{"id":11590,"date":"2024-05-05T10:30:41","date_gmt":"2024-05-05T15:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?p=11590"},"modified":"2025-03-06T21:59:53","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T02:59:53","slug":"inside-out-upside-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?p=11590","title":{"rendered":"Inside-Out, Upside-Down"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2W-zCUl7uS4?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>(<a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=1%20John%205%3A1-6&amp;version=NIV\">1 John 5:1-6<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>[\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.poetryfoundation.org\/poems\/44433\/abou-ben-adhem\">Abou Ben Adhem<\/a>,\u201d by <a class=\"link-underline-off link-red\" href=\"https:\/\/www.poetryfoundation.org\/poets\/leigh-hunt\">Leigh Hunt<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>I first encountered that poem when I was younger than Iain is now, I think, and it\u2019s stayed with me ever since\u2014not because it\u2019s poetically great, but because it\u2019s a fascinating scene.\u00a0 I could easily start analyzing it as I would an Old Testament narrative\u2014if the angel was there, God must have sent the angel, and obviously God knew what would happen, so . . . \u2014and I\u2019d be off to the races.\u00a0 That would be piling far too much weight on it, of course, but the poem <em>is<\/em> making a theological point:\u00a0 we can only love other people because of the love of God, and so to the extent that we do love others, it\u2019s a sign of the love of God at work in our hearts.<\/p>\n<p>Which is true, and one of those truths which sounds very noble and high-minded, especially if one wants\u2014as it seems Leigh Hunt, who wrote \u201cAbou Ben Adhem,\u201d did\u2014to argue the position that all religions are fundamentally the same, all lead to God, etc.\u00a0 At first blush, it seems freeing; you don\u2019t have to worry about anything specific the Bible teaches, or any other religion, because as long as you love other people, you\u2019re good.\u00a0 But here\u2019s the kicker:\u00a0 that\u2019s a move away from a divinely-revealed faith toward human religion, and as I\u2019ve noted recently, that means legalism.\u00a0 What does it mean to love other people, and how do we know if we\u2019re doing it right, or if we\u2019re doing it <em>enough<\/em>?\u00a0 All well and good if you have an angel show up in your bedroom to tell you, but what about the rest of us?<\/p>\n<p>I get teased a little for my insistence that we have to define our terms\u2014which makes me smile, because it makes me feel <em>seen<\/em>\u2014but no word ever actually goes <em>undefined<\/em>; it\u2019s just that if we don\u2019t get the definitions out into the open at the beginning, we don\u2019t know what definitions everyone is using or who\u2019s determining them, and so we\u2019re playing by someone else\u2019s rules without knowing it.\u00a0 That\u2019s especially true when we\u2019re using a big, loaded word like \u201clove.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cAll you need is love\u201d sounds great when you have John, Paul, and George on guitar with Ringo on the drums, but what happens when you get down to brass tacks?<\/p>\n<p>Well, what happens is what always happens:\u00a0 the law of love yields to the love of law, and the people who get to decide what it means to be loving make all the rules and judge you for breaking them.\u00a0 <!--more-->Which is why, within the church, our passage from 1 John this morning\u2014the whole book, really\u2014so easily and so often becomes a burden piled on the backs of the people of God.\u00a0 What does it mean to love?\u00a0 It means to obey all God\u2019s commandments\u2014and more than that, to find it <em>easy<\/em> to obey God\u2019s commandments.\u00a0 It means we have to love one another\u2014which in practice means we\u2019re graded on whether those around us feel loved or not, and the one who uses the most red ink usually determines the grade\u2014and we have to defeat the evil in our world.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t do all these things, it proves you don\u2019t <em>really<\/em> have faith, you don\u2019t <em>really<\/em> believe Jesus is the Son of God, and thus you aren\u2019t <em>really<\/em> a Christian.\u00a0 It\u2019s right there in the Bible.<\/p>\n<p>Is that really what John is on about?\u00a0 No; but it\u2019s so easy to tell it like that\u2014legalism is our native language, morally speaking, and translating our understanding into the language of grace is hard.\u00a0 When we hear commands and talk about obedience, we naturally go to law, and we tend to stick there.\u00a0 Given that, rather than trying to lay out John\u2019s argument step by step from start to finish, let\u2019s jump to the end and work backwards:\u00a0 <em>this is not law, it is grace<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>That might not sound like a radical statement to you; if it doesn\u2019t, count yourself richly blessed.\u00a0 The church over the centuries has proven itself gifted and efficient at turning gospel into law.\u00a0 I first realized the extent to which that\u2019s true in 2012 when I began my project on the Sermon on the Mount and discovered two things.\u00a0 One, not only are the Beatitudes commonly taught as law\u2014which, when I really thought about it, seemed outrageously silly\u2014<em>I<\/em> had been taught them as law, and needed to dismantle my own understanding of them before I could come at them right-way-round.