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Exodus and Leviticus - How to Check Things out with God
Exodus and Leviticus - How to Check Things out with God
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Check Things Out with God EXODUS 32: 30-33: 11 Throughout most of my life, I have had a particular place where I pray each day. At the moment it is an ancient recliner chair sitting in front of my desk. Next to it is a little table where I keep a Bible and a prayer noteboo…
Exodus and Leviticus - How to build a Church
Exodus and Leviticus - How to build a Church
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Build a Church 1 EXODUS 25: 1- 26: 30 At our church we have just begun inviting ourselves to make offerings for work that needs to be done to the buildings. We have a list of priorities, like the replacement of some wooden beams that have rotted in the rains (it is Califor…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - How to Be the Bad Guy
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - How to Be the Bad Guy
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Be the Bad Guy 2 Kings 21:1-26 I sometimes wish I knew what was going to happen in the future, though when I think about it, I am not so sure it’s a good idea. When my wife was diagnosed with her multiple sclerosis, if I had known how it would progress over four decades, I…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - I Don't Sweat
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - I Don't Sweat
by SPCK - John Goldingay
I Don’t Sweat Genesis 15: 6b-7 On the day before his inauguration as president, someone asked Barack Obama whether he was sweating. “Nah, I don’t sweat,” he replied. “You ever see me sweat?” Not yet, but it’s early, a news report commented. When I was about to move to the United …
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Human Beings as Gardeners
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Human Beings as Gardeners
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Human Beings as Gardeners Genesis 2: 8-14 Where I grew up as a toddler in Birmingham, England, my father grew potatoes. Then, when I was at junior school we had a plum tree, and when I was at secondary school we had two apple trees. When I taught at seminary in Nottingham, I grew…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - In the World And Also of The World
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - In the World And Also of The World
by SPCK - John Goldingay
In the World and Also of the World 1 Kings 20:1-21: 7 I am getting ready for a task force that is meeting next week to discuss the use of the Bible in the Anglican Communion worldwide. The meeting will be complicated because we include members of the Episcopal Church in the Unite…
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Living as Women in a Man's World
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Living as Women in a Man's World
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Living as Women in a Man’s World JOSHUA 15:1- 17:11 I was talking to a student who was disillusioned with her denomination because of its attitude toward women’s ministry. Women had played a key ministerial role in the movement that issued in the denomination, but the denominatio…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Life's Just Not Fair
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Life's Just Not Fair
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Life’s Just Not Fair 2 Kings 12:1-21 The man who would have been my boss in my present job, David Hubbard, first interviewed me over lunch in a hotel in London in 1981. He was one of the most creative, innovative leaders in theological education in the United States and took the …
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Listen, Israel
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Listen, Israel
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Listen, Israel Deuteronomy 6: 1-25 Many people in the West in the twenty-first century find it hard to believe there is one truth or one God; they find it easier to believe that there are lots of versions of the truth or angles on the truth. We all then choose a “truth” that make…
Exodus and Leviticus - My People - Your God
Exodus and Leviticus - My People - Your God
by SPCK - John Goldingay
My People – Your God EXODUS 6: 2- 7: 13 I am discussing their wedding with a young couple in my student Bible-study group. The wedding is a lovely thing to be involved in, and not only because it will happen within sight of the beach but because it brings home to me as a Brit one…
Exodus and Leviticus - More Prayer, More Flip-Flop
Exodus and Leviticus - More Prayer, More Flip-Flop
by SPCK - John Goldingay
More Prayer, More Flip-Flop EXODUS 10: 1-29 I’ve just been reading a paper by one of my students titled “Prayer in the Scriptures.” The student astonished me first by reporting a poll indicating that 72 percent of people in the United States pray at least several times a week. Th…
Exodus and Leviticus - Moses and Miriam Sing and Dance
Exodus and Leviticus - Moses and Miriam Sing and Dance
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Moses and Miriam Sing and Dance EXODUS 15: 1-21 A few weeks before my disabled wife died, we were in a restaurant where they have a live band, one of my absolute favorites, playing swing, blues, and rockabilly. My feet and hands were tapping, or perhaps thumping and stomping (I c…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Not with Our Parents
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - Not with Our Parents
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Not with Our Parents Deuteronomy 5: 1-15 This week I read an e-mail from a student now doing graduate work elsewhere: “I quit my job on Monday as I was averaging four hours of sleep a night and came down with two colds in the first two weeks of school. Best decision of the year.”…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Prophets and When to Ignore Them
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Prophets and When to Ignore Them
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Prophets, and When to Ignore Them 1 Kings 12:33-13:32 When I look back over the leadership of the various bosses I have had (present company excepted, in case he reads this) and reflect on my own time as a boss, I can see various ways in which proven ability and divine guidance p…
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - She's a Moabite, for Goodness' Sake!
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - She's a Moabite, for Goodness' Sake!
by SPCK - John Goldingay
She’s a Moabite, for Goodness’ Sake RUTH 1:19b-2: 9 I was just reading the story of a man called Maxo who died in the earthquake in Haiti a couple of weeks ago when his house collapsed on top of him. His cousin in New York called Maxo a hustler, but his story showed how he was al…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Standing on the Promises
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Standing on the Promises
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Standing on the Promises Psalm 119: 25-48 Yesterday I got our congregation to write out their thanksgivings, uncertainties, and commitments for the coming year, in line with the plan I mentioned in connection with Psalm 105. Just before doing so, I realized that there was another…
Exodus and Leviticus - The 3a.m. Scream
Exodus and Leviticus - The 3a.m. Scream
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The 3 a.m. Scream EXODUS 12: 28- 13: 16 It was midnight, not 3 a.m., but in the Western world where we organize our own time rather than following nature’s time, midnight is not the middle of the night; it is about the time I put out the light. So think of yourself as having been…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Bird in a Cage