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Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Dying to the Law
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Dying to the Law
by SPCK - N T Wright
Dying to the Law ROMANS 7.1-6 I have done my best, in this book and the others like it, to use illustrations which will help my readers get to the heart of the point in each passage. Some reviewers have questioned both the wisdom of this attempt and my skill in achieving it, but …
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Many Members, One Body
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - Many Members, One Body
by SPCK - N T Wright
Many Members, One Body 1 Corinthians 12.12-20 Paul uses one of his most spectacular and famous illustrations in this and the following passage. It would be gilding the lily to introduce it by another one of our own, so we may as well jump straight to the point. But the point isn’…
Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - Old Clothes, New Clothes
Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - Old Clothes, New Clothes
by SPCK - N T Wright
Old Clothes, New Clothes Colossians 3.5-11 My daughter and I still laugh about her seventh birthday. It was a Sunday in February. The church we attended, in Canada where we lived then, held a cross-country ski day each year. People came to the morning service, stayed for soup in …
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Peter Goes to Cornelius
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Peter Goes to Cornelius
by SPCK - N T Wright
Peter Goes to Cornelius Acts 10.17-33 ‘Four days ago’, he said, ‘I was praying in my house at around this time, about three o’clock, and suddenly a man stood beside me in shining clothes. 31“Cornelius,” he said, “your prayer has been heard, and your almsgiving has been remembered…
Luke for Everyone - Peter's Declaration of Jesus' Messiahship
Luke for Everyone - Peter's Declaration of Jesus' Messiahship
by SPCK - N T Wright
Peter’s Declaration of Jesus’ Messiahship Luke 9.18-27 ‘When did you first know’, I asked my friend, ‘that you wanted to be a philosopher?’ (He was at this time already a senior professor of philosophy.) ‘Oh, that’s easy,’ he replied. ‘I knew when I was sitting in my first lectur…
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - The Coming Day, the Coming Fire
Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians - The Coming Day, the Coming Fire
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Coming Day, the Coming Fire 1 Corinthians 3.12-17 I love sightseeing around ancient ruins. Like many historians who have had the good fortune to travel round the ancient world, I have stood in the Temple of Apollo in Corinth, in the synagogue at Capernaum, in the Forum at Rom…
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Fruit of the Spirit
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Fruit of the Spirit
by SPCK - N T Wright
Fruit of the Spirit Galatians 5.22-26 The Christmas decorations were spectacular. I went down the street from store to store, and in each window – and indeed in the street itself – there were pretty lights and multicoloured decorations. Every shop seemed to have sparkling trees, …
Luke for Everyone - Jesus' Baptism and Genealogy
Luke for Everyone - Jesus' Baptism and Genealogy
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus’ Baptism and Genealogy Luke 3.21-38 When I visited New Zealand some years ago, I was taught how to greet an audience in the traditional Maori fashion. I much enjoyed and appreciated the welcome I was given by this ancient people, many of whom are now devout Christians, and …
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Jesus' Baptism
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Jesus' Baptism
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus’ Baptism Matthew 3.11-17 It’s safe to say that John was as surprised as we are. Or at least, as we should be if we read this passage without knowing what’s coming. To get the flavour, imagine that we are going to a huge concert hall, packed to the doors with eager and excit…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Leaving the State of Sin through Baptism
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Leaving the State of Sin through Baptism
by SPCK - N T Wright
Leaving the State of Sin through Baptism ROMANS 6.1-5 Everybody knows Jesus’ spectacular story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15.11–32). The younger son twists his father’s arm for his share of the property, goes off and spends it all, and comes home, he thinks, in utter disgrace. The…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Prayer, Sonship and the Sovereignty of God
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Prayer, Sonship and the Sovereignty of God
by SPCK - N T Wright
Prayer, Sonship and the Sovereignty of God ROMANS 8.26-30 How many names can you think of for God? It may sound an odd question. God’s proper name in the Old Testament is of course YHWH; but he is referred to in a great many other ways as well, such as ‘the Almighty’, the Holy On…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Temptation in the Wilderness
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - Temptation in the Wilderness
by SPCK - N T Wright
Temptation in the Wilderness Matthew 4.1-11 Jennifer went for a long walk in the woods. It had been an exhausting six months, and she needed time to think. She had concentrated on the campaign. Ever since her local party had told her, to her surprise, that they wanted her to be t…
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Preaching of John the Baptist
Matthew for Everyone Part 1 - The Preaching of John the Baptist
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Preaching of John the Baptist Matthew 3.1-10 The road, the water, the fire and the axe. Four powerful symbols set the scene for where the story of Jesus really starts. Think first of a police motorcade sweeping through a city street. First there appear motorcycles with flashi…
John for Everyone Part 1 - Eating and Drinking the Son of Man
John for Everyone Part 1 - Eating and Drinking the Son of Man
by SPCK - N T Wright
Eating and Drinking the Son of Man John 6.47-59 One of the most moving, and often forgotten, stories about King David concerns the time when he was fighting the Philistines, who had occupied his native town of Bethlehem. Among David’s fiercely loyal fighting men he had three in p…
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Samaria, the Spirit and Simon Magus
Acts for Everyone part 1 - Samaria, the Spirit and Simon Magus
by SPCK - N T Wright
Samaria, the Spirit and Simon Magus Acts 8.4-25 As a bishop, one of the things I do quite a lot is to go round laying hands on people and praying for God’s holy spirit to come upon them. It is often a very moving and exciting time, not least at the Easter Vigil when we come in da…
Sometimes we wonder at the work
Sometimes we wonder at the work
by Andrew Pratt
Sometimes we wonder at the work of God whose name we praise, for God is not bent to our wants, nor to our words or ways. Our thoughts and actions, every rite, contain no magic powers. We have to let the Spirit blow through other lives and ours. Verses 3-5 follow Tune: AULD LANG S…
Times and Seasons - Will this man bind up the broken
Times and Seasons - Will this man bind up the broken
by Andrew Pratt
Will this man bind up the broken, tend the fallen, lift the frail; man of miracle and wonder, man whose faith will never fail? See him waiting by the water, one of many in the throng, moving pushing, conversation, crowds who share a sense of wrong. Verses 3-5 follow Tune: STUTTGA…
Times and Seasons - Why go to the wilderness, seek out the God-head