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Another mountain on the road
Another mountain on the road
by Andrew Pratt
Another mountain on the road that led them to Jerusalem, a rising path, a stony way, the climb towards a brighter day. They broke through mist, looked down on clouds, the earth below now veiled to sight. Above, the summit, time to rest, a place of blessing for the blessed. Verses…
Heaven's gate reveals the pathway
Heaven's gate reveals the pathway
by Andrew Pratt
Heaven's gate reveals the pathway to discern God's love and grace; here in stars we trace the glory more resplendent in God's face. Sun and moon resolve that glory so the human eye can bear such inflaming, searing radiance, bringing warmth, distilling care. Verses 3-4 follow Tune…
Hymn: How strange when God anoints the ones
Hymn: How strange when God anoints the ones
by Andrew Pratt
How strange when God anoints the ones that we have not befriended For when the spirit freely flows that grace should not be ended. Verses 2-3 follow Tune: BARBARA ALLAN Metre: 8.7.8.7 Andrew Pratt (born 1948) Words © 22/4/2012 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England, www.stainer.co…
Hebrews for Everyone - Faith that Looks Beyond Death
Hebrews for Everyone - Faith that Looks Beyond Death
by SPCK - N T Wright
Faith that Looks Beyond Death Hebrews 11.13-22 ‘Dad, will you walk on ahead just a bit?’ They were going into the middle of town on a Saturday morning. Why would his 14-year-old daughter ask him to walk ahead, rather than beside her as he had been doing? He meekly obeyed. (Always…
Hebrews for Everyone - Faith and the Future: Noah, Abraham, Sarah
Hebrews for Everyone - Faith and the Future: Noah, Abraham, Sarah
by SPCK - N T Wright
Faith and the Future: Noah, Abraham, Sarah Hebrews 11.7-12 ‘The starry heaven above us’ was one of the two central facts upon which the great philosopher Immanuel Kant based his view of God. (The other was ‘the moral law within us’.) From the earliest recorded times, humans have …
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Faith and Works
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Faith and Works
by SPCK - N T Wright
Faith and Works James 2.14-26 That’s the wrong way round, isn’t it? That’s what we are inclined to think as we read that final verse. If I were to use ‘the body and the spirit’ as a picture for ‘faith and works’, I would make ‘faith’ correspond to the ‘spirit’ and ‘works’ to the …
John for Everyone Part 1 - Feeding the Five Thousand
John for Everyone Part 1 - Feeding the Five Thousand
by SPCK - N T Wright
Feeding the Five Thousand John 6.1-15 When you read detective stories, you quickly learn that what may look like an irrelevant little detail may actually be the clue to discovering who the murderer really is. A good writer will put in all kinds of detail, designed to lead the eye…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Fulfilling the Law
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Fulfilling the Law
by SPCK - N T Wright
Fulfilling the Law Matthew 5.13-20 We all know what happens when a revolutionary party suddenly finds itself in power. It’s one thing to shout angrily from the sidelines, but quite another to form a government and run a country. All sorts of things have to be organized and dealt …
Luke for Everyone - Further Warnings
Luke for Everyone - Further Warnings
by SPCK - N T Wright
Further Warnings Luke 12.1-12 It started off as an ordinary walk in the country. We decided to head off across open moorland towards a distant crag; the map suggested there might be a good view from the top. Much of the walk was relaxed. The five of us went at our own paces, in t…
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Suffering for Doing Right
Early Christian Letters for Everyone - Suffering for Doing Right
by SPCK - N T Wright
Suffering for Doing Right 1 Peter 3.17-22 The older I get, the more I dislike things which need to be put together, after you buy them, by following complicated instructions and diagrams. Part of my dislike is my sense that I will probably get it wrong, force something where it w…
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - The Coming of the Son of Man
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - The Coming of the Son of Man
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Coming of the Son of Man Matthew 24.29-35 A friend of mine is a composer. (It’s something I would like to have been myself, had things worked out differently, so I take a particular interest in what he does.) I watched one day as he worked on a particular piece he was writing…
Luke for Everyone - The Coming of The Kingdom
Luke for Everyone - The Coming of The Kingdom
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Coming of the Kingdom Luke 17.20-37 What does the word ‘apocalypse’ conjure up to you? Hollywood fantasies? Stars falling from the sky, volcanoes and earthquakes? People in terror, panicking and rushing this way and that? The Bible has plenty of apocalypses, and sometimes the…
Revelation for Everyone - The Day is Coming!
Revelation for Everyone - The Day is Coming!
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Day Is Coming! Revelation 6.9-17 There are three ways of ending a game of chess. The first is that one player or the other simply wins the game. There is no question: this is checkmate, and that’s the end of it. The second is that both players realize the game is unwinnable, …
John for Everyone Part 1 - The Father's Will
John for Everyone Part 1 - The Father's Will
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Father’s Will John 6.36-46 C. S. Lewis was once interviewed by an American Christian journalist who was writing about well-known characters who had converted to Christianity during adult life. The theme was ‘decision’. He wanted to get Lewis to say how he had ‘made his decisi…
Mark for Everyone - The Yeast of the Pharisees and Herod
Mark for Everyone - The Yeast of the Pharisees and Herod
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 8.11–21 The Yeast of the Pharisees and Herod... ...Think of your schooldays. What was your worst subject – the one you always dreaded, the one you longed to give up? Now try (if the memory isn’t too painful) to remember what it was like sitting in a desk wi…
Mark for Everyone - Two Extra Endings
Mark for Everyone - Two Extra Endings
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 16.9–20 Two Extra Endings... ...These are the two ‘extra’ endings of Mark. They are not found in the best manuscripts, but are added in to several others in a bewildering variety of ways. The shorter, first one (in double square brackets) doesn’t have a ver…
John for Everyone part 2 - Washing the Disciples' Feet
John for Everyone part 2 - Washing the Disciples' Feet
by SPCK - N T Wright
Washing the Disciples’ Feet John 13.1-11 I had never washed anyone else’s feet (bathing my own children doesn’t really count) until I went to work in a church where they acted out this scene every Holy Week. On the Thursday, the day before Good Friday, many churches arrange a ser…
Revelation for Everyone - Worthy is the Lamb!