Category Archives: Scripture

Informed isn’t Formed

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I’ve been blessed recently by Eugene Peterson’s words.

In reflecting on how Scripture works to shape our lives, he puts this out there…

“It is possible to conceive of ourselves too narrowly, for there is far more to us than our genes and hormones, our emotions and aspirations, our jobs and ideals.  There is God.  Most, if not all, of what and who were are has to do with God.  If we try to understand and form ourselves by ourselves we leave most out most of ourselves.”

“And so the Christian community has always insisted that Holy Scripture that reveals God’s ways to us is necessary and basic to our formation as human beings.  In our reading of this book we come to realize that what we need is not primarily informational, telling us things about God and ourselves, but formational, shaping us into our true being.

It is the very nature of language to form rather than to inform.  When language is personal, with it is at its best, it reveals; and revelation is always formative—we don’t know more, we become more.

I hope this finds you experiencing revelation–the Divine speaking into your life through His Word–and being shaped into the you dreamed of long ago.  If you feel you could use more of that, let me suggest the obvious: You could use less of something else.  Free up time and space and attention, and devote it to positioning yourself before the Revealer.

You’ll be formed in the process.

Entering Ephesians (2:1-10)

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Continuing to move through Ephesians in J.B. Phillips’ “translation”, here’s the first half of chapter 2…

2:1-3 – To you, who were spiritually dead all the time that you drifted along on the stream of this world’s ideas of living, and obeyed its unseen ruler (who is still operating in those who do not respond to the truth of God), to you Christ has given life! We all lived like that in the past, and followed the impulses and imaginations of our evil nature, being in fact under the wrath of God by nature, like everyone else.

2:4-10 – But even though we were dead in our sins God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, gave us life together with Christ – it is, remember, by grace and not by achievement that you are saved – and has lifted us right out of the old life to take our place with him in Christ in the Heavens. Thus he shows for all time the tremendous generosity of the grace and kindness he has expressed towards us in Christ Jesus. It was nothing you could or did achieve – it was God’s gift to you. No one can pride himself upon earning the love of God. The fact is that what we are we owe to the hand of God upon us. We are born afresh in Christ, and born to do those good deeds which God planned for us to do.

Spiritual deadness occurs naturally when we drift along with the world’s stream of ideas. Fed by that flow, we birth a life that’s no life at all–and we find ourselves faithfully serving an unseen ruler, who we never signed up to serve. But we did.

To us, to all of us whose weakness pushes us to live on the road of least resistance, and to all of us too foolish to learn this lesson the first time or the second time or the millionth time… Christ has given life!

And this life is imparted into those who are naturally bent towards following the impulses and imaginations of our evil natures. But Christ enters, takes over, and births in us new possibilities, which are built upon new affections and desires which he brings along and plants into our hearts.

Come, Lord. Move and dwell here, for my life is needy of what you alone bring.

Entering Ephesians (1:15-23)

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What follows is an unholy union, I’m sure. It’s mostly the Phillips translation of Ephesians 1:15-23. But not exactly. What follows is the text as J.B. Phillips meets J.B. Me.

(There was some I-thought-helpful formatting below, but WordPress doesn’t seem to be having any of it. Time’s passing me by, so I’m pushing “publish”.)

Since I heard of
this faith of yours
in the Lord Jesus
and the practical way in which you are expressing it
towards fellow-Christians,

I thank God continually for you and
I never give up praying for you;
and this is my prayer.

That God,
the God of our Lord Jesus Christ and
the all-glorious Father,
will give you

spiritual wisdom and insight
to know more of him:

that you may receive that
inner illumination of the spirit
which will make you realise

the greatness of the hope
to which he is calling you –
the magnificence and splendour of the inheritance
promised to Christians –
the tremendous-ness of the power
available to us who believe in God.

That power
is the same divine power which was demonstrated in Christ
when he raised him from the dead
and gave him the place of supreme honour in Heaven –

a place that is infinitely superior
to any conceivable command,
authority,
power or
control,
and which carries with it
a name
far beyond any name that could ever be used
in this world or
the world to come.

God
has placed everything under the power of Christ and
has set him up as head of everything for the Church.

For the Church is his body,
and in that body
lives fully the one who fills the whole wide universe.

