Small Things Are Great

If you dial *773# on your phone, you will receive a message from your service provider that the code is invalid. At least so far. But before you check that theory out, what's this book called Samuel doing in the Bible? Interestingly, what we call 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel today were originally one continuous book. However, as history moved from scrolls to easier methods of copying and carrying texts around, the scroll became too large and was later divided into two sections. Personally, I call Samuel the USSD code because it gives us the Unadulterated Story of Samuel, Saul, and David.  It's a story of prophets and politics, worship and warfare,  obedience and insecurity, heroism, hooliganism, heartbreak, and holiness. Three men stand at the center of this transition and through them, Israel moves from the era of Judges into the era of ushering the King. Samuel — The Voice Before the Throne Samuel steps into the story as the last major Judge of Israel and the prophetic voice of Go...

After spending part of my day engaging believers on the subject of Bible reading, I ended up with something far more interesting than statistics. What began as a simple question slowly turned into a living conversation full of honesty, laughter, confession, theology, frustration, discipline, failed New Year resolutions, Bible apps, church traditions, and even a brief appearance of the television series Lucifer. The question was simple: “ Have you ever read the Bible cover to cover? If yes, what made you continue? If no, what made you stop?” The answers came in waves. Some sounded like seasoned saints, others sounded like survivors of Leviticus while some confessed with confidence. There are those that sounded like students explaining missing homework to a teacher who already knows the truth. I see you friends. But beneath all the different answers, one thing became very clear: Most Christians are not avoiding the Bible because they hate it, many are simply trying to figure out how to a...

Reading through the book of Ruth and I couldn't help but think of it as the story of the 3 widows - Naomi, Orpah, and Ruth; When Women Loose MEN But Not MEANS. The Era of Judges was one of the darkest time in Israel history. It seems God had taken a break to let them be. It was a period of disobedience, idolatry, and violence. Even in those days, however, some people did what was right in God's eyes. The book of Ruth records the good story of one such family. Later generations would recall that two widows, a covenant - keeping man, and a welcoming community followed God's will. Ultimately, David, the King Israel needed, came through these honourable people. We live in a time where women have apparently been so "empowered" that we sometimes fail to see the place and role of men in their lives. In this book, we see women who had leadership, presence and the guidance of men. It also appears that this men were not lazy men. They provided, protected and participated in...

One of the teachings that has become very popular in modern Christianity is the idea of “praying scripture” and to be fair, the idea itself is not wrong. However, there's a thin line many believers miss and walk across to the wrong side of this teaching. Here, a problem emerges. The problem comes when believers assume that every statement found in the Bible is automatically a promise from God that can be claimed, confessed, decreed, or demanded into manifestation. Here many frustrations begin because the Bible does not contain only the words of God. In it we also have: the words of men, the words of kings, the words of prophets, the words of suffering people, the words of foolish people, and even the words of Satan. All of these are faithfully recorded in Scripture, but not all of them are declarations for believers to turn into prayer formulas and if we fail to distinguish between the words of God and the words of men within Scripture, we can end up praying sincerely while complet...

One of you recently noted that the Book of Ruth is not included in the reading guide we are following. That was intentional. Not because Ruth is unimportant—far from it—but because it is a short book. Most believers, even those who have never sat down to read it carefully, already know the general story. Ruth is one of those books you can comfortably read within a day. So, in trying to make the guide fit within a year without dragging us deep into December and January while still pretending we are “almost done,” I removed a few books from the schedule. Among them were: the Book of Job, the book of Ruth and some sections from books like Psalms and Proverbs. But the fact that Ruth was omitted from the guide should never make us think it is insignificant. In fact, Ruth is strategically placed in the Bible timeline. Very strategically. Both the Book of Judges and the book of Ruth are traditionally connected to Samuel. And one thing we need to understand about prophets is this: Their work w...

One thing I have come to appreciate while reading the Bible is that introductions do matter. The first lines and paragraphs in every book matter. Most of the time, we are so focused on chapters and verses that we forget those pointers were added much later. The original writers were not there saying, “Now let me begin chapter two, verse sixteen.” No. These were flowing narratives, carefully structured to guide the reader into understanding what was happening. I'm currently reviewing the book of Judges and the introduction is fascinating. Personally, I consider Judges chapter 1 up to around chapter 3 verse 6 to be the introduction section of the book. It sets the tone, explains the environment, and quietly warns you about the cycle you are about to witness over and over again. But there is one statement that stood out to me more than anything else. A statement so small you can easily skip over it: “ As long as… ” This is in line with the Good News version Bible. The statement appear...