Meditation Is Good For the Soul

Meditation Is Good For the Soul

Philippians 4:8

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.

The term “think on these things” can translate to “meditate on these things”

   There are many in the church that are offended when you use the word meditation.  The word is linked in their minds with new age religion, or with an Eastern religion like Buddhism or Hinduism.  But in fact is Meditation is not new age, the Jews and Christians have been meditating for thousands of years.  Way back in an early Old Testament book, the book of Joshua, God tells Joshua to meditate on the Scriptures.

Joshua 1:8a

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it.

David said he meditated a lot on God’s Word.

Psalm 19:14

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. 

 King David loved to meditate on God’s Word.  He mentions he meditated in Psalms 1. 19, and 119 and it is implied in many other Psalms. 

Paul urges us to focus our minds on the Word of God in many places in his writings.  Indeed, in Romans 12:2 he tells us not to be conformed to this world: but to be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  The word “transformed” is “metamorphosis,” which literally means to be changed like a caterpillar into a butterfly by our focusing (or meditating,) on His word.  You cannot be truly changed by His Word unless you are meditating in it daily. 

   Meditation is simply pondering or thinking over something.  The subject of a person’s meditation is what differentiates one kind of meditation from another. You can meditate on a sports team but don’t expect to get a lot of life-changing insight from it.

Meditating on the Word of God is where you receive truth, and real life-changing insight.

   Don’t let anyone discourage you from meditation on God’s Word.  You will grow strong in your faith through time meditating on God’s Word.

Stephen Cram                                  July 27, 2014                                     

Colossians 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, following the tradition of men according to the rudiments of the world, and not in accordance with Christ. 

Visit my pastor’s blog at http://pastorjonrhinehart.blogspot.com/.

Unless otherwise noted all Scripture is from the New King James Version of the Bible.

When God is in the House

When God is in the House

Genesis 28: 16&17

16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” 

17 And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!”

   I’ve been to perhaps thousands of church services in my lifetime, and many times God was in the house and I did not know it.  And I was not alone in missing His visitation.  I guess the real question is this:  why are you in church on Sunday morning.  (Or, why are you NOT in church on Sunday morning?)  What is your reason for going to church?  Tradition?  Duty?  Habit?  Guilt?  Visiting with friends?  Or do you need something that you only get on Sundays? 

   You should be going to church to worship God and share in the ministry there.  You should be getting a word and praying and worshipping, not just warming a pew and watching the time hoping the pastor isn’t too long-winded today.  You need to know that God is in the house and if you miss Him it’s your fault not His fault.  He calls to your spirit and will meet with you if you only let Him in.

   Church is a time to meet with like-minded Christians and share fellowship and encourage each other.  Church is not a place to fragment into cliques and argue endlessly over things that really do not have any eternal significance. Church is a hospital for the wounded and the weak, not a shooting range to see who you can pick off.  It has been said that the Christian church is the only army that shoots its own wounded.  This is not supposed to be!  We need to bind up the wounded. 

   When we are in church worshipping and gaining strength from God, we become powerful ministers and we can then go into the world and bring the Gospel to the lost.  This is what church is all about, to go and meet with God when He is in the house.

Stephen Cram                                        July 20, 2014                                                  

Colossians 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, following the tradition of men according to the rudiments of the world, and not in accordance with Christ. 

Visit my pastor’s blog at http://pastorjonrhinehart.blogspot.com/.

Unless otherwise noted all Scripture is from the New King James Version of the Bible.

    

Attention to God’s Word Deficit Disorder

ATGWDD

Psalm 86:11

Teach me Your way, O Lord; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your Name.

Romans 12:2

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

   Have you ever tried to study Attention Deficit Disorder?  The doctors who write about this should be arrested for torturing the English language.   They use oversized words and tangled sentences to make you impressed with their knowledge of this disorder.  And by the time you finish, you’ll probable self-diagnose yourself with many of the symptoms.  What might escape you in the jungle of words is that there is a real condition that affects some people and causes them to have difficulty concentrating.  Their minds wander from interest to interest and they lose focus on what’s right in front of them.  Not just school children are afflicted by this, but many adults suffer from this as well.

   There is a still-unclassified disorder that afflicts many in the Christian church today.  It’s ATGWDD – Attention to God’s Word Deficit Disorder.  We are distracted by things and find little or no time to read God’s Word.  God expects our full attention – a difficult demand in a multi-tasking, multi-media culture.  Reading the Bible is a bore, and besides, I’ve got 2 movies here I haven’t seen yet and everybody’s talking about them at work so I need to see them so I can talk about them, too.  Then the phone rings, and off I go on a long conversation that takes up more time.  Now it’s time to go to bed and I will get up and do this all over again tomorrow.  Sorry God, maybe I’ll get a few minutes to read something on Saturday, after I mow the lawn and wash the car.   

