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Text of the page (random words):
and revelation as we grow in the faith and that this wisdom is with the eyes of your heart enlightened enlightened enough to see hope verses 17 and 18 hope is really powerful hope was exactly what i found on that day more than 30 years ago that day that in despair i prayed i felt beloved i felt such hope i m not sure how i feel about the word power which comes up in verse 19 twice i think this means jesus has power or god and they work this power for good for caring for hope and then in verse 21 the power that jesus has can defend against earthly or cosmic threats then now and in the future that s a lot of power when we started out with the gift of hope does providing us the comfort of hope mean we need to be assured that god jesus has the power against anything to provide hope what s confusing is that a lot of bad things have and do happen this power must not be acting like a magic wand power see i m really confused actually in fact i was recently at the yearly conference of the network of biblical storytellers which was wonderful i was talking to an acquaintance and i had forgotten that she is a pastor most people at the conference are pastors or scholars not many of us are lay people it is a lot of work to learn biblical stories by heart my friends it is so rewarding so when people ask me at the conference if i am a pastor or a scholar i joke by saying oh i am a civilian my friend was actually not amused i m not in a battle she said i said well the powers and principalities of the world must be more of a battle for you pastors than for us civilians and she said we are all fighting that battle together we are all ordained or not striving for good and to help and this rocked me back on my feet it s not that i hadn t heard that at my church it s not that i am not trying to be good and full of hope but i hadn t thought about being on the front lines so to speak if this is a battle if life and death and the life to come is not just given to me freely and beautifully as an inheritance but perhaps also given as something that needs strength to hold strength to hope and thus eyes of the heart to grow into ftgog leave a comment let s pluck a few words from ephesians 1 3 14 to start july 28 2026 bible study ephesians adoption beloved bible study destiny free will grace hope love pre ordered raebear ephesians is beautifully wordy it feels both elegant and formal as well as rich with meaning to me whoever wrote it gives me a feeling of caring and wanting to write well but well sadly a lot of the writing may have been clear back then but it is confusing now let s look at a few words in 1 3 14 and just see if zooming in helps in verse three of ephesians 1 3 14 in the heavenly places is also translated sometimes as the heavenlies which makes even less sense for the question of what are spiritual blessings verse 3 i think we can assume not worldly things like power or riches i wonder if we can think our daily bread which is a community effort no one has bread unless people work together or perhaps looking at 1 corinthians 12 1 11 might help or even better galatians 5 22 how i long for all of those gifts i personally like the comfort of pre ordering the saving of us and the world that i think before the foundation of the world and destined us in verses 4 and 5 i like that god didn t just switch to plan b after a bunch of problems but that the world was always loved and we were always loved which doesn t mean bad and unjust things didn t and or don t happen but having a god who changes to plan b then plan c etc is not a steadfast god this is not only a way to have these new believers in ephesus connect to the same god as the jewish people did and do but also to give a sense of connection and history i realize that for those people absolutely comfortable with free will in a way that i am not this sounds just odd indeed i feel that free will means you will choose the wrong thing and make a muddle if things are pre ordered well even if i do make a muddle then it will turn out ok which doesn t mean that i should make muddles or that the muddle is cost free there will be costs see this free will stuff i don t like thinking about too much more importantly for the people of ephesus and maybe you and me a sense of history was very important this was not some cult this was not flighty puffs of imagery this jesus stuff had history jesus isn t a fixer like an angry brutal mob boss thing jesus and god are giving us this fix this adoption according to the good pleasure of his will his glorious grace freely bestowed through the work of jesus who here is called the beloved verses 5 and 6 god is offering us this adoption this care out of good pleasure adoption was a serious thing in roman culture it made you just as much family as anyone else in the family which might not have been true of all cultures back then since this is noted so specifically even adults could be adopted via a commentary by smyth helwys by thomas b slater so being adopted by god how blessed is that i think the intent is comfort and the feeling is belonging we don t need to be afraid we can feel good let s note that the beloved was apparently a common title for jesus early on and it refers of course to god the father addressing jesus as his beloved e g matt 3 17 mark 1 11 luke 3 22 and other places i feel that that is a wonderful title for jesus i like a low christology instead of a complex high christology this is my discernment however there may be more complexity here than i understand there are other letters where the writer refers to us as beloved and sometimes i try that in prayers holy god please bless my beloved it is a way of holding you and me together and trying to never use prayer to be judgmental for example holy god please bless my beloved person and help them face any fret with peace and comfort is far kinder than holy god stop person from foolishly worrying too much at least to my ear and that s enough to start it is really convoluted stuff i think ftgog leave a comment let s start ephesians july 21 2026 bible study ephesians uncategorized grace paul peace questions saints salutation wariness raebear so last week s post was the who where what of this letter this week let s just dive in and see what happens so with a letter you start with salutation i wonder if i can make a whole meal of the salutation the author identifies as paul but scholars think it could a disciple of paul and they considered this a way of honoring their teacher back in the day will this letter sound or echo paul will paul here be praising the ephesians or urging them to do better the letters of paul seem to me to be one or the other to keep things simple i m just going to refer to the author of the letter as paul apparently this letter is to the saints but that was a term of community back then it did not mean the good people it meant more like all members of this church and yet this is qualified by faithful and this gets interesting because some ancient manuscripts apparently do not have ephesus it is saints who are faithful where ever they may be could be you and me and the salutation ends with a blessing grace to you and peace hey this could be a blessing across time and space for us to have grace and peace as well and i wonder if the saints in ephesus were excited to get this letter to hear it being read were they awed that the famous paul wrote to them were they already known by paul