With My WholeHeart - Psalm 34:1, 18
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 34:1, 18
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 34:1, 18 Contrition comes in many guises. A bogus one is betrayed by the little word ‘if ’, for example, ‘I’m sorry if you feel so upset.’ This apology is qualified. It transfers responsibility away from the culprit and on to the victim. Instead of taking the weight of the …
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 32:12
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 32:12
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 32:12 This psalm with its final verse offers hope to us all because the ‘true of heart’ at the end of the song are none other than the unrighteous at the beginning! When we become aware of the call of God to commit our life or to give ourselves more wholeheartedly we can ho…
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 27:15-16
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 27:15-16
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 27:15-16 With these words I began to come to terms with the news that I was to have major heart surgery. All of us have our own stories of confronting something we dread, and then feeling faint. Ever since doing biology at school I had been squeamish and nervous about the i…
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 28:8
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 28:8
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 28:8 Through all his trials and tribulations St Paul urged others to discover with him that God’s strength is made perfect in human weakness, and that his grace is always sufficient. These are discoveries we do not always wish to make! They involve us in situations where we…
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 35:20, 25
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 35:20, 25
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 35:20, 25 Civilized and liberal societies that over the centuries have tamed the wilder elements of humanity find the concepts of original sin and evil either unfamiliar or uncomfortable. But, as Golding’s Lord of the Flies showed, these realities lurk underneath the surfac…
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 31:27
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 31:27
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 31:27 Jesus, of all people, knew the human heart. He knew how fickle the heart could be. He could see what flowed from it and knew what it was capable of, both good and bad. I don’t think any human being would dissent from that assessment. The heart is like a rudderless bo…
With My WholeHeart - Prelude to the Psalms
With My WholeHeart - Prelude to the Psalms
by SPCK - James Jones
Prelude to the Psalms On a certain Tuesday I was on my feet in the House of Lords asking a question about the future of the Community Justice Centre in Liverpool. As I sat down I could feel my heart pumping and a pain in my chest. On the Wednesday I was at the Heart and Chest Hos…
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 9:1
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 9:1
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 9.1 I will give thanks unto thee, O Lord, with my whole heart: I will speak of all thy marvellous works. A truly grateful heart is rarely seen or heard. It goes against the grain of entitlement whereby people expect their rights to be delivered. It runs counter to the tenor…
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 4:4
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 4:4
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 4:4 Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart, and in your chamber, and be still. I would have thought that this invitation to communion would begin with a call to commune with God. But as we try to relate to God we need also to know ourselves, or at least to h…
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 7:10-11
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 7:10-11
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 7:10-11 For the righteous God: trieth the very hearts and reins. My help cometh of God: who preserveth them that are true of heart. The character of God feels to me at times as if it were kept under a soundproof blanket. Just as well! He shudders in indignation at the unjus…
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 4:8
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 4:8
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 4: 8 Thou hast put gladness in my heart: since the time that their corn, and wine, and oil, increased. The bridge between communing with your own heart and the heart being gladdened is putting trust in God and basking in the light that shines out of him. But what is so deli…
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 10:3
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 10:3
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 10:3 For the ungodly hath made boast of his own heart’s desire: and speaketh good of the covetous, whom God abhorreth. One of the deceits of our egocentric world is the belief that whatever you desire should be the goal of your life. We’re encouraged to dig deep into our in…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - GLOSSARY
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - GLOSSARY
by SPCK - John Goldingay
GLOSSARY aide A supernatural agent through whom God appears and works in the world. Standard English translations call them “angels,” but this rather suggests ethereal figures with wings, wearing diaphanous white dresses. Aides are humanlike figures; hence it is possible to give …
Simply Jesus - A very odd sort of king
Simply Jesus - A very odd sort of king
by SPCK - N T Wright
A very odd sort of king ‘As Jesus was going along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. When he came to the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began to celebrate and praise God at the tops of their voices’ (Luke 19.36 –37). The crowd went wild…
Exodus and Leviticus - GLOSSARY
Exodus and Leviticus - GLOSSARY
by SPCK - John Goldingay
GLOSSARY aide A supernatural agent through whom God appears and works in the world. Standard English translations refer to them as “angels,” but this rather suggests ethereal figures with wings, wearing diaphanous white dresses. Aides are humanlike figures; hence it is possible t…
Simply Jesus - Preface
Simply Jesus - Preface
by SPCK - N T Wright
Preface Jesus of Nazareth poses a question and a challenge two thousand years after his lifetime. The question is fairly simple: who exactly was he? This includes the questions, What did he think he was up to? What did he do and say, why was he killed, and did he rise from the de…
Simply Jesus - The three puzzles