What Has Always Been Hidden

I was reading Matthew this morning, and this was crushing for some reason. That Jesus is so great, he came and spoke in parables what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.

All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet

“I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.” [Matthew 13:34-35]

Here is Psalm 78:2 which is referenced in the passage.

I will open my mouth kin a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old.

The idea that God is the Alpha and Omega. He’s always been. He will forever be. And that at some point in time, he stepped into time and revealed all these deep, mysterious, wonderful things. That puts a heaviness upon my soul that few other things can.

Teaching your kids about the Lord

Hannah passed on more to her son than just correct theology and right information about the Lord. She passionately and publicly praised the works of the Lord in ways he could witness.

–The Village

Here’s part of that prayer:

The Lord makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and he exalts. He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord‘s, and on them he has set the world. (1 Samuel 2:7-8)

The vast precipice

I started reading Five Points recently after finishing Does God Desire All To Be Saved and this is the first of (I’m sure) many things that will linger with me.

Continue reading →

On how to pray

We so often turn to Matthew 6 when we are trying to understand what God wants from prayer but why not Philippians 1? Here’s what it says:

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, sand so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:9-11)

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The glory of adoption

“…in love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.” (Ephesians 1:4-6)

On Biblical translations

Via Mirko Tobias Schaefer (Flickr)

I thought the following was interesting when it comes to modern day Biblical translations:

We believe that any serious effort in studying the Bible should begin not with interpretation of the text (“What did the author mean?”), but rather with observation (“What did the author write?”) and that the paraphrastic, thought-for-thought approach takes this step away from the student of scripture and puts it almost entirely into the hands of the translator. –The Village Church

There’s still a struggle for me that you’re technically reading an interpretation in parts. What Geoff Ashley refers to as “relying on interpretation only when the text demands clarification.”

Well that seems like it could be a decent chunk of the Scripture! So when Piper points out the wild differences between the ESV and NIV, they both can’t be inerrant, can they?

Here’s the other thing I read on translations:

So we ought to put right on the front of The Message, “A Paraphrase of the Bible,” and then it would be valuable! Everybody could read it and say, “This is Eugene Peterson’s interpretation of the Bible,” and we would get gobs of insight from it!

But if you start substituting that kind of effort for your regular, daily Bible reading translation, then you’re basically reading a commentary and depending on it and calling it the word of God. –Piper

I hadn’t thought of it in that way before but I think it’s a smart way to reason with less literal, or more functionally equivalent translations.

I guess I’ll continue grappling with the inerrancy of different translations.

Working in the Gospel

Putting off the corruption of the flesh is, as Calvin put it, “a work of arduous and of immense labor.”

Therefore, God “bids us to strive and make every effort for this purpose. He intimates that no place is to be given in this case to sloth.”

–A Hole in our Holiness

How Christian maturity is obtained

Christian maturity does not come through special mystical insights available to only a few, but rather through the patient practice of the familiar virtues of love and service to others.

– Introduction to Philippians in the ESV

The beginning of Genesis is quite beautiful

I wrote a post about the beauty of syntax a few weeks ago and though it strikes me as being slightly nerdy, I think this from Genesis 1:20-23 is a tremendous, underrated piece of writing.

And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

It’s so simple and yet so grandiose. I think about how big the world is and how small this verse makes it seem for God and it rattles me a little bit. In a good way, of course.