Episodios

  • January 21st - Mark 4:26-27

    January 21st - Mark 4:26-27
    Jan 21 2026
    Mark 4:26-27 Jesus also said, “The Kingdom of God is like a farmer who scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, while he’s asleep or awake, the seed sprouts and grows, but he does not understand how it happens.” This wonderful little parable tells us why it is so exciting to work for God. As I sit down at my laptop to write these reflections, I haven’t any idea how God will use them. I have no way of knowing who you are or what your needs are at the moment, but God knows and uses what I am putting in his hands. When we care for another person, offer a word of encouragement or write a thoughtful email, people will be blessed by God, but in a way that is totally beyond our knowledge. It’s just the same for the farmer who may not have any understanding of botany but who simply knows that once he has put seeds in the ground, growth takes place, and it happens whether he’s working hard or sleeping in his bed. Let this be an encouragement to you: nothing that you ever do for God is a waste of time. I am more than aware that it can feel like it at times. Working hard in a youth club where there is only ever rudeness and cynicism, working in a church where the numbers are declining and the people are reluctant to change, sharing your faith when people don’t seem to take you seriously, caring for people who are demanding and unappreciative – there are lots of situations in which it can be really tough to serve God. However, be sure of this: if you are doing God’s work, blessing will flow in miraculous ways from what you do. Don’t ask me how God does it or how he makes things grow. I don’t know, and I don’t need to know. Whatever you are doing today, commit it to God and you can be sure that, miraculously, it will help to make his kingdom grow, even though we haven’t a clue how he does it. Question In what ways does this little parable encourage you? Prayer Lord God, thank you that your kingdom is constantly growing. Help me to work enthusiastically for you today. Amen
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  • January 20th - Mark 4:21

    January 20th - Mark 4:21
    Jan 20 2026
    Mark 4:21 Then Jesus asked them, “Would anyone light a lamp and then put it under a basket or under a bed? Of course not! A lamp is placed on a stand, where its light will shine.” Jesus often spoke using parables. On the surface, they were just simple stories, but they all had a very deep spiritual meaning. Like me, you may well have been listening to the parables since you were young, and I’m sure you’d agree that they keep challenging and encouraging us in new ways. We are not always in a position to understand what God is saying to us, but he is always in the business of shining his light on our lives. He wants us to understand what his will is, and the Bible is one of the main ways in which he chooses to speak with us. So the question we all need to ask is this: “How are we going to make sure that God’s light shines in our lives?” First of all, we need to set aside time to receive God’s truth. However busy your life is, you need to make sure you have time to reflect on what God is saying to you. These brief devotionals may well be helpful to you, but you also need to stand back and consider what these words mean for you personally. That cannot be done in a hurry. You may be able to go for a walk or sit quietly in a room, and as you do so, you need to invite the Holy Spirit to speak to you and to apply God’s word to your life. From time to time, it is good to set aside a longer period of time to listen to God. Perhaps you can go on a personal retreat where for a day or a number of days you can spend time reflecting on what he is saying to you. There are scores of wonderful retreat houses throughout the United Kingdom where you would receive a warm welcome and where you can allow God’s light to shine. Putting the lamp of God’s truth under the basket of our busy lives just doesn’t make sense. Question What do you find the most helpful way of listening to God? Prayer Lord God, I thank you that you are constantly seeking to speak with me. Help me to carve out time to listen carefully to your word. Amen
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  • January 19th - Mark 3:34-35

    January 19th - Mark 3:34-35
    Jan 19 2026
    Mark 3:34-35 [Jesus] looked at those around him and said, “Look, these are my mother and brothers. Anyone who does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” The Gospels tell us remarkably little about Jesus’ family. We would so love to know about all his family members and his relationships with them, but the Gospels are largely silent. However, we meet them on this occasion because they had clearly got the impression that Jesus wasn’t looking after himself. Earlier in this chapter, we are informed that Jesus and his disciples were so busy that they couldn’t even find time to eat. Mark records that they had formed the view that Jesus was out of his mind. When Jesus was told that his mother and brothers had come to see him, his response was to identify who his true family was: people who did God’s will. I don’t believe for a moment that Jesus was abandoning his birth family or seeking to insult them. He always sought to uphold the law, which affirmed the God-given responsibility for caring for one’s parents. However, he wanted to make it plain that the most important relationships were with his spiritual family. The whole Bible is very clear in its teaching about family relationships. The apostle Paul was particularly strong in his language when he addressed his young friend, Timothy. He wrote: “Those who won’t look after their relatives, especially those in their own household, have denied the true faith. Such people are worse than unbelievers” (1 Timothy 5:8). We need to care for our families but never lose sight of the fact that our forever family is our Christian family, made up of those who obey God. Question How important is your birth family to you? Prayer Lord God, thank you for the blessing of both my birth family and my forever family. Amen
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  • January 18th - Mark 3:13

