Category: ‘Tuesday Challenge’

How’s Your Enemy?

[A ‘Tuesday Challenge‘ originally prepared for the congregation of Horley Baptist Church during April 2026]

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy’. But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Matthew 5 v43-44 [ESVUK]

These words come from Matthew’s account of the teachings of Jesus collectively known as the Sermon on the Mount. He was speaking in the context of a nation under occupation at a time when there was no shortage of enemies and persecution.
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Contributor: Steve Humphreys

Life After Easter

[A ‘Tuesday Challenge‘ originally prepared for the congregation of Horley Baptist Church during March 2026]

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
John 11 v25-26 [ESVUK]

Jesus was speaking to Martha whose brother, Lazarus, had died. His death provided the context for Jesus to make that declaration of the way of salvation. The statement is, at the same time time, both simple and extremely profound. The simplicity can be recognised in the words that Jesus had spoken to Nicodemus on an earlier occasion:
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Contributor: Steve Humphreys

But Now I See

[A ‘Tuesday Challenge‘ originally prepared for the congregation of Horley Baptist Church during March 2026]

And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
John 9 v2 [ESVUK]

The disciples were expressing a sentiment that was common in their society – that prosperity was a sign of God’s blessing and misfortune was in some way connected to disobedience of God’s laws. It is interesting that they did not stop to think about how a man might have sinned before being born.
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What’s Troubling You?

[A ‘Tuesday Challenge‘ originally prepared for the congregation of Horley Baptist Church during March 2026]

The path of trouble is the way home.
CH Spurgeon [1]

Is there a modern relevance to these words, written by a prominent preacher in 1865? Or are they now just an outdated expression of a sentiment that was prevalent in non-conformist denominations at a time very different from our contemporary experience?
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Contributor: Steve Humphreys

Threats Thwarted

[A ‘Tuesday Challenge‘ originally prepared for the congregation of Horley Baptist Church during March 2026]

It displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel.
Nehemiah 2 v10 [ESVUK]

That observation comes from the account of the restoration of the walls of Jerusalem in 444BC but the same words could easily describe the opinion of many people throughout the centuries since the nation of Israel evolved from the families who sought refuge in Egypt around 1875BC.
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Contributor: Steve Humphreys

What Would You Say?

[A ‘Tuesday Challenge‘ originally prepared for the congregation of Horley Baptist Church during March 2026]

He answered, ‘Must I not take care to say what the Lord puts into my mouth?’
Numbers 23 v12 [ESVUK]

Our opening verse comes from the early part of the story of Balaam around 1400BC. Balaam is remembered primarily for his conversation with a talking donkey but the story has lessons beyond animal husbandry.
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Contributor: Steve Humphreys