Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Does God Have a Wonderful Plan for Your Life?
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - Does God Have a Wonderful Plan for Your Life?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Does God Have a Wonderful Plan for Your Life? Students who would like to find their way into teaching sometimes ask how I came to be a professor, so as to make plans for their career trajectory. My answer is that I drifted into where I am now…
Isaiah for everyone - Don't Be Afraid
Isaiah for everyone - Don't Be Afraid
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Don’t Be Afraid My wife’s degree program requires her to take part this week in a day’s silent retreat. Students are not allowed to bring their computers or other communication devices. Kathleen is looking forward to the event, but some of her classmates are freaking out about it…
Jeremiah for everyone - Does God Really Punish?
Jeremiah for everyone - Does God Really Punish?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Does God Really Punish? At dinner last night, one of our friends was troubled by the way the Old Testament speaks of God’s exercising violent judgment by means of Israel. I tried my usual ploy of asking whether she was as troubled by Jesus’ speaking of millions of people being th…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - For Lenten Thought
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - For Lenten Thought
by SPCK - John Goldingay
For Lenten Thought It’s the third week in Lent, and we have the third of our Lent Study Groups this evening. The group is studying the Psalms, and I’ve been excited at the way people have been finding this a means of discovering new resources for their praying, as they have been …
Isaiah for everyone - God’s Strange Work
Isaiah for everyone - God’s Strange Work
by SPCK - John Goldingay
God’s Strange Work The other Sunday we were singing the hymn “Great Is Thy Faithfulness,” and I was reflecting wryly that it’s a shame nobody realizes where its basic ideas come from, as is the case with the related chorus “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.” They come …
Isaiah for everyone - High and Holy, but Present with the Crushed and Low in Spirit
Isaiah for everyone - High and Holy, but Present with the Crushed and Low in Spirit
by SPCK - John Goldingay
High and Holy, but Present with the Crushed and Low in Spirit In a recent sermon in our seminary I told students that Jesus isn’t their buddy. I’m told the air went out of the room when I said it. A friend subsequently gave me a “Buddy Christ” statuette, which I could put on my d…
Isaiah for Everyone - Grief Brought To An End
Isaiah for Everyone - Grief Brought To An End
by SPCK - John Goldingay
GRIEF BROUGHT TO AN END In a movie called Grace Is Gone, Grace is a sergeant in the army on active service. Her husband, Stan, looks after a supply store back home. One morning the feared and terrifying visit comes from army representatives with the task of telling Stan that Grac…
Jeremiah for everyone - I Don't Trust You
Jeremiah for everyone - I Don't Trust You
by SPCK - John Goldingay
I Don't Trust You In the latter years of my first wife’s life, from time to time I’d attempt to confront God about the way she was increasingly affected by her multiple sclerosis. God was inclined to be equally confrontational in his response (I could get away with a cry of pain …
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - I Have Not Found A Woman
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - I Have Not Found A Woman
by SPCK - John Goldingay
I Have Not Found A Woman I just had a message from a young friend who will be in town next week and wants to come to see us. It’s only a few months since she emailed to tell us that she had maybe found the man of her dreams, a man whose instincts about Christian ministry match he…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - I Belong to My Love, and His Desire Is toward Me
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - I Belong to My Love, and His Desire Is toward Me
by SPCK - John Goldingay
I Belong to My Love, and His Desire Is toward Me I once had to review a commentary on the Song for a journal. The author assumed that the Song is about the relationship between a man and a woman and dismissed the idea that under the surface it’s about the relationship between Chr…
Jeremiah for everyone - In the Interests of the living
Jeremiah for everyone - In the Interests of the living
by SPCK - John Goldingay
In the Interests of the living A woman recently inherited a diary her mother kept during the last months of her life. It showed a side of her mother she hadn’t seen before—angry, afraid, self-recriminatory. It was upsetting to read…
Jeremiah for everyone - Is Anything Too Extraordinary for Yahweh?
Jeremiah for everyone - Is Anything Too Extraordinary for Yahweh?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Is Anything Too Extraordinary for Yahweh? I have to preside over a funeral today and then over a memorial next week for someone who has already been cremated. Whether your body dissolves gradually in the ground or burns up quickly in the fire, the idea that we are all going to be…
Jeremiah for everyone - Looking for Spiritual Resources
Jeremiah for everyone - Looking for Spiritual Resources
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Looking for Spiritual Resources I just read about a couple who travelled to India because they couldn’t have a baby. The British medics were puzzled about the reasons, as both husband and wife seemed to be physiologically OK…
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - My Love Is Mine, and I Am His
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs for Everyone - My Love Is Mine, and I Am His
by SPCK - John Goldingay
My Love Is Mine, and I Am His One of my best friends when I was a teenager, having exhausted the dating possibilities in our youth fellowship, started going out with a girl from another church, and I commented that she was rather plain compared with some of the girls he had gone …
Jeremiah for everyone - Not Always the Holywood Ending