Thoughts on Contemplative Prayer
To embark on a sojourn of prayer is to follow God where ever He leads. Prayer is the deepest and highest work of the human spirit. As such, it is as Richard Foster speaks of it in his book The Celebration of Discipline, the “central avenue” through which God transforms us.
To follow God wherever He leads us is to know He desires to lead us deep into His heart. While God is Spirit, and as such has no physical heart, such an anthropomorphic way of thinking of Him is quite valid, for he has revealed His very image to us in the form of Jesus Christ – God made flesh.
Contemplative prayer or ‘centering’ prayer as it is often called, is not an intellectual endeavor. Instead, we seek to connect with God on a wholly spiritual level. To become still, as the psalmist says, and to know that He is God. In this manner of knowing we become aware of His presence in a very real way. We then become attentive to whatever He wants to reveal to us in our devoted time in prayer with Him.
By way of simple instruction, let me offer some simple steps to follow in order to engage the Divine Spirit of our Living God in such a form of quiet prayer:
- Ask the Holy Spirit to give you a sacred word that will function as your intention around which you seek to center your thoughts on God, and around which to listen to the Holy Spirit in whatever He wishes to reveal. Examples might be one of the following: faith, hope, love, joy, peace, rock, cross, mercy, compassion, grace It could be anything He reveals to you. When you hear from Him what the word is, you can be sure He wants to reveal something to you.
- Find a quiet place and comfortable posture which will help you relax and hear from God. You may even want to kneel or prostrate yourself before Him as an added intention of reverence. Remember, to worship God is an active verb, not just a passive thought of the heart and mind. Begin to quietly introduce your sacred word as you acknowledge God’s presence with you and His desire to work within you.
- Your thoughts may wander from time to time, this is completely natural to our humanity. When they do, simply speak your sacred word as a way of drawing you back to God as your central focus. Do not think of this as a quick or violent swing of your thoughts, but rather a gentle re-calling of your mind and centering on God.
- After a designated period (20 minutes is good but begin with less if you need to and work up to that) end your time of contemplative prayer with thoughts of thanksgiving for God’s divine presence with you. What a joy that the Creator of the Universe has opened His presence to you in such a real way; this is His great desire. He created you for fellowship with Him.
This form of prayer may be completely new to you. However, it is a very ancient form of prayer practiced by many of the great saints of the ages. Remember not to set any high expectations for yourself in your special time with God. He is the Master and He alone will deliver to you whatever He wants you to learn from such prayer. Your part is to simply ‘be’ in His presence and let Him lead as He will as you center yourself and your thoughts on Him.
“In a state of grace, the soul is like a well of limpid water, from which flow only streams of clearest crystal. Its works are pleasing both to God and man, rising from the River of Life, beside which it is rooted like a tree.”
St. Teresa of Avila
May the Lord add His blessing to these thoughts, offered here to His glory…
In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.
Shalom,
Pastor Brad
Wisdom, Let Us Attend!
Wisdom, Let Us Attend
“Let us test him with insult and torture,
so that we may find out how gentle he is,
and make trial of his forbearance.”
Wisdom 2:19
It’s only one more week till Good Friday, a day which no doubt is one of our high holy days as disciples of Jesus. We mark special days and times with special readings of scripture, so that we may ‘enter in’ with our spirits, to the very remembrance of what we celebrate. In our ‘entering in’, we hope to see anew our souls as they are before God. We seek to hear Jesus’ words to them then, as His words to us today. We want Him to search us and see if there is any wicked way in us (Psalm 139:23), that we may repent and be saved.
Holy Week, which begins on Palm Sunday, is one of those times we ‘enter in’ to such remembrances. Today we reflect on one of the readings of scripture for next week on Good Friday. However, the scripture is not one you may have heard before as it comes from what many Protestants call the ‘Apocrypha’ – The Book of Wisdom.
In our ‘entering in’, we hope to see anew our souls as they are before God.
Such books were set aside for holy reading, but not viewed as inspired by the some of the Protestant Reformers, which was a departure from the historic view of those books by both, Western and Eastern Christians. Whatever your opinion may be on what should or should not be a part of the Canon of Scripture, one thing is certain; you can’t read the Book of Wisdom and not see its inspired prophetic tone.