   We let so many things distract us during our day, God gets pushed aside and ignored.  After all, He understands how busy I am, right?  He knows there are so many things going in my life I have to address that He really should be grateful I give Him and His Word five minutes a couple of times a week.  After all, I’m not a monk or a fanatic; I have a real life to live.

   We make so many excuses, yet they just don’t cut it.  We come up with these excuses to sooth our conscious, but do you really think God is buying them?  Umm, probably not.  He is still calling you to a deeper walk with Him and it’s really in your best interest to give Him some of your time every day.

   Now I know things come up that we have to deal with, but hardly as often as we like to pretend.

   In the Bible we read that King David also struggled with spiritual focus.  He cried out “unite my heart” - another translation says, “give me an undivided heart.”  God will give us an undivided heart if we will disengage from the rat race and get quiet and study and meditate on His Word.

   Bible study is hard work and requires commitment.  It’s a choice we must make.  We must get back to the basics of a true relationship with God.  Prayer, worship, and time in God’s Word combine to produce an environment where He can be heard and known.  Only then will we experience a renewed mind.  Only then will we see our faith strengthened.  I challenge you to spend ten minutes a day in your Bible.  Just ten minutes.  I’m not asking for a sacrifice of time here, I’m not asking for you to jump into the deep end of pool all at once.  Just dip your feet in and get them wet and see that the water is warm and inviting.  Ten minutes. 

Stephen Cram                                July 13, 2014                                   

Colossians 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, following the tradition of men according to the rudiments of the world, and not in accordance with Christ. 

Visit my pastor’s blog at http://pastorjonrhinehart.blogspot.com/.

Unless otherwise noted all Scripture is from the New King James Version of the Bible.

Thou Man of Valor

Thou Man of Valor

Judges 6: 11 - 16
11 Now the Angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites.
12 And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!”
13 Gideon said to Him, “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.”
14 Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?”
15 So he said to Him, “O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”
16 And the Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.”

   Gideon called it:  he was of a small clan and his family was small.  In other words, God should not expect a mighty army to come up from this clan.  Except that God rarely uses mighty armies to do His work.   God does not want mighty armies, He wants yielded vessels.
   He took Gideon and some volunteers and then eliminated most of them and left Gideon with only 300 men.  The Midianites were numerous; the Bible says they and their camels were without number.  So how could Gideon and his 300 men be expected to win?  In human terms, they were doomed to failure.  The Midianites would hardly even notice a little pin-prick like 300 men attacking.  But God had it all planned out and He doesn’t work like we think He should work.  His plans are different than our plans are.  Gideon and his men were thinking, “spears and swords.”  God was thinking, “If the Midianites think a vast army is attacking, they’ll panic and run.”  So He told Gideon to bring torches and trumpets and they caused a panic and the Midianites fled and many were killed in the panic.
   In our lives, we are often called to do work for the Lord.  Indeed, His last words to the crowd just before He ascended back to His Father were:
Acts 1:8
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
   He wants us to be witnesses for Him into all the world.  So does that mean I should witness to my neighbors?  Yep, even that annoying one.  Should I be a witness at my work?  Yep, and they will listen better if you actually act like a Christian  all the time – when you’re tired, stressed out, over-worked, grumpy, whatever.  Should I be a witness at my family.  Yep, even though they know you better than anybody and know all those times you didn’t act like a Christian.   Where else should I be a witness?  Look at that verse from Acts again.  Everywhere and to everyone.
   So why me?  I’m a lousy example of being a Christian!  I lose my temper and I doubt and I’m self-conscious and, and, and….  And the Lord said to me, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!”  He knows I can do it and He will be with me when I witness and He will help me when I need the help.  And He will not accept any excuses.  I am to be His witness and I need to witness wherever and whenever I can.
   I have tried to be a witness more and found out the more I witness the easier it is to witness.  Who knows, maybe God was right and I really am a “mighty man of valor.”
When you walk closer to God, hard to fail.

Stephen Cram                                                                   

Colossians 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, following the tradition of men according to the rudiments of the world, and not in accordance with Christ. 

Visit my pastor’s blog at http://pastorjonrhinehart.blogspot.com/.

Unless otherwise noted all Scripture is from the New King James Version of the Bible.