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Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - So Abraham Went
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - So Abraham Went
by SPCK - John Goldingay
So Abraham Went Genesis 12: 3-6a I first visited the Middle East six years after Israel occupied the West Bank. We were based mostly in Tel Aviv, but we had not been there long before we drove up into the West Bank and went to Nablus, one of its three most important towns. The na…
Isaiah for Everyone - Stand Firm, Or You Won't Stand At All
Isaiah for Everyone - Stand Firm, Or You Won't Stand At All
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Stand Firm, Or You Won’t Stand At All I mentioned in an early volume of The Old Testament for Everyone receiving a call from a Jewish lawyer in Los Angeles who had self-published a book titled Twenty-six Reasons Why Jews Don’t Believe in Jesus and wanted me to make sure that his …
Job for Everyone - Sovereignty without Principle?
Job for Everyone - Sovereignty without Principle?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Sovereignty without Principle? Job 12: 1-25 My wife and I were talking about Job the other day, and she told me about two different people in a church to which she had belonged who had given up their Christian faith and left the church when they went through the horrific experien…
Isaiah for Everyone - So You Have Fallen from the Heavens!
Isaiah for Everyone - So You Have Fallen from the Heavens!
by SPCK - John Goldingay
So You Have Fallen from the Heavens! Last night we watched a documentary about a young man on death row who was about to be executed. Ten years ago as a teenager he and a friend had murdered a woman, her son, and her son’s friend, all for the sake of stealing their fancy car. The…
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 - Some Responsibilities of Priests
Exodus and Leviticus - Some Responsibilities of Priests
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Some Responsibilities of Priests LEVITICUS 21: 1- 22:33 When you give people presents, you can get into a lot of trouble, some of which you deserve. You can spend time and money finding what you hope will be just right for someone and find it was just the wrong thing: “You think …
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Temples and Palaces
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Temples and Palaces
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Temples and Palaces 1 Kings 7:1-8:9 Intriguingly interwoven with the story of the temple building is the brief account of Solomon’s spending thirteen years building his house; he spent seven years building God’s house. Is that a sign that God’s house had priority, that he focused…
Psalms for Everyone - Teach Me to Repent
Psalms for Everyone - Teach Me to Repent
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Teach Me to Repent Psalm 51 John Donne was a seventeenth-century priest, love poet, and member of parliament. He also wrote a series of “Holy Sonnets” (found in The Oxford Book of English Verse, ed. Christopher Ricks [New York: Oxford University Press, 1999], 117). In one he imag…
Exodus and Leviticus - Surviving in the Wilderness
Exodus and Leviticus - Surviving in the Wilderness
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Surviving in the Wilderness EXODUS 15: 22- 17: 7 A former colleague of mine used sometimes to say of a seminary student, “He [I don’t remember it ever being a she] needs to learn to love the church.” The comment would be aroused by the student’s reaction to some piece of apparent…
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Temples and Churches
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - Temples and Churches
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Temples and Churches 1 Kings 6: 1-38 The little church building where I worship each Sunday holds only fifty or sixty people, but it divides into three parts. The congregation sits in the main body of the church; there is a little step up to the choir stalls; and finally there is…
Job for Everyone - Tested to the Limit
Job for Everyone - Tested to the Limit
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Tested to the Limit Job 34 31- 35: 16 One aspect of the forty-two years during which my first wife had multiple sclerosis was that it was a time of periodic testing, or even of continuous testing (but it was also joyful). As she got to be recurrently tired, or could no longer do …
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Stuff Happens
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Stuff Happens
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Stuff Happens Genesis 12: 6b-10 Three or four years ago, a friend of mine got a job as a youth pastor on the East Coast. It meant his wife had to give up her job in California, but she had originally come from the East Coast, and she was entirely happy to make the move. They foun…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Teach Me
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Teach Me
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Teach Me Psalm 119: 49-72 I’m grading student papers, and one effect that has on me (alongside making me want to commit suicide) is to make me puzzle over what it is that enables people to learn. There are people who have read the Scriptures with fresh eyes, seen things they had …
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
1 and 2 Kings for Everyone - The Bird in a Cage
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Bird in a Cage 2 Kings 18:1-37 When my sons were babies, we would play trust exercises with them, though I’m not sure whether we or they realized this was what we were doing. They would leap from some height, such as a wall, knowing that father or mother would catch them. As …
Job for Everyone - The Angry Young Man
Job for Everyone - The Angry Young Man
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Angry Young Man Job 32 1-22 I was a “word child.” Indeed, I probably still am, though I am also a music child and a people child. A Word Child is a novel by Iris Murdoch about a man for whom words are the means of his redemption or happiness. Words save him. For me, that was …
Job for Everyone - The Awe-Inspiring Creator
Job for Everyone - The Awe-Inspiring Creator
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Awe-Inspiring Creator Job 36 26-37: 24 The window by my desk looks out over our patio, where I can see geraniums starting to bloom, blue jays coming to bathe in the fountain, and squirrels trying to remember where they stored their nuts. A plant of basil sits on a table and w…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The Appeal of the Lost Sheep