—

—

So the “Jay’s Notes” version…

Pray for wisdom and insight to see what you’re apt to miss.
Pray that what you cannot afford to miss will be illuminated to your sight…
The undefeatable hope that is found in God,
The magnificent sharing of all that is His with all who are His,
The vastness of the power available to all who believe in Him.
Pray this prayer for those you love. Pray it for those you do not know.
Pray it for yourself.

For Christ is over all things, for the sake of the church.
That’s not the institution or non-profit organization that you think you know.
That’s the people of Jesus,
who have worn his name through the ages, and
in whom the universe-filling God does His darnedest to dwell.

So keep praying that prayer.
Pray it for those you love. Pray it for those you do not know.
Pray it for yourself.

Entering Ephesians (1:3-14)

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I found inspiration recently by a post on Chelsey’s blog. It was a reflection from the book of Ephesians, and it led me back to those pages too. (For the record, I have NO IDEA why the print coming up is so small!  Grab your bi-focals if you need.)

This morning I read this from 25-cent version of the J.B. Phillips NT…

Praise be to God (“Why?”, we ask.)

for giving us through Christ every possible spiritual benefit as citizens of Heaven! (We–you and I–have been given every benefit that would befit a citizen of heaven. God HAS held, and He WILL CONTINUE to hold, NOTHING back from us.)

For consider what he has done –

before the foundation of the world
he chose us to become, in Christ, (To become what?)

his holy and blameless children (Good people to be.)

living within his constant care. (Good place to live.)

He planned, in his purpose of love,(Always God’s purpose.)

that we should be adopted as his own children through Jesus Christ –
that we might learn to praise that glorious generosity of his which has made us welcome in the everlasting love he bears towards the Son. (The love that the Divine Father has for the Divine Son… THAT is what WE are invited into!)

It is through the Son,

at the cost of his own blood,

that we are redeemed,

freely forgiven

through that full and generous grace (That’s the kind of grace I need.) which has overflowed into our lives (That’s the kind of flood I need.) and opened our eyes to the truth. (And I could use that sight too.)

For God had allowed us to know the secret of his plan, and it is this:

he purposes in his sovereign will

that all human history shall be consummated in Christ (Consummated=achieved, perfected, completed.),

that everything that exists in Heaven or earth shall find its perfection and fulfilment in him. (Jesus brings to the table what you and I–along with the rest of creation–need to be perfected and fulfilled.)

And here is the staggering thing (Because nothing staggering has been said yet!) –

that in all which will one day belong to him

we have been promised a share (What’s His is ours! This isn’t to promote greed; it’s to get it straight in our heads that being part of God’s Kingdom is to be part of the ONLY Kingdom.)

since we were long ago destined for this by the one who achieves his purposes by his sovereign will, so that we, as the first to put our confidence in Christ, may bring praise to his glory!

And you too trusted him, when you heard the message of truth, the Gospel of your salvation.

And after you gave your confidence to him (Great way to describe faith.)you were, so to speak, stamped with the promised Holy Spirit as a guarantee of purchase,

until the day when God completes the redemption of what he has paid for as his own (What a day that will be! The ultimate consummation of Lover and Beloved, and the grand fulfillment of all that the Creation–and you and me–are intended to be!);

and that will again be to the praise of his glory. (I’ll bet it will be!)

Pure in Heart

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I recently listened to a verse being read. It was from Matthew 5, and I confess that I cannot find what translation it’s from… certainly not any that I’m familiar with, if a well-known translation at all.

It went like this…

“Happy are the clear in heart, for they shall see God.”

For some reason, the word “clear” set off a whole series of new thoughts.

What would a clear heart be like? Like crystal. Not clouded or cluttered. Some sense of transparency would be there. An old book by Kierkegaard is titled “Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing”, and that came to mind too. A clear heart wouldn’t be fragmented or divided in its affections. Its focus would be… well… clear.

I used to take this verse as a promise of heaven in “the after” sense of life. But I’m not sure that’s the point.

A clear heart, a pure heart, a heart that wills one thing…

Someone possessing such a heart WOULD see God. He would be felt and sensed and known in ways that others wouldn’t and couldn’t experience. I used to think these words were a promise; I now wonder if they’re not simply a statement of fact.

If so, then indeed the clear of heart ARE happy.

And I’m feeling a stronger desire than usual to get in on some of that happiness.

So lead us there, Lord…