Welcome to
Inside Holy Heads & Hearts

As we read Scripture personally, or sit under its weekly exposition in a church setting, we’re often inclined to gravitate most quickly to the learning of ‘truth’. In the long-proven structure of three to four points we learn more about God and who he is, reflect on historical context, go deeper in theological understanding, and submit to stretching challenges about how we should change and grow. All of this has tremendous value.

But as well as being a book about God, Scripture is also a book where we read the stories of an amazing array of characters. There are kings and paupers, saints and sinners, leaders and followers, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, lovers and widows, prophets and prostitutes, strong and sick, shrewd and foolish, and faithful and sceptic. 

Inside Holy Heads & Hearts is an invitation to get inside a Scriptural specimen of those people and enter into their hopes and dreams, their disappointments and resentments, their running to God or their resenting of him. What did they think? How did they feel? And how often does that have an uncanny resemblance to our own experiences of life?

The book takes readers to the interior space of 75 well-known - and less well-known - characters from Scripture: 45 from the Old Testament and 30 from the New Testament; 50 men and 25 women. From Noah in Genesis 9 to John in Revelation 1, the characters provide a broad sweep of spiritual experience and emotional highs and lows, as the work of God is progressively revealed and plays out.

The book can be downloaded here as a PDF that is fully interactive. Click on the name of the Bible character in the contents and you’ll be taken straight to their reflection. Read that and want something more - or different - and a button on each page will take you back to the contents.

Each piece has been written primarily as a devotional resource, and includes the relevant passage of Scripture, an introduction, and a question for reflection. The character reflections can also be used for teaching preparation, or as performative monologues.

The book is free, but for those who want to make a donation comparable to what the published price of such a book would be (£10 to £15), Release International - which supports and gives voice to the experience of persecuted Christians - is a charity the author would want to be supported.

Click the button below to download the book or make a donation to Release International.