Episodes

  • January 12th - Jonah 2:1-2

    January 12th - Jonah 2:1-2
    Jan 12 2025
    Jonah 2:1-2 Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from inside the fish. He said, “I cried out to the LORD in my great trouble, and he answered me. I called to you from the land of the dead, and LORD, you heard me!” The thought of spending three days and nights inside a large fish is well beyond my imagination. And the book of Jonah doesn’t do anything to satisfy my curiosity! This is no newspaper account of exactly what it looks and feels like to be swallowed by an enormous fish. Rather, it is the story of a man meeting with God at a time of extreme need. Jonah’s words echo many of the Psalms and reveal his sense of despair and abandonment. Life seemed to have come to a shuddering conclusion but, amid his confusion, he cried to God and God heard him. Jonah had walked the path of disobedience and now, in the belly of the fish, he needed to set off in a new direction. God had not abandoned him, but was ready to hear his cries. Jonah’s situation reminds me of the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32). Just like Jonah, the son headed off deliberately in the wrong direction. He had the cheek to ask for his inheritance while his father was still alive, and then quickly lost all the money by living recklessly. He was so poor that all he could do was to find a job feeding pigs. It was there in that moment of abject failure that he came to his senses, and it was just the same for Jonah. The lesson we learn is that however far and fast we run, God will always be loving us and inviting us to turn around and come back to him. He won’t force us, but if and when we do return we can be sure that his arms will be wide open to welcome us back. Question What have you learned from Jonah’s attempt to run away from God? Prayer Lord God, thank you that you never give up on us. Amen
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    3 mins
  • January 11th - Jonah 1:1-3

    January 11th - Jonah 1:1-3
    Jan 11 2025
    Jonah 1:1-3 The LORD gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.” But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the LORD. Most Bibles will have the title ‘Holy Bible’ on the cover, which could give the impression that it is a book stacked full of stories of really holy people who never take a step out of line. It is surely a relief to us all that the Bible is nothing like that. At times it feels like the complete opposite! Take Jonah for example. He was called by God but was appalled by the command. Going to Nineveh was absolutely the last thing that he would ever want to do. The city was, at the time, one of the largest cities in the world and was famous for its sin. It stood at the heart of the great and menacing Assyrian empire and everything about it would have been repulsive to Jonah. So, he went to Joppa and found a boat that was heading in the opposite direction to Nineveh. What could possibly go wrong?! The one factor that Jonah hadn’t taken into account was God. He imagined that he could run away from God and that would be the end of it. But how wrong he was! There was a great storm and Jonah told the crew that they needed to throw him overboard. He was then swallowed by a great fish and spewed up on a beach three days later. It’s a remarkable account but it often resonates with people; so many can speak of the way in which they ran away from God, only to find that he had been with them all the time. Running away from God is always a bad idea, because no one knows us or loves us more completely. To run away from him is to invite disaster for ourselves and those around us. Question What would you say to someone who was trying to run away from God? Prayer Lord God, I thank you that you love me so much that, however far I run away, you will still keep loving me. Amen
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    3 mins
  • January 10th - Isaiah 42:1

    January 10th - Isaiah 42:1
    Jan 10 2025
    Isaiah 42:1 “Look at my servant, whom I strengthen. He is my chosen one, who pleases me. I have put my Spirit upon him. He will bring justice to the nations.” I became absolutely fascinated by the law when I was in my teens. I often visited our local magistrates’ and crown courts in Southend and was completely gripped by the whole process. On a few occasions I went up to the Old Bailey in London where they tried the most amazing cases. My mind was well and truly opened up to the darker side of our society and I was given a good crash course in justice. It became clear to me that the difficult work that these courts were doing was vital to the stability of society. But when we read about justice in Isaiah the subject is much wider than merely what happens in courts of law, vital as that obviously is. It refers to God’s desire that everything should be done fairly throughout society. Relationships need to be healthy and strong and the way people treat one another needs to be considerate and loving. Our verse today is the beginning of the first of the Servant Songs in Isaiah. God looked to Israel to be the servant who would fulfil his mission to the world. But we also see him pointing further forward to the coming of the messiah, Jesus. He would be filled with God’s Spirit and would open up a path of salvation and justice to all who would follow him. As servants of God, we are commanded to live our lives in step with the Spirit. This involves living justly and lovingly but also fighting for justice for those around us. Our greatest responsibility is for the most vulnerable – the young, old, immigrants, disabled, homeless and all others who are most frequently overlooked by our society. When we reach out to them we can be sure that we are doing exactly what God wants us to do in bringing his justice to our world. Question Where do you see a particular need for justice among the people you meet each day? Prayer Lord God I recognise that you are a God of justice. Help me to strive for justice and fairness in every part of my life. Amen
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    3 mins
  • January 9th - Isaiah 40:28-29

