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Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - How to Get Prayer to Work
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - How to Get Prayer to Work
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Get Prayer to Work Psalm 142 In connection with Psalms 120–121, I mentioned the visit a group of my friends were making to one of the poorest and most dangerous countries in Africa, in connection with their commitment to letting the voice of refugees there be heard in the …
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Restore Us Again
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Restore Us Again
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Restore Us Again Psalm 85 It is easy for me as a Brit to be resentful of the U.S. media’s critiques of Britain and Europe. “Why do they think it’s their business to criticize when the United States can’t solve its own problems?” I wonder. “Are the British media so critical of the…
Mark The Peoples' Bible Commentary - No Place for Divorce
Mark The Peoples' Bible Commentary - No Place for Divorce
by BRF - Dick France
No Place for Divorce Divorce—now and then In a society in which divorce has become normal and accepted, Jesus’ robust condemnation of it comes as a shock. But the same was true in his own day. While Jewish authorities debated the grounds for divorce, no-one questioned that divorc…
Mark The Peoples' Bible Commentary - Whose is the Kingdom of God?
Mark The Peoples' Bible Commentary - Whose is the Kingdom of God?
by BRF - Dick France
Whose is the Kingdom of God? The ‘kingdom of God’ is mentioned twice in these verses, and three times more in verses 23–25. The phrase, as we have seen, means ‘God’s rule’, and what the disciples are being forced to face in this series of incidents are some of the radically diffe…
Mark The Peoples' Bible Commentary - Hard Sayings
Mark The Peoples' Bible Commentary - Hard Sayings
by BRF - Dick France
Hard Sayings These verses contain a collection of sayings, probably originally independent of each other, which are linked by ‘catch-words’: stumbling, fire, salt. They draw out some of the demands and the perils of discipleship, and warn against an easy, lax approach which refus…
Mark The People's Commentary - Insider and outsiders
Mark The People's Commentary - Insider and outsiders
by BRF - Dick France
Insiders and outsiders Here is the other end of the ‘sandwich’ which began in verses 20–21; the family have arrived. At the same time, a further layer is added to the sandwich, in that the inner circle of the disciples, whose call was narrated just before the family were introduc…
The Post Evangelical - 4 Longing to grow
The Post Evangelical - 4 Longing to grow
by SPCK - Dave Tomlinson
4 Longing to grow I want to tell you a couple of stories. The first is about Barbara who was a ‘mish-kid’ (child of missionaries). Although she had always been included in the church family with her folks, she had been taught from quite an early age that she would need to come to…
The Post Evangelical - 6 "Let me tell you a story"
The Post Evangelical - 6 "Let me tell you a story"
by SPCK - Dave Tomlinson
6 “Let me tell you a story” We have already touched on the subject of postmodernism and we now need to look at this a little more closely. I have referred several times to the fact that the Western world is in a state of flux and that the modern world, stretching back to the Enli…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - How to End the Day
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - How to End the Day
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to End the Day Psalm 133-134 When my wife and I got married fifty-one weeks ago, we discovered the Episcopal Prayer Book’s “Daily Devotions for Individuals and Families,” four one-page sets of psalms, Scripture readings, and prayers that you can use when you wake up, at lunch…
Praying for Jerusalem, Praying for Grace
Praying for Jerusalem, Praying for Grace
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Praying for Jerusalem, Praying for Grace Psalm 122-123 When people would ask me what I expected to miss about leaving England to move to the United States, I would say that one of the main things was proximity to Israel. From London I could get there in four hours or so, and I us…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Yes, Yahweh Has Begun to Reign
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Yes, Yahweh Has Begun to Reign
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Yes, Yahweh Has Begun to Reign Psalm 96 Today’s news includes a report about forces in Yemen firing on people protesting the government and killing some of them. In Afghanistan, U.S. and Afghan soldiers have faced sharply increased attacks by insurgents from their base in Pakista…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Will You Just Shut Up and Listen?
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Will You Just Shut Up and Listen?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Will You Just Shut Up and Listen? Psalm 95 One of the most formative experiences of my life was being a chorister in the choir at the cathedral in my home city in England. I learned to sing and to read and write music, and I wouldn’t have become a music freak except for that expe…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - On Sacred Space, Sacred Acts, and Sacred Sound
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - On Sacred Space, Sacred Acts, and Sacred Sound
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Sacred Space, Sacred Acts, and Sacred Sound Psalm 99-100 Yesterday I received what initially seemed a puzzling invitation to a weekly, early-morning prayer meeting, described as “sacred space for a variety of prayer traditions.” It seemed puzzling because I always thought of s…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - I Have Hope for Zion, but Is There Hope for Me?
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - I Have Hope for Zion, but Is There Hope for Me?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
I Have Hope for Zion, but Is There Hope for Me? Psalm 102 Every morning when we wake up, my wife prays our morning prayers, and almost invariably she thanks God for another wonderful day. An hour later, I sit at my desk thinking about that day’s passage for The Old Testament for …
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - One Way to Evade Compassion Fatigue
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - One Way to Evade Compassion Fatigue
by SPCK - John Goldingay
One Way to Evade Compassion Fatigue Psalm 79 The expression “compassion fatigue” has been around for a while. The nature of modern communications media means that we become instantly aware of suffering in different parts of the world, but we cannot deal with all that suffering or…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Bring Back! Come Back!
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Bring Back! Come Back!
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Bring Back! Come Back! Psalm 80 It’s nearly three hundred years since the First Great Awakening, a revival of religious life in Britain and even more in the British colonies in America a few decades before the War of Independence. This First Great Awakening was mostly a movement …
PAUL AND THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD - Before and After Julius Caesar
PAUL AND THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD - Before and After Julius Caesar
by SPCK - N T Wright
2. The Reality of Empire (II) Before and After Julius Caesar Ancient Rome had had a succession of kings, the last being Tarquinus Superbus in the late sixth century BC. Legend named Rome’s first king, the founder of the city in 753 BC, as Romulus. Since, however, there is no cont…
Mark The Peoples' Bible Commentary - Another Gentile Healed