1 John is a testimony about who Jesus was and is, and what this means for those who seek to follow him. There is a strong emphasis on living out what you say – not just declaring that you belong to Christ, but living it out in practice. Woven throu...

Galatians is written into a very particular situation. After Paul had founded the Galatian Christian community, a community that included both Jews and Gentiles, Jewish Christian evangelists had arrived arguing that those who wanted to follow Christ ...

The vision of Ephesians is that in Christ, Jews and Gentiles have been unified into a single household. The letter seeks to encourage its recipients to live this out in practice. The first half of the book lays out the theology that lies behind Paul&...

2 Thessalonians is a letter written to a community struggling both with persecution from those outside it and misunderstanding from those within it. In the face of this, Paul talks about the importance of remaining faithful to Jesus while they waited...

This very short letter takes the form of a personal appeal to Philemon, one of Paul’s friends who had worked alongside him proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ (1.1). He also addresses Apphia, whom Paul addresses as a sister, and Archippus, a ...

2 Peter is a letter full of concern about the community to which it was written. Low moral standards, divisiveness, false teaching, uncertainty about Jesus’ return and claims of superiority all appear to be causing problems. The letter is striking ...

Daniel is a book of two halves. The first six chapters contain stories about ‘Daniel’, an exile in a high position in the Babylonian court, and what he did to survive as a Jew in that potentially hostile environment. The final six chapters contai...

The original book of Daniel was written in both Hebrew (1.1-21 and 8–12) and Aramaic (2–7). There are, however, three additional chapters that exist only in Greek. The Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Holy Children (Sometimes called t...

Sirach is a collection of wise sayings and ethical teachings from ‘Jesus son of Eleazar son of Sirach of Jerusalem’ (Sirach 50.27, the Hebrew word for son is ‘ben’ hence the name Ben Sirach). It is most like the book of Proverbs with its coll...

It's a big book – and as well as being a library, it's also its own story. We've broken that big tale down into three parts, all 3½ minutes long. Explore The Old Testament Journey, The Journey of Jesus and The Journey of the Early C...

I worked in the City for many years. Life was brilliant on the trading floor. If you couldn’t stand pressure and didn’t have a sense of humour, it wasn’t the place to be! One lunchtime, two of my colleagues asked me to go to St Helen’s Bisho...

I grew up in Yugoslavia. Christianity wasn’t banned, but nobody ever spoke about faith. I never heard anything about it. I thought the Bible was make-believe and fairy tales. I thought that people who read the Bible were off their heads in la-la la...

We had a normal childhood in Iraq, but after 2013 our lives have been changed. Threats started. Everything took a turn for the worse. I used to go to the university. Many people came up to me and said, “Why don’t you convert to Islam? Why are you...

In 2007, I was in Afghanistan with the 19 Regiment Royal Artillery. We had seen a lot of fighting. Every day we fought. Every day we were killing. From a Christian perspective that’s hard. I was pleased when our enemy was dead because they weren’...

I had an encounter with God in a nightclub in the middle of a drug deal. I went out dealing on a Saturday night and at 1 am, I had a full-blown vision of Jesus. I was 18. It was a road to Damascus experience, so Paul’s story in Acts 9 really speaks...

I grew up in the south of Iran. We came to the UK three years ago. We were atheists. Now I have a Bible in Farsi. My favourite verse is Jeremiah 49.34, because it talks about my country, Iran. ‘I will restore the fortunes of Elam in the days to com...

I lived on a farm in Suffolk. When I was 13, in 1944, I went to Dartmouth. We expected the war to go on for many, many more years. My parents thought I would be better as a naval officer than a squaddie in the Army. When I was 20, I came home for a t...

I was reading economics at Durham university. The career path was most likely management consultancy. But I also played a lot of hockey and got chatting to a friend in the pub. I told him that I prayed sometimes. He invited me to church and it was th...

We moved to the UK two weeks after we were married. I thought Uganda was perfect, and I would never leave. It is referred to as the Pearl of Africa. It’s got lots of fresh water, plants and animals. I might be biased, but I feel that the people are...

I grew up in Uganda. When I was about 19 or 20, I saw people like the Apostle Paul travel and there was a sense of urgency to what he did. I’m thinking, “There are 40 different tribes in Uganda, but Africa is much bigger, and oh, there are other ...