pestilence', sudden death, slander, evil plots and snares. I want to live there.But access to the secret place is not automatic. It is achieved by discipline and a thirsting after God that is a continuous necessity. Only when a believer has what the Amplified Bible calls "a personal knowledge of [His] mercy love and kindness, trusts and relies on [Him], knowing [He] will never forsake him, no, never" (Psalm 91:14) can he or she "dwell" in this secret place ..read more

In Joshua 24: 15, we find these words:"But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”The message is very clear. God intended us to be free (Galatians 5:13) to choose faith in Him, in something else, or no faith at all. And, it is undeniably hard to justify a faith in something you cannot see or prove empirically. Hence thousands of years of philosophical and ap ..read more