Author Archives: Andy Acreman

MATTHEW 18 Now Jesus talks about both biological children and spiritual children.  The qualities found in a young human child – humility, realism, a sense of dependency, asking for help – are exactly the qualities needed to become and to be Jesus’ disciple.  The Kingdom of Heaven is about realising your need, about asking, andContinue reading “Friday 26th January 2024”

MATTHEW 17 – Part 2 After the Transfiguration, as they descend Mount Herman, Jesus swears Peter, James and John to secrecy.  He also confirms – in answer to their question – that John the Baptist was a spiritual fulfilment of Elijah, as prophesied beforehand.  On returning to the other disciples and the crowd of onlookers,Continue reading “Thursday 25th January 2024”

MATTHEW 17 – Part 1 Chapter 16 finished with the important statement by Jesus that he would next go to Jerusalem to be crucified, and that any genuine follower of His would also be prepared to identify with Jesus and to suffer for the sake of the Kingdom of God.  The very final verse ofContinue reading “Wednesday 24th January 2024”

MATTHEW 16 “Who do the people say that the Son of Man is?” – asked Jesus to his disciples.  They took it in turns to list the different ideas that the crowds held about him:  John the Baptist, perhaps, or Elijah (nearly the same thing), or perhaps a reincarnation of Jeremiah or one of theContinue reading “Tuesday 23rd January 2024”

GENESIS 43 and 44 We are in a stand-off situation.  Jacob refuses to risk letting Benjamin travel to Egypt and so they cannot obtain food from Egypt to survive a famine in which Benjamin would otherwise certainly die, along with the whole family.  Who blinks first?  Jacob!  Judah takes total responsibility for Benjamin’s safety and,Continue reading “Monday 22nd January 2024”

MATTHEW 15 Watch out for hypocrisy!  God hates it!  “These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.  They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules” (Isaiah 29:130).  The longer a faith becomes entrenched within a society, the more it seems that an outward observation is allContinue reading “Sunday 21st January 2024”

MATTHEW 14 Today we have a flashback, a miracle of catering and an apparent pause in the laws of physics.  The flashback was triggered by King Herod’s comments about Jesus: “It is obviously John the Baptist, risen from the dead doing these miracles” (v2).   Herod wanted to believe this because of the enormous weight ofContinue reading “Saturday 20th January 2024”

GENESIS 38 and 39 Jacob’s problems continue today when his son Judah moves away from the family, falls into bad company and then marries a Canaanite woman, with whom he has three sons.  This episode probably occurred whilst Joseph was in captivity in Egypt, and the bible contrasts Joseph’s moral integrity with Judah’s distinct lackContinue reading “Friday 19th January 2024”

MATTHEW 13 What kind of soil are you?  Jesus told the famous parable of the Sower – which should really have been “The Parable of the Soil”, since that is what made all the difference.  The destiny of the four sets of seeds was:  (1) No root and no shoot;  (2) no root but plentyContinue reading “Thursday 18th January 2024”

GENESIS 34 and 35 As the old saying goes: ‘Insanity is hereditary – you get it from your kids!’  Certainly, the things our children get up to are often very stressful and, in Jacob’s time, it was exactly the same.  Having twelve sons and a daughter would have stretched parental wisdom to its limits, notContinue reading “Wednesday 17th January 2024”

GENESIS 32 and 33 ‘Out of the frying pan and into the fire’, so Jacob must have been thinking after saying relieved ‘goodbyes’ to his father-in-law and now about to face an irate brother!  Just then he was met by a large number of God’s angels, the same ones he had seen in that dreamContinue reading “Tuesday 16th January 2024”

MATTHEW 12 In the Ten Commandments, the Sabbath was essentially a social safeguard against enforced over-working; it was clearly designed to ensure that the weakest and most powerless, in particular, found rest for at least one day a week.  It is strange that, today, we almost mock it as an anachronism.  It is possibly moreContinue reading “Monday 15th January 2024”

MATTHEW 11 (Part 2) The pinnacle of this great chapter is the verse: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  ForContinue reading “Sunday 14th January 2024”

MATTHEW 11 (Part 1) Early in this chapter, Matthew deals with the relationship between John the Baptist and Jesus, showing conclusively that John’s ministry was destined to diminish and Jesus’ ministry to expand.  John had sent his own disciples to check with Jesus that he was indeed the one that John had been signposting IsraelContinue reading “Saturday 13th January 2024”

MATTHEW 10 Discipleship means watching, then doing – learning, then acting on that knowledge.  Jesus called his twelve main disciples and gave them genuine supernatural power to heal the sick and release people from demonic powers.  He himself had been demonstrating those powers already, and now it was time for his disciples to demonstrate themContinue reading “Friday 12th January 2024”

MATTHEW 9 Try this little test.  Say “Your sins are forgiven” and then “Get up and walk” (to a paralysed man).  Which was easier to say?  Well, both have four words in the sentence and are probably equally easy to say.  But, for ordinary men or women, both are equally impossible to do.  I thinkContinue reading “Thursday 11th January 2024”