\u00a0 Two, almost everyone has taught the Sermon as a whole as law\u2014even Luther and Calvin, two of the greatest preachers of grace in the history of the church.\u00a0 If we can take \u201cBlessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness\u2019 sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,\u201d as a command to be followed, what odds we do any better with 1 John?<\/p>\n<p>You know the answer\u2014not very good.\u00a0 New Testament scholar Gary Burge tells this story:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Last spring I was explaining to an introductory New Testament class Paul\u2019s view of grace as it appears in Galatians. \u00a0Paul shares John\u2019s opinion that it was God\u2019s love expressed in Christ that inspires the Christian life . . . law by itself simply triggers rebellion. \u00a0Then I tried an experiment. \u00a0I asked all forty students to write a one-page essay analyzing whether their lives had been shaped by the threat of law or the wonder of God\u2019s grace. \u00a0I was devastated by the results. \u00a0Over 90 percent of the class [said] the possibility of God\u2019s disfavor and wrath had shaped their Christian outlook since childhood. \u00a0God\u2019s unending love was not foremost in their minds, but his possible displeasure was. \u00a0Christianity, they reported, was <em>really<\/em> <em>about following the rules<\/em>. \u00a0When I told them it was not, you could hear a pin drop. . . .<\/p>\n<p>I do not believe . . . my student sampling was unusual. \u00a0These were mature young men and women who came from strong evangelical churches and families. \u00a0And their reflex was to please God <em>so that<\/em> he would continue to favor them. \u00a0They had not learned to please God because he already favored them. . . .\u00a0 The following was written by a 21-year-old student who is a strong, knowledgeable evangelical . . . in a term paper describing the justice of God.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel like God punishes me for sins all of the time. \u00a0I feel that there is always something I am being punished for. \u00a0I know that is impossible because there are not enough minutes in the day for God to punish us. \u00a0I probably should not call it punishment, but that is the way I feel about God\u2019s justice. \u00a0I know of God\u2019s love and blessings for me and for that I am eternally grateful and thankful. \u00a0But I live with this fear that one mess-up and I will be punished again.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Consider that, and look back up the page to 4:18:\u00a0 \u201cPerfect love casts out fear\u201d\u2014why?\u00a0 Because \u201c<em>fear has to do with punishment<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 Burge observes,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>An immediate reaction among students\u2014and even some colleagues\u2014is the fear that without some disciplinary threat, without law, such generous love could be exploited. \u00a0No doubt that is true. \u00a0I am quite sure that Paul\u2019s opponents in Galatia were saying the same thing. \u00a0But it is striking that both John and Paul are willing to endure that risk. . . .\u00a0 Fear is not a primary pastoral tool.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The truth is, the gospel puts obedience to God\u2014for believers\u2014on a completely different foundation than punishment; the problem is that the temptation to legalism is constantly pulling us back toward paganism, which is vending-machine religion.\u00a0 The upside to that, and one of the reasons for its appeal, is that if you put the right spiritual coin in the god machine and push the right button, you are promised to get exactly what you want\u2014none of this \u201cGod giving you what you need instead\u201d stuff.\u00a0 The downside is, if you do it <em>wrong<\/em>, or if you refuse to comply, the vending machine topples over on you.\u00a0 To quote that unnamed student, \u201cone mess-up and [you] will be punished.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The problem with pagan deities is they only care about themselves, not about you; their \u201clove\u201d for you is entirely conditional, predicated on your giving them what they want.\u00a0 The one true God relates to each of us on a completely different basis.\u00a0 It\u2019s common to say his love for us is unconditional, but that\u2019s not actually right; that might sound like I\u2019m pushing back on that idea, but I think I\u2019m actually pushing it further.\u00a0 I\u2019m indebted on this point to David Powlison, a Christian counselor and writer\u2014for longtime VSF folks, Powlison is one of the few figures in the realm of Christian counseling of similar stature and influence to Larry Crabb.\u00a0 In his seminal article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ccef.org\/idols-heart-and-vanity-fair\">\u201cIdols of the Heart<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/ccefcontrol.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/JBC-Article-Vol-27-Issue-3_5-Revisiting_Idols_of_the_Heart_and_Vanity_Fair-Powlison.pdf\"> and \u2018Vanity Fair,\u2019\u201d<\/a> Powlison writes,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The gospel is better than unconditional love. \u00a0The gospel says, \u201cGod accepts <em>you<\/em> just as <em>Christ<\/em> is. \u00a0God has \u2018contraconditional\u2019 love for you.