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1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - What to Do with Tricky Mail
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - What to Do with Tricky Mail
by SPCK - John Goldingay
What to Do with Tricky Mail 2 Kings 19:1-37 I used to be the principal of a seminary in England; being a principal is a cross between being a president and a provost in the United States. From Monday to Friday my assistant would open the mail, but on Saturday I would do so and th…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - You Can Disguise, but You Can't Hide
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - You Can Disguise, but You Can't Hide
by SPCK - John Goldingay
You Can Disguise, but You Can’t Hide 1 Kings 22:24- 2 Kings 1:1 A friend of mine recently became attracted to a woman I also know, and he arranged to have lunch with her last week, taking with him his mental list of questions he felt he needed to ask of a potential wife. Being sm…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - How to Undo a Reform
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - How to Undo a Reform
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Undo a Reform 2 Kings 22:1-23:24 The first time I visited the United States, I came to give a week’s guest lectures in a seminary. People must have thought the lectures were OK, because they were then interested in offering me a job, but it wasn’t a moment when I could thi…
Jeremiah for everyone - Looking for Spiritual Resources
Jeremiah for everyone - Looking for Spiritual Resources
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Looking for Spiritual Resources I just read about a couple who travelled to India because they couldn’t have a baby. The British medics were puzzled about the reasons, as both husband and wife seemed to be physiologically OK…
Psalms for Everyone - One Thing
Psalms for Everyone - One Thing
by SPCK - John Goldingay
One Thing Psalm 27 Soon after I came to the United States, I attended an inaugural lecture by a man who (we were told) was a full-time pastor and a half-time professor. I laughed because I assumed it was a joke—how could you be a full-time this and a half-time that? (He also told…
Psalms for Everyone - Teach Me to Repent
Psalms for Everyone - Teach Me to Repent
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Teach Me to Repent Psalm 51 John Donne was a seventeenth-century priest, love poet, and member of parliament. He also wrote a series of “Holy Sonnets” (found in The Oxford Book of English Verse, ed. Christopher Ricks [New York: Oxford University Press, 1999], 117). In one he imag…
Jeremiah for everyone - A Complicated Neighbourly and Family Relationship
Jeremiah for everyone - A Complicated Neighbourly and Family Relationship
by SPCK - John Goldingay
A Complicated Neighbourly and Family Relationship The London Olympics have just finished. I didn’t watch, but I did check the news each day because I was concerned not with the number of medals that Britain had won (I didn’t expect it to be many, though I was wrong) but with what…
Isaiah for everyone - Beautiful Feet
Isaiah for everyone - Beautiful Feet
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Beautiful Feet My feet went all nasty a few years ago in Jerusalem. Visiting Jerusalem was the only occasion when I got to wear sandals continually for two weeks, and the skin on my heels frayed. One result was that it became impossible to keep them clean…
Jeremiah for everyone - Clay in the Potter's Hand
Jeremiah for everyone - Clay in the Potter's Hand
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Clay in the Potter's Hand There’s a neat Christian song that expresses our commitment to being “clay in the potter’s hand.” It’s a suggestive image. It means that we are malleable, open to being formed into what God wants us to be…
Jeremiah for everyone - Cursed Be the Day I Was Born
Jeremiah for everyone - Cursed Be the Day I Was Born
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Cursed Be the Day I Was Born When my first wife’s multiple sclerosis starting taking more of an emotional and mental toll on her (though I don’t think we recognized that this was what was happening), it began to take more of a toll on me, too…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Crazy for Love (2)
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Crazy for Love (2)
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Crazy for Love (2) I was amused when a friend who (like me) had fallen in love when he was of mature age asked me for advice about his sexual relationship with his fiancée, who was also of mature age…
Isaiah for everyone - God’s Strange Work
Isaiah for everyone - God’s Strange Work
by SPCK - John Goldingay
God’s Strange Work The other Sunday we were singing the hymn “Great Is Thy Faithfulness,” and I was reflecting wryly that it’s a shame nobody realizes where its basic ideas come from, as is the case with the related chorus “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.” They come …
Jeremiah for everyone - Is Anything Too Extraordinary for Yahweh?
Jeremiah for everyone - Is Anything Too Extraordinary for Yahweh?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Is Anything Too Extraordinary for Yahweh? I have to preside over a funeral today and then over a memorial next week for someone who has already been cremated. Whether your body dissolves gradually in the ground or burns up quickly in the fire, the idea that we are all going to be…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - My Love Is Mine, and I Am His