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Out of Egypt:Halfway to the Promised Land"God is a place you will wait for the rest of your life." |
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October 15, 2006
"Prayer/1 John 4:16-20"
My love is the son of want - Does that make it kin to lust? Christ, worker of miracles, My heart is dry before You. My devotion is coerced, a slave's love which is hidden fear. Cast me out of doubtful thought as I am thrust out in this world. Let me, a worker, have Your heart to serve, not thinking of my own.
I wrote the poem first, then remembered the passage, which I found immensely rich. Truly an answered prayer.
Now the passage:
We have known and believed the love God has for us -
-God is love.
--And he who abides in love
---abides in God, and God in him.
----Love has been perfected among us in this,
-----that we may have boldness
in the day of judgment.
------For as He is, so are we in this world.
-----There is no fear in love -
----but perfect love casts out fear,
because fear involves torment.
---He who fears has not been made perfect in love.
--We love Him
-because He first loved us.
If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar;
for he who does not love his brother, who he has seen,
how can he love God, whom he has not seen?
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[Outer chiasm] A - our knowledge: God's act for us (16a)
B - God's nature: love (16b)
C - our response: love (16c)
D - our status (positional):
abiding in God (16d)
[Inner chiasm] E - our possession: perfect love (17a)
F/f - God's purpose for that perfection/
our status (existential): boldness before God (17b)
G - central triad: likeness to Christ (positional/existential) vs. the world
F' - our status (existential): lack of fear (18a)
E/e' - God's plan: perfect love to replace fear
[End inner chiasm] vs. the world's state: remaining in fear (18b-c)
D' - our status (existential): love for God (19a)
C'/B' - God's action: prior love for us (19b)
A' - our knowledge: demonstrated
in our love for the brethren, who bear God's image (20)
[This last transitional to next section/chiastic chain.]
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Posted by donovan at 10:30 PM | Category:
Comments
I'm glad your blog is pretty now and I'm glad you have a picture of Whiskey (and Ben Hubbard).
Posted by: linnea at October 16, 2006 10:49 AMPost a comment