A QBI “Main Scripture Index” for the Epistle to the Colossians, Part 2

Dear Friends,
What follows is the second half (covering chapters 3 and 4) of the newly finished Main Scripture Index for the Epistle to the Colossians, which I have prepared for addition to the Quaker Bible Index (the “QBI”), an online resource currently hosted by Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, USA. Its web address is https://qbi.earlham.edu/ . By navigating to that web address, you may access the Introduction, the Key to sources, Main scripture indexes for other books of the Bible, and other parts of the QBI that will help you understand and use the data arrayed below. I especially recommend your reading the Key to sources and making your own printout of it until you can remember, without referring to it, that GF7: 167 is a reference to page 167 in volume 7 of George Fox’s 8-volume Works, and IP3: 533 is a reference to page 533 in volume 3 of Isaac Penington’s Works.
Unfortunately, I’m reliably informed that Earlham College currently lacks the resources to repair broken links in the QBI, or to add new books of the Bible to its Main Scripture Indexes. For that reason, as the current custodian of the QBI, I’m seeking a new institutional host for the QBI. Until a suitable institution is found, I can’t make “dead” links in this new Main Scripture Index “live,” or, as I’d prefer to say, to make as-yet-unawakened hypertext links in it become operative. But if, as and when the Lord wills, I trust, that necessary help will come. And in the meantime, I continue to do what I can do best, which is, at the current moment, turn the Summary index for the Acts of the Apostles into a Main scripture index. If you feel an inward motion to pray for this work, I’ll be grateful for your obedience to it.
— John Jeremiah Edminster, 9 Twelfth Month 2023

https://tinyurl.com/QBI-Col-3-4

A heart that’s right in the sight of God

“Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right in the sight of God,” said Peter to Simon Magus (Acts 8:21) in a rebuke that, happily, triggered Simon’s repentance. The original Greek for “heart right in the sight of God” is kardia eutheia enanti tou theou, and the word here translated as “right,” eutheia, is more properly translated “straight.” Its adverbial forms eutheōs and euthys convey the notion of an immediate consequence, as when Jesus performs a healing in the Gospel of Mark and eutheōs, “straightway,” the hemorrhage stops, the damsel rises from the dead, or the deaf man’s ears are opened. A heart “straight” in this sense would answer the Holy Spirit’s promptings straightway.

I went to bed last night thinking that a heart that’s right in the sight of God is the most precious thing I could ask for.  This morning I read, somewhere in the Philokalia, that it’s more to be desired than the joys of Heaven, because if my heart were not right, and steadfastly so, I’d go plummeting from Paradise just as Adam, Eve and Satan did. O Lord, make my heart steadfast and keep it steadfast, in Jesus’ name. I feel it wavering from steadfastness every time I’m tempted to say something hurtful in anger or take pleasure in someone else’s real or imagined pain. I want a straight heart that stays straight, fit always to stand in Your holy, enlightening and all-healing Presence until I’m absorbed back into Your Unity. And since I believe that this is what You intend for me and for all living creatures that I love, I thank You now and always for our salvation; Amen.

Yesterday I had a conversation with a Friend who was concerned that our Friends’ meeting, and maybe the whole Religious Society of Friends, was a “declining institution.” He shared with me a letter he’d gotten last year from another Friend who’d left our meeting in deep disappointment over our members’ behavior. Mention of the often inane and ego-driven messages we hear in meeting for worship made my anger rise, and I imagined raging at the meeting that those who were breaking the silence with junk ministry were damnable blasphemers, defiling their neighbors’ attempts to have communion with God with their narcissistic insistence on getting others’ attention on their own selfish thoughts! And  so on and on. I rolled Ezekiel 16:63 around in my mouth like a delicious throat-lozenge of fire. And the day before that, I’d had a conversation with a young man who’d withdrawn his interest in becoming a member because of our “disorganization.” Don’t get me started on others’ failures to be organized! I hear my late father’s voice echoing in the back of my heart: “When are you going to get organized!?” How intolerant of others my own shame can make me!

And then this morning, as I prayed for a heart that’s right in the sight of God, it came to me that I was praying alongside countless others who were praying to God for the same thing, many in tears, many with hearts purer than my own. It also came to me to tell my Friend that it didn’t matter whether we were a declining institution or a thriving institution, the only real question was whether he wanted a heart that’s right in the sight of God; and if he did, he’d find at least one other person at our meeting that wanted the same thing, and who would pray for his steadfastness in wanting it, and would commit to encouraging him to persevere. But then, he might find that somewhere else, too. The Holy Spirit would tell him where to go on Sunday mornings, and I hope, of course, that he’d go there straightway.