Ever let someone down when it mattered? In Gethsemane, Jesus asked three of his closest friends for their support ... watching and praying with Him. They fell asleep. This Super Short Thought from Mark 14:32-42 shows how Jesus responds to failure: he doesn’t excuse it, but he understands it and…
What does real greatness looks like? In this Word for the Week, we walk the road to Jerusalem with Jesus in Mark 10:32-45, where He tells his friends and followers for a third time what is coming. They are (as we can be) very, very slow on the uptake, and…
Why's there a ransom deal in the Bible?! A ransom is a price paid to set somebody free. In Mark 10:45, Jesus says he came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. In this Super Short Thought, we unpack what…
What makes a person truly great? In Mark 10:43, Jesus says the great one among His followers is the servant, and the first is the servant of all. TLDR: Jesus does not condemn leadership. He condemns using other people to make yourself look and feel important. In his kingdom, the…
Is it wrong to want your life to matter? When James and John asked Jesus for the best seats in his kingdom, He didn’t laugh at them or mock their ambition. He asked whether they could drink the cup He was about to drink. In this Super Short Thought from…
Everyone expected a Messiah who would crush the Roman invaders. Instead, Jesus walked ahead of his friends up the road to Jerusalem and told them exactly what was coming: arrest, mockery, a Cross. In this Super Short Thought from Mark 10:32-45, we look at what greatness actually looks like. Jesus…
How do you know you’ll be alright? When the winters come, when the health goes, when the work dries up or the market turns? In Mark 10:17-31 a good, respectable, wealthy man runs up to Jesus, kneels in the dust, and asks what he must do to inherit eternal life.…
What do you lean on when real pressure comes? In this Super Short Thought, Ezekiel’s warning about Egypt’s broken reed staff meets the rich young man of Mark 10:21-22. Both leaned on something that looked solid. Both found it gave way under weight and stabbed them ... not even in…
Where is your safety net? A rich man came to Jesus full of questions about his own insecurity. Jesus loved him, then named the one thing he was leaning on. Why did Jesus tell the rich young ruler to sell what he owned? Not because money is evil, but because…
Why does a man with wealth, a clean record and the respect of his community kneel in front of Jesus and ask what he still lacks? He had property, a clean moral record and public respect, yet still sensed something missing. Comfort and status cannot give security, and that unmet…
Who do you say Jesus is? In this Word for the Week, recorded on Mynydd Illtud in the Breacon Beacons range in South Wales, we walk through Mark 8:27-38: Peter’s confession at pagan Caesarea Philippi, Jesus’s first prediction of his suffering, and the call to deny yourself, take up your…
What is the point of a bridge? A bridge connects two places that would otherwise stay separated. Sitting quietly by the rebuilt Old Bridge (Stari Most) in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, I was struck by how well this matches what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:18-20: Christ has reconciled us…
What does unity really mean ... andwhere does it come from? In this Super Short Thought, filmed on a marble street in Mostar the day after preaching there, we look at a church full of people from different languages, cultures and ethnic backgrounds, all gathered because of Jesus. It felt…
What does the Bible say about friendship? In this Super Short Thought, recorded over coffee with an old friend in Mostar, we look at Proverbs 17:17: "A friend loves at all times, and a relative is born to help in adversity." In an age when relationships can feel disposable, this…
Jesus didn't ask "Who do you say I am?" in the Temple or in Jerusalem. He asked it at Caesarea Philippi, a city built for Caesar Augustus, at a shrine to the god Pan. Peter's confession, "You are the Christ," was a statement with political implications, made in the backyard…
What does it actually mean to "lose your life to find it"? In Mark 8:35-37, Jesus lays out two ways to live: the clenched fist that grips tight to comfort, reputation, and plans, or the open hand that lets go for His sake. This Super Short Thought unpacks a saying…
When Jesus told the crowd in Mark 8 to "take up their cross," nobody there pictured a piece of jewellery. In the first century, a cross meant one thing only: Roman state execution, public, shameful, and slow, reserved for rebels and slaves. This short video asks what it actually meant…
In Mark chapter 8, Peter gets the biggest question in the Gospel right: "Who do you say I am?" "You are the Christ." Full marks. Then Jesus starts talking about suffering, rejection, and death, and Peter grabs Him and tells Him to stop. Peter had the right words and the…
In this Word for the Week we do not spend most of our time in John 3 on the famous verse, John 3:16. That's because the chapter doesn't stress that, but both ends and places the emphasis on verse 36. And that's where this whole conversation with Nicodemus gets resolved.…
We've already looked at "refuse" and "receive" in John 3:36. There's a third word hiding in that verse, it's easy to miss, but it opens up a really relevant thread in John's Gospel. The Greek word is μένω (menō), meaning "to remain" or "to abide." John uses it again and…
Last time we looked at apeitheō, the original word in John's account here for refusing Jesus, like a beast that sees the gate but won't come to it. This time it's the other half of John 3:36: "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life." And that means something far…
There's a word in John's Gospel that gets flattened every time it's translated into English. John 3:36 says whoever does not believe in the Son will not see life, but the word John actually uses isn't the ordinary word for belief. It's much more about refusing to be persuaded. Picture…
He's in training for a medic course alongside men half his age, and getting the "do you work out?" question a lot lately. His answer's the same as ever: "No, I work outside." But this time there's a training programme behind it too, and that's got him thinking about a…
