John for Everyone part 2 - Glory and Blindness
John for Everyone part 2 - Glory and Blindness
by SPCK - N T Wright
Glory and Blindness John 12.37-43 It was seven o’clock in the evening when Susan called the family in. She had worked hard all day to prepare this meal, and she was excited, eyes sparkling, on edge to see what they would say. Delicious smells came from the kitchen. She sat them d…
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Giving Up the Rights for the Gospel
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Giving Up the Rights for the Gospel
by SPCK - N T Wright
Giving Up the Rights for the Gospel 1 Corinthians 9.12b-18 A haunting song by Joni Mitchell describes a clarinet player standing by the side of the road in a busy city. He wasn’t like ordinary buskers, playing mediocre music in a bored sort of way and hoping for enough small chan…
New Testament Prayer for Everyone - Glorify the Son
New Testament Prayer for Everyone - Glorify the Son
by SPCK - N T Wright
PART 2 PRAYERS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT PRAYERS OF JESUS GLORIFY THE SON John 17: 1-8 Shakespeare’s play Hamlet is full of action. Ghosts, murders, love scenes, plots, accidental killings, betrayals, recriminations and more plots. The play highlights the indecision of the hero when f…
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Get Rid of the "Leaven"!
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Get Rid of the "Leaven"!
by SPCK - N T Wright
Get Rid of the “Leaven”! 1 Corinthians 5.6-13 If you’ve ever been in a Jewish home at Passover-time, you’ll know what Paul is talking about in verses 7 and 8. It’s a tradition that’s been kept for more than three thousand years, ever since the Jewish people came out of Egypt at t…
Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - God's Hidden Treasure - King James
Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - God's Hidden Treasure - King James
by SPCK - N T Wright
God’s Hidden Treasure – King Jesus! Colossians 2.1-7 In many adventure stories such as Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous Treasure Island, the plot hinges on the discovery of an ancient chart or map. The people who have found it realize that, if only they could understand and follow…
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - God's Strange Wisdom
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - God's Strange Wisdom
by SPCK - N T Wright
God’s Strange Wisdom 1 Corinthians 2.6-13 When my sister celebrated her 21st birthday, she and I were at university, a long way from home. So a cousin of my father’s, who lived nearby, invited the two of us to dinner to celebrate. He and his wife had no children of their own, and…
Acts for Everyone part 1 - God's Rescue Plan
Acts for Everyone part 1 - God's Rescue Plan
by SPCK - N T Wright
God’s Rescue Plan Acts 2.37-41 It’s one thing to discover you are driving along the wrong road. It may be frustrating, and even embarrassing if you have people in the car who thought you knew where you were going. But you can at least admit the mistake, turn round and set off aga…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 2 - God's Purpose and Justice
Paul for Everyone Romans part 2 - God's Purpose and Justice
by SPCK - N T Wright
God’s Purpose and Justice ROMANS 9.14-24 I was never much good at pottery at school. I enjoyed the feel of the clay, but it never quite did what I wanted it to. I did succeed in making one or two small dishes, including an ashtray (that dates it, because the only person I would h…
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - God's Promise and Abraham's faith
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - God's Promise and Abraham's faith
by SPCK - N T Wright
God’s Promise and Abraham’s Faith Galatians 3.1-9 A famous story tells of the tight-rope walker Charles Blondin (1824–97), who set up a rope across Niagara Falls and walked across several times. So confident did he become that he made the journey backwards as well as forwards, an…
The Pastoral Letters - God's Revealed Plan
The Pastoral Letters - God's Revealed Plan
by SPCK - N T Wright
God’s Revealed Plan Titus 1.1-4 ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ It’s the standard question children face from well-meaning adults. Often the answers are surprising. A ballet dancer. A gardener. This girl wants to run a bookshop. This boy wants to play the oboe. Sometim…
John for Everyone Part 1 - God's Son Breaks the Sabbath
John for Everyone Part 1 - God's Son Breaks the Sabbath
by SPCK - N T Wright
God’s Son Breaks the Sabbath John 5.9b-18 I woke up to hear a voice speaking a language I didn’t understand. Where was I? What was going on? A dim light from the other side of the room reminded me. I was at the conference. I was sharing a room with a colleague from the university…
2 Corinthians - God's Servant at Work
2 Corinthians - God's Servant at Work
by SPCK - N T Wright
God’s Servant at Work 2 CORINTHIANS 6.3-13 We sat by the table, both of us exhausted. In between us, an equally tired toddler in a high chair. We had been up half the night with him, and his mood was reflecting how we felt. He was grumpy and thoroughly uncooperative. He was refus…
Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - God's Secret Plan Unveiled at Last
Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - God's Secret Plan Unveiled at Last
by SPCK - N T Wright
God’s Secret Plan Unveiled at Last Ephesians 3.1-7 Naomi had started a small dressmaking business. She had always been skilful with her hands, and had a good eye for colour and pattern. Now she realized she could turn these abilities to good use, not only to make clothes for hers…
New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - God's Powerful Mystery
New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - God's Powerful Mystery
by SPCK - N T Wright
1 THE WISDOM OF THE SPIRIT GOD’S POWERFUL MYSTERY 1 Corinthians 2: 1-5 Life is full of mystery. The deepest, richest and most complex theories that science can ever come up with only serve to highlight the fact that there is still a depth of mystery which goes way beyond it all. …
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Here Comes the Sequel
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Here Comes the Sequel
by SPCK - N T Wright
Here Comes the Sequel!Acts 1.1-5 The English playwright Alan Bennett wrote a famous play about the equally famous madness of a well-known king. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, England had four kings in succession all called ‘George’, and the third of them – George I…
Mark for Everyone - Herod and John the Baptist
Mark for Everyone - Herod and John the Baptist
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 6.17–29 Herod and John the Baptist... ...What sells newspapers? Three things, and if they’re combined, so much the better. Royalty: almost any story about a member of a royal family will sell, not only in Britain or Norway or wherever it began, but around t…
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Handmade Shrines