so i have been kicked in the teeth again. so much for reading this for enjoyment.
anyway, the issue of "pity" in the Lord's Prayer is one of great interest to me. over the years, the matter of exhortation, church discipline and spiritual correction have caused much pain in the church. this has been mostly through the holier-than-thou kind of leader who has envisioned some sort of personal spiritual superiority and then has used that supposed superiority to bludgeon a fallen brother or sister. maybe if we
(I) chose to pray with an attitude of needing pity, we might have a better chance of demostrating the ministry of reconciliation.
my other muse - (243) "...prayer is simply, 'Talking to God about what we are doing togther." am i off here? is the key thought in this sentence
doing together as opposed to
Talking to God? or is it both?
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My sincerest response to this chapter is "just the way we want it." Really, this chapter was worth the price of admission for me completely. The stuff on condemning - especially in the context of immediate family - was both brutal and hopeful. The reminder of Bonhoeffer was much-needed - like enjoying a great movie more the second time than the first. And the prayer stuff was like eating at Chuy's - honest, down-to-earth, spicy, consistent, just right. I don't think I have a pressing question. I just want to keep talking to Daddy about each of you, making requests that open up the heavenly realm more and more within us and without us.
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First question: Here are some various translations of Matt. 7:6:
RexJimmy:
"Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you."
NAS:
"Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces."
Message:
"Don't be flip with the sacred. Banter and silliness give no honor to God. Don't reduce holy mysteries to slogans. In trying to be relevant, you're only being cute and inviting sacrilege."
NewLiving:
"Don't give what is holy to unholy people. Don't give pearls to swine! They will trample the pearls, then turn and attack you."
Are these takes that different? If so, what freakin Bible can I trust? I don't know Greek, don't have an MDiv. This just further confounds my issues with what people have made of the Bible.
Second question:
"We should note that the ask-seek-knock teaching first applies to our approach to others, not to prayer to God" (232). I never reasoned this to mean how we deal with others. So was Jesus, in this instance, teaching about how we are to interact with others
and how we are supposed to pray or just one of these options? which one?
Willard seemed to deal more with attitudes, once again, that will make community possible than the structures community should take. This chapter kicked my underside in a good way though. I think I would like to order the non-existence Willard Translation.
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this chapter "got me". and here is how....
the last page of the chapter gives this quote......
"The western segment of the church today lives in a bubble of historical illusion about the meaning of discipleship and the gospel. We are dominated by the essentially Enlightenment values that rule American culture: pursuit of happiness, unrestricted freedom of choice, disdain of authority....how different is the gritty realization of James and John, 'friends of the world are enemies of God'.
so here is my own personal dilemma...
i am tired of being afraid of being disliked and as a result "looking" a lot like the world around me. i have even gotten to the point of putting an addition on to my house so that we can entertain better. i want to embrace being hated, but i don't know if i am capable of the spiritual fortitude that would require? how does one embrace the hatred that inevitably comes with a true surrender to "mount living"?
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