Pentecost is often called the birthday of the Church, but is that correct?

The United Kingdom has held a census every 10 years since 1801. The most recent was in 2021, and the next is in 2031. The earliest one in England was the Domesday book made in 1086.

Asked, '‘To what extent would you be interested or not in discovering more about the Bible?’ a total of 23 per cent of adults in England and Wales selected 'fairly interested' or 'very interested'.

You could say it all started in Wales – Bible Society, that is!

'I had a severe fracture of my ankle two years ago and it has been needing further surgery.'

Christmas carols are full of Bible truth. Knowing the biblical background helps us sing with understanding.

A quarter of churches are keen to use their outdoor space for community gardens. That’s the finding of a new survey by Christian Research.

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...

I don’t know if you have ever been on the end of a con-artist or trickster. In this text we find Jesus on the end of an underhanded attempt to get him into trouble with the authorities. The Pharisees are on the attack. Under whose authority did Jes...

These are the last of Zechariah's visions. He sees chariots representing the four winds, pulled by different coloured horses. Chariots in the ancient world were the epitome of military power – fast, mobile and capable of delivering crushing bl...

The first verse of Zechariah 13 spoke of a cleansing fountain that would remove impurity from the house of David. The last verse shows us another method of purification – not by water but by fire.

This chapter is full of questions – count them! Some are answered with simple facts, some are answered with simple lies, and others are rhetorical, intended to make a point rather than asking for information. But when we come to the conversation be...

The first part of Hebrews 4 is a reflection on the Sabbath in the context of remaining faithful to the gospel. 'Rest' is a reward or consequence of faithfulness. In verse 12, though, the writer seems to take a sharp turn, perhaps suggested ...

In today’s chapter Joel looks ahead from the disaster of the day, imagining it as a mere foretaste of the judgement to come. Israel’s relationship with God is not as it should be and it’s a serious business requiring urgent action.

The last chapter of this brief letter draws a sharp contrast between life before faith in Christ and life after it. Before, Paul says, 'we' – he probably means just himself – were 'foolish, disobedient and wrong' (verse 3). &#...

Paul is in prison and has come into contact with Onesimus, a slave who has fled from his Christian master Philemon. Onesimus has become a Christian too; Paul sends him back to Philemon 'not just as a slave, but more than a slave: he is a dear br...

We don’t know much about the prophet Joel and can’t say exactly when he was writing. But it seems the ‘word of the LORD’ came to him (verse 1) at a time of national disaster. Verses 4–12 and 17–20 vividly describe the devastation caused b...

In chapter 3, Joel imagines a hypothetical place called the ‘Valley of Jehoshaphat’, meaning the ‘valley of decision/judgement’ (verses 2 and 14). God will gather all the nations there – the time for people to decide will be over; God will ...

Amos is a book of warnings. In its first chapter we are told about the warnings of judgement upon the nations surrounding Israel. This may lead us to ask, why does God give judgements upon the nations?

In Amos 2 we see the warnings directed at Judah and Israel, who have received God’s law. A big part of this is to show that hypocrisy is not accepted by God. God will judge the nations around Israel but he will also hold Israel up to those standards.