Search Results
With My WholeHeart - Postscript to the Psalms
With My WholeHeart - Postscript to the Psalms
by SPCK - James Jones
Postscript to the Psalms Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. This verse (Psalm 51.6 kjv) does not come with the word ‘heart’ in the psalm version of the Book of Common Prayer but for me it has been at the cent…
With My WholeHeart - Prelude to the Psalms
With My WholeHeart - Prelude to the Psalms
by SPCK - James Jones
Prelude to the Psalms On a certain Tuesday I was on my feet in the House of Lords asking a question about the future of the Community Justice Centre in Liverpool. As I sat down I could feel my heart pumping and a pain in my chest. On the Wednesday I was at the Heart and Chest Hos…
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 102:4
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 102:4
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 102:4 A pelican in the wilderness, an owl in the desert, a sole sparrow sitting on the rooftop, these are the pictures that tell of a soul out of sorts. There’s little doubt here that the plight of the smitten heart is the work of God. ‘For thou hast taken me up, and cast m…
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 104:15
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 104:15
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 104:15 God knows what makes the human heart glad! All manner of things including good food and good wine. Yet these are but tokens of God’s providence as this psalm makes abundantly clear. It holds before us in poetry the blessings of heaven that God has rained down upon th…
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 105:3, 25
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 105:3, 25
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 105:3, 25 Heart versus heart. The heart can fill up with love or hatred. The greatest challenge for the heart filling up with love is to encounter another whose empty heart fills up with hatred, especially when the focus of the bitterness is love itself...
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 107:12
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 107:12
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 107:12 The disease of this heart is down to rebelling ‘against the words of the Lord’ and lightly regarding ‘the counsel of the most Highest’ (v. 11). Although God is infinitely long-suffering and compassionate this should not be confused with indifference to disobedience…
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 108:1
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 108:1
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 108:1 I was three weeks into my recuperation when this verse revived me! As in life, so in convalescence there are good days and bad days, like walking on a cloudy summer’s day, one moment through a field of sunshine, the next under a canopy of shade...
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 109:21
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 109:21
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 109:21 A spiritual battle rages around us. It breaks through into the material world. It is impossible not to be caught up in it and, from time to time, to be wounded. Of course, many today dismiss this as medieval theology, but read the opening stanzas of this psalm and it…
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 10:3
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 10:3
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 10:3 For the ungodly hath made boast of his own heart’s desire: and speaketh good of the covetous, whom God abhorreth. One of the deceits of our egocentric world is the belief that whatever you desire should be the goal of your life. We’re encouraged to dig deep into our in…
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 112:7-8
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 112:7-8
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 112:7-8 A sign of the heart established in God is that it does not shrink. Nor is it ‘afraid of any evil tidings’. The reason for this is that ‘unto the godly there ariseth up light in the darkness’ (v. 4). That light is none other than the mercy of God which rescues us fro…
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 119: 10-11
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 119: 10-11
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 119. 10, 11 It is one thing to think a thought, it is quite another to bury it and hide it in the heart. Years ago people would learn verses of the Bible off by heart; sadly this is no longer in vogue educationally. Pity! We deprive ourselves. Memorizing a verse, meditating…
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 119:10-11
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 119:10-11
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 119:10-11 It is one thing to think a thought, it is quite another to bury it and hide it in the heart. Years ago people would learn verses of the Bible off by heart; sadly this is no longer in vogue educationally. Pity! We deprive ourselves. Memorizing a verse, meditating o…
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 119:111-112
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 119:111-112
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 119:111-112 There’s a joyless religion that should be avoided like the plague. There’s a certain personality that obsesses with detail; it becomes preoccupied with rules and ritual; it prefers the letter of the law to the spirit of the law. Jesus clashed with this sort of p…
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 119:111-112
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 119:111-112
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 119:111, 112 The word of God comes to us in several ways. Supremely in Jesus who was ‘the Word made flesh’ (cf. John 1.14). Without the Bible Jesus is a contentless word. It is Scripture that gives substance and meaning to his life, death and resurrection. Jesus’ own atti…
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 119:32