Please pray for Trevor who is currently in the Concordia Hospital ER being treated for a 'heart attack' suffered last evening.

Meditations—points to ponder

When we read with the heart, we slow down, breathe deeply and read 

thus following a long and time honoured approach to the sacred text called Lectio divina: 

Latin for spiritual or divine reading. Lectio divina means listening to the text of Scripture—

really listening—being yielded and still; submitting to the text; allowing its message 

to flow into us rather than our attempting to master us.

It means ...

·         Reflecting on the text: permitting ourselves to become fully engaged 

(mind and heart) by the drama of the passage …

·         Praying the text: allowing the Biblical reality of this with-God life give rise 

to our heart cry of gratitude or confession or complaint or petition …

·         Applying the text: seeing how God’s Holy Word provides a personal word for our life circumstances …

·         Obeying the text: turning, always turning, from our wicked ways and into the way everlasting …

Psalm 139:23–24 (The Message) — 23 Investigate my life, O God, find out everything about me; Cross-examine and test me, get a clear picture of what I’m about; 24 See for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong— then guide me on the road to eternal life.

In this with-God kind of life, we see in the Bible the very life to which we are called.

 It is exactly the life Jesus is referring to when He declares ... 

I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. [John 10:10b]

The Spiritual Disciplines are the God-ordained means by which each of us is enabled 

to bring the individualised power-pack we all possess—the human body—

and place it before God as a living sacrifice …

Romans 12:1 (The Message) — 1 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: 

Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—

and place it before God as an offering. 

Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.

By this process we become, through time and experience, the kind of person 

who naturally and freely expresses ...

Galatians 5:22–23 (The Message) — 22 But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, 23 not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely. Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way.

Richard Foster with Kathryn Helmers Life with God: a life-transforming new approach to Bible Reading pp12-13

John 15:5 (The Message) — 5 “I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. 

Separated, you can’t produce a thing.