Author Archives: rozandmarkarnold

I’m working on an idea of blogging about God’s blessing – but I came across some notes of a talk I gave the week before Covid lockdowns came at the student group at our previous church. It was on one of my favourite Psalms – Psalm 103 – and is an invitation to drink deeplyContinue reading “Psalm 103: The Compassion of our God”

Fear is the “mind-killer” – or so the hero of cult sci-fi classic Dune is told to remember. In the case of Saul – and potentially in our case we could say much the same. Perhaps even more seriously that fear, because it is a mind-killer, is also a soul-slayer. Fear comes repeatedly in Saul’sContinue reading “Saul and Fear”

In this post I want to reflect more on the reality described in 1 Samuel that Saul received the empowering of the Holy Spirit for his kingship – but there was no seeming evidence of God’s transformation of his character. Instead he ended up a bitter man ruled by jealousy seeking the death of theContinue reading “Saul & The Spirit”

In the last post I put up my sermon on this passage. In this post, and ones to come, I’m putting up spin offs, that there either wasn’t time to cover, or didn’t fit with the main points of the passage. In this post I will consider the idea that the text portrays David andContinue reading “David and Jonathan”

This Sunday I preached, as part of our church series, on 1 Samuel 18-20. I thought I’d put my sermon up here, and then in another couple of posts delve a bit deeper into questions the passage raises – or questions that the passage relates to, and why I took a particular approach. So hereContinue reading “1 Samuel 18-20: Covenant Love and Loyalty”

In many ways it seems that John could have finished his gospel at chapter 20. He didn’t have to tell us this story – indeed some have wondered if this was added by some in John’s circle after John’s death (perhaps the very end of the chapter hints at this?). But, ultimately, this chapter tiesContinue reading “Words of the Risen Christ: “Follow me””

We come to the next words of Jesus in John’s gospel. It is evening time. The disciples are all together in one place, but behind locked doors for fear of the Jewish leaders. 19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fearContinue reading “Words of the Risen Christ: Sending, and Forgiving”

We now move to John’s account of the words of the risen Christ. And so we come with Mary to the tomb: 11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, oneContinue reading “Words of the Risen Christ: “Mary””

Next in Luke’s Gospel we come to the 11 disciples. They are all gathered in the room talking about the individual appearances of Jesus, when suddenly Jesus appears: 36 While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”37 They were startled and frightened, thinkingContinue reading “The Promise of the Risen Christ – Peace and Power”