Wisdom, chapter two, is voiced as the thoughts of the evil men who put Jesus to death. Their thoughts speak of how they detest Jesus for what they see Him as, a self-righteousness man who professes special knowledge and condemned their ways:
12 ‘Let us lie in wait for the righteous man,
because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions;
he reproaches us for sins against the law,
and accuses us of sins against our training.
13 He professes to have knowledge of God,
and calls himself a child* of the Lord.
Wisdom 2:12-13
In their evil thoughts, those who condemned Jesus to death, didn’t realize how prophetic they were. Jesus is ‘the righteous man’, ‘the Messiah’. They saw Jesus as, “…inconvenient”. I pray we never see Jesus and His ways as an ‘inconvenience’, but I’m afraid we often do. How many times do we put off His urgings to us and dismiss them as just our own contriving’s? Jesus’ words do bring conviction to our souls if our hearts are open. Sadly, we know many hearts are not open to the Spirit of God.
As you prepare for Holy Week, I invite you to read Wisdom chapter two. You can read the entire chapter here. Listen for the voices of evil and notice how contemporary they are to the thoughts of so many today. Jesus challenged their way of living and thinking then, as He still does ours today.
In the ancient liturgies of Eastern Christianity, before scripture is read, the Reader chants out, “Wisdom, let us attend!” Let us attend to the wisdom of the Word today. May Jesus search us today and see if there be any wicked way in us… and let us repent, that He may turn our ashes into beauty.
Shalom for a Holy Lent,
Pastor Brad
Image credit: https://www.ubiquityuniversity.org/wisdom-school/GreatBooks.htm
Strange Voices
Strange voices
‘They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.’
John 10:5
There are many voices in our world, each calling out for attention. Yet only one of them holds any hope for our lives. The plurality of voices in our modern culture is deafening at times. Confusion seems to reign as we listen to the news and hear such divergent opinions, such division. One must ask the question, ‘Where is truth?’
The answer to that question is really quite simple. The gospel of St. John tells us that Jesus, in His own words is the truth, and that His truth will, “set us free”(John 8:32). However, John doesn’t just say the ‘truth’ sets us free, but rather, the knowledge of the truth sets us free. We must know truth, to be delivered from the hands of lies.
Christ is God, and He is truth. John says in his first epistle, that, “God is light and that in Him, there is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5) If you’re finding yourself confused over the clamoring of voices in our world today who seem to be pulling us apart at the seams, then might I suggest an answer for you? Know the truth. Know Jesus so well that you cannot mistake his voice. Jesus says that His sheep will know His voice.
We must know truth, to be delivered from the hands of lies.
It’s a sad reality that in the church of our day there seems to be such a divergence of opinion on what truth is, and if there even is such a thing as truth. How hard is it to look at an apple tree and see that it has apples on it? Perhaps the problem in our world is not that the voices who compete against truth are cleverer and more deceptive, but that the sheep simply don’t know the Shepherd well enough to recognize His voice out of the cacophony of voices? We must learn to listen to the voices around us with discernment and recognize them for the fruit they produce.
How hard is it to look at an apple tree and see that it has apples on it?
Hopefully, through your Lenten times of fasting and prayer, you’ve heard the voice of the Shepherd more clearly. The only way to recognize His voice among the others is to be sure you know it – to be sure you know Him. Remember, Jesus said it’s in the ‘knowing’ that we are set free.
To St. Paul, to know Jesus was to know His power, the power of His resurrection. As we approach Holy Week and the high holy days leading us to the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection, let’s double down on our efforts to hear from Jesus. Let’s devote even more time to the contemplation of His way, His truth, His life. And, may our contemplation give way to implementation, as we let God turn the ashes of our lives and our world into the Beauty of life following the Good Shepherd.
Shalom for a Holy Lent,
Pastor Brad
Image credit: http://mentalfloss.com/article/62731/9-strange-sounds-no-one-can-explain
The Greatest Force In All the World
The Greatest Force In the World
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Romans 8:35 NRSV
Go ahead. Let your imagination run wild. I guarantee you won’t be able to think of anything so powerful, or so horrific it can separate us from the love of God. St. Paul tried to think of something – but he couldn’t. It just doesn’t exist.
The love of God is the greatest force in all the world, because it is the very essence of His being. St. John tells us this in his first letter, “…God IS love,” (1 John 4:16 emphasis added). John goes on to say that to live in God is to live in love. The problem in our world is, too many people ‘believe’ in God, when not enough actually ‘live’ in Him.
