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With My WholeHeart - Psalm 147:3
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 147:3
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 147:3 God’s healing is both spiritual and physical. We can pray for God to heal both the broken heart and the broken body. The health that comes to our broken bodies through modern medicine is by comparison with the age of the psalms and the time of Jesus nothing short of m…
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 149:4
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 149:4
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 149:4 What a glorious place to end! The thought that God takes pleasure in us supplants all those other false notions of God being rather fed up with us. The problem with low self-esteem, which afflicts so many of us, is that we project this on to how God must see us. When …
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Acknowledgments
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Acknowledgments
by SPCK - John Goldingay
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The translation at the beginning of each chapter is my own. I have tried to stick closer to the Hebrew than modern translations often do when they are designed for reading in church, so you can see more precisely what the text says. Although I prefer to use gender…
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 77:3, 6
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 77:3, 6
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 77:3, 6 The walk with God is seldom straight or level. There are dales and vales. The route through them is not always according to God’s mapping. We travel badly sometimes because of our poor sense of moral direction. These journeyings, occasionally with tears, are neverth…
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 39:1, 4, 5
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 39:1, 4, 5
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 39:1, 4, 5 The tongue and heart, two organs at the centre of life. As this psalm shows, what goes on in the metaphorical heart eventually comes out through the tongue literally. Bridling the tongue and muzzling the mouth especially when faced with those who have it in for y…
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 53:1, 3
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 53:1, 3
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 53:1, 3 The Bible offers no arguments for the existence of God. It doesn’t engage with the intellectual case for or against. It simply assumes God. It makes me think that the person this psalm has in mind is not the atheist or agnostic who wrestles with questions of faith b…
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 44:19-21
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 44:19-21
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 44:19-21 Nothing is hidden from God. To him we are an open book. He knows the biography of each of us. Such knowledge is both disturbing and reassuring. The heart is in a marketplace where different desirables compete for our attention. Even when we have made our choice we …
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 41:1, 6
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 41:1, 6
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 41:1, 6 The causes of poverty are the enemies of God. In a world of great complexity it is not always easy to identify them, nor is it simple to find the remedies. The causes range from trading tariffs to the changing climate, from war to corruption and exploitation. Those …
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 49:3-4
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 49:3-4
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 49:3-4 The heart is the seat of the will. It is also the mat for meditation where we muse imaginatively about how God is at work within us. Stories, songs, music and poetry all help us to meditate. You can lose yourself in a story and then deep in the drama suddenly see you…
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 40:10, 12, 15
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 40:10, 12, 15
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 40:10, 12, 15 To be content to do only the will of God is how God originally fashioned the heart to be. With the gift of freedom came also the risk that the human heart might chase after other desires. These psalms testify to the vagaries of the heart, but they also capture…
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 54:6
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 54:6
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 54:6 In the world of the psalms the worship of God involved the offering of gifts. These were signs of the worshippers’ dedication to God. There were rules about the quality and purity of the offerings and the sacrifices. As we draw near to God in our searching after him we…
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 38:8, 10
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 38:8, 10
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 38:8, 10 The success of those who trample on others with no regard for God or any moral principles can be very confusing for those of us who try to live our life by faith. It’s not unusual for us to make a costly decision in favour of doing what we believe to be right befor…
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 45:1
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 45:1
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 45:1 Because the heart is the seat of the will it has the authority to direct the imagination. This psalm is a paean of praise to the king. To a cynical age as ours it sounds somewhat sycophantic! You are, in our time, unlikely to hear such praise for our leaders and those …
Nothing Too Religious - Drama/Dialogue: Oh, no! Not that again!
Nothing Too Religious - Drama/Dialogue: Oh, no! Not that again!
by Marjorie Dobson
Drama/Dialogue: Oh, no! Not that again! 1. Oh no! Not the Good Samaritan again! I don’t believe it! 2. You mean you don’t believe the story of the Good Samaritan? It’s one of the most favourite ones in the whole Bible. 1. Of course I believe in the story – it’s just that we never…
Prayer: Reassuring God
Prayer: Reassuring God
by Marjorie Dobson
Prayer: Reassuring God Reassuring God, we come to thank you for all those caring and compassionate people who offer support and encouragement to others in so many different ways. Their love and their service is offered willingly and with a true spirit of dedication. Yet we so oft…
Poem/Reflection: Amos
Poem/Reflection: Amos
by Marjorie Dobson
Poem/Reflection: Amos Was he a professional prophet? No, he wasn’t. Was he the son of a prophet? No. he wasn’t. Did he earn money from preaching? No, he didn’t. Amos had been a shepherd. Amos had worked as a farmer Amos had been called from the fields and sent out into other fiel…
Poem: Justice