The Chamber
One saying. Shut the door. Answer the question underneath it.
Twelve of his own sentences, in the American Standard Version of 1901. Draw one, read it twice, and write one honest line in reply — on paper, where it counts.
The Pharisees ask when the kingdom of God will come.
The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo, here! or, There! for lo, the kingdom of God is within you.
Luke 17:20–21 · ASV 1901
If you believe him, the search is over and the excavation begins. What buried room is he pointing at, and what tool do you pick up first?
On how to pray, in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount.
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret shall recompense thee.
Matthew 6:6 · ASV 1901
He gave a location, not a mood. When did you last go in on purpose, and what door would have to shut for you to try tonight?
Two verses after he told them where their treasure was.
The lamp of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
Matthew 6:22 · ASV 1901
Your attention is the lamp, and it is currently split how many ways? Name the division that costs you the most light.
Spoken to fishermen and tax collectors, not to saints.
Ye are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid.
Matthew 5:14 · ASV 1901
He said are, not could become. Where have you agreed to be smaller than the thing he called you?
In the farewell discourse, the night before the cross.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do.
John 14:12 · ASV 1901
Greater. He said greater. What would you have to stop believing about yourself for that sentence to be operative?
They took up stones to kill him. He answered from their own law.
Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?
John 10:34 · ASV 1901
The reflex that reached for stones is still alive, and some of it lives in you. What in you flinches at that verse, and who taught it to flinch?
On asking, and on not stopping.
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
Luke 11:9–10 · ASV 1901
Three verbs, all continuous. What are you quietly asking for, and when did you last say it with clear intent instead of hoping it was overheard?
Immediately after he said no one can serve two masters.
Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than the food, and the body than the raiment?
Matthew 6:25 · ASV 1901
He treated anxiety as a command you can decline. Which anxious thought have you been obeying as though it were a landlord?
To the crowd that called him Lord and then went home unchanged.
And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?
Luke 6:46 · ASV 1901
This is the whole question of the book, asked in his voice. Answer it plainly, in one sentence, without softening it.
To those who had just begun to believe him.
If ye abide in my word, then are ye truly my disciples; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
John 8:31–32 · ASV 1901
He did not say the report of the truth. He said the knowing of it. Where have you settled for the report?
Coming down from the withered fig tree.
All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have them.
Mark 11:24 · ASV 1901
Believe you have received, past tense, before the evidence. What would today look like if you lived one hour as though it were already answered?
The High Priestly Prayer: the last thing he asked for, and it was about you.
That they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us.
John 17:21 · ASV 1901
This was the ask on his last night. What would it mean to live from that oneness rather than toward it?
Canonical text: American Standard Version, 1901, public domain. The Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Mary Magdalene appear in full in the printed volume in the public-domain translations of Mark M. Mattison.
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