\u201d\u00a0 Christ bears the curse you deserve. \u00a0Christ is fully pleasing to the Father and gives you his own perfect goodness. \u00a0Christ reigns in power, making you the Father\u2019s child and coming close to you to begin to change what is unacceptable to God about you. \u00a0God never accepts me \u201cas I am.\u201d He accepts me \u201cas I am in Jesus Christ.\u201d\u00a0 The center of gravity is different. \u00a0The true gospel does not allow God\u2019s love to be sucked into the vortex of the soul\u2019s lust for acceptability and worth in and of itself. \u00a0Rather, it radically decenters people\u2014what the Bible calls \u201cfear of the Lord\u201d and \u201cfaith\u201d\u2014to look outside themselves.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>To say God loves us just as we are is still us-dependent.\u00a0 It can leave the door open for fear\u2014after all, to say God loves me just as I am <em>now<\/em> isn\u2019t necessarily to say he\u2019ll still love me when I\u2019m <em>different<\/em>; then too, conditions can always be added later, and God does seem to talk an awful lot about obedience.\u00a0 Alternatively, we can slide into complacency\u2014I\u2019m good, so I don\u2019t need to change . . . which means I don\u2019t need to grow.\u00a0 Maybe you\u2019ve never seen a church led by people who stopped growing decades ago, but I have.\u00a0 It ain\u2019t pretty.<\/p>\n<p><em>As we are in Christ<\/em> is a fundamentally different basis for God\u2019s love for us, because it will never change even as we most definitely will.\u00a0 We are <em>not<\/em> perfectly fine as we are, and so we <em>are being<\/em> remade.\u00a0 At the same time, the work is already done, the battle won\u2014we <em>have been<\/em> remade.\u00a0 We don\u2019t see the finished work yet, of course, but in our experience we <em>will be<\/em> remade.\u00a0 God\u2019s perfect love casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment, and everything for which we might be punished has already been taken into account\u2014and already taken to the cross.<\/p>\n<p>That said, while we don\u2019t have to obey God to earn his favor, we shouldn\u2019t be surprised when John calls us to obey God\u2019s commandments; accepting God\u2019s free gift, by the very nature of that gift, presents us with a few challenges.\u00a0 For one, as John puts it, if you love the Father, you will love the Father\u2019s other children, too.\u00a0 To use one of Paul\u2019s metaphors, if you love Jesus, you will love his Bride, the church, as well.\u00a0 Last May at a presbytery meeting, I heard Dean Weaver speak about that\u2014he\u2019s the chief executive and chief shepherd of my denomination, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church; he had not wanted to leave his church in Pittsburgh to take that position, but he felt compelled to do so because, as he said repeatedly, \u201cI love the Bride.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At one point, Dean said\u2014I\u2019m paraphrasing here\u2014\u201cIf you tell me you don\u2019t much care for me but you think my wife is wonderful, fair enough.\u00a0 If you tell me you think the world of me but can\u2019t stand my wife, we have a problem.\u201d\u00a0 I would say much the same, and listening to Dean, I realized that my commitment to the church and to preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ has the same heartbeat as his:\u00a0 for all she\u2019s tried to kill me, I love the Bride.\u00a0 And I should; that\u2019s how it should be.\u00a0 To shift back to John\u2019s image, everyone who believes in Jesus is family.\u00a0 We don\u2019t have to like them much, but they\u2019re ours to love anyway.<\/p>\n<p>Now, as I say that, remember Jesus\u2019 definition of love, and therefore John\u2019s, is not the same as ours.\u00a0 As I noted a few minutes ago, the world\u2019s criterion is usually whether or not the other person <em>feels<\/em> loved, but John doesn\u2019t use that measure because Jesus didn\u2019t.\u00a0 John measures our love for others by the degree to which we\u2019re obeying God\u2019s commandments; no doubt he remembered Jesus\u2019 admonition recorded in Luke 14:26:\u00a0 \u201cIf anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters\u2014yes, even their own life\u2014such a person cannot be my disciple.\u201d\u00a0 No, we\u2019re not supposed to <em>actually<\/em> hate anyone, but we\u2019re called to obey Jesus even when those around us want us to do something completely different.\u00a0 If we want to be his disciples, we need to stand before those who will call us haters, traitors, and conflict instigators, accept that they have made their judgment, and follow him anyway.<\/p>\n<p>Which means, in part, to love them anyway\u2014and to love them how?\u00a0 <em>Contraconditionally<\/em>.\u00a0 Not to commit to love them \u201cif they . . .\u201d [fill in the blank].\u00a0 Not because we find a way to convince ourselves they\u2019re acceptable just they way they are.\u00a0 God calls us to love them <em>as they are in Christ<\/em>\u2014which means learning to <em>see<\/em> them as they are in Christ, not just as they are in this world.\u00a0 Easier said than done, to be sure, but the thing about what you see is that it tends to have a lot to do with what you\u2019re looking for.\u00a0 Do we look at people with the hope of seeing what they are becoming in Christ, or are we looking for something else?<\/p>\n<p>Of course, even if we learn to see others as they are in Christ, <em>loving<\/em> them that way still isn\u2019t easy\u2014especially when they\u2019re calling us haters for obeying Jesus instead of them; and yet John says, \u201cLoving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome,\u201d which sure sounds like <em>he<\/em> thinks it\u2019s easy.