Biblical Meditation (PRINT) -- lftd.org

June 27, 08: Light4theDay - "Biblical Meditation" (Viet)
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("How To Receive Christ")

-- Psalm 119:15,16,32,45,97,147,148,105,106 = + 15 I will Meditate on Your Precepts, And contemplate Your Ways. + 16 I will delight myself in Your Statutes; I will not forget Your WORD. + 32 I run in the path of Your Commands, For You have set my heart Free. + 45 I will walk about in Freedom, For I have sought out Your Precepts. + 97 Oh, how I love Your Law! I Meditate on it all day long. 147 I rise before dawn and cry for help; I have put my hope in Your WORD. + 148 My eyes are awake through the night watches, That I may Meditate on Your Promises. +++ 105 Your WORD is a Lamp to my feet And a Light for my path. + 106 I have taken an oath and confirmed it, That I will follow Your Righteous Laws.

+*+*+ Meditation is the skeleton key that unlocks the greatest storeroom in the house of God’s provisions for the Christian.
+*+*+ The heart is hard and the memory slippery, and without Meditation all is lost; Meditation imprints and fastens a truth in the mind. Without Meditation the truths which we know will never affect our hearts. -- Thomas Watson
+*+*+ We should be careful not to give all our time just to reading the Word, to see how much we can cover, but, after reading a portion, we should carefully, prayerfully turn it over in our minds, and appropriate it in our hearts. -- Wilber M. Smith
+*+*+ The very word “Meditation” suggests something about healing. It’s not very far from the word “medicine” or “medication.” -- Bill Moyers
+*+*+ Reading without Meditation is unfruitful; Meditation without reading is dangerous. -- Thomas Watson
+*+*+ Wind up thy heart towards heaven in the beginning of the day, and it will go the better all the day after. He that loseth his heart in the morning in the world, will hardly find it again all the day. O! Christians, let God have your morning Meditations. -- Thomas Watson
+*+*+ The impressions of the morning are the deepest. Beginning the day with the Word of God, we begin on a high level. We begin with strength for the day’s work, and power against the day’s temptations. -- Wilber Smith
+*+*+ If God is not first in our thoughts and efforts in the morning, He will be in the last place the remainder of the day. -- E. M. Bounds

MEDITATE DURING THE NIGHT WATCHES
Psychologists tell us the subconscious mind works while we sleep,” observes Leslie Flynn. “Dawson Trotman, founder of the Navigators, believed that the last prevailing thought in one’s conscious mind before going to sleep should be some portion of God’s Word. He called this his H.W.L.W. principle (His Word the Last Word). Associates with whom he traveled said that at the close of day, with lights out and conversation ended, someone would quote a verse or short passage from the Bible. The theory was that this last dominate idea would simmer in the subconscious and become the first thought on rising.

THREE STEPS TO BIBLICAL MEDITATION:
1. Memorize -- It is easier to Meditate on Scripture that has been committed to memory. It allows the mind to mull over passages while walking, driving, showering, or falling asleep.
2. Visualize -- See the passage. Let it come alive. Visualize the green pastures, the still waters, and the resting sheep of the Twenty-third Psalm.
3. Personalize -- Put yourself in the picture, pondering the application of the passage to your own life.

BIBLICAL MEDITATION:
Biblical Meditation is a lost art today, and Christian people suffer grievously from their ignorance of the practice. Biblical Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and PROMISES OF GOD. It is an activity of holy thought, consciously performed in the Presence of God, under the eye of God, by the help of God, as a means of communion with God. Its purpose is to clear one’s mental and spiritual vision of God, and to let His truth make its full and proper impact on one’s mind and heart.
It is a matter of talking to oneself about God and oneself; it is, indeed, often a matter of arguing with oneself, reasoning oneself out of moods of doubt and unbelief into a clear apprehension of God’s power and grace. Its effect is ever to humble us, as we contemplate God’s greatness and glory, and our own littleness and sinfulness, and to encourage and reassure us -- ‘comfort’ us in the old, strong Bible sense of the WORD -- as we contemplate the unsearchable riches of divine mercy displayed in the Lord Jesus Christ.

PRAYER AND MEDITATION
Attuning to your ideal (your concept of the Ultimate), like a radio picking up a radio station, is a great aid to Prayer. Prayer and Meditation go hand in hand, as one seeks to be a channel of God's blessings through Meditation for those in need through Prayer. It is a beautiful combination. Using Meditation to enhance Prayers is both helpful for Meditation and Prayer.
Prayer can be whatever we make of it. It can be a way of life as we can live Prayerfully at all times - our thoughts can be Prayers, our actions, our intentions can all be Prayers. If Prayer is talking with God and Meditation is listening to God, then the relationship is complete. In all relationships, we learn when to speak and when to listen. Using both of these tools, we can create a very rewarding and intimate relationship with our Creator.

