Parts of Speaking Publishing

 Just so you know, some of these writings are from my journal over the last two months as I work through Ephesians. That's why they move slowly. I am still reflecting on Ephesians 1:3-14.  The intimacy with God that the apostles' writing and that Jesus' words in the gospels assert is . . . I don't know the word. Mystical, mysterious, yet at the same time presented as "quotidian" reality. I like that word, but we can substitute "daily" for it. The intimacy which is so intense and blessed and awe-inspiring is not a "big event, come to a revival and get slain in the Holy Spirit every few years" type of thing. "I am in Christ and Christ is in me today and it is my job to turn daily to that reality and its benefits and practicalities. For me, the first benefit is the access to fruit of the Holy Spirit and the basic practicalities is my need for patience--not just tolerance or resignation--but true patience that God is working in the mundane...

I am going to start another series called "Serious Reading." These will include thoughts on reading, especially in the online world. I know that the Internet has diminished my reading because I do so much of it on screens rather than on the much-preferred (for understanding and memory) paper medium. I need to get back to more "book" reading v. iPad or Kindle or computer reading. I know better.  The real point of Serious Reading will be to read serious and difficult books, and I really want to read Middlemarch. It is a daunting book for the modern reader, but it offers treasures. I have only really read the Prelude so far, which I have posted below.  Middlemarch is basically about a young woman, Dorothea Brooks, who has high ideals and is willing to, at least early in life, forgo the love of a younger man for a husband to marry a man who strikes readers today as pretentious, sluggish, boring, and not very passionate for a young woman, to put it mildly. He turns out t...

 It is very hard to move on from Ephesians 1:3-14, so I won't yet. It is one long sentence in the Greek; in my English translation the translators broke it up to three sentences. Again, I post the passage: Blessed  be  the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly  places  in Christ,  4  just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,  5  having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,  6  to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He  [ a ] made us accepted in the Beloved. Blessed us with every spiritual blessing int he heavenly places in Christ. Observations: These are not future, but now.  There are many of them and in this long sentence Paul "piles them on" to show how overwh...

  Friends, go now in peace. Imagine all that can be. Hope more than it makes sense to do so. Honor all and love all. Have courage. Know that this life of faith is risky, but you do not go it alone So get on with loving and serving the Lord. The grace of our God goes with you, this and every day. Amen. Cited by Hannah Anderson in The Dispatch Faith.

  One of my favorite phrases in the Bible (well, the AV/old KJV) having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,  6  to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. "Made us accepted in the Beloved" is a wonderful, mysterious, abundant, fulfilling, promising phrase, although it may be a poetic paraphrase. Literally it is " bestowed grace (favor) upon us." Which should be enough. The "Beloved" is the Son, whom the Father loves; we are part of "the package" now. As Jesus is the Son, we are adopted as children by Jesus Christ to God the Father. If we sit and soak in how much love and care and grace this is, we will get off our self-absorption and pity parties, I think. That sounds cold; I speak for myself.  As I always say, Lent is not about giving up something, but looking toward something.

I am a massive fan of Baroque painting and sculpture. There is nothing like it; it was the height of Western art.  The term "accidental baroque" is a photograph that resembles the composition, lighting, and color of a Baroque painting.  Take a look:  https://culturedump.substack.com/p/the-accidental-baroque-effect