SPCK
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Friday Afternoon
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Friday Afternoon
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Friday Afternoon Genesis 1: 27-30 My wife and I have friends who used to keep an animal or two, and when we stayed with them for the weekend we were introduced to a calf called Jeremy. It was at Sunday lunch that we met him. They brought Jeremy up, had him slaughtered and cut up,…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Friday Lunchtime
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Friday Lunchtime
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Friday Lunchtime Genesis 1: 26 We human beings are pretty self-centered creatures. For their Scripture reading, some churches (like mine) use a lectionary, a set list of passages for reading each Sunday, and when we read Genesis 1, we are inclined to jump from the opening verse (…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Thursday, Friday Morning
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Thursday, Friday Morning
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Thursday, Friday Morning Genesis 1:20-25 A whole corner building in the downtown area of our city was recently reconstructed and remodeled, and to my astonishment what opened there was a store that just sells boxes. A friend of ours got a job there and told us that she was also s…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday Genesis 1:6-19 At the weekend my wife and I like to have lunch by the ocean, and while doing so we watch the surf hurling itself at the beach. No matter how hard giant waves batter the beach, they will never climb the rocks to where we sit, still less t…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Sunday
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Sunday
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Sunday Genesis 1:2-5 I have heard one or two people describe how they make records, and I have come to realize that there are two different approaches. Some people have worked it all out systematically before they go anywhere near a recording studio. They know how many songs they…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - In the Beginning
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - In the Beginning
by SPCK - John Goldingay
In the Beginning Genesis 1: 1 Our son and daughter-in-law were showing us photographs of our two grandchildren. In one of them, the two children were sitting in the back of the car looking very solemn. “I think we had just had the birds-and-the-bees talk,” our son explained. Wher…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Introduction
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Introduction
by SPCK - John Goldingay
INTRODUCTION As far as Jesus and the New Testament writers were concerned, the Jewish Scriptures that Christians call the “Old Testament” were the Scriptures. In saying that, I cut corners a bit, as the New Testament never gives us a list of these Scriptures, but the body of Scri…
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 - Postscript to the Psalms
With My WholeHeart - Postscript to the Psalms
by SPCK - James Jones
Postscript to the Psalms Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. This verse (Psalm 51.6 kjv) does not come with the word ‘heart’ in the psalm version of the Book of Common Prayer but for me it has been at the cent…
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 …
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 141:4
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 141:4
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 141:4 The strong language of the psalms is not for the faint-hearted. It can repel those who come to the psalms seeking sincerely to find or to strengthen their faith. References to ‘evil’, to the ‘ungodly’ and to ‘wickedness’, and imprecations asking that the enemy should …
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 139:23
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 139:23
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 139:23 This psalm speaks of the intimate knowledge God has of each of us. Jesus said as much, in that even the hairs on our head are numbered. There are no other words that match the truth and beauty of this prayer so allow me to say only why it always leaves my soul in a c…
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 119:111-112
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 119:111-112
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 119:111, 112 The word of God comes to us in several ways. Supremely in Jesus who was ‘the Word made flesh’ (cf. John 1.14). Without the Bible Jesus is a contentless word. It is Scripture that gives substance and meaning to his life, death and resurrection. Jesus’ own atti…
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 94:15, 19
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 94:15, 19
by SPCK - James Jones
Psalm 94:15, 19 The heart is scarred by sorrow when we see the casualties of injustice. Righteousness is both personal and social. It speaks of and to an individual’s dealings with others; it also refers to structures and systems that emerge from and affect the whole of society. …
With My WholeHeart - Psalm 51:10, 17