Meditation Enlightens

I tried out the form of meditation outlined in the study guide for the book Celebration of Discipline by Richard J Foster. The basic premise of this biblical meditation is to focus on a piece of scripture and go through it imagining it happening. As you do this, you want to try to focus on adding the attention to detail by focusing on all the senses, sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch. I did this for the story of Jesus feeding the 5000. Thoughts and questions just started coming and I rolled with it. The Holy Spirit showed me how it is impossible for humans to have faith on their own power. Despite all the miracles the disciplines had already seen by the time of the feeing of the 5000, they did not really believe completely that Jesus was the son of God. I have always thought “how could they not believe?” but now am clear on why they could not. They were blocked by their own expectations of who they thought the Messiah should be. They wanted Jesus to be the kind of Messiah that was going to liberate them from the authority of the Roman Empire. They could not understand the truth that Jesus didn’t come to save our bodies and our lives on Earth but came to save our souls and give us eternal life in Paradise. The disciple’s minds were filled up with the darkness of their own misconstrued expectations. But the gift of the Holy Spirit to them changed that. That is what the Holy Spirit does. He clears up our understanding of God’s Word so we can better live out our lives in service to our Lord which will in turn help plant more seeds so that more of God’s children can be reconciled back to Him. What about my expectations? Do they align with your will Lord? If I have expectations that are blocking me from a clear understanding of your Word and will, please shine your light on them so they can be shaped into your truth. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen. 

Try out your own meditation time with God’s word and let me know what the Holy Spirit shows you.

How We Underestimate the Lord

I have been reading a book to my daughter each night before bed called The Roman, The Twelve, and the King by Jenny L. Cote. It is the third book in the series the Epic Order of the Seven. The author bases the story on exactly with what is in the bible and embellishes it with the story of the talking animals who are in service to the Lord to help with whatever task they are given. The fat always hungry orange tabby cat, Al is the one who brings attention to the 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread a little boy has who is among the crowd of 5000 men and untold number of women and children. They are in a remote area and there is not time to send these people home to eat. Jesus takes the bread and fish, blesses it and multiplies it enough to fully feed all the people with 12 baskets full of left overs. The disciples have seen untold number of miracles up to this point but still they underestimate what Jesus can do. I especially like the added quote that the author put in of what Jesus says to Philip regarding the small amount of food they have. Here is that excerpt:  Jesus began to tear the loaf apart, and handed the first small piece to Philip. “Don’t measure the size of the challenge by what you have to offer, but by what God can do with what you give him, no matter how small.” This makes me think of my own calling and the doubts and fears I have had to overcome. Despite what little I can give in terms of my skills and gifts, God will take it and make it into something extraordinary. The Lord never ceases to amaze me.

John 6:1-15

TWISTED PERCEPTIONS

Please do not waste your money going to see the movie Noah nor even consider it when it comes out on DVD. You are wasting your time and it frankly hurts the heart. The writer/director of this movie has taken a sacred part of our human history and twisted it into his own humanistic purposes. Going into seeing this movie, I was going to keep an open mind. It is obvious that the story of Noah would be embellished. The bible gives us the basics of the story allowing for anyone to take it and fill in the gaps. I read a fictional book based on the book of Noah that I thought was very good in that it filled in the gaps but stuck to the main guts of the story in the bible. This was not done in this movie. The only truthfulness within it is the names of Noah and his sons. Let me share with you just a few of the twisted parts of this movie so I can get it off my chest. Yes, this interpretation of the story of Noah made me angry. I was very tempted to get up in the movie and walk out. In the beginning of the story, Noah is characterized as a protective father and husband but his character becomes twisted with what he perceives is God’s purpose for the flood, to kill all humankind. He gets all this from his dreams which is the movie’s way of saying how Noah got the message to build the ark. Wrong, wrong, all wrong. God gave Noah specific instructions on how to build the ark. This did not come in a dream. So, because Noah is interpreting a dream, he becomes this madman who is obsessed with the fact that he must ensure his family does not survive. They are only on the ark to protect the animals who are to survive. When his adopted daughter who is the wife of Shem becomes pregnant, he says if it is a boy he will let it live but he will be the last man to live but if it is a girl he will kill it immediately. Well, guess what? She has not one girl but twin girls. This actually alleviates the problem of the other two sons who don’t seem to have wives with them as the true biblical account states. Throw in these “rock” people who are supposedly fallen angels who are there to protect humankind and it becomes a total joke. To make matters worse, after the floods dry up and they leave the ark, Noah becomes a drunk, living isolated from his family. It doesn’t end with the promise that God made to Noah to never flood the earth again but to bless him and his family making them fruitful. The director threw in a spectrum of color like a rainbow at the end just to twist it all in. His interpretation obviously came from his atheistic viewpoint.  I am disgusted and sick by it all and ask you to please not waste your time but ban this movie altogether. Read your bible and don’t forget that the truth is only in the bible and we must be very wary of any other sources.

SERVING BURN-OUT

I spend today with some bible study friends and went to see the movie Noah. I am feeling a little sick. Not sure if it was lunch, the movie or just total burn-out from the constant on-call serving I did yesterday for my daughter's birthday party. In any case, I am thankful for my nice cozy bed that I am going to crawl into. I will definitely be writing about the movie and my critique so stay tuned...

Hope you are having a blessed Saturday.

TOUGH LOVE

I have been reading in the book of Deuteronomy and came to a part where the Lord is telling the Israelites that they will win the battles for all the towns of other peoples. He commands them to not take any prisoners and take none of the gold or silver. The first time I read this many years ago I was taken aback by what seemed so harsh and uncompassionate a command from God as to kill everyone and take no prisoners. Most of us would ask why? In reading it again, I was struck this time by how impossible a command that is. God was asking that each man that went into battle kill every person man, women or child. They had to do this as a community which means every one of them had to be on board with this. I think it is a demonstration of how impossible it is on our own to do what God asks us. At this time, the people did not have the Holy Spirit within them. The power of the Holy Spirit is what gives us the ability to overcome and do what is impossible to do on our own, obey God.

Deuteronomy 7:2 ---and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy.