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Simply Good News - Good Advice, Wrong News
Simply Good News - Good Advice, Wrong News
by SPCK - N T Wright
1, part b Good Advice, Wrong News In many churches, the good news has subtly changed into good advice: here’s how to live, they say. Here’s how to pray. Here are techniques for helping you become a better Christian, a better person, a better wife or husband. And in particular, he…
Transforming Preaching - The varieties of structure
Transforming Preaching - The varieties of structure
by SPCK - David Heywood
3 A step-by-step guide to sermon preparation The varieties of structure In the previous section we looked at the use of structure as the skeleton of your sermon, providing an outline that keeps all the component parts in their proper place without drawing attention to itself. We …
Transforming Preaching - Language to listen to
Transforming Preaching - Language to listen to
by SPCK - David Heywood
3 A step-by-step guide to sermon preparation Language to listen to A sermon is a spoken event. The ‘sermon’ is not the script, even where that script is available to take away and read, but the event in which the sermon is delivered and the congregation responds. That event takes…
Mark The People's Commentary - From the Least to the Greatest
Mark The People's Commentary - From the Least to the Greatest
by BRF - Dick France
From the Least to the Greatest Mustard Seed Mustard seed is proverbially tiny (see Matthew 17:20), and yet it produces ‘the greatest of all shrubs’. This is not, of course, the puny ‘mustard-and-cress’ that we grow in little plastic boxes, but a garden herb which in Palestine com…
Journeying with Matthew Lectionary Year A - The Sundays before Advent
Journeying with Matthew Lectionary Year A - The Sundays before Advent
by SPCK - Woodward, Gooder and Pryce
9 The Sundays before Advent Exploring the text During the Sundays leading up to Advent the Lectionary draws our attention to the theme of watching and waiting. It is slightly odd that, although on the fourth Sunday before Advent we have the opening verses of Matthew 24, we do not…
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - The Resurrection of Jesus
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - The Resurrection of Jesus
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Resurrection of Jesus Matthew 28.1-10 Everyone above a certain age, in the Western world at least, can remember where they were when they heard that President Kennedy had been assassinated. Many people in other parts of the world will be able to remember where they were and w…
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - Warnings against Scribes and Pharisees
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - Warnings against Scribes and Pharisees
by SPCK - N T Wright
Warnings against Scribes and Pharisees Matthew 23.1-12 The man in the camping shop was good at his job. ‘This is the kind of tent you’ll need,’ he said. ‘It’ll last through all weathers, enough room for all your kit, easy to put up.’ Gratefully, I added it to the pile of maps, so…
Mark for Everyone - More Seed Parables
Mark for Everyone - More Seed Parables
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 4.26–34 More Seed Parables... ...I have always enjoyed listening to good choirs. I have even, on rare occasions, sung in one or two, in fear and trembling lest my amateur ability should reveal itself by a wrong note, a fluffed entry, or – that dread moment …
Mark for Everyone - The Raising of Jairus’s Daughter
Mark for Everyone - The Raising of Jairus’s Daughter
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 5.35–43The Raising of Jairus’s Daughter... ...Right on cue, as the suspense heightens, messengers come to tell Jairus that his daughter has now died. He shouldn’t bother Jesus any longer. Telling Jairus not to be afraid, and just to believe, in that setting…
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - Faith that Moves Mountains
Matthew for Everyone Part 2 - Faith that Moves Mountains
by SPCK - N T Wright
Faith that Moves Mountains Matthew 17.14-21 She was a strong swimmer, and by now she was ready to tackle the challenge of swimming in the sea. A bathing pool is all right to begin with, but it’s a bit tame compared with ocean rollers. For a while it was simply exhilarating. She a…
The Pastoral Letters - God's Word is not Tied Up
The Pastoral Letters - God's Word is not Tied Up
by SPCK - N T Wright
God’s Word Is Not Tied Up 2Timothy 2.8-13 ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones,’ goes the old rhyme, ‘but calling names won’t hurt me.’ It may be good to mutter little jingles like that if people are being rude to you, but actually the rhyme is only partly true. And when it come…
Mark for Everyone - True Greatness
Mark for Everyone - True Greatness
by SPCK - N T Wright
Mark For Everyone MARK 9.30–37 True Greatness... ...I don’t know whether Mark wants us to feel sorry for the disciples at this point, but quite frankly I do. Earlier in the gospel Jesus said things to them in code, and they didn’t get it. The parables were secret, hidden messages…
Job for Everyone - Skin for Skin
Job for Everyone - Skin for Skin
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Skin for Skin Job 2: 1-8 My first wife lived with multiple sclerosis for forty-three years. It was after about the first third of this period that the illness started having a lasting effect on her. She found it harder to walk, and she had a tough time working things out and reme…
Four Gospels, One Jesus - Conflict between the Teacher and Israel
Four Gospels, One Jesus - Conflict between the Teacher and Israel
by SPCK - Richard A Burridge
Conflict between the Teacher and Israel Matthew 8—23 The intrusion of substantial non-narrative material in these sermons inhibits the movement of the plot. This mixture of Jesus’ ministry and his teaching produces a more measured air; instead of the breathless dash of Mark’s bou…
Four Gospels, One Jesus - Those who are burdened with heavy loads
Four Gospels, One Jesus - Those who are burdened with heavy loads
by SPCK - Richard A Burridge
Those who are burdened with heavy loads The ministry of the ox The keynote for Luke’s portrait of Jesus is set in his initial visit to the synagogue at Nazareth (4.16–30). Luke’s story is three times longer than the equivalent accounts which occur much later in Mark and Matthew (…
Fresh Thoughts For Sunday - Fresh Thoughts For Sunday Issue 178
Fresh Thoughts For Sunday - Fresh Thoughts For Sunday Issue 178
by Twelvebaskets Ltd
A selection of commentary, reflection and prayer ideas from various Christian authors and the full bible texts from the NRSV for this week's lectionary. NOW INCLUDING SERIALISED BOOKS FROM SPCK AND CONTRIBUTIONS FROM BRF. Check below for details. Subscribe to Fresh Thoughts For S…
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - The Parable of the Yeast