Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - How Do You Know?
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - How Do You Know?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How Do You Know? Genesis 15: 8-15 A friend of mine has been in the process of falling in love with someone he met through an online dating service. She lives in a city some way away, far enough to make driving there for the weekend possible but not much fun, so he often flies, bu…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - How Not to Evade the Draft
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - How Not to Evade the Draft
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How Not to Evade the Draft 1 Samuel 10: 17- 11: 13 I am sometimes asked why I am so involved with the Old Testament, and I have various answers. I may talk about two great Old Testament teachers I had, one at university and one at seminary. I may refer to the fact that I had lear…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - How Are The Mighty Fallen
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - How Are The Mighty Fallen
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How Are the Mighty Fallen 2 Samuel 1: 1- 2: 31 The day before yesterday was Education and Sharing Day in the United States, a day established in honor of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who died in 1994. During his lifetime some of his followers believed him to be the messiah, …
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - How It All Goes Wrong (Again)
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - How It All Goes Wrong (Again)
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How It All Goes Wrong (Again) NUMBERS 25:1- 26: 51 Numbers cause us some anxiety. I am often discouraged by the numbers of people in our church, afraid it is dying (the average age is quite high). A shrinking church will seem to be a failing church. So from time to time I glance …
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - How David Got His Grandfather
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - How David Got His Grandfather
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How David Got His Grandfather RUTH 4:11-22 I was talking to a friend yesterday who has long been interested in researching into her family history, and she told me how she had discovered some time ago that both her parents had been divorced twice before they married each other. A…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - How To Manipulate the Old Man in Order to Get Things Done
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - How To Manipulate the Old Man in Order to Get Things Done
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Manipulate the Old Man in Order to Get Things Done 1 Kings 1:1-53 I have friends in Kyrgyzstan, where a few weeks ago there were protests against the president and the government on the part of the opposition party and its supporters, citing widespread government corruptio…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - How to Gain and Lose God's Sympathy
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - How to Gain and Lose God's Sympathy
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Gain and Lose God’s Sympathy 2 Kings 20:1-21 My wife Ann had multiple sclerosis for forty-two years until she died a year ago. We and other people prayed for her healing on lots of occasions in many ways, supported by a number of high-profile figures in the world of prayin…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - How to Live in a Contractual Relationship with God
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - How to Live in a Contractual Relationship with God
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Live in a Contractual Relationship with God Genesis 28:16-29: 14a I was trying to explain to a group of Christians the difference between a covenant and a contract in order to suggest that God’s relationship with us is more like the former than the latter. I have a contrac…
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - How to Increase the Odds against Yourself
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - How to Increase the Odds against Yourself
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Increase the Odds against Yourself JUDGES 7: 1-25 Two weeks ago a man tried to blow up a plane going from Amsterdam to Detroit, and one week ago when I came back from London to Los Angeles after Christmas, it took two hours to board the plane rather than the usual half hou…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - How To Make War
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - How To Make War
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Make War (or How to Make War Impractical) Deuteronomy 19: 1- 20: 20 Last night at dinner, a friend of mine was hopping mad about a meeting she had attended the previous night, when an ex-marine who had become a pacifist was lamenting the wrongness of the war in Afghanistan…
Psalms for Everyone - How to Learn from the Poor
Psalms for Everyone - How to Learn from the Poor
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Learn from the Poor Psalm 41: 1-12 As we arrived at church on Sunday, a homeless man named Alex who sometimes comes to church was sitting in the shade of the parish hall, drawing on a cigarette as he waited for the time of the service. During the service we read the story …
Exodus and Leviticus - How to get to the Promised Land
Exodus and Leviticus - How to get to the Promised Land
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Get to the Promised Land EXODUS 23: 20- 33 Modern people get concerned about the Israelites annihilating the Canaanites. As far as one can tell, it only became an issue in modern times. Although Christians explain their concern by referring to Jesus’ exhortation to love on…
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - How to Get Taken In
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - How to Get Taken In
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Get Taken In JOSHUA 9: 1-21 I have known people who seem to consult God about every detail of their lives, from what to have for dinner to what courses to take next quarter, what college to attend, where to buy a house, or whom to marry. To be honest, I consulted God about…
Exodus and Leviticus - How to Ordain a Priest
Exodus and Leviticus - How to Ordain a Priest
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Ordain a Priest EXODUS 28: 1- 29: 37 I shall shortly have completed forty years teaching in seminary, and a bit longer than this in being a priest and pastor. A few years after I started seminary teaching, I became embarrassed to realize that I no longer believed that with…
Job for Everyone - I Know That My Restorer Lives
Job for Everyone - I Know That My Restorer Lives
by SPCK - John Goldingay
I Know That My Restorer Lives Job 19: 1- 29 In spring 1741 over a period of twenty-four days, George Frideric Handel set to music a compilation of scriptural texts, mostly from the Old Testament, that had been made by a landowner and patron of the arts called Charles Jennens. In …
Isaiah for Everyone - I'm Fed Up to the Teeth with Your Worship
Isaiah for Everyone - I'm Fed Up to the Teeth with Your Worship
by SPCK - John Goldingay
I’m fed up to the Teeth with Your Worship Isaiah 1: 1-20 We just came home from our Palm Sunday service at church, a great occasion. As usual we began by distributing palm crosses; I can never take for granted that in California we can make our palm crosses from palm branches on …
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - I Trace the Rainbow through the Rain
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - I Trace the Rainbow through the Rain
by SPCK - John Goldingay
I Trace the Rainbow through the Rain Genesis 9: 14- 25 Nineteenth-century Scottish theologian and pastor George Matheson lost his sight when he was a student. That led his fiancée to break off their engagement because she could not face life with a blind man. He never married; hi…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - I Would Rather Fall into God's Hands than into Human Hands