Have you heard the Chinese proverb? “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish, you feed him for the rest of his life.”

I’d like to teach you how to feed your soul for the rest of your life.

When you engage with God’s word you engage with God, and He gives you what you need through His word.

You need endurance. Where do you get it? By depending on what God is already giving.

The times I have been tempted to give in to despair and quit and surrender is when I think, “This is so hard. God is not in this. I’m all by myself.”

Have you ever wondered why the Messiah needs a forerunner? When you just show up without warning people are surprised, shocked, and not receptive.

Christmas is the critical point in time when the future promises of God become present reality. But if you don’t realise how significant something is, you’re likely to lose it.

David got himself into an unsolvable mess. His solution is familiar to all of us: run away from God and avoid Him. If I face God in my sin He’ll kill me.

But this chapter is not about God killing David in justice. It’s about God restoring David in grace.

Gross sin starts small, but significantly, when a heart turns away from being satisfied by God, looks somewhere else for satisfaction and, worst of all, finds it.

Today we see the ultimate rags-to-riches story. A man expects to die, instead inherits, returns from exile, and becomes a close associate of the king.

The unexpected becomes reality not because of anything in the man, but because of a covenant made before he was born.