Sunday, April 22, 2012
Led by Eric Gintert
What is meditation? Is it reflecting on the past... what you've done whether good or bad? No, this is the worldly definition of meditation. Biblical meditation is God centered (not self centered) in God's Word.
It's important for babes in Christ, as well as the spiritually mature to meditate on God and His Word. (1 Peter 2:2 & Hebrews 5:12-14). Reading the Bible in a year is a religious exercise that doesn't profit much unless your heart is in it.
Man's teaching and labor in God's Word is to replace personal meditation on God.
"Why is Meditation so Powerful?" by Bill Gothard
.... also read "What is Scripture Meditation"
"Meditating on God" by A.W. Tozer (excerpt from "That Incredible Christian")
Among Christians of all ages and of varying shades of doctrinal emphasis there has been fairly full agreement on one thing: They all believed that it was important that the Christian with serious spiritual aspirations should learn to meditate long and often on God.
Let a Christian insist upon rising above the poor average of current religious experience and he will soon come up against the need to know God Himself as the ultimate goal of all Christian doctrine. Let him seek to explore the sacred wonders of the Triune Godhead and he will discover that sustained and intelligently directed meditation on the Person of God is imperative. To know God well he must think on Him unceasingly. Nothing that man has discovered about himself or God has revealed any short cut to pure spirituality. It is still free, but tremendously costly.
Of course this presupposes at least a fair amount of sound theological knowledge. To seek God apart from His own self-disclosure in the inspired Scriptures is not only futile but dangerous. There must be also a knowledge of and complete trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Redeemer. Christ is not one of many ways to approach God, nor is He the best of several ways; He is the only way. “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). To believe otherwise is to be something less than a Christian.
I am convinced that the dearth of great saints in these times even among those who truly believe in Christ is due at least in part to our unwillingness to give sufficient time to the cultivation of the knowledge of God. We of the nervous West are victims of the philosophy of activism tragically misunderstood. Getting and spending, going and returning, organizing and promoting, buying and selling, working and playing—this alone constitutes living. If we are not making plans or working to carry out plans already made we feel that we are failures, that we are sterile, unfruitful eunuchs, parasites on the body of society. The gospel of work, as someone has called it, has crowded out the gospel of Christ in many Christian churches.
In an effort to get the work of the Lord done we often lose contact with the Lord of the work and quite literally wear our people out as well. I have heard more than one pastor boast that his church was a “live” one, pointing to the printed calendar as a proof—something on every night and several meetings during the day. Of course this proves nothing except that the pastor and the church are being guided by a bad spiritual philosophy. A great many of these timeconsuming activities are useless and others plain ridiculous. “But,” say the eager beavers who run the religious squirrel cages, “they provide fellowship and they hold our people together.”
To this I reply that what they provide is not fellowship at all, and if that is the best thing the church has to offer to hold the people together it is not a Christian church in the New Testament meaning of that word. The center of attraction in a true church is the Lord Jesus Christ. As for fellowship, let the Holy Spirit define it for us: “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.” (Acts 2:42)
The worldly man never rest. He must have “somewhere to go’’ and “something to do.” This is a result of the Fall, a symptom of a deep-lying disease, yet a blind religious leadership caters to this terrible restlessness instead of trying to cure it by the Word and the Spirit.
If the many activities engaged in by the average church led to the salvation of sinners or the perfecting of believers they would justify themselves easily and triumphantly; but they do not. My observations have led me to the belief that many, perhaps most, of the activities engaged in by the average church do not contribute in any way the accomplishing of the true work of Christ on earth. I hope I am wrong, but I am afraid I am right.
Our religious activities should be ordered in such a way as to leave plenty of time for the cultivation of the fruits of solitude and silence. It should be remembered, however, that it is possible to waste such quiet periods as we may be able to snatch for ourselves out of the clamorous day. Our meditation must be directed toward God; otherwise we may spend our time of retrial in quiet converse with ourselves. This may quiet our nerves but will not further our spiritual life in any way.
In coming to God we should place ourselves in His presence with the confidence that He is the aggressor, not we. He has been waiting to manifest Himself to us till such time as our noise and activity have subsided enough for Him to make Himself heard and felt by us. Then we should focus our soul’s powers of attention upon the Triune Godhead. Whether One Person or Another claims our present interest is not important. We can trust the Spirit to bring before our
minds the Person that we at the moment need most to behold.
One thing more. Do not try to imagine God, or you will have an imaginary God; and certainly do not, as some have done, “set a chair for Him.” God is Spirit. He dwells in your heart, not your house. Brood on the Scriptures and let faith show you God as He is revealed there. Nothing else can equal this glorious sight.
Prayer Requests
Bill & Donna L. - Bill recovering from back surgery in a nursing home
Dean & Sue C. - moving to Florida with their disabled son
Jordyn G. - tests in June to see if cancer has returned
Melissa F. - baby due in May
Lois S. - salvation; needs to sell house
Pastor Williams - tax problems
Del M. - new job
Penny W. - travel to Iowa; travel and timing
Teresa W. - traveling to Iowa next month
Comments