    January 18th - Mark 3:13
    Jan 18 2026
    Mark 3:13 Afterward Jesus went up on a mountain and called out the ones he wanted to go with him. And they came to him. The calling of the twelve disciples is a fascinating moment in Jesus’ ministry. It’s greatly significant that he chose to work with a group of people and not operate alone. In this, he affirmed the importance of fellowship. However gifted we may be, we need one another and our very different outlooks and abilities. Going it alone is never Jesus’ way. I remember as a teenager meeting a very enthusiastic Christian who was determined that my home town should all follow Jesus. It was a wonderful vision to have, but he was quite clear that he was going to do this by himself. He had a large leather bag full of Christian tracts and he was confident that he would be able to get the job done. His enthusiasm was commendable, but his method was sadly wrong. We are never called to go off on heroic solo adventures but to work closely with our Christian brothers and sisters. Jesus’ disciples were a fascinatingly mixed group. Matthew was a tax collector, working for the Romans. Tax collectors were regarded as traitors because of their close relationship with the occupying forces and were particularly despised because they often became very rich in the process. Another disciple was Simon the Zealot, and he likely belonged to a group that was seeking to kick the Romans out of the land, by force if necessary. Just imagine having Matthew and Simon in the same group! They probably had some heated conversations during the time they worked with Jesus, but what united them all was their commitment to him. I also find it interesting that so many of the disciples are either largely or completely unknown to us. When we think of the disciples we immediately think of Peter, James and John, but there were twelve of them and each one was crucial to Jesus’ mission, even those whose words were never recorded. Whoever we are, however small our role and few our words, we all have a vital role to play in Jesus’ mission. Question Why is it so important to spend time worshipping and working with other Christians? Prayer Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for calling me to follow you. Help me to work well with my Christian brothers and sisters. Amen
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  • January 17th - Mark 2:27-28

    January 17th - Mark 2:27-28
    Jan 17 2026
    Mark 2:27-28 Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!” Some years ago, I spent a couple of months living in Mea Shearim in Jerusalem, which is home to a very large number of ultra-orthodox Jews. I very soon learned, to my surprise, that the Sabbath begins late afternoon on Friday, when the first star is seen in the sky. From that moment, the shops shut and people go home to begin their rituals to mark the start of the Sabbath. There is something incredibly special about setting aside one day in seven as a day of rest. This was the example that God set when he created the world, and the law of Moses protected the day with a penalty of death for anyone who worked on the Sabbath. Over the centuries, the laws of the Sabbath were developed extensively, and by the time of Jesus, there were scores of laws regulating people’s activities on the day. There were, essentially, 39 forms of work which ranged from burning, writing and erasing to washing, sewing and cooking. The Pharisees were strict observers of the Sabbath and, in their eagerness to trip him up, they carefully watched Jesus and his disciples on the Sabbath. When they spotted the disciples walking through a field and breaking off the heads of grain to eat, they had their moment. The disciples were caught red-handed, guilty of a number of Sabbath violations, including walking and reaping. Jesus’ response to the Pharisees was to indicate that they had completely missed the point. God had given the gift of the Sabbath in order to be a blessing to people, not to tie them up in legal tangles. In a society that is busy seven days a week, we have a real challenge to keep Sunday special, but in doing so we will receive many blessings. We need to work hard to ensure it doesn’t get squeezed into the mould of the other six days. Question What more could you do to make your Sunday special? Prayer Lord God, I thank you for the gift of Sunday. Help me to use it in order to get to know you better. Amen
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  • January 16th - Mark 2:22

    January 16th - Mark 2:22
    Jan 16 2026
    Mark 2:22 [Jesus said:] “No one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the wine would burst the wineskins, and the wine and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins.” We all know what happens to leather after a few years: it becomes hard and brittle. Just imagine what happens when you put wine into an old leather wineskin – the wine inevitably leaks away. In Jesus’ day, wine was largely stored in wineskins, so everyone got the point. If you want to keep your wine, you need to make sure that you only put it into new wineskins. Jesus’ teaching was radical and new. He was telling people about the new wine of the kingdom of God. This wonderful new wine was so precious that there was no point in trying to put it into the old wineskins of Judaism. There needed to be a complete revolution. It was vital for them to be born again. A new life needed to begin. Many people hear the teaching of Jesus and conclude that they need to turn over a new leaf. They need to start being more loving, and stop being so selfish. However, if we are just making a few amendments to life, it isn’t going to work. We will soon fail in the attempt. What we need is a completely new start in which we hand over our lives to God and allow him to lead us by his Holy Spirit. This is the key to all of Jesus’ teaching. As we allow the Spirit to lead us, we will naturally produce the fruit of the Spirit. We won’t need to go on training courses to learn about how to love more or be more peaceful or find more joy in life. These things will inevitably flow as we allow the Holy Spirit to take control. Miraculously, we will find that he gives us gifts to enable us to be more effective for him. Often, they will be gifts related to skills and abilities that we already have, but sometimes they will be totally new gifts which the Spirit gives us for a new situation. Receiving the new wine that Jesus wants to give us will transform every part of life, so we wouldn’t want any of it to leak. Question In what ways have you seen the new wine of the kingdom? Prayer Lord Jesus, I invite you to take charge of my life and to fill me with the new wine of your Holy Spirit. Amen
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  • January 15th - Mark 2:17

    January 15th - Mark 2:17
    Jan 15 2026
    Mark 2:17 [Jesus] told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor – sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” Jesus’ way of life was a shock to the respectable religious leaders of his day. So far as they were concerned, the priority was to ensure they were ritually pure so they could participate in the temple worship. Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan powerfully describes the situation. The first two people who walked past the wounded man were a priest and a Levite. Jesus wasn’t suggesting that they didn’t care – their priority was to remain ritually clean so they could perform their duties. Jesus, on the other hand, didn’t seem to be bothered about staying ritually clean according to the Jewish law. He gladly associated with dodgy people, even though he must have known that this would offend the religious leaders. Here, Jesus explained the reason why he did this: he had come for the sake of people who knew that they were sick, and not for people who were spiritually perfect. Of course, Jesus knew that everyone needed forgiveness, but he also knew he couldn’t help people who thought they were perfect. One of the persistent problems doctors face is that people often don’t take action when they have a medical need. A lump grows or another bodily change takes place and they shrug it off, assuming it will resolve itself. Until a person takes action and visits the doctor, there is not a thing that the doctor can do. It is very much the same with God. He would love to forgive us, but first we must recognise that we have a problem. Question How would you describe your own spiritual health? Prayer Lord God, forgive me for trying to pretend that I was spiritually fit when I needed to come and seek your healing. Amen
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  • January 14th - Mark 2:5

    January 14th - Mark 2:5
    Jan 14 2026
    Mark 2:5 Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralysed man, “My child, your sins are forgiven.” I love this story. Four men had decided that, however difficult it might be, they were going to get their paralysed friend to Jesus. They knew it would be a challenge because Jesus was already very popular and large crowds were following him. On this particular day, Jesus was preaching in a house in Capernaum where he had been staying. The house was already crammed with people, so there was no possibility of the men getting their friend to Jesus through the door. They needed to use their initiative, and for them the obvious answer was to break through the roof. The owner of the house probably wasn’t quite so thrilled with their conclusion but it was, nonetheless, effective, and the paralysed man was brought to the feet of Jesus. Everybody could see what the need was. The man was paralysed and needed healing, so surely Jesus, who had already acquired a reputation as a miraculous healer, would reach out his hand and heal his paralysis. However, Jesus’ first response was not to heal the man but to pronounce forgiveness. This really wound up the religious teachers, who knew that only God could forgive sin. They were still a long way from recognising Jesus’ true identity. When we look at other people, it is often very easy to spot their immediate problem. They may be ill, poor or anxious. Understandably, we are eager to fix their problem as quickly and effectively as possible, but everybody’s first need is forgiveness. Only when we have a restored relationship with God can we move forward into the new life that he wants for us. Until we have received God’s forgiveness, we will continue to lug around sin, guilt and failures from the past. God’s miraculous forgiveness is on offer to anyone who will own up to their sin and receive his gift for themselves. Question How has God’s gift of forgiveness affected your life? Prayer Loving God, I have let you down in my thoughts, words and actions and through those good things that I have left undone. Please forgive my sin and set me free to live for you. Amen
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