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Job for Everyone - I Hate the People Who Hate You
Job for Everyone - I Hate the People Who Hate You
by SPCK - John Goldingay
I Hate the People Who Hate You Job 27: 1-23 When I have taken part in “quiet days” for reflection and prayer, three favorite Old Testament texts have been the one about the still, small voice that I mentioned in connection with Job 25–26, the “Be still and know that I am God” of …
Job for Everyone - Is God Not Good or Not Sovereign?
Job for Everyone - Is God Not Good or Not Sovereign?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Is God Not Good or Not Sovereign? Job 34 1-30 A student has been blowing fuses to me about having to read books that are full of words like eschatology and pneumatology and sentences about God’s “ontological revelatory self-communication and self-transcendence” or about “supralap…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Is Anything Stable?
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Is Anything Stable?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Is Anything Stable? Psalm 89: 1-37 My wife once lived in a house on the side of a canyon in California that seemed capable of tumbling into the ocean if there was an earthquake, and after one worrying quake not far away she took to checking the weekly earthquake reports. Apparent…
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Looking Forward and Backward
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Looking Forward and Backward
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Looking Forward and Backward JOSHUA 4: 1- 5: 1 Yesterday I was comparing notes with a woman who lost her father the same month I lost my wife. She mentioned that her mother wasn’t prepared to look forward, to imagine what the future would be like, and was only prepared to look ba…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Moses Begins His Last Sermon
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Moses Begins His Last Sermon
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Moses Begins His Last Sermon Deuteronomy 1:1-45 This coming Saturday, I am taking part in a service in which the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles expresses its regret and contrition for the way we have treated African Americans. The church to which I belong was founded to provide…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Moses' Last Song
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Moses' Last Song
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Moses’ Last Song Deuteronomy 31: 1- 32: 47 In commenting on Deuteronomy 1, I referred to a service of contrition in our Episcopal diocese concerning the way we had treated African Americans. In the early decades of the twentieth century, in different parts of greater Los Angeles …
Job for Everyone - On Accepting Your Ignorance
Job for Everyone - On Accepting Your Ignorance
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Accepting Your Ignorance Job 38 16-38 In my seminary in England we once produced a dramatic version of the story of Job; I was the screenwriter, and one of my colleagues was the director. She wanted to have God appearing on stage during the dialogues between Job and his friend…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - On Watching Your Son Die
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - On Watching Your Son Die
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Watching Your Son Die Genesis 21: 15-32 Today I read about the death of the young son of the leader of the opposition party in the U.K. parliament. The boy had been born with cerebral palsy and a severe form of epilepsy, and in a sense his parents had been watching him die all…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - One Fatal Mistake
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - One Fatal Mistake
by SPCK - John Goldingay
One Fatal Mistake NUMBERS 20: 1-13 A few years ago a bright young church leader in England whom I knew slightly made one mistake, and his ministry was finished. It must have been devastating for him; it was devastating for people who had set their hopes on him as a symbol of some…
Psalms for Everyone - Praise and Thanksgiving as a Key to Prayer-II
Psalms for Everyone - Praise and Thanksgiving as a Key to Prayer-II
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Praise and Thanksgiving as a Key to Prayer-II Psalm 40 As usual we had a time of sharing praise and prayer concerns in church yesterday, and as usual I had more success getting people to share prayer concerns than to share reasons for thanksgiving. As far as I remember the only t…
Psalms for Everyone - Praise and Thanksgiving as a Key to Prayer-I
Psalms for Everyone - Praise and Thanksgiving as a Key to Prayer-I
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Praise and Thanksgiving as a Key to Prayer-I Psalm 9: 1-18 Yesterday a pastor in Florida invited me to look at his blog, where he had written about God’s renewing the church. When God renewed the church (as happened with the emergence of Pentecostalism a century ago, for instance…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Sarai Becomes Sarah
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - Sarai Becomes Sarah
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Sarai Becomes Sarah Genesis 17: 15-19 On my father’s birth certificate, our family name is spelled Gouldingay. It was just a slip; I can imagine my grandfather and grandmother (hardly out of their teens) being a bit nervous when they registered the birth, and it seems they confus…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Sex in the City
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Sex in the City
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Sex in the City Deuteronomy 22: 13-30 I’ve been reading a book that interweaves the story of three iconic 1960s singer-songwriters—Carole King, Carly Simon, and Joni Mitchell. The key to Joni Mitchell’s life story and music is something that happened when she was a teenager and t…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - Sour Hour of Prayer
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - Sour Hour of Prayer
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Sour Hour of Prayer 1 Samuel 1: 9-11 For Hannah, too, the hour of prayer was initially sour, though eventually sweet. Presumably she prayed when she was at home in the village, as other Israelites did, but the occasion when the family went to Shiloh would be a natural time for sp…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - So Abraham Went
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - So Abraham Went
by SPCK - John Goldingay
So Abraham Went Genesis 12: 3-6a I first visited the Middle East six years after Israel occupied the West Bank. We were based mostly in Tel Aviv, but we had not been there long before we drove up into the West Bank and went to Nablus, one of its three most important towns. The na…
Isaiah for Everyone - Stand Firm, Or You Won't Stand At All
Isaiah for Everyone - Stand Firm, Or You Won't Stand At All
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Stand Firm, Or You Won’t Stand At All I mentioned in an early volume of The Old Testament for Everyone receiving a call from a Jewish lawyer in Los Angeles who had self-published a book titled Twenty-six Reasons Why Jews Don’t Believe in Jesus and wanted me to make sure that his …
Job for Everyone - Sovereignty without Principle?
Job for Everyone - Sovereignty without Principle?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Sovereignty without Principle? Job 12: 1-25 My wife and I were talking about Job the other day, and she told me about two different people in a church to which she had belonged who had given up their Christian faith and left the church when they went through the horrific experien…
Isaiah for Everyone - So You Have Fallen from the Heavens!