Maybe you are struggling to live with the guilt of what you have done. You cannot forgive yourself. You do not see how God could forgive you either. That’s where Judas was.

Come to the cross. Jesus has a crown of thorns pressed into His hea...

While Peter was standing outside the house of the high priest, someone identified him as a follower of Jesus. Peter must have been terrified that he would also be arrested and tortured.

He denied Jesus three times, and then “he began to inv...

Some people would say Judas’ betrayal of Jesus was the greatest sin ever committed. How could anything be worse than that? Well, there is something worse than that. After he betrayed Jesus, Judas gave up hope, and that was his greatest plunge to d...

A great deal has been written about why Judas betrayed Jesus. But the Bible only identifies one issue, and that was money. Judas was gripped by the power of money.

Six days before the Passover, a dinner was given in honour of Jesus. Judas w...

Judas walked with Jesus. He was trusted with responsibility, and he was given spiritual gifts for ministry. God used this man to release other people from the power of Satan. No doubt there will be people in heaven who say, “I came to faith throug...

It is easy to picture Judas as some dark-eyed villain, but if we had to guess beforehand which of the disciples was most likely to betray Jesus, few, if any, of us would have guessed correctly. When Jesus said at the Last Supper that one of His di...

At the end of the story of Samson’s life, the commanders of the Philistines were throwing a great party at a temple to their god, Dagon. They decided it would be fun to bring out Samson to perform some tricks. No doubt they gave him some iron bars...

When we talk about learning to control our passions, we are talking about some of the greatest struggles that we face in the Christian life. And sometimes we feel so defeated in this area. So we need the kind of encouragement that only God is able...

It seems like there are two Samsons. There is Samson the gifted believer, who has godly parents, God’s calling, and God’s Spirit at work through him. He is a courageous hero who delivers God’s people. And there is also Samson the irresponsible foo...

You have to use your imagination to picture Samson. He has been in the weight room, and he looks magnificent. He has bronze skin and deep-set eyes, and his abs are toned to perfection.

One day, this Old Testament hunk is in a town called Ti...

Before we come to Samson’s story, here are three things you need to know about him.

1. Samson was a believer. Hebrews specifically tells us about “Samson… who through faith…” (11:32, 33) did many things. That mean...

Today we begin looking at the story of Samson. Most of the book of Judges takes place at a time when God’s people were under great oppression. The Philistine army had invaded their soil, and a foreign power was in control of their country.

...

No one wants their life to end the way Esau’s did. So how can we avoid Esau’s plunge to disaster?

First, submit yourself fully to the authority of God. You have to begin with the heart of the problem. The heart of Esau’s trouble was that he...

The promise God gave to Abraham now belonged to Jacob. Try to imagine the scene a few moments later when Esau arrived with a meal for his father: “Sit up, Dad. I’ve got your stew, and I’m ready to receive your blessing.”

“Who are you?” Isa...

One day Isaac told Esau to go and prepare a meal for him, and after that Isaac said he would give Esau his blessing.

But when Rebekah overheard this, she rushed over to Jacob. “Your father is about ready to announce God’s blessing. He wants...

If you lose touch with God, you will become confused about values. The values on which true wisdom is based are not just plucked out of thin air. They are based on the character of God.

This is the great issue of our time. Our nation has l...

Esau was the firstborn son in the family God had chosen to bless. It’s hard to imagine a greater privilege than that. Priceless gifts from God were placed in his hand, but he couldn’t see their value.

All that mattered to Esau was the next m...

Esau wasn’t a great thinker or planner. He tended to go with the flow and live for the moment. When he felt hungry, all that really mattered to him was getting some food.

The problem with living at the level of impulse is that over the cour...

One day Esau was out hunting, and when he came back he was hungry. It just so happened that his little brother, Jacob, was cooking some stew in the kitchen.

You know what it’s like when you’ve been working a long day, and you missed lunch,...

We have been looking at Bible characters who took a plunge to disaster, to discover what we can learn from them, so that we won’t follow in their footsteps. Today, we look at the story of Esau.

Esau’s story begins in the maternity ward whe...

It would hardly have been surprising if God had ended Cain’s life right then and there in the fields. But in the mercy of God, the world’s first murderer was given another chance.

If you were Cain’s friend, you might counsel him like this: “...

Never underestimate the power of sin. The quickest way to take a plunge to disaster is to allow a sin into your life and then say to yourself, “It’s not a big deal. I can handle it.”

Jesus said, “Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin...

This is the first time the word sin is used in the Bible. “Sin?” Cain must have said. “What is sin?” Sin is more than simply a choice that you make. God is saying that there is a power at work in the world and it is like a wild animal. When...

We don’t know whether God spoke to Cain when he was at the altar or later. But let’s assume for a moment that God spoke to him in an audible voice, as He often did in the Old Testament.

Cain was still smouldering when God spoke to him, “Wh...

Very often, the New Testament gives us the key to understanding an Old Testament story, and the New Testament tells us quite clearly that the difference between Cain and Abel was faith.

Cain was a man without faith. He came with his family ...

The first family did not have a church. They had some kind of altar. Perhaps it was just a pile of stones, but it was the place where they met with God.

Each boy brought an offering. Cain had a crate of fruits and vegetables; Abel had some ...

Sometime later, another little bundle of life came along, and Adam and Eve named him Abel. We aren’t told how old Cain was when his brother was born, but we can probably assume he had a mixed reaction to the arrival of the new attraction, as most ...

Having sinned against God, the first man and the first woman were now outside the Garden of Eden. They were living under a terrible judgement, but God had graciously given them hope in a great promise: a deliverer would be born. An offspring of th...

Wouldn’t it be nice to go off on a long cruise to a warm place with magnificent scenery, endless food, and a good book to get lost in? What could be better? Unless, of course, the name of the cruise ship happens to be The Titanic.