SPCK

The Fellowship of Prayer Colossians 4.2-9 The best teachers make sure they get their pupils to take on some responsibility of their own. It’s a lesson some never learn, in school, in church, or in the home. Most people, from quite small children upwards, are ready to rise to the …

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Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - The Christian Household

by SPCK - N T Wright

The Christian Household Colossians 3.18-4.1 There was once a country ruled by a strict and severe president. He made laws about everything and enforced them rigidly. He laid down what time people were to get up and go to bed. He told them what food they should eat and how to cook…

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Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - Love, Peace and Thanksgiving

by SPCK - N T Wright

Love, Peace and Thanksgiving Colossians 3.12-17 Here’s the acid test for whether Paul is talking sense or not. Read again through the list of sexual and speech-related misbehaviour in verses 5–9. Then read through verses 12–17. Ask yourself this: supposing there was a town in whi…

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Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - Old Clothes, New Clothes

by SPCK - N T Wright

Old Clothes, New Clothes Colossians 3.5-11 My daughter and I still laugh about her seventh birthday. It was a Sunday in February. The church we attended, in Canada where we lived then, held a cross-country ski day each year. People came to the morning service, stayed for soup in …

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Prayer: Sometimes the things we

by Andrew Pratt

Prayer: Sometimes the things we Sometimes the things we face undermine our resolve and destroy our confidence. Problems tower above us and we see no way to overcome them. When these things happen, as they have, and probably will again, give us, O God, humility and simplicity. Con…

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Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - The Dying and the Rising with Christ

by SPCK - N T Wright

The Dying and the Rising with Christ Colossians 2.20-3.4 ‘I’ll just be two minutes,’ I said, leaving my friends on the street corner while I went to fetch the car. It was raining, and we’d just come out of the theatre. But I wasn’t two minutes. I took more like ten. They were sta…

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Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - The Law and the Cross

by SPCK - N T Wright

The Law and the Cross Colossians 2.13-19 The crowd was already angry, and it got angrier as we watched. They had come together to protest about the shooting down of a Korean jumbo jet over the southwest Pacific. Most of them had lost relatives or friends in the disaster. And, whe…

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Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - Beware of Deceivers

by SPCK - N T Wright

Beware of Deceivers Colossians 2.8-12 One of the greatest philosophers of the seventeenth century was John Locke (1632–1704).He rejected several previous schemes of thought and sketched out a way of looking at the world which influenced the thought not only of his native England …

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Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - God's Hidden Treasure - King James

by SPCK - N T Wright

God’s Hidden Treasure – King Jesus! Colossians 2.1-7 In many adventure stories such as Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous Treasure Island, the plot hinges on the discovery of an ancient chart or map. The people who have found it realize that, if only they could understand and follow…

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Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - The King, Living within You

by SPCK - N T Wright

The King, Living within You Colossians 1.24-29 If trees could talk, imagine the sort of conversation that might go on. Here is an old, weathered and seasoned oak tree, talking to the small sapling that’s just started to grow up nearby. ‘Soon it will be autumn, and the winds will …

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Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - Reconciled and Firm in Faith

by SPCK - N T Wright

Reconciled and Firm in Faith Colossians 1.21-23 People come from all over the world to see it, but I would have been just as happy to stay away. On the edge of Minneapolis, in the United States, is a shopping centre so vast that there is room for an entire fun-fair in the middle …

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Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - In Praise of Jesus Christ

by SPCK - N T Wright

In Praise of Jesus Christ Colossians 1.15-20 I flicked the switch to turn on the television. I didn’t know what the programme would be; I was tired at the end of a long day and just wanted to relax for a few minutes. The sound came on a little before the picture appeared. A voice…

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Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - Prayer for Wisdom and Gratitude

by SPCK - N T Wright

Prayer for Wisdom and Gratitude Colossians 1.9-14 We watched, holding our breath, as the mother duck left the pond at the head of her brood. There were seven ducklings in all: four black ones and three yellow ones. They were lively and squeaky, scuttling to and fro. For days they…

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Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - Thanksgiving For Gospel's Work

by SPCK - N T Wright

Thanksgiving For Gospel’s Work Colossians 1.1-8 When Susan bought the house, there wasn’t much growing in the garden. A few tatty little shrubs; a mouldy rosebush or two; a tree that had been bent sideways by a storm and left to grow crooked. It was a depressing sight. A few days…

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Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - Closing Thanks and Greetings

by SPCK - N T Wright

Closing Thanks and Greetings Philippians 4.14-23 Sometimes when you get to the end of a novel or short story, there is a moment when something is revealed that makes sense of a mood, a motive, a feeling that has been in the narrative all along. At last we understand why that man …

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Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - The Hidden Secret

by SPCK - N T Wright

The Hidden Secret Philippians 4.10-13 It was very dark and gloomy that March. There was still snow in the air, and sometimes on the ground, until mid-way through the month. The sun seemed hardly to peer out from behind grey clouds, and a sharp north-easterly wind blew in off the …

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Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - Celebrate in the Lord!

by SPCK - N T Wright

Celebrate in the Lord! Philippians 4.2-9 You never know when it’s going to happen. Two people who one day are good friends, working alongside each other in the church or community, can suddenly get across each other. A sharp word from one, half-heard by the other; a bitter respon…

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Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters - Citizens of Heaven

by SPCK - N T Wright

Citizens of Heaven Philippians 3.17-4.1 The word ‘colony’ today is not exactly popular. It rings of the old days of imperialism, when several European countries were expanding their influence in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and were vying with each other to see who could grab …

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