my feelings regarding any letter by paul are wariness is it going to help me or hurt me in terms of loving jesus ftgog leave a comment bible study july 14 2026 bible study ephesians uncategorized bible study biblical letter ephesians paul raebear i am in the summer slump where i don t know what to study in scripture i don t know what the lay reading that i am assigned for in late august will be i don t know what the messy church in september will be i do know that the pastors are going to have a bit of a spotlight on ephesians sometime in the fall whew i ll start on ephesians here s what i know to start ephesians is said to be by paul but scholars do not think it is paul himself but a disciple or a group that learned from him it is unclear exactly when this was written but late in the first century perhaps it is a letter but maybe a public letter not to a specific person where was ephesus it was then on the coast but now the ruins are in modern day turkey so here we go poking into ephesians ftgog leave a comment a prayer for summer july 7 2026 interrupted by summer interrupted by thoughts of the future prayer faith fear hope love prayer raebear holy god you already know what to do what our prayers will be what our hurts are what needs healing what needs hope for us as people for us as a group of people for us as a world of people as overwhelming as it feels to me i can rest knowing you are not overwhelmed you may be heartbroken or overjoyed or deeply amazed but you are not broken or overwhelmed you will keep your mercy for us your steadfast love deeper higher richer than anything i can imagine all of us even if i in my limited knowledge would want you to cast out with gnashing of teeth quite a number of us lord you are merciful lord you forgive us lord you see us in goodness in flaws in hope in despair in truth even as i tremble at the unknown future rumbling down on us i know that you are already there and where you are hope lives ftgog leave a comment interrupted by stoic wisdom june 30 2026 interrupted by musing interrupted by the real world aching in our souls be awake caring centering hope learning love moral injury stoic wisdom raebear you know how you are the internet and one thing leads to another that s how i ended up on stoic wisdoms and this substack i can t find an about the author or how this person is an expert but i still want to share this post because it is quite interesting but perhaps to me it is interesting on a slant i ll explain all this i think starting by saying i don t really know what stoicism is is important and this blog post from stoic wisdoms is a blog spreading stoic wisdom and inspiring motivation embrace life s challenges find inner peace and cultivate resilience this person isn t just sharing what they think they have provided references and links for more the 5 most important skills to learn in 2026 april 6 2026 in short critical thinking attention management financial literacy adaptability and self reflection in each section the author explains and links to more what they mean i found this quote really interesting the stoics drew a sharp line between principles and methods principles are the deep commitments that define your character honesty courage justice self governance these don t change they shouldn t change they re the fixed point around which everything else can rotate methods are how you apply those principles in specific circumstances and methods must change because circumstances change the person who confuses their methods for their principles will fight to preserve a particular way of doing things long after that way has stopped working because abandoning the method feels like abandoning the principle the five skills this stoic wisdom writer discusses seem to me aimed at strengthening one to live a wiser life not grabbing power or following fads or sleepwalking through life but being awake perhaps i need to find time to explore this all more perhaps i don t really understand but keep reading because here is where i slant a bit i have stumbled recently upon the term moral injury here is a simple definition as best i understand it from several sites but i ll link to syracuse university site moral injury is the damage done to one s conscience or moral compass when that person perpetrates witnesses or fails to prevent acts that transgress one s own moral beliefs values or ethical codes of conduct i think or wonder that perhaps right now we all are living in a time and place where all our souls and hearts are being deeply wounded this is the ache i feel when i saw pictures of the destruction of the white house and later the destruction of having a cage fight there even more seriously the ache and tension and almost physical hurt i feel that our country is in an unjust war with iran the ache and pain of seeing witnessing so much too much of the destruction and the lies that this administration is spreading i am safe i am privileged i am ordinary yet there is no power i have to stop this spewing of hate and lies and destruction i didn t perpetrate it or want it but somehow i feel stained by it but i think this stoic post is suggesting that this control over ourselves the power to learn and care is the power we have if perhaps we in our own selves can t stop hate and lies and destruction from this administration we can feel and see and acknowledge the moral injury and not let it stop us we won t stop caring we won t stop learning we won t stop feeling we won t stop sharing right i don t mean self help exactly or empathy exactly i mean more like hope i mean more like what michelle obama s beautiful speech a few days ago as i write this articulated at the opening of barak obama s presidential library toward the end the whole thing is worth listening reading she said when we truly see each other when we strive to bring out the best in ourselves and one another oh there is no limit to how high we can go of course generally what my blog is about is scripture and jesus and church and wonder and creativity and storytelling and all that i think the strength to see to witness and to hope is for me right there in my faith not my own strength i just want to hide under the covers some days to see and listen to help to pray to be centered enough that we are each of us god s beloved child and each of us is also a sinner and we can each of us be forgiven and we can each of us strive higher it is not just my strength that i lean on right there is some tiny place of strength in me that comes from the triune god although some days are harder than others yes moral injury i think and feel is hurting each of us these days let me pray holy creator and redeemer god and god of love ground us keep us open to learning to seeing to hoping to acting as we can to taking care of our house to taking care of each other to caring heal us mend us mold us help us ftgog leave a comment a simple blog today june 23 2026 interrupted by musing my story birthday analysis fun future kate bowler layered personas past raebear hey my beloveds i want to share this delightful post by kate bowler i thought i was the only one who freaked out each year on my birthday trying to figure out if i am improving and being the best me i can be whew i m not also she brings in quotes from all sorts of people thoughts about aging how we are each a bunch of layered people and i remember from second grade so i was what about 7 in free time in class i worked on my book i wrote very carefully at shaping each letter i was w...