FIVE WAYS OF APPROACHING THE BIBLE:
+ 1. HEARING the WORD. Not in the sense of listening to it, but rather that of hearkening to it. Paul told the Romans that this kind of hearing, or hearkening to the WORD, gives birth to Faith. (Romans 10:17- "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the WORD OF CHRIST.")
+ 2. We must give attention to READING the Scriptures. This enables us to get a panoramic view of Truth, and is one of the greatest aids to our Meditation, because it enables the Holy Spirit to draw on our memory of what we have stored through Reading. Truth must not only be seen in its immediate contextual passage, but also in the context of the whole body of truth in the entire Book. It provides the greatest deterrent to error.
+ 3. We are required to STUDY the WORD. This is covered in 2 Timothy 2:15. "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the WORD of Truth." We should note the terms of the Command, namely, that the result of our Study is to make us well-pleasing, or approved, unto God.
+ 4. Proverbs 7:1-3 requires of us that we invest in the MEMORIZING of the WORD, or at least parts of it. Words convey very different meanings, to know exactly what God says in His WORD will not only save time, but also a lot of needless speculation. (Matthew 4:1-11 - The devil used misleading God's WORD to tempt Jesus, but he failed).
+ 5. These four great avenues, when put to proper use, will channel enormous benefit into our MEDITATION in the WORD

THE GOAL OF MEDITATION:
The word Meditation comes from the same word from which we derive the word mastication, or, at a lower level, chewing the cud. It Implies Careful, Unrushed, Prayerful and Serious Thought. But something far greater is also expected from Meditation, and that is that there is some outer communication with Someone greater than ourselves, invading our thinking. As far as the Christian is concerned, that Someone must be the Holy Spirit (and His WORD), and care should be taken not to be deceived (1John 4:1-4; 2Corinthians 11:14).

FALSE MEDITATION:
With some other forms of Meditation, those engaging in it are urged to let their minds become a blank so that these outer impressions may be received. Sometimes deceiving spirits wait for just this opportunity, and at the beginning come as "angels of light" (2 Corinthians 11:14), with good and kind thoughts. They persist until the person Meditating feels that they can trust their "voice" communicating with them, and soon after the deception begins. Christian must have nothing to do with this avenue of Meditation.

TRUE MEDITATION:
The apostle Paul instructed us, "Fill your minds with those things that are good and deserve praise, things that are true, noble, right, pure lovely and honourable. Put into practice what you learned and received from me", and he said that in Philippians 4:8-9. Where better to find these things than in the Scriptures. They are to be received in the inner being and the route is, of course, through the mind. The mind should not become a Container, storing up mere knowledge of these things, but a Filter, trying and testing all thoughts against the WORD of Truth, and then letting them go down into our heart, or inner being. Once there, knowledge turns into truth, and if allowed to thoroughly occupy our subconscious becomes our very life. Once the Word takes over our behaviour, it becomes Christ in us, the living word, the hope of glory. -- Denis G Clark

-- Philippians 4:6-8 = 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable -- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy -- think about such things.
-- James 1:22-25 = 22 Do not merely listen to the WORD, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the WORD but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it -- he will be blessed in what he does.
-- 2 Corinthians 3:3-6 = 3 You show that you are a letter (epistle) from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. 4 Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. 5 Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. 6 He has made us competent as ministers of a New Covenant -- not of the letter but of the Spirit; FOR THE LETTER KILLS, BUT THE SPIRIT GIVES LIFE.
-- Psalm 1:1-3 = 1 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. 2 But his delight is in The LAW OF THE LORD, and ON HIS LAW he MEDITATES DAY AND NIGHT. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
-- Psalm 119:1-16 = 1 Blessed are the undefiled in the way, Who walk in the law of the LORD! 2 Blessed are those who keep His Testimonies, Who seek Him with the whole heart! 3 They also do no iniquity; They walk in His Ways. 4 You have Commanded us To keep Your Precepts diligently. 5 Oh, that my ways were directed To keep Your Statutes! 6 Then I would not be ashamed, When I look into all Your Commandments. 7 I will praise You with uprightness of heart, When I learn Your Righteous Judgments. 8 I will keep Your Statutes; Oh, do not forsake me utterly! 9 How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your WORD. 10 With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your Commandments! 11 Your WORD I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You! 12 Blessed are You, O LORD! Teach me Your Statutes! 13 With my lips I have declared All the Judgments of Your Mouth. 14 I have rejoiced in the way of Your Testimonies, As much as in all riches. 15 I will MEDITATE on Your Precepts, And contemplate Your Ways. 16 I will delight myself in Your Statutes; I will not forget Your WORD.
-- Proverbs 7:1-3 = 1 My son, keep my words, And treasure my commands within you. 2 Keep my commands and live, And my law as the apple of your eye. 3 Bind them on your fingers; Write them on the tablet of your heart.
-- Jeremiah 15:16 = When Your WORDS came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear Your name, O LORD God Almighty.
-- Colossians 3:12-17 = 12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. 15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. ++ 16 Let the WORD OF CHRIST dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.