Luke for Everyone - Reading the Signs of the Times
Luke for Everyone - Reading the Signs of the Times
by SPCK - N T Wright
Reading the Signs of the Times Luke 12.49-59 The great composer Ludwig van Beethoven used sometimes to play a trick on polite salon audiences, especially when he guessed that they weren’t really interested in serious music. He would perform a piece on the piano, one of his own sl…
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Rescued by God's Power
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Rescued by God's Power
by SPCK - N T Wright
Rescued by God’s Power Judah 17-25 Sometimes a quick burst of biblical dialogue catches a truth in sharp relief. After many generations in which the people of Israel had gone from bad to worse, led by a succession of wicked kings, God finally sends the prophet Elijah to sort it a…
Revelation bible study guide - Reaping the Harvest and Preparing the Plagues
Revelation bible study guide - Reaping the Harvest and Preparing the Plagues
by SPCK - N T Wright
Reaping the Harvest and Preparing the Plagues Revelation 14: 14-15: 8 Imagine a village in the outlying countryside of ancient Judaea. It’s a long way from the city, and even traders don’t come there that often, far less government officials. A circuit judge comes to the neighbor…
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Redeemed from the Law's Curse
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Redeemed from the Law's Curse
by SPCK - N T Wright
Redeemed from the Law’s Curse Galatians 3.10-14 I sat in the traffic jam for two hours. The road signs told me I was pointing in the right direction. From what I knew of the road it looked as though I was in the right place. But nothing was moving. The clock ticked slowly on; I w…
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Requests for Prayer
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Requests for Prayer
by SPCK - N T Wright
Requests for Prayer 2 Thessalonians 3.1-5 Among all the strange dreams that visit us at night, one of the most frustrating – which happens to me quite frequently – is the dream of trying to run and discovering that it’s impossible to do so. My legs feel like lead: they become hop…
Lent for Everyone Year A - Saturday after Ash Wednesday Year A
Lent for Everyone Year A - Saturday after Ash Wednesday Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
SATURDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY Matthew 4.1–11 It starts with a flicker of thought, a tiny little idea that darts across the mind while you’re doing something else. It seems harmless, just one of the millions of things that the human brain comes up with. But then it returns, a minut…
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Round the coast and Out of the Window
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Round the coast and Out of the Window
by SPCK - N T Wright
Round the Coast and Out of the Window Acts 20.1-12 The greatest epic of modern times is based on a journey. Millions who have seen the movies of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, not to mention the millions who have read the books, sometimes over and over, are often so ta…
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Roman Citizenship Comes in Useful
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Roman Citizenship Comes in Useful
by SPCK - N T Wright
Roman Citizenship Comes in Useful Acts 22.23-30 CAN YOU PROVE IT? The sign in the shop selling alcohol challenges all and sundry. I was once buying a drink in one of the small bars in O’Hare Airport in Chicago and was astonished, as a bald and bearded middle-aged man, to be asked…
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Scandal and Judgment
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Scandal and Judgment
by SPCK - N T Wright
Scandal and Judgment 1 Corinthians 5.1-5 When I was a boy, studying Greek and Latin classics, the texts we were given to study often had bits cut out. There were lines missing from poems, and sometimes entire sections; in one case (in the Roman writer Juvenal, I recall) a whole p…
Lent for Everyone Mark Year B - Saturday Holy Week Year B
Lent for Everyone Mark Year B - Saturday Holy Week Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
Lent for Everyone Mark Year B HOLY WEEK HOLY SATURDAY... ...It is hard to tell which was more horrible. We watched on the television, some while ago now, as the earthquake off the coast of Japan produced a terrible tsunami. The waves came crashing in, the enormous power of millio…
Revelation for Everyone - Sealing God's People
Revelation for Everyone - Sealing God's People
by SPCK - N T Wright
Sealing God’s People Revelation 7.1-8 Just when you think you are nearly at the top of the mountain, you crest a ridge and there . . . is another ridge half a mile ahead, steeper than the one you’ve just climbed. That is how it feels to get to this point in the sequence of the ‘s…
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Sharing the Messiah's Suffering
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Sharing the Messiah's Suffering
by SPCK - N T Wright
Sharing the Messiah’s Sufferings 1 Peter 4.12-19 Early Christian Letters for Everyone 12Beloved, don’t be surprised at the fiery ordeal which is coming upon you to test you, as though this were some strange thing that was happening to you. 13Rather, celebrate! You are sharing the…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Second Sunday of Easter - Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Second Sunday of Easter - Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Second Sunday of Easter - Year A Acts 2.14a, 22–32 1 Peter 1.3–9 John 20.19–31 Jesus’ resurrection scattered new meanings all around, like light reflecting a thousand ways off a priceless jewel. The first thing was the validation of Jesus’ messianic ministry. His powerful dee…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Seventh Sunday of Easter Year A
Twelve Months of Sundays Year A - Seventh Sunday of Easter Year A
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Seventh Sunday of Easter - Year A (Sunday after Ascension Day) Acts 1.6–14 1 Peter 4.12–14; 5.6–11 John 17.1–11 ‘When his glory is revealed.’ The ascension gives us a glimpse in advance of the great truth which will one day be unveiled – or rather, the glorious Person who wil…
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Shipwreck
Acts for Everyone Part 2 - Shipwreck
by SPCK - N T Wright
Shipwreck Acts 27.33-44 We were already horribly late for the service. It was nobody’s fault, really; the traffic had been far, far worse than anyone could have imagined. I had phoned through and told people how it was, but it was really important, still, that we got there as qui…
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Signs for Believers and Unbelievers
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Signs for Believers and Unbelievers
by SPCK - N T Wright
Signs for Believers and Unbelievers 1 Corinthians 14.20-25 ‘We need to take an adult attitude to this . . .’ ‘Of course, if we are to approach the problem as adults . . .’ ‘Since we’re all adults here, perhaps I could say . . . ’ What do you think these people are talking about? …
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Sheep among Wolves