A Bit Like Jesus - Touching the stigmatized
A Bit Like Jesus - Touching the stigmatized
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 4 Care Touching the stigmatized Many have found an important precedent here for how we should care properly for those with AIDS. As seen in section 10, some early responses to AIDS were inept and even hypocritical. Today many religious agencies working among those living wit…
A Bit Like Jesus - The Policeman's Dilemma
A Bit Like Jesus - The Policeman's Dilemma
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 3 Compassion The Policeman’s Dilemma Five years ago I served on a panel of religious representatives giving evidence to a Select Committee on Assisted Dying. One of the committee members asked us all to respond to the following story: An armed policeman chanced upon a bad ro…
A Bit Like Jesus - Compassion and God
A Bit Like Jesus - Compassion and God
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 3 Compassion Compassion and God If God is seen as wholly compassionate, we in turn should have compassion for each other and for the world that God has entrusted to us. Compassion should be central for us as human beings because God is already compassionate towards us. This …
A Bit Like Jesus - The story of the Caring Samaritan
A Bit Like Jesus - The story of the Caring Samaritan
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 4 Care The story of the Caring Samaritan Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What do you read there?’ He answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all you…
A Bit Like Jesus - Stories We Value
A Bit Like Jesus - Stories We Value
by SPCK - Robin Gill
WEEK 1 Stories We Value Understanding Stories Forty years ago our family spent a year in Papua New Guinea living in a remote area without roads. I was teaching in the theological college and Jenny was working in the local hospital. Our son was a toddler and our daughter just a ba…
Drama/Monologue/Reflection: Advance warning
Drama/Monologue/Reflection: Advance warning
by Marjorie Dobson
Drama/Monologue/Reflection: Advance warning He told them he was going. He warned them in advance. He said, ‘I will be leaving you.’ He said, ‘I’m telling you these things because you will understand. Others won’t. You love and understand me. They don’t.’ And they didn’t either. D…
Poem: The man by the pool
Poem: The man by the pool
by Marjorie Dobson
Poem: The man by the pool A man lay by the pool they call Bethesda, a place of healing when the waters stirred. He could not move or walk without assistance and yet his pleas for help were never heard. Then one day Jesus came to see the waters and found this man who’d been there …
Poem: Heavenly vision
Poem: Heavenly vision
by Marjorie Dobson
Poem: Heavenly vision A city of gold wrapped in a vision of light, where there is no night, nor a temple in sight, but with a river pure and crystal bright flowing between twelve trees of life planted to heal the nations’ strife. Such is one vision of heaven. Continues... ©Marjor…
Talk in Many Languages
Talk in Many Languages
by Rev Andy Walker
The Disciples meet on the afternoon of Pentecost and discuss how to put their newly acquired langauge skills to good use. Peter has to remind them that gift of the Holy Spirit is for the building up of God's Kingdom and not for the building up of their own personal empires! “Talk…
Scripture and the Authority of God - How to Get Back on Track
Scripture and the Authority of God - How to Get Back on Track
by SPCK - N T Wright
How to Get Back on Track The Need for an Integrated View of Scripture’s Authority We urgently need an integrated view of the dense and complex phrase ‘the authority of scripture’. Such an integrated view needs to highlight the role of the Spirit as the powerful, transformative ag…
Scripture and the Authority of God - The Challenge of Enlightenment
Scripture and the Authority of God - The Challenge of Enlightenment
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Challenge of the Enlightenment The Enlightenment (a) Insisted on Historical Readings and (b) Attempted Thereby to Undermine Orthodox Christianity through Rationalism – a New Twist to ‘Reason’ We are all children, grandchildren or at least stepchildren of the eighteenth-centur…
Scripture and the Authority of God - Misreadings of Scripture from Today's Context
Scripture and the Authority of God - Misreadings of Scripture from Today's Context
by SPCK - N T Wright
Misreadings of Scripture in Today’s Context The Growth of Misreadings Within this complex cultural context, it is not surprising that all kinds of misreadings of scripture have grown up, both among those who count themselves as Bible-believers and among those who distance themsel…
GOD's rich Pattern - Trials and tribulations
GOD's rich Pattern - Trials and tribulations
by SPCK - Dr Lin Berwick
Trials and tribulations After all the excitement, it was down to earth with a bang. As I stated earlier, I had my left eye removed in 1976. Two years later my right eye (the one I had seen out of) started to play up. The pains in my head were tremendous. It was as though I had a …
Scripture and the Authority of God - Appendix
Scripture and the Authority of God - Appendix
by SPCK - N T Wright
Appendix Getting Started on Bible Study Those who want to get into the study of scripture for themselves – and studying scripture is, in the end, far more profitable than theorizing about it – will find a wealth of material to help them. What follows is only a small selection, wh…
GOD's rich Pattern - A new way of communicating
GOD's rich Pattern - A new way of communicating
by SPCK - Dr Lin Berwick
A new way of communicating The media attention that I have just mentioned took me to places of which I would never have dreamt. A friend, who had multiple sclerosis, ran a regional branch of the Muriel Braddick Foundation. This provided taped music, Christian thought and personal…
Temple Praise
Temple Praise
by Meryl White
A reflection on the children who sang praises in the temple after Jesus triumphal entry to Jerusalem After an introduction the author attempts to view Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem through the eyes of ones of the children reported to have been singing his praises in the te…
Easter Confession