{"id":6760,"date":"2010-03-11T00:04:37","date_gmt":"2010-03-11T05:04:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/2010\/03\/11\/eugene-peterson-practice-resurrection-6\/"},"modified":"2010-03-11T00:04:37","modified_gmt":"2010-03-11T05:04:37","slug":"eugene-peterson-practice-resurrection-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/03\/11\/eugene-peterson-practice-resurrection-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Eugene Peterson: Practice Resurrection 6"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>


<\/b>\"Peterson.jpg\"<\/a><\/span>Eugene Peterson, in his new book,\u00a0Practice Resurrection: A Conversation on Growing Up in Christ<\/a>\"\"\u00a0<\/strong><\/em> examines the poetic significance of Ephesians 1:3-14, one long, long sentence in Greek \u2014 and it\u2019s all about God. (I post the passage after the jump.)<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
\u201c201 nouns and verbs, adverbs and adjectives, prepositions and conjunctions cascading off Paul\u2019s pen!\u201d (55).<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The passage is about God, and it reminds me of this question:\u00a0<\/div>\n
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How can we learn to be better \u201ctheo\u201dcentric Bible readers? How can we learn to focus on God more?<\/b><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
He observes:<\/div>\n
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\u201cWe have short attention spans. Having been introduced to God, we soon lose interest in God and \u00a0become preoccupied \u00a0with ourselves. Self expands and soul atrophies. Psychology trumps theology. \u2026 [And this] usually adds up to a workable life \u2026 But \u2014 it is not the practice of resurrection, it is not growing up in Christ, it is not living in the company of the Trinity, it is not living out of our beginnings, our begettings\u201d (56).<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Nine verbs of what God does\/did: blessed, chose, destined, bestowed, lavished, made known and gather up. [These are his list; I have emboldened some others that English readers might observe.]\n
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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Ephesians 1:3-14:<\/div>\n
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\n
1:3<\/span>\u00a0Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed<\/b> us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ.\u00a01:4<\/span>\u00a0For he chose<\/b> us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we may be holy and unblemished in his sight in love.\u00a01:5<\/span>\u00a0He did this by predestining<\/b> us to adoption as his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the pleasure of his will \u2013\u00a01:6<\/span>\u00a0to the praise of the glory of his grace that he has freely bestowed<\/b> on us in his dearly loved Son.\u00a01:7<\/span>\u00a0In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace\u00a01:8<\/span>\u00a0that he lavished<\/b> on us in all wisdom and insight.\u00a01:9<\/span>\u00a0He did this when he revealed<\/b> to us the secret of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ,\u00a01:10<\/span>\u00a0toward the administration of the fullness of the times, to head<\/b> up all things in Christ \u2013 the things in heaven and the things on earth.\u00a01:11<\/span>\u00a0In Christ we too have been claimed<\/b> as God\u2019s own possession, since we were predestined according to the one purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will\u00a01:12<\/span>\u00a0so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, would be to the praise of his glory.\u00a01:13<\/span>\u00a0And when you heard the word of truth (the gospel of your salvation) \u2013 when you believed in Christ \u2013 you were marked<\/b> with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit,\u00a01:14<\/span>\u00a0who is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of God\u2019s own possession, to the praise of his glory.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eugene Peterson, in his new book,\u00a0Practice Resurrection: A Conversation on Growing Up in Christ\u00a0 examines the poetic significance of Ephesians 1:3-14, one long, long sentence in Greek \u2014 and it\u2019s all about God. (I post the passage after the jump.) \u201c201 nouns and verbs, adverbs and adjectives, prepositions and conjunctions cascading off Paul\u2019s pen!\u201d (55). […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nEugene Peterson: Practice Resurrection 6<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Eugene Peterson, in his new book, Practice Resurrection: A Conversation on Growing Up in Christ  examines the poetic significance of Ephesians\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/03\/11\/eugene-peterson-practice-resurrection-6\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Eugene Peterson: Practice Resurrection 6\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Eugene Peterson, in his new book, Practice Resurrection: A Conversation on Growing Up in Christ  examines the poetic significance of Ephesians\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/03\/11\/eugene-peterson-practice-resurrection-6\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-03-11T05:04:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/assets_c\/2010\/02\/Peterson-thumb-333x317-11765.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/03\/11\/eugene-peterson-practice-resurrection-6\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/03\/11\/eugene-peterson-practice-resurrection-6\/\",\"name\":\"Eugene Peterson: Practice Resurrection 6\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-03-11T05:04:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-03-11T05:04:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"Eugene Peterson, in his new book, Practice Resurrection: A Conversation on Growing Up in Christ  examines the poetic significance of Ephesians\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/03\/11\/eugene-peterson-practice-resurrection-6\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/03\/11\/eugene-peterson-practice-resurrection-6\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/03\/11\/eugene-peterson-practice-resurrection-6\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Eugene Peterson: Practice Resurrection 6\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. 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