Snippet 1 – Meditation

For Christians it ought to be the third leg in the three-legged stool of bible study, prayer and meditation. Prayer for most of us means talking to God. Meditation means reflecting on truth, letting it sink in. Meditation involves silent musing. Without any one of the three, the stool is of limited usefulness. And the one most people avoid is meditation – taking time daily to sit and ponder what is real.

Meditation has changed my life. Or to put it more accurately, God has changed me as I have learned to meditate. Through the discipline of setting aside regular time to contemplate reality, my heart has been ignited, my spirit stirred, my hang-ups released, and my behaviour revolutionized. As I have waited silently before the God who is active in the world, and also inside me, as I have struggled to wake up to the fact that He cares for me right now – I have been changed. God has turned the ‘truths received and remembered’ into ‘warm affection, firm resolution, and holy conversation.’

But I have paid a price. I have paid it in time, in discipline, in sleeplessness, in discouragement when I found meditation a difficult skill to acquire. But I do not regret paying the price. My regret is that I have meditated too little and too late. What is our time worth – and, for that matter, life itself – if at the end of it we enter the great beyond beggared and naked? For the only things we will be able to take with us from this life are those things that have value in an economy based on holiness and love.

Snippet 2     John White     Changing on the Inside

We are called to be in a love relationship that culminates in union…..He will not force His will on anyone….

Our active participation continues in this ongoing relationship for the rest of our lives. Our consent will be required, our trust in Him employed in every step along the way. We may – and should – crown Him King in our lives. After all, He owns us. But He will never become a tyrant. His rule is gentle, His yoke easy, His burden light.

Nevertheless the difference is profound. For we ourselves will have changed. Once His nature is in us, a new genetic code begins to operate. Our tastes will change. We may still choose evil, and probably will at times. But our hatred of doing so will increase. We will begin to hate things we once loved, discover new beauties in things we once ignored. We will have changed from within. Siding with good will become more natural, more appealing. The pull of evil, though great at times, will progressively diminish over time.

However, it will do so in the degree that we behave in accordance with our true (that is, our new) nature. Our true nature is to be a child of the Father. As we relate to Him on a daily basis, something within us will develop more and more. We will have become different persons. Formerly turkeys, we will have become eagles …..

There is a price to pay, of course. There was for God, and there will be for you. The price is to face the truth – primarily the truth about yourself, your sin, and your helplessness to change matters. It’s humiliating, but then, a bit of humility never hurt anybody. In fact, it heals. And in any case, who are you or I to keep the Creator of the universe waiting?