AMPed Up!

Sometimes its nice to turn the Bible "up to 11" by plugging it into an AMP. There's some truly lovely translations in some verses. Take this for example:

"Yes, furthermore, I count everything as loss compared to the possession of the priceless privilege (the overwhelming preciousness, the surpassing worth, and supreme advantage) of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord and of progressively becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him [of perceiving and recognising and understanding Him more fully and clearly]. For His sake I have lost everything and consider it all to be mere rubbish (refuse, dregs), in order that I may win (gain) Christ (the Anointed One),

And that I may [actually] be found and known as in Him, not having any [self-achieved] righteousness that can be called my own, based on my obedience to the Law’s demands (ritualistic uprightness and supposed right standing with God thus acquired), but possessing that [genuine righteousness] which comes through faith in Christ (the Anointed One), the [truly] right standing with God, which comes from God by [saving] faith.

[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognising and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [[b]which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope]

That if possible I may attain to the [[c]spiritual and moral] resurrection [that lifts me] out from among the dead [even while in the body].

Not that I have now attained [this ideal], or have already been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus (the Messiah) has laid hold of me and made me His own."

Philippians 3:8-12 (AMP)

Look at those words... blink in another version and you might miss them. The Amplified version of the Bible doesn't always make for the easiest reading in terms of flow... but it's wonderful sometimes to really suck the marrow from scripture... to drain every last drop that your understanding can hold. I find that the AMP really does give you opportunity to chew your food when studying the Word, and it is for that reason that it takes pride of place on my iPhone along with the NIV.

This post isn't an advert for the AMP, if anything I would encourage anyone to find a version of the Bible that they can get along with (I find one that gives you a balance between readability and challenge in study is usually the best choice, personally). I just wanted to take a little snippet from the above passage and exhort how mind blowing it is.

"For my determined purpose is that I may know Him; that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognising and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly, and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection"

Wow. Just... wow.

What I love about Paul's writing here, is that it is so abundantly clear that he isn't describing mere religion... but absolute life affirming relationship. If we didn't have the context of the verses surrounding it, you might think he was talking about his depth of feeling for a lover. For those of you who know the privilege of romantic love, I imagine those few lines describe quite succinctly how you hope your relationship will develop - that the person you have deep affection for will continually reciprocate your feelings and that as you spend time in one another's company, you will grow equally in understanding, wonder and excitement of the person you know more and more each day.

That's what Paul wants with Jesus. That's what Paul wants for you... and far more importantly, that is what Christ requires of us - an intimate, ever growing love.

I also love the how Paul describes how he wants to go about this... "For my determined purpose"; he turns away from the distractions, fades down the white noise and focuses on who and what is of importance. I wonder when the last time any of us treated Jesus with that level of clarity and commitment?

So going forward into the coming year what shall we say and do?

What is our determined purpose?

Selwyn to the Rescue! (again)

I've always been astounded at how well my bible notes seem to fit in with where I am on my walk with Christ... particularly when I hit a rough patch. I've been using Every Day With Jesus as a study aid for the past 10 years or so and I am constantly finding myself challenged, encouraged or simply met where I am... through reading the set passage and the accompanying text. The words often seem directly targeted specifically to me, which I find extraordinary... skeptics would say it's just coincidence but I do not believe so - frequency alone disputes that. What is all the more amazing is that the author - Selwyn Hughes, is no longer with us. He passed away two years ago - a faithful servant who is finally receiving his reward in the company of God.

I want to share the latest way in which God has used this man's writing to positively shape me as a person:

In my last post I was feeling quite isolated, I was being painfully reminded that frequently my relationships with other Christians seem pretty one sided. Some friends who I felt should be checking up on me weren't and others had distanced themselves when I sought their company/comfort/advice. As a consequence of this I was tempted... I had a picture in my minds eye of "crossing the road". I almost felt ready to walk in my faith towards God on the other side, away from others - same direction... but without having to put up with people who just want me around for their own benefit. This I realise would have been the wrong course of action... but not being in a rational mindset, it didn't stop me feeling the way I did. I also felt like I'd been blindsided and taken a lot of flak.