    January 9th - Isaiah 40:28-29
    Jan 9 2025
    Isaiah 40:28-29 Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. It was Samuel Butler, the 19th-century author, who observed: “Life is one long process of getting tired.” However young and fit you may be, the time comes when you need to rest. Our bodies demand it. Isaiah points out that God is completely different and is able to work continually without any rest. He never grows weak or weary. What an encouragement this is! It means that God can be completely relied upon at all times. We are more than aware that our work level changes if we are tired or it is getting towards the end of the day. How wonderful that God is not subject to these variations because it means we can reach out to him at any time with confidence. Even though people are making demands upon him all over the world he never needs to take time off or go on holiday. He is always available to help. The amazing truth is that there is no limit at all to God – not to his strength nor to his understanding. However much we know, our understanding is always severely limited. But not so with God. When we place ourselves in his hands we can have the confidence of knowing that he not only comprehends everything about us but he can also meet our needs perfectly. I love the way in which Isaiah expresses this truth. He shows surprise that his hearers had not understood these things. In more contemporary language it is as if he is saying: “Where have you been? How have you missed out on this?” But the sad truth is that many people are quite unaware of how amazing our God is, so we need to take every opportunity to tell them. Question In what ways are you encouraged by God’s unlimited strength and understanding? Prayer Lord God, I worship you. You are worthy of all my praise and adoration. Amen
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    3 mins
  • January 8th - Isaiah 40:25-26

    January 8th - Isaiah 40:25-26
    Jan 8 2025
    Isaiah 40:25-26 “To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal?” asks the Holy One. “Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out like an army, one after another, calling each by its name. Because of his great power and incomparable strength, not a single one is missing.” I have never studied astronomy but I find the scale of the universe totally mind boggling. Light travels at 186,282 miles per second. That’s fast! But to go on any significant journey into space we too would need to travel at that speed. In one minute we would have travelled over 11 million miles and by the end of the day we would have covered 16,000 million miles. After a year we would have travelled nearly 6 million, million miles. That’s good going but it would still take more than three further years before we reached the nearest stars. No doubt we would feel a great sense of achievement to have got that far, but we would need to keep going for another 20,000 years at the same speed to reach the edge of our galaxy. But even when we got there the journey would have only just begun, because there are more than 200 billion other galaxies to explore. Wow! I love the fact that we talk of the God of the universe as being our friend and I believe he wants us to do so. But when we gaze at the universe we need to be clear that we are talking about a very special friend – one who we can only approach with total humility, worship and adoration. As we worship God let’s lift our eyes. Let’s look to the sun, the moon and the stars and gasp in absolute amazement that the great God who created it all is willing to enter into a relationship with you and me. Question When you think of the vastness of the universe what is your response? Prayer Loving God I praise you for your amazing creation. Forgive me that I so easily take it for granted. Please help me to gaze upon it regularly and allow it to become the springboard for my worship. Amen
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    4 mins
  • January 7th - Isaiah 40:3-5