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the thing, though:\u00a0 not <em>burdensome<\/em> doesn\u2019t mean not <em>hard<\/em>, not <em>costly<\/em>, or not <em>painful<\/em>.\u00a0 It\u2019s not about how <em>easy<\/em> it is to obey God\u2019s commandments, it\u2019s about our <em>attitude toward<\/em> his commandments.\u00a0 We still find some of them fiercely hard, but the more we\u2019re filled with and shaped by his love, the less we see them as burdens to bear and the more we see them as a clarion call to a better way to live.<\/p>\n<p>To give you an illustration, one of the best things ever about being a fan of the Seattle Seahawks was watching our Hall of Fame left tackle, Walter Jones.\u00a0 Big Walt would drive defensive linemen back ten yards before they knew what had happened.\u00a0 On pass plays, he\u2019d stretch out one arm, grab a pass rusher, and put him flat on his back.\u00a0 He was as big and strong as a truck\u2014and he got that way by pushing them around.\u00a0 Literally.\u00a0 Part of his workout every offseason was pushing a three-ton Escalade around a big parking lot near his house.\u00a0 You\u2019d see pictures, and from his face the man was in pain.\u00a0 That <em>hurt<\/em> to do.\u00a0 But was it burdensome?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 He did it gladly, even joyfully.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because that\u2019s part of what it took for him to be what he wanted to be\u2014a dominant, Hall-of-Fame force at one of the game\u2019s key positions.\u00a0 That struggle wasn\u2019t a burden, it was a blessing, because through it, he grew, he got better, and the physical gifts God gave him were realized in his performance on the football field.<\/p>\n<p>The bottom line here is twofold.\u00a0 One, God\u2019s purpose is to build us up in integrity, not just as individuals but as a community:\u00a0 as we are being made one with Christ and made whole in ourselves, we are being made one with one another and made whole as his body.\u00a0 Two, <em>God<\/em> is doing the work, through his Son our Lord Jesus Christ, by the power of his Holy Spirit.\u00a0 He isn\u2019t doing it from the top down, through the power of laws and rules and regulations, enforced by the fear and pain of punishment; he\u2019s doing it from the inside out, by the power of love.\u00a0 Jesus has made his home in us, filling us with his love, so we can make our home in him.\u00a0 Our part is not to create our own integrity, individual or corporate, by our own efforts, out of our own wisdom; our part is to receive and respond to his contraconditional love for us, and thus to let him draw us into his slipstream, to be carried along in the work he\u2019s already doing.\u00a0 Our part is to pray, in the words of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=pIyr1PIMWgw&amp;pp=ygUOV29vZCBhbmQgTmFpbHM%3D\">our next song<\/a>, \u201cTeach me how to work and praise trusting that I am your instrument. . . .\u00a0 Send me out within your ways knowing that the task is finished.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That means, as Larry Crabb put it, the pressure\u2019s off:\u00a0 the instrument isn\u2019t responsible to bring the work to successful conclusion, only to participate in it.\u00a0 If the task is already finished, we can\u2019t ruin it, only contribute to it.\u00a0 The Lord has already built his table, and he has already prepared it for us.\u00a0 The promise made is already kept, sure as sunrise:\u00a0 we will gather with him around this table, and not only will we get to eat with him, we\u2019ll get to serve with him.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/sarairachel\/7899129216\">\u201cOptical Illusion?\u2014Sunken City\u201d<\/a> <em>\u00a9 2012 <a id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1741032698115_2721\" class=\"owner-name truncate\" title=\"Go to Rachel Samanyi\u2019s photostream\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/sarairachel\/\" rel=\"author\" data-track=\"attributionNameClick\">Rachel Samanyi<\/a>; image has been cropped slightly to fit.\u00a0 License:\u00a0 <a class=\"extiw\" title=\"w:en:Creative Commons\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/en:Creative_Commons\">Creative Commons <\/a><\/em><em><a class=\"extiw\" title=\"creativecommons:by-sa\/4.0\/deed.en\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0\/\">Attribution 2.0 Generic<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(1 John 5:1-6) [\u201cAbou Ben Adhem,\u201d by Leigh Hunt] I first encountered that poem when I was younger than Iain is now, I think, and it\u2019s stayed with me ever since\u2014not because it\u2019s poetically great, but because it\u2019s a fascinating scene.