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1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - How To Manipulate the Old Man in Order to Get Things Done
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - How To Manipulate the Old Man in Order to Get Things Done
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Manipulate the Old Man in Order to Get Things Done 1 Kings 1:1-53 I have friends in Kyrgyzstan, where a few weeks ago there were protests against the president and the government on the part of the opposition party and its supporters, citing widespread government corruptio…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - How to Gain and Lose God's Sympathy
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - How to Gain and Lose God's Sympathy
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Gain and Lose God’s Sympathy 2 Kings 20:1-21 My wife Ann had multiple sclerosis for forty-two years until she died a year ago. We and other people prayed for her healing on lots of occasions in many ways, supported by a number of high-profile figures in the world of prayin…
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - How to Live in a Contractual Relationship with God
Genesis for Everyone Part 2 - How to Live in a Contractual Relationship with God
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Live in a Contractual Relationship with God Genesis 28:16-29: 14a I was trying to explain to a group of Christians the difference between a covenant and a contract in order to suggest that God’s relationship with us is more like the former than the latter. I have a contrac…
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - How to Increase the Odds against Yourself
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - How to Increase the Odds against Yourself
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Increase the Odds against Yourself JUDGES 7: 1-25 Two weeks ago a man tried to blow up a plane going from Amsterdam to Detroit, and one week ago when I came back from London to Los Angeles after Christmas, it took two hours to board the plane rather than the usual half hou…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - How To Make War
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - How To Make War
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Make War (or How to Make War Impractical) Deuteronomy 19: 1- 20: 20 Last night at dinner, a friend of mine was hopping mad about a meeting she had attended the previous night, when an ex-marine who had become a pacifist was lamenting the wrongness of the war in Afghanistan…
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - How to Get Taken In
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - How to Get Taken In
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Get Taken In JOSHUA 9: 1-21 I have known people who seem to consult God about every detail of their lives, from what to have for dinner to what courses to take next quarter, what college to attend, where to buy a house, or whom to marry. To be honest, I consulted God about…
Exodus and Leviticus - How to Ordain a Priest
Exodus and Leviticus - How to Ordain a Priest
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Ordain a Priest EXODUS 28: 1- 29: 37 I shall shortly have completed forty years teaching in seminary, and a bit longer than this in being a priest and pastor. A few years after I started seminary teaching, I became embarrassed to realize that I no longer believed that with…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - I Will Not Offer Worship That Costs Me Nothing
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - I Will Not Offer Worship That Costs Me Nothing
by SPCK - John Goldingay
I Will Not Offer Worship That Costs Me Nothing 2 Samuel 24: 16b- 25 As we left a concert last night, one of my friends commented that he always emerges from live music with renewed energy. I am the same. It reminded me of how I felt after a terrific, animated, dynamic worship ser…
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - I'm Not the Hero; the Hero Is God
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - I'm Not the Hero; the Hero Is God
by SPCK - John Goldingay
I’m Not the Hero; the Hero is God JUDGES 8: 1-35 One of my fond memories of our sons’ childhood is of reading Bible stories to them at bedtime, stories that had been rewritten and illustrated for children; I have now passed on the set of books to the son who has children of his o…
Exodus and Leviticus - It Was an Ordinary Working Day
Exodus and Leviticus - It Was an Ordinary Working Day
by SPCK - John Goldingay
It Was an Ordinary Working Day EXODUS 3: 1-10 It was an ordinary working day. My wife, Ann (but she wasn’t my wife then—in fact, we hadn’t even met), left her university residence in London and took the subway to her medical school. She was just a week or two into her preclinical…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - It Never Rains in Southern California
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - It Never Rains in Southern California
by SPCK - John Goldingay
It Never Rains in Southern California Deuteronomy 11: 1- 32 “It never rains in southern California,” the song says, though it goes on to comment that they don’t warn you how it pours. It’s raining this morning. It is several months since it rained, and that is no problem to me as…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - On Election
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - On Election
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Election Deuteronomy 7: 7-15 In a newsy e-mail, a former student included the following information (I have disguised the material, of course, as usual): “I have developed an embarrassingly silly crush on the postdoctoral fellow who teaches some of the Semitic languages here. …
Isaiah for Everyone - On Dresses, Shawls, and Purses
Isaiah for Everyone - On Dresses, Shawls, and Purses
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Dresses, Shawls, and Purses Isaiah 3: 1-4: 6 When we are going out for the evening, and if the time of year requires it, I will put a sweater on top of whatever I have been wearing all day. It’s a delight to me when, in contrast, my wife disappears into the closet and reappear…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - On Rendering to Caesar and Rendering to God
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - On Rendering to Caesar and Rendering to God
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Rendering to Caesar and Rendering to God 1 Kings 18:1-18 Two friends of mine work in a Middle Eastern country where it is illegal to seek to get people to come to believe in Christ. Their own position is secure because they work in the expatriate church in the capital, and it …
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - On Not Following Your Instincts
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - On Not Following Your Instincts
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Not Following Your Instincts Deuteronomy 12: 1- 32 Tomorrow morning I shall go to seminary chapel. Except that it isn’t a chapel. It’s an auditorium. On other occasions, I have lectured there, sung the blues in a concert there, listened to jazz concerts there, and taken part i…
Exodus and Leviticus - On Rendering to Caesar
Exodus and Leviticus - On Rendering to Caesar
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Rendering to Caesar EXODUS 4: 18-23 I have just been talking to a student who is a missionary in Indonesia, and we were discussing the dilemma of the church there. He described the church as postcolonial, but I suggested it is still colonial. The gospel came to Indonesia throu…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - On Not Being Able to Have a Baby
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - On Not Being Able to Have a Baby
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Not Being Able to Have a Baby Genesis 16: 1-4a People who cannot have children may go to huge lengths to fulfill their longing. Yesterday I noticed in the newspaper an advertisement for a free lunch and seminar on how to start a family by surrogacy. It involved going to India,…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - On Raising the Ceiling of Our Hope