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"Do you cherish that of God within you, that his power growing in you may rule your life? Do you seek to follow Jesus who shows us the Father and teaches us the Way?" (Christian Faith & Practice, London Yearly Meeting, 1960)
August 26, 2011
Luke 8.18
"Take care, then, how you listen; for the man who has will be given more; while the man who has not will lose even what he thinks he has."
Here’s a straightforward imperative. “Heed” (KJV, NKJV), “pay attention” (NLT), “consider carefully” (NIV), “see” (Young, maybe the most literal, as in “watch” how you hear).
I take it - hearing carefully means more hearing because more to hear is given. Like my dream this morning. I ignore the dream long enough and fail to write it down in time and what I thought I had evaporates into thin air. I pay attention to the dream and I get more during the process of writing. So many novel insights in the process. Some make sense now. Some make sense later. Some never seem to make sense – maybe requiring more careful hearing. ~ Jim
I've been waiting to hear a dream, but I guess you didn't get it down in time?
This reminds me of something Thoreau allegedly said, that he'd once tried to write clearly, but then people imagined they'd understood him.
I frequently admire thy rants, without necessarily quite getting them. Maybe those times are when you're most profound? Or maybe when you're as confused as I often am, therefore saying stuff until you can figure out what you've been trying to say?
Wright has been saying that many of Jesus' contemporaries thought they knew what 'the kingdom of God' would look like: A mighty warrior with lots of charisma would rise up (like Bar Kochba), the Spirit of the Lord would come mightily upon him, and he'd start smiting Romans all the way back home. The Pharisees are expecting this deliverer to be favored for his exemplary devotion to Torah. Jesus knows he's going to disappoint all those expectations, because they aren't what God had in mind.
But [I forget who]: ~If you're saying something new, most people will think you mean something else they already know.
This is not, in other words, what I used to think it meant-- "Watch out or God will make you even more clueless!" That was scary!
2 comments:
Take “care.”
Here’s a straightforward imperative. “Heed” (KJV, NKJV), “pay attention” (NLT), “consider carefully” (NIV), “see” (Young, maybe the most literal, as in “watch” how you hear).
I take it - hearing carefully means more hearing because more to hear is given. Like my dream this morning. I ignore the dream long enough and fail to write it down in time and what I thought I had evaporates into thin air. I pay attention to the dream and I get more during the process of writing. So many novel insights in the process. Some make sense now. Some make sense later. Some never seem to make sense – maybe requiring more careful hearing. ~ Jim
I've been waiting to hear a dream, but I guess you didn't get it down in time?
This reminds me of something Thoreau allegedly said, that he'd once tried to write clearly, but then people imagined they'd understood him.
I frequently admire thy rants, without necessarily quite getting them. Maybe those times are when you're most profound? Or maybe when you're as confused as I often am, therefore saying stuff until you can figure out what you've been trying to say?
Wright has been saying that many of Jesus' contemporaries thought they knew what 'the kingdom of God' would look like: A mighty warrior with lots of charisma would rise up (like Bar Kochba), the Spirit of the Lord would come mightily upon him, and he'd start smiting Romans all the way back home. The Pharisees are expecting this deliverer to be favored for his exemplary devotion to Torah. Jesus knows he's going to disappoint all those expectations, because they aren't what God had in mind.
But [I forget who]: ~If you're saying something new, most people will think you mean something else they already know.
This is not, in other words, what I used to think it meant-- "Watch out or God will make you even more clueless!" That was scary!
Listen up!
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