\u00a0 I could easily start analyzing it as I would an Old Testament narrative\u2014if the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[45,66],"tags":[138],"class_list":["post-11590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sermons","category-video","tag-integrity-coherence-and-goodness","post-with-thumbnail","post-with-thumbnail-large"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6R3Ax-30W","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1364,"url":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?p=1364","url_meta":{"origin":11590,"position":0},"title":"Seven stanzas for Easter","author":"Rob Harrison","date":"13 April 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm not sure why I didn't think to post this earlier; John Updike is best known for his prose, but this poem is a jewel. Seven Stanzas for Easter Make no mistake: if he rose at all It was as His body; If the cell\u2019s dissolution did not reverse, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Poetry and lyrics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Poetry and lyrics","link":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?cat=106"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1082,"url":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?p=1082","url_meta":{"origin":11590,"position":1},"title":"Doers of the word","author":"Rob Harrison","date":"22 November 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. \u2014James 1:22 (ESV) When it comes to the Christian life, what matters most\u00a0isn\u2019t how much we know (or think we know), or how good we are at\u00a0saying the right things.\u00a0 It isn't\u00a0how much of God\u2019s word we\u2019ve read, or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Religion and theology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Religion and theology","link":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?cat=65"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rjaharrison.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Cloud-Gate-at-Dawn.jpg?fit=1200%2C805&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rjaharrison.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Cloud-Gate-at-Dawn.jpg?fit=1200%2C805&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rjaharrison.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Cloud-Gate-at-Dawn.jpg?fit=1200%2C805&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rjaharrison.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Cloud-Gate-at-Dawn.jpg?fit=1200%2C805&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rjaharrison.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Cloud-Gate-at-Dawn.jpg?fit=1200%2C805&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1063,"url":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?p=1063","url_meta":{"origin":11590,"position":2},"title":"Our hands-on God","author":"Rob Harrison","date":"4 October 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Don\u2019t be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Religion and theology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Religion and theology","link":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?cat=65"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":952,"url":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?p=952","url_meta":{"origin":11590,"position":3},"title":"Hymn for Advent\u2014more than I knew","author":"Rob Harrison","date":"3 December 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Of the Father\u2019s Love Begotten Of the Father\u2019s love begotten, ere the worlds began to be, He is Alpha and Omega, He the source, the ending He, Of the things that are, that have been, And that future years shall see, evermore and evermore! At His Word the worlds were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Poetry and lyrics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Poetry and lyrics","link":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?cat=106"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1515,"url":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?p=1515","url_meta":{"origin":11590,"position":4},"title":"Yet at present","author":"Rob Harrison","date":"4 February 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.\u00a0 For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?\u00a0 This salvation,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Religion and theology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Religion and theology","link":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?cat=65"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rjaharrison.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/I-read-the-news-today-cropped.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rjaharrison.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/I-read-the-news-today-cropped.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rjaharrison.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/I-read-the-news-today-cropped.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rjaharrison.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/I-read-the-news-today-cropped.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":178,"url":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?p=178","url_meta":{"origin":11590,"position":5},"title":"Bearing Witness","author":"Rob Harrison","date":"27 November 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"(Malachi 2:17-3:4, 4:5-6; Luke 1:1-25)There aren\u2019t all that many hymns for Advent. We have a lot of hymns for Christmas, of course, and a lot for Easter, and there are quite a number that work well for Lent, focusing on the sacrifice of Christ; but for Advent, not so many,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sermons&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sermons","link":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?cat=45"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rjaharrison.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Optical-Illusion-Sunken-City-cropped-16x9-2.jpg?fit=2048%2C1100&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11590"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11592,"href":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11590\/revisions\/11592"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}