SPCK

Love Actually JUDGES 16:1-21 After the incident a few weeks ago when a man on a plane bound for Detroit tried to blow up himself and the plane as an act of terrorism against the United States and the Western world in general, an extraordinary piece of background to the event emer…

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Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Honey, We Solved the Riddle

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Honey, We Solved the Riddle JUDGES 14:1- 15:20 Only trivial things went wrong at our wedding. Admittedly, for Ann and me it was a narrow escape. At one stage her father said he would not come; that was the degree to which he disapproved of me. I had long hair, like Samson (being …

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Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - When God Finds It Hard to Be Tough

by SPCK - John Goldingay

When God Finds It Hard to Be Tough JUDGES 10:1- 11:29 In my prayers each day (well, most days, to be honest), I pray either for the nation or for the church in our nation. I do so against the background of the fact that nations grow and triumph and then decline and fall, and that…

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Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Entertaining Angels Unawares

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Entertaining Angels Unawares JUDGES 13:1- 25 Some friends of mine have just become pregnant. I am not accustomed to using that verb in the first-person plural; when I was young, it was only women who got pregnant, but now it is a joint operation. There is a certain appropriatenes…

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Joshua, judges and Ruth for Everyone - The Man Whose Promise Makes the Blood Run Cold

by SPCK - John Goldingay

The man Whose Promise Makes the Blood Run Cold JUDGES 11:30- 12:15 There was a story in the news recently about a man who was reversing his car in his drive and accidentally ran over his child who was playing there. Another story related how a mother who had apparently been drink…

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New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - Creation Renewed

by SPCK - N T Wright

5 THE RENEWAL OF THE WORLD CREATION RENEWED Romans 8: 18-25 I walked through the wood several times before I realized what the signpost meant. The wood was thick, with paths leading this way and that. I knew some of them quite well, and had my favourites among them. There was the…

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New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - The First And The Last

by SPCK - N T Wright

5 THE RENEWAL OF THE WORLD THE FIRST AND THE LAST Matthew 19: 23-30 Once, as a boy, I watched a large party of hunters on horseback chasing a fox over open country. Even if you disapprove of foxhunting, as many do, it was a fine sight on a cold wintry day. Down the hillside they …

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New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - It's Easy To Get Lost

by SPCK - N T Wright

4 THE PATH OF THE DISCIPLE IT’S EASY TO GET LOST 2 Peter 2: 1-10a ‘I told you it was easy to get lost.’ Our host stood on the doorstep with a wry smile on his face. We had assumed we more or less knew the way. We have a good sense of direction. We had even been there before; sure…

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New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - Watch Out For Dangers

by SPCK - N T Wright

4 THE PATH OF THE DISCIPLE WATCH OUT FOR DANGERS! Hebrews 12: 12-17 ‘It was a moment of madness.’ The politician stood shamefully before the press. He had been caught out soliciting for sexual favours in a notorious part of town. His character was in ruins, his reputation in tatt…

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New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - Looking To Jesus

by SPCK - N T Wright

4 THE PATH OF THE DISCIPLE LOOKING TO JESUS Hebrews 12: 1-3 I went to a school that prided itself on its outdoor pursuits. Set high in the Yorkshire Dales in north-west England, it celebrated its location in several ways, the annual climax being a ten-mile cross-country race over…

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New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - Chasing On To The Finish

by SPCK - N T Wright

4 THE PATH OF THE DISCIPLE CHASING ON TO THE FINISH Philippians 3: 12-16 The athletics match had reached a critical stage. One of the final races was left to be run: the 440 yards (the old version of today’s 400 metres). The athletes were bunched together as they came to the firs…

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New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - Where Two Roads Lead

by SPCK - N T Wright

4 THE PATH OF THE DISCIPLE WHERE TWO ROADS LEAD Romans 6: 20-23 One of the things you have to learn when you move house is which roads lead where. I was Christmas shopping the other day in the new town where we have just settled, and as I drove out of a car park I saw a long queu…

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New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - The Wise And Foolish Girls

by SPCK - N T Wright

4 THE PATH OF THE DISCIPLE THE WISE AND FOOLISH GIRLS Matthew 25: 1-13 The guests had all arrived and were seated. The organ was playing. The bridegroom and the best man had been there half an hour in advance. The photographers were waiting. The flowers had all been beautifully a…

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New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - The Wise and Wicked Slaves

by SPCK - N T Wright

4 THE PATH OF THE DISCIPLE THE WISE AND WICKED SLAVES Matthew 24: 45-51 The managing director was returning from a meeting out of town, when he saw a familiar but unexpected sight. There, turning out of a street ahead of him, was one of his own company’s vans. What was it doing h…

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New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - Do Not Worry

by SPCK - N T Wright

4 THE PATH OF THE DISCIPLE DO NOT WORRY Matthew 6: 25-34 Has it ever struck you what a basically happy person Jesus was? Oh yes, we know that, according to the prophecies, he was ‘a man of sorrow, and acquainted with grief ’. We know that the darkness and sadness of all the world…

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New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - God Is Love

by SPCK - N T Wright

3 THE GREAEST OF THE VIRTUES GOD IS LOVE 1 John 4: 7-21 God is love; those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. 17This is what makes love complete for us, so that we may have boldness and confidence on the day of judgment, because just as he is, so are we withi…

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New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - The Character Of Love

by SPCK - N T Wright

3 THE GREAEST OF THE VIRTUES THE CHARACTER OF LOVE 1 Corinthians 13: 1-7 When people say, as they sometimes do, that Paul must have been a very difficult person to have around – that he seems to have been awkward, cantankerous, argumentative, and generally an unpleasant character…

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New Testament Wisdom for Everyone - Love One Another

by SPCK - N T Wright

3 THE GREAEST OF THE VIRTUES LOVE ONE ANOTHER John 15: 9-17 Like an innocent child wandering by itself into a kitchen and pressing the switches that will set the house on fire, some biblical texts have been taken out of their original setting and used in ways that would have horr…

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