I had a dream last night -- a discussion with the Dalai Lama, actually. In the dream I saw the consequences of Christianity's failure to engage seriously in Judeo-Christian meditation.
While the words "meditate" or "meditation" are scary to some, they are mentioned over 30 times in Scripture ... and never as a rationalist exercise in 'thinking hard.' What the Psalmist describes and Jesus models is a form of God-centered meditation marked by attentive, receptive prayers focused primarily on God's goodness. Neglecting this practice, we typically skid into one of two ditches.
In the one ditch, we see spiritually hungry people who, through religious malnutrition, opt out of the Christian faith when it refuses to attend to the needs of the contemplative soul. If Hindu or Buddhist practice (for example) offers to feed that hunger with Yoga, and if Christian meditation is negated by suspicion and fear, we shouldn't be surprised to see transfer growth from the church to the yogini's studio.
On the other hand, and equally worrisome, setting aside Christian contemplative practice drastically narrows our vision of 'transformation.' Specifically, the transforming work of the Holy Spirit is reduced to moral transformation--improving our behavior. Yes, hopefully the life of Christ will generate a higher morality and empower a greater purity in our lives. Lord knows I need that.
Why? I trust my readers to do their homework. "Meditation" is simple enough to find in the Scriptures, for those whom a proof-text matters. But here you go: https://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=meditate&qs_version=NKJV and https://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=meditation&qs_version=NKJV
Posted by: Brad Jersak | July 05, 2017 at 01:11 PM
valuable Information. But you could have given at least a verse.
Posted by: Kamau | July 01, 2017 at 01:35 AM