When we who believe in God, actually begin to live in Him, we change the world. It took less than three hundred years to convert the Roman Empire to Christianity; and that was with no mass media whatsoever. What began as a small band of radical Jews in a far-off unimportant corner of the Empire spread like a wild fire out of control. The fuel of the fire was the love of God that was poured out through those who called themselves Christian, those who chose to live out the mystery of participating in the life of God in Jesus Christ.
The love of God is the greatest force in all the world, because it is the very essence of His being.
You and I have that same choice to make today. The choice isn’t to just believe in Jesus Christ as Messiah, but to realize that He is God and has given His life, His love, His all for and to us. And, a part of that ‘all’ is that we may partake of His divine life, empowering us to live a life of unparalleled love for everyone, even our enemies.
Today, on this Lenten Friday, as you look upon the cross of Jesus and view His tortured, bleeding body, think about His love. Think about His goodness. Why not meditate on these words from songwriter Don Moen:
Think about His love, think about His goodness
Think about His grace that’s brought us trough
For as high as the heavens above
So great is the measure of our father’s love
Great is the measure of our Father’s love
So great is the measure of our Father’s love
The cross of Christ… what love! Now that is turning ashes into beauty!
Listen to the full song here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVo4otd9LGI
Shalom for a Holy Lent,
Pastor Brad
Image credit: https://philadelphiabapt.org/tlof-because-god-is-love/
To Eat or Not to Eat?
To Eat or Not to Eat?
Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life,
which the Son of Man will give you.
John 6:27
Have I mentioned how much I love to eat? And not only eat, but I enjoy the pursuit of cooking a deliciously tasting gourmet meal that not only tastes great but looks fabulous. But, today is Wednesday and I really shouldn’t be writing about food; it will only tempt me more!
Wednesdays have always been a traditional day of fasting according to the ancient ways of the Christian faith. The Jews fasted on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The early Christians, wanting to distinguish themselves from the Jews, chose Wednesdays and Fridays as fast days. Wednesdays are in remembrance of the betrayal of Jesus during the last week of His life before the cross, and Fridays are in honor of the day of His crucifixion.
The very fact that the Jews had two days of fasting each week should say something to us of what God expects from us. Jesus grew up fasting in a devout Jewish home. That means He fasted on Tuesdays and Thursdays and celebrated all the many rituals of the faith in which He was raised.
We should take note that in the gospels Jesus never says the words, ‘if you fast’. Rather, in Matthew chapter 6 we hear Jesus say, “When you fast”. Jesus expects his disciples to fast. However, in many modern Christian churches the discipline of fasting is rarely if ever practiced. We should also note that fasting, in biblical terms, is always the giving up of food for a given time, and for the purpose of learning to rely upon God for our sustenance.
We should take note that in the gospels Jesus never says the words, ‘if you fast’
It’s interesting to me that the early church didn’t just fast during a particular season of the year, like Lent; they fasted every week. The practice of fasting quickly reveals the things that control our appetites. When we tell ourselves, we will do without something Satan seems to bring the temptation of it right to the forefront of our minds.
The practice of fasting quickly reveals the things that control our appetites.
It is precisely in leaning on the power of God’s Spirit to help us overcome such temptations that we find the real value of fasting – we grow in the mighty power of God’s Spirit. We learn to do the hard work of relying upon God for spiritual food that fills and sustains us in ways earthly foods can’t. Several hours after eating our hunger pains soon return to haunt us. However, after feasting on God during our fasting, we will have a satisfaction no earthly food can give.
So, how’s your Lenten fast going? It’s never too late to begin, or should I say, ‘begin again’. Why not try it today? Offer some time of fasting and self-denial to the Lord today and spend the time you would normally be eating in prayer and reading of the Word. If you do, I promise you’ll find more than enough to satisfy your desires. To not eat may make you feel wilted at first, like turning to ash, but remember, God can turn ashes into Beauty.
Shalom for a Holy Lent,
Pastor Brad
Image credit: https://www.thespruceeats.com/gourmet-defined-1665527
Follow the Yellow Brick Road
Follow the Yellow Brick Road
“Lord, where are you going?” Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now,
but you will follow later.”
John 13:36 NRSV
I know it’s a weak metaphor, but I love the Wizard of Oz. When Dorothy is told that to get home she needs to find the Wizard in Emerald City, and that the only way to find him is to follow the yellow brick road – I see a modern parallel to Jesus and his disciples.
