Outformed
The following Family Table Devotion is a reprise from August 2020.
Outformed
I’m not sure if you have noticed, we are coming up to an election in a couple of weeks. In a letter from Thomas Jefferson to Richard Price, Jefferson writes, ” Wherever the people are well informed they can be trusted with their own government.” Information, we need information! Parenthetically, Jefferson writes a few sentences prior, “I concur with you strictly in your opinion of the comparative merits of atheism & demonism, and really see nothing but the latter in the being worshipped by many who think themselves Christians.” Ah, Jefferson, what a character! Information, please.
Now this article is not about information, elections, media sources, Jefferson, atheism, or demonism; but it could be. All of the preceding try to form you, maybe reform you, maybe inform you. And many, myself included, feel bombarded and overwhelmed with information that is illogical, biased, and lacking content or meaning. That’s the good kind! The bad kind contains half-truths, out right lies, and worse. (Demonism being worshipped by Christians????) How does one “unplug” and yet remain informed?
No, this devotion is about being “outformed.” By that I mean just the opposite of “informed.” The stuff that is coming out of us, not the stuff going in. What others see, both in us and through us. Jesus said, “Everyone, listen to me and understand. There is nothing outside of a man that can make him unclean by going into him. But the things that come out of a man are what make a man unclean. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!”
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%207&version=EHV>
And Paul, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance so that we would walk in them.”
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+2&version=EHV>
Let’s do a case study. Joseph and his “special robe (EHV)” from Genesis 37. Remove all human judgement and cultural bias, if we can. Joseph, a teenager [no generational politics either!], the father’s favorite son, who brought a bad report on his older brothers to his father. Dreams shared, hate and jealousy kindled, plot for murder, sold into slavery, off to Egypt. (That’s the Reader’s Digest version.) The story of Joseph runs another twelve chapters to the end of Genesis. Joseph throughout his life lived as Pharaoh said to his officials, “Can we find anyone else like this man, a man who has the spirit of God?” [Genesis 41:38 EHV]. In Israel’s final blessing he says of Joseph, “His arms and hands were made strong by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, by the name of the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel.” [Genesis 49:24 EHV] Did the “outformed” Joseph “miss the mark”? Yes, sometimes. Did the outformed Joseph have an easy life? Absolutely not!
You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring this to pass and to keep many people alive, as it is this day.
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+50&version=EHV>
The world may look at the outformed you and react badly.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, because theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven. In fact, that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%205&version=EHV>
The world may look at the outformed you and react nicely.
In the same way let your light shine in people’s presence, so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%205&version=EHV>
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance so that we would walk in them. (Sited above!)
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will endure, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. These things I am instructing you, so that you love one another. “If the world hates you, you know that it hated me first. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, for that very reason the world hates you. Remember the saying I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you too. If they held on to my word, they will hold on to yours as well.
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2015&version=EHV>
Informed, conformed, outformed. I didn’t mention conformed, did I? Where did conformed come from? Here!
Promises have consequences
Trust the Promises
Steve Skiver