The city of Cyrene comes up a few times in the New Testament. The man who was forced to carry the cross for Jesus was Simon of Cyrene ( Luke 23:26). The crowd at Pentecost included Jews from Cyrene (Acts 2:10). We read of men of Cyrene preaching the word (Acts 11:20). And Lucius of Cyrene was one of the prophets and teachers at the church in Antioch (Acts 13:1). What I hadn't realised until using the Barnabas Fund Lent prayer diary this morning is that Cyrene is actually in Libya. As we pray for the situation in Libya and for God's people there at this time of upheaval, these biblical references have a particular poignancy. The Lord has been at work in the past in people from that country and we pray that he may continue to do so, even through the current crisis.

A fishing-lesson from one of the Puritans, Thomas Brooks! 'One of Satan's devices to draw the soul into sin is to present the bait and hide the hook; to present the golden cup and hide the poison; to present the sweet and the pleasure but hide from the soul the wrath and misery that will certainly follow. By this device he took our first parents; the hides the hook - the shame, the wrath, and the loss that would certainly follow.'