Posts Tagged ‘Meditation’

23
Aug

Kissing My Quiet Time Goodbye

   Posted by: Michael Feather   in Meditation and Intimacy

Lately I have been thinking about how to increase my intimacy with Jesus Christ. If I want to interact with the world for Jesus, I should know how He thinks about things and be as close to Him as I can be.

Most people, when they talk about getting closer to God, describe their study time and prayer, the traditional “quiet time.” I hope that works for them. It doesn’t for me. I read and then I get up and forget what I have read. Or, worse yet, I don’t read and I feel guilty like I have ignored an appointment with God and left Him in the waiting room. I am not sure when Scripture reading and prayer became duties for me. I just know that I want more intimacy, not more information alone.

I need information for the intimacy to be truthful. That has always concerned me. Jesus Christ brought grace AND truth. I want it all. I just know that in my life, information often becomes an idol and replaces God. While I need to know true things about God, that information is meant to help me know God better, not so that I can get the right answers on the pop quiz later.

Quiet time normally means I take some time reading and then praying for needs in my life and those I love. This lasts between 15 and 45 minutes and then I move on with my day. That doesn’t work for me. I need God to be speaking into my life 24/7 even though I can’t read that often. I need what God describes in Psalm 1 or Joshua 1:8 where God’s word is the meditation of my heart day and night. If I cannot remember what I have read after I close my Bible, I can’t take it with me when I go out and live the life God has planned for me. Something has to stick. That is what I want. I want the kind of meal that sticks with you all day and maybe even the next day. There has to be some way for this to happen. That is my search.

You might not struggle like me. If you are able to sit down and read your Bible, pray the appropriate things afterward and feel close to God, great! I am very happy for you. I have struggled with that and now I realize I need to change.

So I stopped studying Scripture.

Now I want to dwell in it, to savor it. Before I tried to understand everything that was in it so that I could explain it to anyone. Now I want to treasure it and make sure I know how it works in my life. Now what it reveals about God Himself matters more.

Here is my plan. Over the last 8 months, I read through the whole Bible. It was wonderful and gave me such a great overview of God’s plan and story. Now I am going to do two things at the same time.
1. I am going to read through it again, quickly. I am using a plan where I read 10 chapters a day from 10 different places in the Bible. You can check out the plan for yourself. I am very excited about it and have already started.
2. I am going to meditate on one section every day. Right now I am spending time each day in Romans 8:28 and the surrounding verses. The point is not to see how many verses I can meditate on. The plan is to take as long as I need to see that verse explode in my life, changing how I live. I am going to start with meditating on this verse for a week and see if that is enough time. If not, I will take a second week.

What I want to resist is the “reading just to read” mentality. I don’t want the word to go through me like a pipe. I want it to take root in me. I want to live it out, not just read it through. Between the two plans above, I should be able to get a view from a skyscraper and a street level view of certain portions of Scripture—the best of both worlds.

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6
Feb

The Book of Eli: Is the Bible THAT Precious?

   Posted by: Michael Feather   in Reel Discernment, Teaching Discernment

Yesterday I mentioned that God used this movie to convict me. No question about that. Since seeing the movie I have been thinking about how important God’s word is to me daily. Certainly it is not the gospel, but it helps me know the gospel. It is not meant to be an idol, but it is God’s very words that bring me to my greatest Treasure.

Eli tells Solara that before the war people had more than they needed, they threw away things that people would kill for now and that they lost their ability to know what was precious. Hard not to feel that right between the eyes in this country. And for Christians, wow!

“What one thing would you take to a deserted island?” As long as that is not a reality, we like to think about it. God changed that question for me. What do I currently act like is the most precious thing in my life? If God gave you a backpack with one thing in it that you treasured most in the last 6 months, what would be in your pack?

The Bible. Precious. That should be our reality.

Talking about wisdom and understanding, “…if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasure…” Proverbs 2 convicts us too. What about this one: “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” Psalms 119:11

God is the ultimate goal; that is true. But how precious is that book that He gave us to point to Him?

It is easy in this fast paced world to lose our bearings and leave the path. I understand. I live there too. But let’s be thankful that God brings reality crashing back into our lives so we value what truly matters.

I think some meditation and memorization is in order for me. What about you?

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15
Aug

Check Out the Crossroads Blog

   Posted by: Michael Feather   in Discerning the Word, Teaching Discernment

Many of you are probably wondering why I have not been posting as much lately. There have been many different reasons that have contributed, but the latest is because I have been doing a lot of work in trying to focus on the gospel for the church I pastor here in North Carolina, Crossroads Bible Fellowship.
I wanted to point you to the blog of that church on this site because I am starting a series of posts on meditation that I think will spur some conversation even in relation to culture interaction.
One of the questions that is often asked concerning what I do with Discerning Mind is how do I know what to address in movies, books, etc. This is a great question and one that I cannot go too far with right now, but at least one of the answers is to meditate on Scripture more every day. What I have noticed is that the people who are best equipped to engage the culture are those who know their bible and their God very well. The more you know Him and His word, the more you will be thinking about what He says even when you watch a movie.
Anyway, the point is that I would suggest we all get better at meditation on Scripture if we wish to engage the world around us for Jesus Christ. Thinking on Christ more is always going to help me, so check out the posts on this blog and get involved in the conversation.

Hey, there is another connection to Discerning Mind! The material I am using to think more about meditation comes from Tim Keller. Does that name sound familiar? ☺

I will post the first one from that series here so that you know what I have stated already, but check out the blog for more information in the coming days.
Thanks and see you there.
Michael

A Battle and a Plan

As I stated yesterday, I have been having a hard time in Scripture lately. It is not that I lack a desire to be in Scripture, but rather that my time has been rather random. I have jumped around and landed at different places for a short time, but I have not stuck anywhere. This must stop! I have decided that one of the better ways to challenge what I have been doing is to think through meditation, specifically meditation on the word. There is good precedence that we should be meditating on God Himself and even His works in creation, but I think I need to focus on the word for a time. I hope you will join me in this pursuit.

To help me in my study, I have enlisted Dr. Tim Keller. He has written some pdf files that are available here called Gospel Christianity 1, 2 and 3. They are worth the price you must pay (if you are part of Crossroads, contact me before you buy a copy) and I am going to slowly walk through chapter 2 of course 2 called “How do I meet Jesus myself?” This chapter walks through meditation, so it will directly apply to my battle mentioned above.

As we get started, I would love to hear about how you “meditate” or “reflect” on Scripture in your own lives.

Well, if you choose to join me on this journey, I look forward to your helpful comments. Please pray with me that God will work in us so that we treasure Him as we should.
Until tomorrow…

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