    January 7th - Isaiah 40:3-5
    Jan 7 2025
    Isaiah 40:3-5 Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting, “Clear the way through the wilderness for the LORD! Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God! Fill in the valleys, and level the mountains and hills. Straighten the curves, and smooth out the rough places. Then the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all people will see it together.” I’m no lover of airports, but I do love flying. Having flown to many parts of the world, I have always been amazed by the huge expanse of mountainous areas so was not surprised to discover that mountains form nearly a quarter of the earth’s land surface. As I have flown over them for hours on end, I have tried to imagine the way of life for the people who live in such areas. Mountains are beautiful, but they must make travel incredibly complicated for the people who have them as their home. In today’s dramatic reading we hear that our mighty God can flatten the mountains and fill in the valleys. What Isaiah is telling us is that we should never put a limit on what God can do. However mountainous our problems may be, God can blast a path through them. That should come as a great encouragement to all of us, because we are probably all confronting situations that we feel could never be solved. Humanly speaking, we cannot imagine a way of overcoming them. But God looks at things in a very different way. Today’s verses are probably most familiar to us from the New Testament, where we hear them in connection with John the Baptist (Mark 1:3). He fulfilled this prophecy when he came as a voice in the wilderness, preparing the way for the coming of Jesus, the saviour of the world. Jesus’ life, death and resurrection brought a complete transformation to human history. Only by God becoming man in Jesus could the mountainous challenges of sin and death be overcome. Jesus won the greatest victory of all time through his death upon the cross. Truly we should never put a limit on what God can do. Question What mountainous problems have you seen God overcome in your life? Prayer Dear Father God, help my confidence in you to grow day by day. Amen
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    3 mins
  • January 6th - Isaiah 40:1-2

    January 6th - Isaiah 40:1-2
    Jan 6 2025
    Isaiah 40:1-2 “Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God. “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem. Tell her that her sad days are gone and her sins are pardoned.” We all make mistakes, but some have far greater impact than others. Many mistakes are of minor importance, and are soon forgotten, but others can change the whole direction of life from that moment. The people of Jerusalem and Judah had made a long succession of disastrous decisions but in this passage God told them that things were going to change because he would forgive them. When we make mistakes, and especially when they have long-term implications, it is easy to imagine that there is no hope. But God is always in the business of restoration. He is always looking for ways of bringing salvation and renewal. This is truly a message of comfort and one which our world desperately needs to hear. I have spent many, many hours of my life with people who have tried to persuade me that they were beyond God’s help. Their lives had gone from bad to much, much worse and they couldn’t imagine that there was a way back. I think particularly of prisoners I have met who have been very happy to share their life story but had drawn the conclusion that they were beyond being helped. I particularly love the word ‘tenderly’ in today’s Bible passage. When God comes to us in our failure he doesn’t come stridently and critically, but with tenderness and love. The truth is, we can never deserve God’s forgiveness. It’s always a gift and, incredibly, the Bible tells us that he is willing to forgive us however badly messed up our lives might be. God simply looks for our willingness to own up to our sin, to accept his forgiveness and to change our way of life. They were comforting words for the people of Jerusalem long ago – and they still are. Question What is your own experience of God’s forgiveness? Prayer Lord God I confess that I have made many mistakes. I accept your gift of forgiveness and ask you to fill me with your Spirit as I seek to live my life in step with you. Amen
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    3 mins
  • January 5th - Psalm 47:1-2

    January 5th - Psalm 47:1-2
    Jan 5 2025
    Psalm 47:1-2 Come, everyone! Clap your hands! Shout to God with joyful praise! For the LORD Most High is awesome. He is the great King of all the earth. Clapping uses no words but conveys very powerful messages. There is all the difference in the world between clapping that is dutiful and polite, and clapping that is enthusiastic and heart-felt. I am glad that the Bible encourages us to clap precisely because it takes us beyond words. However well-chosen and eloquent our speech it can never fully express how great, majestic and awesome our God is. I was not brought up to make much use of my body in worship. Standing up, sitting down and shutting my eyes were the sum total of my bodily worship! I had an aunt who was high church and she did a lot of kneeling. Lifting hands or dancing in worship were well outside my experience until I was in my 20s. What mattered were the words. Of course, the words do matter and we will always want to use them as we praise God, but I am glad that we live in days when many have rediscovered the importance of using our bodies in worship. Clapping, it seems to me, is a particularly appropriate way of worshipping God because, like singing, it binds us together with those around us. Our clap is small and makes little noise but when it’s combined with other clapping people there is a great body of united sound. If you have been to a sports match you will know how important clapping is. It can be used positively and negatively. A team will immediately know the difference between a slow hand clap and a clap of approval! God deserves the most enthusiastic and confident worship that we can bring and I am sure that it delights his heart when he hears the thunder of clapping. Question Have you experienced clapping in worship and, if so, what did it mean to you? Prayer Loving God help me to worship you with my body, mind and spirit. Amen
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    3 mins