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Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - How to Persuade Your Heart
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - How to Persuade Your Heart
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Persuade Your Heart Psalm 103 Some years ago I went through one of those periods when God didn’t seem to be real. I don’t mean I was going through some intellectual questioning, though I have done that at other times, but rather that I didn’t feel that God was there. I wou…
Psalms for Everyone - When Life Continues to Be Darkness
Psalms for Everyone - When Life Continues to Be Darkness
by SPCK - John Goldingay
When Life Continues to Be Darkness Psalm 43 I’ve just been reading a Darfuri refugee’s account of how he came to be in a camp in Chad. As a farmer in Sudan he was tortured by the application of a clothes iron to his back, his legs, his hands, and his head because the members of o…
Psalms for Everyone - The Outrageous Confession
Psalms for Everyone - The Outrageous Confession
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Outrageous Confession Psalm 47 In church yesterday we made our usual outrageous confessions, such as the declaration that Jesus is Lord. They are outrageous because the day’s news seems to belie them. Dozens of people have died in an attack on a mosque in Pakistan. Car bombs …
Psalms for Everyone - Will God Let You In? Will God Let You In?
Psalms for Everyone - Will God Let You In? Will God Let You In?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Will God Let You In? Will God Let You In? Psalm 24 Five days before the Egyptian army crossed the Suez Canal in September 1973, aiming to recapture Sinai from Israel, I was in Sinai climbing what in Arabic is called “Mount Moses,” the mountain traditionally regarded as Mount Sina…
Psalms for Everyone - Sometimes God Speaks
Psalms for Everyone - Sometimes God Speaks
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Sometimes God Speaks Psalm 12 Before coming to the United States to resume being an ordinary professor, I was principal of a theological college in England, a position that is a cross between being president, provost, and dean of a U.S. seminary, but on a much smaller scale. I ha…
Psalms for Everyone - How Long, How Long, How Long, How Long?
Psalms for Everyone - How Long, How Long, How Long, How Long?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How Long, How Long, How Long, How Long? Psalm 13 About the same time as the story I described in connection with Psalm 12, I had a dream or a vision—I’m not sure what it was. I was pushing Ann in her wheelchair across a bare plain toward the horizon. It was hard, but I had people…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Mountains around Jerusalem, Yahweh around His People
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Mountains around Jerusalem, Yahweh around His People
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Mountains around Jerusalem, Yahweh around His People Psalm 124-125 Last weekend we overheard a conversation on the San Francisco subway in which the father of two small children who was on his way to the airport with some people from different parts of the country was recounting …
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - The Second Sunday of Advent Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - The Second Sunday of Advent Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Second Sunday of Advent Malachi 3.1–4 Philippians 1.3–11 Luke 3.1–6 I must have sung Handel’s Messiah dozens of times before I asked myself what its first chorus actually meant. ‘And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.’ It makes what …
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - A Few More
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - A Few More
by SPCK - John Goldingay
A Few More 1 Kings 8:41-66 I can still picture myself sitting in Sunday School as a little boy of nine or ten, and I can still hear the voice of the stern Sunday School superintendent exhorting us to bow our heads, put our hands together, and close our eyes to pray. I suspect I c…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - A Few Things You Could Pray For
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - A Few Things You Could Pray For
by SPCK - John Goldingay
A Few Things You Can Pray For 1 Kings 8:31-40 I just had a phone call from the rector of the church where I am to preach on Sunday. It will be Pentecost, and I thought they were asking me just because they wanted a guest preacher for that festival, but she had apparently forgotte…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Better with Abraham and Sarah than in Egypt
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Better with Abraham and Sarah than in Egypt
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Better with Abraham and Sarah than in Egypt Genesis 16: 8-16 Toward the last years of my time as a seminary principal in England, the demands of the job took a toll on me. One reason you get paid more if you are the boss of anything is that you are the person who lies awake at ni…
Isaiah for Everyone - Egypt My People
Isaiah for Everyone - Egypt My People
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Egypt My People Yesterday I had dinner with two people home from working in the Middle East, one in a Christian university to the north of Israel, the other in a seminary to the south. In both countries the Christian community is a minority in a tough context where increasing num…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - False Prophets
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - False Prophets
by SPCK - John Goldingay
False Prophets Deuteronomy 13: 1- 18 I received an e-mail this morning from a friend troubled by the evil in the world, as we often are, and wondering why God bothered to create it “if he is all-knowing and so on, and knew that there would be evil, genocide, starvation, dictators…
Exodus and Leviticus - How to get to the Promised Land
Exodus and Leviticus - How to get to the Promised Land
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Get to the Promised Land EXODUS 23: 20- 33 Modern people get concerned about the Israelites annihilating the Canaanites. As far as one can tell, it only became an issue in modern times. Although Christians explain their concern by referring to Jesus’ exhortation to love on…
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - On Giving Up Your Son
1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone - On Giving Up Your Son
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Giving Up Your Son 1 Samuel 1: 25- 2: 10 As I write, two anniversaries have recently passed. Just over thirty years ago the Shah of Iran was ousted and the Ayatollah Khomeini returned from exile to become the “Leader” of Iran, a more powerful position than that of the presiden…
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - On Getting Your Feet Wet
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - On Getting Your Feet Wet
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Getting Your Feet Wet JOSHUA 3: 1-17 So the people crossed over near Jericho. 17The priests carrying the chest of Yahweh’s covenant stood steady on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan while all Israel was crossing on dry ground until the entire nation had finished crossing o…
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - The Conquest of the Land
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - The Conquest of the Land
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
The Conquest of the Land (Joshua 3-12) Readers are given a good clue as to the direction of the narrative when the captain of YHWH’s army comes to Joshua with a sword in his hand (5:13). He tells Joshua, “Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy” …
Exodus and Leviticus - Be Holy as I am Holy