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1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - How Are The Mighty Fallen
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - How Are The Mighty Fallen
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How Are the Mighty Fallen 2 Samuel 1: 1- 2: 31 The day before yesterday was Education and Sharing Day in the United States, a day established in honor of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who died in 1994. During his lifetime some of his followers believed him to be the messiah, …
Exodus and Leviticus - How to get to the Promised Land
Exodus and Leviticus - How to get to the Promised Land
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Get to the Promised Land EXODUS 23: 20- 33 Modern people get concerned about the Israelites annihilating the Canaanites. As far as one can tell, it only became an issue in modern times. Although Christians explain their concern by referring to Jesus’ exhortation to love on…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - I Would Rather Fall into God's Hands than into Human Hands
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - I Would Rather Fall into God's Hands than into Human Hands
by SPCK - John Goldingay
I Would Rather Fall into God’s Hands than into Human Hands 2 Samuel 24: 1- 16a By a nice coincidence, it’s census month in the United States. Many an advertisement is urging us to make sure we fill in forms; even the announcements in church repeat the exhortation, and the governm…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - On Following Up Your Good Ideas but Not Taking Yourself Too Seriously
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - On Following Up Your Good Ideas but Not Taking Yourself Too Seriously
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Following Up Your Good Ideas but Not Taking Yourself Too Seriously 2 Samuel 5: 1- 25 I am coming to the end of my fortieth year as a professor. On Sunday evening, the day before yet another new quarter started, a friend asked me a question that unintentionally made me feel rat…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - On Dying outside the Promised Land
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - On Dying outside the Promised Land
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Dying outside the Promised Land Deuteronomy 32: 48- 34: 12 I just read the obituary of a fine trumpet player and singer and even lovelier flugelhorn player, Stacy Rowles, who died after a car accident. My personal memory is of the way she once came to give a CD to my wife, Ann…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - Little Thing Can Have Terrible Consequences and Foreshadow Tragedy
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - Little Thing Can Have Terrible Consequences and Foreshadow Tragedy
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Little Things Can Have Terrible Consequences and Foreshadow Tragedy 2 Samuel 6: 1- 23 I write this during Holy Week. In my Bible study group this week someone was expressing his unease with the way we speak of God’s sending his Son to be crucified. Is God some sort of masochist? …
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - A Spy Story
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - A Spy Story
by SPCK - John Goldingay
A Spy Story NUMBERS 13: 1-14: 38 I like to raise student eyebrows by pointing out occasions when God has abandoned segments of the church. In the first Christian centuries, the eastern Mediterranean (Turkey, the Levant, Egypt, North Africa) was full of lively Christian churches, …
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Coveting Can Kill
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Coveting Can Kill
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Coveting Can Kill JOSHUA 7: 16-26 Today (as I am writing this) is Black Friday, when the stores hope to get their books into the black as the year draws toward an end. People will have been lining up all night or will have got up at crazily early hours to get a plasma TV for a hu…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Curses and Blessings and Curses
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Curses and Blessings and Curses
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Curses and Blessings and Curses Deuteronomy 27: 1- 28: 68 Last night I had a lovely dinner with some students. I accepted a second helping of pasta and a second glass of wine, and ate a magnificent brownie dessert with strawberries and ice cream. When it came to coffee, I decline…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Get Yourself Outta Here
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Get Yourself Outta Here
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Get Yourself Outta Here Genesis 11: 31- 12: 2a I just had a phone call from a graduate of our seminary who is about to leave the United States to join some people seeking to establish a Christian presence in a country where there is little such witness. She knows that when my wif…
Exodus and Leviticus - Promises and Warnings and Promises
Exodus and Leviticus - Promises and Warnings and Promises
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Promises and Warnings and Promises LEVITICUS 26: 3- 46 Yesterday a student from a two-thirds-world country came to see me to talk about wealth and poverty, about the idea that God exercised a preferential option for the poor, about whether it was okay for us to enjoy the wealth w…
Isaiah for Everyone - Prophet as Crazy Man
Isaiah for Everyone - Prophet as Crazy Man
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Prophet as Crazy Man The installing of a professor in his or her “chair” is an occasion for making fun of the person as well as for making seriously congratulatory speeches. I was not surprised that when I was installed one of the people who had been asked to speak made fun of my…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Provision for the Sanctuary
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Provision for the Sanctuary
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Provision for the Sanctuary NUMBERS 7: 1-8: 4 We want to build a “proper chapel” at our seminary. We outgrew the original chapel decades ago, and for services we use an auditorium or a church adjacent to the campus. Now, one of the great cultural strengths of the United States is…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Save First, Spend Afterward
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Save First, Spend Afterward
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Save First, Spend Afterward Genesis 41:25-57 Writers and TV producers have noted that the cell phone and other technological devices have undermined some of the staple plot devices that make novels and movies work. In Casablanca, Rick need not have been in any doubt as to why Ils…
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - She's a Moabite, for Goodness' Sake!
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - She's a Moabite, for Goodness' Sake!
by SPCK - John Goldingay
She’s a Moabite, for Goodness’ Sake RUTH 1:19b-2: 9 I was just reading the story of a man called Maxo who died in the earthquake in Haiti a couple of weeks ago when his house collapsed on top of him. His cousin in New York called Maxo a hustler, but his story showed how he was al…
Isaiah for Everyone - The Downfall of the Superpower
Isaiah for Everyone - The Downfall of the Superpower
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Downfall of the Superpower Last Sunday’s newspaper included three reviews of books on “the state of the union,” one by a Brit, two by Americans, all written by people who love the United States, but all concerned about its decline as the world’s one superpower. It’s often sai…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Fall of the Northern Kingdom
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Fall of the Northern Kingdom
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Fall of the Northern Kingdom 2 Kings 17:1-41 I suspect that people think I am an upright kind of guy, and they are not exactly wrong, but I have stories in my past of which I am ashamed and about which they don’t know, and I am not about to tell you these either. They still c…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - The Rhythm of Pilgrimage