| By Andy Moyle | 3 mins 27 secs | 0 Comments
The story of the ark coming back to Jerusalem is full of drama – God strikes Uzzah dead, David dances in his underpants and cynical Michal is cursed. The full story is told in 1 Chronicles 13-15. In his excitement to get the ark back to Jerusalem, to restore worship and consolidate his power base […]
| By Andy Moyle | 3 mins 27 secs | 0 Comments
When I worked in industry, we had management training course one day on effective leadership. Two negative leadership styles were highlighted, one being the ‘Headless Chicken’ – the leader who constantly runs round causing lots of activity (and stress!) but lacks a strategic plan – and the other, the ‘Gorilla with a Machine Gun’ – […]
| By Andy Moyle | 2 mins 29 secs | 0 Comments
Appearances can be deceptive; things aren’t always as they seem. Saul, Israel’s first king, was tall and handsome, and had been anointed by God to rule over Israel (see 1 Sam. 9 & 10), but his heart didn’t fully belong to the Lord. Samuel rebukes him and tells him that his rule as king will […]
| By Andy Moyle | 4 mins 13 secs | 0 Comments
This is one of the most derring-do passages in Scripture. The Philistines challenge Jonathan “Come on up if you think you’re hard enough”, so he does! Lack of Leadership + Fear = Passivity Israel had stalled under Saul’s poor leadership. 3 times he has given in to fear and the people of God are now […]
| By Andy Moyle | 2 mins 46 secs | 0 Comments
Saul is a confusing character. He is called by God in this chapter, seems to start out well as a man of humility, but spirals into a right mess consulting a witch, acting as a Priest and finally commiting suicide. Today’s reading actually questions whether he started off as a man of humility. Humility has […]
| By Andy Moyle | 2 mins 59 secs | 0 Comments
I love finding out what colliqualisms mean and where they came from – “the cat is out of the bag”, “keeping my powder dry” and so on. So the shocker of R.E.M’s famous song “Losing my religion” is that it is not about losing faith at all. Losing my religion is a Southern US phrase […]
| By Andy Moyle | 3 mins 8 secs | 0 Comments
The word of the Lord was rare in the time of Eli the Priest. That’s not a good thing. Prov 29:18 teaches us without prophetic vision the people cast off restraint (some versions translate that as perish). It’s a mess. Just like we have seen in the time of Judges, people were doing whatever they […]
| By Andy Moyle | 3 mins 48 secs | 0 Comments
What a contrast in today’s Bible reading between Hannah and Eli’s two worthless sons! One the one hand we have a weak, powerless woman who is being tormented by her husband’s other wife and on the other, the strong, powerful sons of Eli who are tormenting those who bring sacrifices. The tormented and the tormentors […]
| By Andy Moyle | 2 mins 32 secs | 0 Comments
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if God sorted all our problems and difficulties instantly? Feeling irritated by something? A quick prayer, and it’s gone! Is someone provoking or annoying you? Another quick prayer, and they’ve stopped. If only life were that simple. Of course, God may on occasions answer such a prayer immediately, but that wasn’t […]