Then I caught up with my bible notes and they had this to say:

The spiritual journey is not one that we are meant to walk alone. God intends us to travel in the company of other people. For some this is a wonderful arrangement; for others it is not so wonderful. People can be helpful or they can be hurtful; they can bless us or they can blister us. Over the years I have met many people who have been hurt by other Christians. Sadly, in recent years we have frequently heard the term "friendly fire". Have you ever been hit by a form of "friendly fire"? It is the flak we take from our own side. It is the misguided missile that lands right in our own hearts. People have admitted to me that they have been hurt more by the church than they ever have been by the world. As we have seen from the psalm we have read today (Psalm 41:1-13), King David knew this pain, and Jesus quoted this verse when he said, "He who shares my bread has lifted his heel against me" (John 13:18). The question we must start to think about is how do we deal with relationships, because the way we deal with difficult relationships will determine whether we advance or retreat on the journey of life. Some people live by the words of Ernest Hemingway, who said, "We have to distrust each other; it is our only defence against betrayal." God does not call us to live in distrust, but to live by faith in Jesus Christ. we are disciples of the One who knows what it is to be betrayed. And through his grace we can be victors not victims.

That my friends... was a timely word.

It reminded me of a story I once heard about a man who had stopped going to church. His concerned vicar visited him a few weeks later and asked if everything was OK. The man responded that he was fine, he had a relationship with Jesus... but he didn't feel he needed the Church. The vicar said nothing. Now it was a cold winter's night and they were sat in front of a roaring open coal fire. The vicar reached for the tongs and plucked a burning coal from the fire... placing it on the hearth. Very soon, the coal grew dim and went out. A week later the man was back in church.

Now I wasn't planning on going AWOL from Church, but I was considering distancing myself from some people whose friendship had felt unbalanced and pretty unrequited. I soon took the hint though. Especially when in yesterday's notes, Selwyn made reference to the writings of D. Broughton Knox who believed that the members of the Trinity focus on one another and the Church rather than their own identity within the Trinity... and that as Christians this is how we too should operate.

It made me realise that while I can't do anything about how other Christians choose to behave towards me, I shouldn't be giving myself reasons to "shut up shop" around them. I'm needed even if I'm not always wanted.

It's strange... but since reading that and having a couple of conversations, since rejecting the current temptation of isolationism, things have begun to calm down. It is not the first time I have been tempted in this way and I am convinced it certainly won't be the last. It seems very important to the Enemy to keep me at arms length from God's people... these things happen so intensely it makes me wonder if it is important to God in terms of my calling... perhaps a conversation for another time.

I have to say how grateful I am to the ministry of Selwyn Hughes. I never met him in this life... but I'll be sure to thank him for his service to God in the next!

Dead Prophets Society

I'm beginning a new venture for Christian bloggers - The Dead Prophets Society . I'll be contacting Christian bloggers I know and inviting them to be co-authors. It's not quite ready to go yet, but I've laid the foundations.

The idea is inspired by the film "Dead Poets Society". In that film, Robin Williams plays a teacher in a 1950's American public school. The pupils are all taught poetry from a text book and taught to value poetry in terms of a formula. Mr. Keating (Williams), teaches the young men to tear that formula out of the poetry book and learn the powerful value of the poetry itself, to seize the day and live life with passion.

For too long, people have treated the Bible in the same way. They have conspired to chop it up into little segments and read it parrot fashion. A lot of churches read the scriptures but do not provide opportunity for their congregations to engage with those scriptures. They have removed the passion.

It is a sad development. Jesus said that he had come that we might have life... and have it to the full. The Bible also said of God:

"He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD."

Imagine that. We have a God that does not wish to withhold life from us... but wishes to feed us with manna, nectar, ambrosia... call it what you will, it is the same thing: the food of God. When you eat a delicacy, you should savour it... when you are a hungry man and you find bread, you should eagerly devour it.

Do we do this with the Bible? Or do we just read it and set it to one side like some mediocre fact sheet?

The Dead Prophets now exist for people who wish suck the marrow from the Word of God. To recite from scripture and to explain to one another why it is so moving. When I was a kid, we never looked at anything other than the "big" stories in the Bible. We never looked at the prophets, or the psalms or the epistles. I think that a lot of people grow up and leave church because all they see in the bible is stories, they don't loom further because they've never been taught to expect anything else. I'd like to redress that balance.

Mahatma Gandhi said of the Bible:

"You Christians look after a document containing enough dynamite to blow all civilisation to pieces, turn the world upside down, and bring peace to a battle-torn planet. But you treat it as though it is nothing more than a piece of literature."

He wasn't a Christian, but he understood the true power that lay within the bible. It's a power we have denied and that is something the Dead Prophets Society is designed to undo.

If you'd like to sign up, drop me a line in my comments or an email. I'll probably check people's own blogs out before adding them as authors.

If you have recommendations from a design point of view, I'd be interested to hear.... especially if you have the talent to carry it out. I think I'd like a banner picture with the closing shot of Dead Poets Society on it - students standing on desks in defiance.