Meditation

Vcfss February 5, 2000

Actual instructions on the packaging of products.

On packaging for a Rowenta iron: "Do not iron clothes on body."

(But wouldn't this save even more time?)

On Boot's Children's Cough Medicine: "Do not drive a car or operate machinery after taking this

medication."

(We could do a lot to reduce the rate of construction accidents if we could just get those 5-year- ololds with head-colds off those forklifts.)

On Nytol Sleep Aid: "Warning: May cause drowsiness."

(One would hope.)

On Sainsbury's peanuts:"Warning: contains nuts."

(Talk about a news flash.)

On an American Airlines packet of nuts:"Instructions: Open packet, eat nuts."

I. Introduction

A. Last week

1. We laid the ground work for the spiritual disciplines

2. Important

a. Not as end in themselves

b. Like planting seed, no inherent power in them

c. Puts us in a place to receive from God

3. Warning not to make them into law

B. Spiritual discipline categories

1. Abstinence

2. Engagement

3. Inward

4. Outward

C. Practical aspects

1. No specific instruction in the Bible

2. People in the Bible knew how to practice the disciplines

3. Today’s message will be practical and I’ve provided you with paper to take notes.

4. The disciplines help us deal the busyness of life

5. The disciplines complement each other, meditation and prayer, fasting and prayer, etc.

D. Misconceptions

1. Meditation is often associated with Eastern religions, Zen, Yoga, or TM

2. Fasting, is practiced by all the major religions

3. Fasting his been used for hunger strike's and for medical reasons

4. The spiritual disciplines are practiced for only one reason, to draw close to God

II. Meditation

A. Begins with a desire for God

1. God speaks when we are willing to listen

Ps 119:148

My eyes stay open through the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promises.

Ps 119:97

Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.

2. One of the saddest stories in the Bible is when Israel tells Moses they do not want to hear God speak Exodus 20: 19

3. It is still true today, we want a mediator

a. We want the priest or the minister to speak to God for us

b. Historically religion has looked for a go-between a king, a priest, a prophet, a mediator.

c. If we are honest, we are not comfortable in the presence of God

d. To be in God's presence is to change

4. Meditation calls us to enter into the presence of the living God for ourselves

a. God is speaking today

b. He is not a God of the past

c. God is a present reality in my life today

5. When Jesus died, the temple veil split down the middle

a. The Holy of Holies was now accessible to everyone who acknowledges Jesus as Lord

b. We are all part of the priesthood get God

6. Gift of grace

a. Needed to begin the practice

b. Needed to continue

B. When people in the Bible meditated

1. God’s love, done in a corporate setting

Ps 48:9

Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love.

2. Rejoice in the Lord

Ps 104:33-34

I will sing to the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. May my meditation be pleasing to him, as I rejoice in the LORD.

3. When slandered

Ps 119:23

Though rulers sit together and slander me, your servant will meditate on your decrees.

4. When wronged

Ps 119:78

May the arrogant be put to shame for wronging without cause; but I will meditate on your precepts.

5. Need insight

Ps 119:99

I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes.

C. How to meditate

1. We enter most easily through our imagination

a. I don’t mean imagining some story where you are the hero

b. Not daydreaming

c. It would be a rare person who is able to contemplate without a mental image

2. Progression in the spiritual life

a. You don’t begin swimming by crossing the English Channel

b. We don’t pray for cancers until we have tackled a headache

c. Start meditating 5 to 10 minutes

d. Learn to “dial down.”

e. Richard Foster says, “It is a time to become still, to enter into the recreating silence, to allow the fragmentation of our minds to become centered.”

3. Find a quiet place

a. Away from all noise making devices, phones, beepers, cell phones, game boys, etc.

b. If you like nature, find a place where you can observe nature.

c. I love to go to the Planting Fields

4. Body position

a. We are body, soul, spirit

b. They all relate to each other

c. Put your body in a comfortable position where you can relax but be attentive.

d. Most of us live in a state of bodily tension.

e. I amaze myself at times by suddenly becoming aware of how tense my body is.

D. Simple exercises

1. The mind

a. Eastern meditation is an attempt to empty the mind

b. Biblical meditation in an attempt to empty the mind in order to fill it.

c. Eastern forms stress the need to detach and become one with the Cosmic Mind. Our personal identity is lost in the cosmic consciousness.

d. Biblical meditation is detachment from the confusion around us in order that we can have a greater attachment to God

2. Breathe in, breathe out

a. Become conscious of your breathing aware of the tension in your body.

b. As you breathe out, give the Lord all the things that concern you.

1) Fear over my children

2) Problem with my parents

3) My grandmothers sickness

4) My spiritual apathy

c. As you breath in, receive the Lord’s provision

1) Peace

2) Wisdom

3) Light

d. Then become silent and listen

e. As things pop into your mind, exhale them as you give them to Jesus.

Matt 11:28-30

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

3. Meditate upon scripture

a. Common practice in the Bible

b. After breathing out all the tension and concern

c. Focus on a phrase or a verse.

d. Allow Jesus to speak to you through that verse

4. Place yourself in Jesus’ presence

a. One of my favorite ways to meditate

b. Possibilities

1) Sit at his feet as he speaks on the shore of Galilee

2) Walk along the road with him

3) Sit in the boat as you cross the Sea of Galilee

c. Engage your senses

d. Look into his eyes

e. Write down what he says to you

III. Application

A. Begin with a longing for more of God

B. Accept his gift of grace to begin and to continue

C. Start simple, don’t try to fly the balloon around the world

D. It’s work because it is a foreign practice for us.

E. When you get good at it, you will be able to do it anywhere anytime.