In John 8:21 Jesus tells those who are questioning him, “Where I am going, you cannot follow”. However, in speaking to his disciples in John 13, on the last night before the cross, Jesus tells them that while they can’t follow him then, they will follow later. Then in chapter 14, Jesus tells them they know they way:
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.” (emphasis added)
John 14:1-4 NKJV
Thomas then says in verse five what they were all thinking when he asked Jesus, “How can we know the way?” That’s a great question for each of us to ask this Lenten season. The Lenten spiritual practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving are all guides to help us find the way of Jesus.
‘And where I go you know, and the way you know.’
The way of Jesus is the way to eternal life. To use my earlier metaphor, it’s the yellow brick road that leads to all the answers we need to get home. After all, that is where Jesus was going – home to Heaven, and that’s where we want to go too.
Jesus is the way, the truth and the life (vs. 6). The cross is the way home. No one gets home, literally or spiritually without dying. For those who will follow Jesus, there awaits a cross at the end of our yellow brick road. Or, perhaps, we should say the cross it at the start of our yellow brick road. We must die to ourselves before we can even begin the journey home.
‘For those who will follow Jesus, there awaits a cross at the end of our yellow brick road.’
I like to contemplate the cross of Christ on each Friday of Lent. Jesus said His disciples could follow him – later, after He conquered death for them in His resurrection. So too, He conquers death for all who will believe and follow. What the cross turned to ash Jesus made beautiful. Are you following?
Shalom for a Holy Lent,
Pastor Brad
Beauty of the Ashes: Get Back In the Ring
Get Back in the Ring
And not only that, but we* also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
Romans 5:3
I have an autographed picture of Muhammed Ali in my office at home. No, I never actually met him, but my nephew Jason did. He lived near the legendary boxer in Michigan and saw him in a restaurant one night. Jason knew I was a huge fan when I was growing up, so he got it and surprised me.
A lot of my uncles couldn’t understand why I was so crazy about Ali. They couldn’t stand him. There was a lot of hype about boxing in those days. Ali’s personality drove the hype, for sure. They called him a bragger and a loud mouth, and they were right. He was both of those things. However, I would always respond to them in my youthful wisdom, “It’s not bragging if you can back it up”, and he always did. He was the most amazing boxer ever in my, and in many others’ opinions.
One of the things I remember Ali bragging about most was his ability to not get hit. In his inimitable way, he made up limericks about it to taunt his opponents before a fight. “I’m gonna float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. Your hands can’t hit, what your eyes can’t see. Ali!”
Of course, we know Ali did get hit and he got hit a lot. In fact, his Parkinson’s disease was attributed in part to his many hits to the head. As a fighter, he fought longer than many others and in his later years he took some pretty hard beatings, but he never quit, no matter how tough the beatings got. In fact, he boasted in his beatings. Like when he took the beatings from George Foreman and called them his ‘Rope-a-Dope’ tactic in their ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ fight.
St. Paul said he boasted in his sufferings too. I know, it’s a stretch to compare Muhammed Ali and the Apostle Paul in the same analogy, but I wanted to get your attention. Boasting isn’t a good thing; it’s arrogant. However, scripture says it’s okay to boast in the Lord about what He is accomplishing in your life – especially in your sufferings. In fact, it really isn’t boasting at all, if you’re giving God the glory…it’s a testimony.
In his hymn, ‘When I Survey the Wondrous Cross’ hymn writer Isaac Watts said, “Forbid it Lord that I should boast, save in the death of Christ my God.” No matter what our sufferings, Paul wants us to know that they will produce endurance in our lives, if we sacrifice them all to the God’s glory. He alone can sustain us through any amount of suffering. And what’s more, God builds our character through our sufferings ultimately leading us to recognize our hope for deliverance is in Him alone.
And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
Romans 5:3-5
As you reach the midway point in your Lenten journey, stop and think about the fasting and self-denial you’ve offered to the Lord to this point. Hopefully, you’ve felt tempted but are staying strong in your resolve. Granted these are small things in the big sufferings of life, but we learn in small ways how to let God lead in big ways.
“…it really isn’t boasting at all, if you’re giving God the glory.”
The real purpose of Lent isn’t to punish ourselves and find new ways to suffer, but to grow closer to God in our dependence for everything, even the little things. Jesus said that real sustenance for life depends not on bread but on everything that comes from the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4).
