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God is just. He punishes every sin exactly as it deserves. Not every sin is equally heinous, so not every judgement at the judgement day will be the same. God is just. And that is a wonderful truth.

There are lots of places in Scripture we could go to see this, but I've just found one I hadn't seen before, so I thought I'd share it.

And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34)

Enjoying R T France’s commentary on Matthew yet again.

Reading him on Matthew 18:15-17.

I haven’t posted for ages – partly very busy, partly nothing to say.

But I thought I’d post briefly now, because this has encouraged me.

The parable of the weeds and the wheat in Matthew 13:24-30 shows (I think) that the world is a mixed place – it contains true disciples and it contains unbelievers. We need to wait until the end of the age to see truly who is who.

Does this mean that there will be a big and nasty surprise – many we thought were believers will turn out not to be?

At long last, I’m please to present a new piece of software, Bible Reading Plan Generator.

There is a page dedicated to it on this site: http://www.oakleys.org.uk/software/bibleplan.

Visit the software’s homepage for more information.

In essence, though, it’s free software that takes a list of Biblical books, and devises a reading plan for you over any number of days you want.

Why does Jesus spend forty days in the wilderness, confronting public enemy number 1 (Satan, the accuser of the people of God), immediately after he has been declared Son of God (echoing Psalm 2) at his baptism?

I know that one answer is that it relates to the 40 years Israel spent in the wilderness. Jesus must be faithful at the exact point at which they failed.

But could it also relate to 1 Samuel 17:16?

“For forty days the Philistine came forward and took his stand, morning and evening.”

Don’t know.

After Saul failed to follow the Lord’s instructions (to destroy Amalek totally, together with their livestock), the Lord rejected him as king. The incident is related in 1 Samuel 15.

Saul’s excuse was that they spared the livestock in order to offer sacrifices to God.

“But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal.” (1 Samuel 15:21)

Samuel’s reply is:

“ ¹ Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. ² For we all stumble in many ways, and if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. ³ If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. ⁴ Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.

Next weekend, I’m on a training weekend run by Lichfield Diocese as part of my CME. The theme is preaching, and here are the instructions for the prep (quite encouraging really)

Before the weekend you are asked to sketch out the shape of three sermons: one expository, one all-age and one evangelistic.

There are some great quotations in the epilogue of Reformed is not Enough.

What’s going on in the passages (like those in Hebrews) that speak of Christians falling away? An extended quotation because it is so helpful: