What do we expect from people joining a journey of faith? Owen Lynch looks at the disputes which arose in the early church around following the Jewish law, why this was important to many people, and why the opening of God’s kingdom to all was a challenging, counter-intuitive idea to them.

Two key leaders, Peter and Paul, found themselves in dispute, but the story of Acts, and their letters which are also in the New Testament, show how God changed their understanding and revealed Christ as their foundation. How should this set our expectations and maybe change the way we treat others who are looking to follow Jesus?

Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about several “minor” prophets with major messages in the Old Testament, as well as Psalms 66 to 72.

We often think of the word “righteous” as quite religious or worthy in a traditional way, but when God’s prophets called people to righteousness, it looks like the major concern was how people were suffering because of a lack of social justice and people’s concern for each other. It turns out that God values people more than we do, and that without closeness to God, we find it hard to share God’s values and live with them as our own.

The prophet Jonah especially struggled with being asked to take a message from God to his enemies, not because he was afraid for his life, but because he didn’t want them to respond in a way that would bring them forgiveness. We might see this as a picture of how we or anyone might hear Jesus’ challenge, “Love your enemies.” This is hard, maybe impossible for us without God’s help.

So can we ever know what to do without constant direction from God? The prophet Micah brought assurance that we should already know the basic idea - “act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God”. This is harder to live in practice than to remember as a Bible verse, but can it give us a framework for a full, balanced life where we want to keep learning and growing in practical love?

In next part of our boxset, we’ll return to the New Testament and look at Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians and both of his letters to a young leader, Timothy. Listen along at your own pace at severnvineyard.org/bible.

What might be stopping us from asking for everything God wants to give us? David Jennings looks at his experiences of scary situations, worries about losing control, and the stories he had been told about missionaries suffering. There is likely to be a cost when we trade what we wanted for what God wants, but could we find that it’s better not to settle, or let our busyness or current plans get in the way of the love-filled life God wants to give us?