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Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - On the Unimportance of Spiritual Insight
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - On the Unimportance of Spiritual Insight
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On the Unimportance of Spiritual Insight JUDGES 5:31b- 6: 24 I have just been talking to a couple I have not seen for a year or two, exchanging news about our children and their marriages and their families. This other couple has several daughters. The last of these was almost th…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Saturday
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Saturday
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Saturday Genesis 1: 31- 2: 3 At the end of a week, many people wish they could look back over the week’s work and smile in satisfaction because they have a sense of a worthwhile job completed. But instead, they simply think with relief, “Thank God it’s Friday!” or wish, as Mark K…
Exodus and Leviticus - Seeing God
Exodus and Leviticus - Seeing God
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Seeing God EXODUS 24: 1- 18 A Christian song by Michael W. Smith called “Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord” declares, “I want to see You; to see You high and lifted up, shinin’ in the light of Your glory.” Another song, “I Want to Know You,” by Andy Park, several times repeats the …
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Temples and Palaces
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Temples and Palaces
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Temples and Palaces 1 Kings 7:1-8:9 Intriguingly interwoven with the story of the temple building is the brief account of Solomon’s spending thirteen years building his house; he spent seven years building God’s house. Is that a sign that God’s house had priority, that he focused…
Job for Everyone - The Angry Young Man
Job for Everyone - The Angry Young Man
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Angry Young Man Job 32 1-22 I was a “word child.” Indeed, I probably still am, though I am also a music child and a people child. A Word Child is a novel by Iris Murdoch about a man for whom words are the means of his redemption or happiness. Words save him. For me, that was …
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The Complications of Surrogacy
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The Complications of Surrogacy
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Complications of Surrogacy Genesis 16: 4b-7 Establishing whether a couple’s problem in having children lies in the man or the woman involves stressful processes of medical investigation. When a woman who had gone through such procedures told me her husband had a zero sperm co…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The God Who Intervenes
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - The God Who Intervenes
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The God Who Intervenes Genesis 11: 3- 7 I was talking to a young man training to be a counselor. The program involves undertaking a chaplaincy in a trauma unit and working with people with brain or spinal cord injuries as a result of a sporting accident, car crash, gunshot wound,…
Psalms for Everyone - The Secret of Life
Psalms for Everyone - The Secret of Life
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Secret of Life Psalm 16 As a result of a routine physical exam I was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer. Quite likely it would not develop into something actually life-threatening before I died of something else, and I might have decided to do nothing about it, but the d…
Job for Everyone - The Way We Are
Job for Everyone - The Way We Are
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Way We Are Job 30 1-31 Today a woman came to see me and wept. Her husband left her after ten years of marriage, leaving her with two small children to look after. On her account, his leaving came right out of the blue; there was no clue that he was unhappy in the marriage. Bu…
Psalms for Everyone - We've Probably All Been Rescued from Death a Few Times
Psalms for Everyone - We've Probably All Been Rescued from Death a Few Times
by SPCK - John Goldingay
We’ve Probably All Been Rescued from Death a Few Times Psalm 18: 1-24 Between us my wife and I have had four or five illnesses that would have left us dead had we lived in most contexts in human history. We have both had appendicitis that might have killed us without medical inte…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - What Game is Genesis Playing?
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - What Game is Genesis Playing?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
What Game Is Genesis Playing? Genesis 42:36-43:34 In the movie The English Patient, Count Laszlo crashes a plane and in order to go to get help has to abandon the only woman he has loved, in an injured state, in a cave in a desert mountain. He is long unable to convince people to…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - What Do You Need to Know?
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - What Do You Need to Know?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
What Do You Need to Know? Genesis 14: 14-18 If you are Abraham, what do you assume about the religious insight of a person like Melchizedek, who is “priest of God Most High” but doesn’t know what you know about God? I have friends who have moved to Turkey, and to Central Asia, an…
Job for Everyone - When Silence is Not Enough
Job for Everyone - When Silence is Not Enough
by SPCK - John Goldingay
When Silence is Not Enough Job 40:1- 24 Over the years during which my first wife had multiple sclerosis, I have concrete memories concerning two or three occasions when I attempted to confront God about it. Distressed at the way the illness affected her, on one such occasion I r…
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Which Side Are You On? Neither
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Which Side Are You On? Neither
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Which Side Are You On? Neither JOSHUA 5: 2-15 We were discussing the book of Job in a class this week. I have abandoned giving a set lecture on the book because when students have read it as part of their preparatory homework, they come to class with many questions and issues the…
Job for Everyone - Why Are Times Not Kept by Shadday?
Job for Everyone - Why Are Times Not Kept by Shadday?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Why Are Times Not Kept By Shadday? Job 24: 1-25 Some time ago I used to follow a set of daily scriptural readings called Daily Light on the Daily Path that included verses on different topics for each morning and evening. The verses were printed on the main body of the page, and …
Job for Everyone - Who Moved?
Job for Everyone - Who Moved?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Who Moved? Job 23: 1-17 A notice that sometimes appears on church bulletin boards says, “If God seems far away, guess who moved?” There’s obviously some truth in the point it makes about our relationship with God, but the notice rather tempts me to deface it. I have known times w…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - Yahweh's Good Spirit and Yahweh's Bad Spirit
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - Yahweh's Good Spirit and Yahweh's Bad Spirit
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Yahweh’s Good Spirit and Yahweh’s Bad Spirit 1 Samuel 15: 34- 16: 23 I was recently reading a profile of Clint Eastwood; it was this profile that made me think about his movie Unforgiven in connection with 1 Samuel 13. In that and other later movies he is both actor and director,…
Psalms for Everyone - Answer to Prayer Phase Two