GENESIS 21, 22, and 23 Today’s reading is all about Births, Deaths, and Marriages!  And about faith and failure too.  At the end of yesterday’s readings (Genesis 21) Abraham, out of fear, repeated the same lie about his wife (not being his wife) that he had made previously to Pharaoh (Ch. 12); again, amazingly GodContinue reading “Wednesday 10th January 2024”

MATTHEW 8 All in a day’s work, it would seem!  Everything in a frenetic Chapter 8 seems to have occurred within 24 hours.  First a leper demonstrated the faith to ask for healing: “If you are willing, you can make me clean” (v2).  That is all that is needed for healing to happen: faith thatContinue reading “Tuesday 9th January 2024”

MATTHEW 7 Jesus was especially against hypocrisy.  He hated outward righteousness blended with inward corruption.  He was particularly offended by those who criticised others whilst doing even worse things themselves.  The hyperbole of attempting to remove a speck from someone else’s eye, whilst having a ‘plank’ in your own, was a case in point.  WeContinue reading “Monday 8th January 2024”

MATTHEW 6 It is the curse of short-termism!  It is a sign of immaturity…  The need to have it all now!  We see it every day: the credit card that ‘takes the waiting out of wanting’; the relationship where instant sexual gratification is a necessity.  The political bribery that promises ‘jam today’, regardless of theContinue reading “Sunday 7th January 2024”

GENESIS 11, 12, and 13 “Abraham: The Man of Faith and the Friend of God”.  We now begin to see the fulfilment of Deuteronomy 32:9 (see yesterday’s notes) though the life of Abraham.  But is goes further than this: indeed it is hard to overstate the importance of Abraham to the purposes of God inContinue reading “Saturday 6th January 2024”

MATTHEW 5 Moses climbed up the mountainside and sat while God dictated the Ten Commandments and the law to him, for the benefit of his people.  Here in Matthew, the author is portraying Jesus as the Great King, giving his own teaching to those listening on the mountainside of Galilee.  “The Sermon on the Mount”Continue reading “Friday 5th January 2024”

MATTHEW 4 These days, after a baptism, everyone usually sits down to a relaxing celebratory meal with friends and family.  Not so for Jesus!  The very next thing was that the Spirit of God ‘drove him’ into the Judean wilderness to be tested or tempted by the devil.  ‘Devil’ (from the Greek) or ‘Satan’ (fromContinue reading “Thursday 4th January 2024”

MATTHEW 3 John the Baptist represents the ‘tipping point’ between Old and New Covenants.  He was the final Old Covenant prophet, whose job was to ‘close’ that covenant and open the new one, by introducing the Messiah.  In a sense, his whole ministry was an outworking of Jeremiah Chapter 31.  For further explanation about John’sContinue reading “Wednesday 3rd January 2024”

Hi Everyone! My son has just pointed out that the Biblica ‘Bible In One Year’ reading plan is now available for free via the YouVersion app. This app can be downloaded onto Apple or Android devices. Or you can read the text via a computer.  The plan is at: https://www.bible.com/en/reading-plans/19038 (note that number at the end because theyContinue reading “Our Reading Plan – Now Available On The YouVersion Bible App”

MATTHEW 2 He was the resident tyrant of Judea, ruling by appointment of the Roman Senate from 37–4 BC.  He wasn’t even a Jew, but an Idumean.  King Herod the Great was a byword for ruthlessness, warming up for his slaughter of the Bethlehem Under-Two’s by murdering his wife, three sons, mother-in-law, brother-in-law, uncle andContinue reading “Tuesday 2nd January 2024”

HAPPY NEW YEAR! MATTHEW 1 We begin reading the first gospel of the New Testament.  Matthew is many people’s favourite gospel.  It is wonderfully poetic and beautifully structured.  It quotes the Old Testament more than any other gospel.  Its job is to prove to all Jews that Jesus really is their long-awaited Messiah.  It hasContinue reading “Monday 1st January 2024”

PASS IT ON! If you have enjoyed and benefited from reading The Big Picture Notes this year, why not send a link to someone else you know who would also benefit from it.  Forward this email to them and all they need do is to click on the link and follow the instructions.  https://the-big-picture.blog/about/ . It’sContinue reading “PASS IT ON!”

2 Corinthians 2 (cont.) But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere.  15 For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.  16Continue reading “Tuesday 29th August 2023”

ACTS 28 “Out of the frying pan and into the fire!”   Or so it must have seemed for an instant for Paul.  Having survived a huge storm at sea, he was then bitten by a poisonous snake and expected to die.  Then he remembered the prophecy that Jesus had given him, plus the promises inContinue reading “Monday 10th July 2023”

1 KINGS 5, 6 and 7 Solomon began the greatest construction project that he would ever undertake: the Temple of The Lord in Jerusalem.  1 Kings chapters 5 and 6 are roughly paralleled by 2 Chronicles chapters 2 and 3, although there are some subtle differences of emphasis. First, he wrote to Hiram, king ofContinue reading “Monday 19th June 2023”

LUKE 4 “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread”.  (v3).  “The Devil led him to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world…’I will give you all their authority and splendour… if you worship me, it will be yours’”.  (vv6-7).  “If youContinue reading “Tuesday 21st March 2023”