The Bible Society leader in Cameroon has vowed that literacy projects there will continue despite the murder of two Christians working on them by Islamist terrorists.

By the time Luke wrote his account, the Gospel message had begun to spread and cause controversy. Imagine a Jewish convert hanging out with the Jesus sect on a Sunday, suggesting to his family that yesterday’s Sabbath worship was no longer good eno...

Ethiopia is a land of rich culture and complex history, with 88 ethnic groups and as many languages, not to mention religious plurality. The challenge of accommodating plurality has always been a fundamental cause for its tempestuous political history.

Hallowe'en has become big business over the last few years. Commercially it's taken over from Guy Fawkes Night, which is a scary thought.

Judah's King Amaziah takes over from his father, the murdered King Joash (12.20–21). Like his father, he is commended for doing 'what was pleasing to the LORD', though like him he didn't purge the kingdom of Baal-worship.

Titus is ministering in Crete, and Paul is not very complimentary about Cretans (verses 12–13) – 'liars, wicked beasts and lazy gluttons' is not diplomatic language. As usual in his letters, we only have one side of the conversation.

The first part of Psalm 137 is a plaintive lament for what the people of God in exile have lost. The psalmist is disconnected from the Temple and the land, and therefore from God. How can he 'sing a song to the Lord in a foreign land?' (ver...

The shops have already been full of seasonal products for the last few weeks, but we don't read the stories around the birth of Jesus in churches until Christmas; and then they tend to get squeezed into the format of carol concerts and family se...

Amos 4 talks about the disasters and events that have come and gone and affected Israel while they have been turned away from God. The passage highlights some of the Israelites' sins: oppressing the poor and crushing the needy, combined with boa...

2020 marks the first time we’ve joined the national week of prayer for prisons – and we hope you will be inspired to join in.

David had committed the perfect crime. As we know from any number of Hollywood movies, though, there's always a catch. In this case, the catch was the prophet Nathan. He tells David a parable. The poor man is Uriah; the pet lamb is Bathsheba; Da...

David's troubles are not over yet; he has to deal with another rebellion. Again, it is the northern tribes who prove disloyal. Amasa, to whom David has given the command of the army, is evidently not up to the job (verse 5); David falls back on ...

The writer of 1 Kings ascribes Solomon's spiritual downfall to the many foreign women he took as wives or concubines. No doubt many would have been acquired as status symbols or in the course of diplomacy, but there was still a strong element of...

Many people in this region have lost their jobs or can’t go out to earn their ‘daily bread’ and families whose financial situation is usually stable are suffering. They’re being described as the ‘new poor’.

In these verses, Paul says some very significant things about the relationship between the leader of a church and his or her congregation. It wasn't quite like that, of course – this was a missionary situation, and he and Silas had formed a ne...

This is a heart-warming chapter. Paul speaks of his deep love for the Thessalonians, and of his fear that they might have been seduced from their love of God by fear of persecution (verse 5). It's good news though: Timothy, whom Paul had sent to...

‘Psalm 23 is what I always go to in the ups and downs of my life.'

In Acts 17, Paul travels to Athens and while in the Aeropagus he notices a dedication 'To an Unknown God'. What he then proclaims to his hearers is that the God he knows is a personal one, who wasn’t made by human hands.

In extensive detail, Israel is compared with the bride of God. Yet she has been repeatedly unfaithful, and played the prostitute to many other nations. This chapter is written in a language very similar to the bride/harlot comparison in the book of H...

When every piece of Scripture distributed by the Bible Society network since 2015 is added up, it totals more than 1.8 billion items – enough for almost a quarter of the world’s population.