“…but we learn in small ways how to let God lead in big ways”
If you feel like you’ve failed in your fast don’t beat yourself up, give it to God. Sacrifice it to his cross and ask him for strength to do better. Get back in the ring and take a few more punches. Your suffering won’t be in vain. Remember, our God turns ashes into beauty.
Shalom for a Holy Lent,
Pastor Brad
The Beauty of the Ashes: Search Me O God
Search Me O God
O God, you know my foolishness,
and my faults are not hidden from you.
Psalm 69:6
There are many wise sayings attributed to Abraham Lincoln. One of the most common is this:
“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”
That’s true, but there’s one person you can’t fool, any of the time – Jesus Christ. By the very definition of being God, knows everything we’ve ever done, said or thought. Yet sometimes we act as if we can fool Jesus by not admitting our sinfulness to him. How foolish we are.
God knew everything we would ever do, say or think before the world was created, so why do we act like we can hide anything from Him? When we realize that Jesus Christ, our Creator God, loves us in spite of all our foolishness and sins, we can finally become who He created us to be.
Real joy comes from being who God made us to be. Yes, even with all our faults and failures. The Father doesn’t want us to pretend we’re perfect. He doesn’t want us to try and please Him in our own power, trying to be someone we can’t be on our own. He wants us to give Him all of ourselves; all our sins, all our foolishness, all our hurts, hang ups and bad habits, and then let Him remake us into the beauty of His image; the image He bestowed within humanity in creation. When we realize this, confession becomes something, we long for, not something from which we run and hide.
‘Real joy comes from being who God made us to be.’
One of the reasons I love the season of Lent is that it offers us time to concentrate on becoming who we were made to be. Through increased times of prayer and fasting we place ourselves under the light of God’s loving microscope. We ask him to search our hearts as it says in the Psalms…
Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!
Psalm 139:23-24
On this second Friday of Lent, why not spend some time in confession. Ask the Lord to search you out, to show you all your foolish ways. Stop trying to fool the One who knows you better than you know yourself. Prayerfully read and meditate on Psalms 139 and 51. Allow the Holy Spirit to check your spirit, to lead you in confessing everything He shows you. Ask Him to burn away all the sin and shame He reveals to you, then watch as He brings beauty out of your ashes.
Shalom for a Holy Lent,
Pastor Brad
Beauty of the Ashes: Re-Presenting God
Re-presenting God
For, as it is written, ‘The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.’
Romans 2:24
I wonder how often any of us think about how well we represent God to the world around us. I know I’m guilty of getting busy and just living my life of faith without really thinking about how God is perceived by others through me. Yet, that is exactly what St. Paul says was wrong with the Jewish leaders of his day.
The leaders of God’s people in Paul’s day were guilty of boasting about their relationship with God – they were after all, the ‘chosen’ people. Of all the people in the world, God chose the Jews for a relationship through which He would manifest Himself and the Messiah to the world. However, they missed the point of the relationship; it wasn’t just to save them, but everyone else too, that the world may know God through the holy lives of those who believe in Him.
If Lent is a season for an increase in prayer and fasting, and it is, then maybe we need to ask the question – to pray and fast for what? That we grow closer to God? Certainly. But to what end? St. John gives us the answer in what he heard Jesus pray on the last night before the cross.
“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (emphasis added)
John 17:20-21 ESV
As Christians, we are not only to represent God to the world, but to ‘re-present’ Him by living as one in Him. The problem in our world isn’t much different than in St. Paul’s days. To many of the people of God are living faith for themselves and their own salvation and not that the world may know. When we, the church, lie, cheat and steal, or live in ways that mirror the culture around us, we’re not re-presenting God to them. In fact, we’re causing His Holy Name to be blasphemed, just as Paul said of the Jewish leaders.
“As Christians, we are not only to represent God to the world, but to ‘re-present’ Him by living as one in Him.”
As you journey through this Lenten season, take some time to examine your conscience during your times of fasting and praying. Are you trying to live a life that differs from the world? Are you trying to grow deeper in relationship with Jesus? Sure, it’s hard. Temptation is all around us. But as Jesus said in John 16:33, “But take heart, I have overcome the world!”
As you examine your life, if you see a lot of ashes from the many things you’ve done wrong…remember, God will bring beauty from the ashes.
“Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”
1 John 4:4
Shalom for a Holy Lent,
Pastor Brad
image credit: http://www.ccwired.org/sermons/re-presenting-god-part-3/