The following is based on my notes from Dr. Whitney's lecture on "Biblical Meditation" delivered Feb. 11, 2011:
Bible intake and prayer are the two most important spiritual disciplines (SDs) we can commit ourselves to. Bible intake takes precedence over prayer because hearing from God is more important than God hearing from us. These are the foundational SDs upon which all the others build.
When it comes to Bible intake there are many ways by which we may take in God's inspired words. They include studying, reading, hearing, memorizing, meditating, and applying. The practice of meditation has been largely ignored in the church though, as Dr. Whitney argued, this practice is the most important form of intake. We neglect this to our own spiritual demise as I hope to show from my notes. Biblical meditation is the most pressing need in our devotional lives.
Due to our lack of commitment to this biblical practice many are alien even to the concept outside of pagan and worldly contexts. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, many unbiblical notions enter people's minds when this word is mentioned. At this point a clarification between worldly and biblical meditation is necessary. First, worldly meditation calls for the emptying of one’s mind while biblical meditation calls for the filling of the mind. Second, worldly meditation calls for mental passivity. Biblical meditation calls for mental activity. Lastly, worldly meditation seeks to create a new reality through visualization. Biblical meditation reflects on reality as it is and how God has designed the world. Dr. Whitney gave this definition:
Meditation is deep thinking on the truths and spiritual realities revealed in Scripture, or upon life from a scriptural perspective, for the purpose of understanding, application, and prayer.
The most basic form of Scripture intake is reading God's word, which is foundational to meditation. Reading alone, though important, falls short of fulfilling Scripture’s purpose. Most would admit that it is difficult to remember much of their reading just minutes after. Some blame their old age or bad retention skills for the problem but they're wrong. The problem is simple and so is the solution. The problem is the method not the man. How can anyone expect to remember much after reading straight through a chapter of 66 verses and immediately carrying on with the day? We don't remember because we do not meditate on what we've read. We read through our daily reading plan if we have one and shut the book. As stated previously, this is the most pressing need of our devotional lives, yet it is the most infrequently practiced. I hope this blog will encourage you to meditate on Scripture by showing you the biblical mandate for it and its benefits.
Imagine you have a tea bag and a hot cup of water. You take the tea bag and dip it in the water once. What will happen is not a drastic change to the color and flavor of the water but there will be some change. Repeated dips will lead to a darkening of the water and a strengthening of the flavor, but still the desired effect is not there. These individual dips could be likened to the reading, hearing, studying, application, and memorization of God’s word. If you are familiar with making tea, you know that to bring about this effect you must rest the tea bag in the water and let it soak there for an extended period of time. Eventually the water will be dark and full of flavor. This is the effect of meditation on the soul of the believer. We must “soak” in our souls in his Word, not simply dip it. Through this we will encounter God in a much deeper way as evidenced in the analogy. The longer you soak the tea bag the stronger the flavor will be. As we meditate on his Word we will begin to feel it more deeply in our lives. We feel most deeply about that which we think most deeply. These are the things that move us. Only through meditation will lasting change come about in our lives conforming us to the character of Jesus Christ.
Let us now consider the ample biblical evidence and mandate for this practice.
Joshua 1:8 says, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” After the death of Moses, Joshua was chosen to succeed him and take on the duties as leader of the Israelites. He had a great deal of responsibility but the LORD commanded him to meditate on the law “day and night.” How was he supposed to fulfill all of his duties and God’s command at the same time? He had to meditate as carried out daily tasks. Carrying around a copy of the Law would be a bit cumbersome and surely impractical. As we learn of Ezra, Joshua too, had to “set his heart to study the Law of the LORD” (Ezra 7:10). There was a purpose behind this command also. This meditation was so that he would “be careful to do according to all that is written in it.” Obedience flows out of meditation. Many people are concerned with receiving God’s blessing and rightfully know that obedience brings blessing. God loves to bless obedience to his commands and Law for it reflects our conformity to his son. But what most do not consider is what makes us more obedient. This text reveals that answer: meditation! This begs the question, “Why aren’t we practicing this?” Meditation leads to obedience and obedience leads to blessing. It’s simple, right?
Another text is Psalm 1:1-3. The psalmist writes, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.” The key verse here is verse 2. The righteous man delights in God’s law and thus meditates on it day and night. More could be said on delighting in the law but for our purposes we will focus on the aspect of meditation. As with Joshua 1:8, there is a cause and effect relationship involved with meditation. Verse 3 provides the effect of meditation. Here the righteous man is compared to a tree, but not just any tree. He is a tree “firmly planted” by water providing life and sustenance to him thus yielding much fruit. God’s word is life; it is life in the eternal logos, the Word that was with God in the beginning (John 1:2). This life is in the Son. Meditation on this Word solidifies us upon the chief cornerstone. If God’s Word is life, we should make it a priority to meditate and dwell on it as often as we may. This will bring fruit to our lives and to our ministries.
I’ll close with another illustration that Dr. Whitney gave. We might liken meditation to fire. If someone is cold from being outside on a snowy winter’s day they will surely want to be warmed by a fire upon entering the house. But say that person comes in and merely passes by the fire expecting to get warm. You would tell that person they must stand or sit by the fire for a while in order to get warm. So it is with meditation. A cold heart will not be warmed and enlightened to the Gospel by passing by the Word of God. It must sit in front of it and let its “heat” warm their soul. Meditation on God’s word reveals sin in our life and leads us to repent of it because as a fire brings light and heat so does Scripture. The light of Scripture reveals it and the heat drives us to flee it. Our sin usually results in a lack of heat, not light. We know that it is wrong, but we lack the heat to do what is right. Meditation burns God’s word deep in our souls as we dwell on it for an extended period of time. Sit by the fire of God’s Word. Let its light guide you and its heat empower you.
The will of God has become an ever-increasing topic among Christians today. With the amount of material on finding God's will a rational human being would wonder why we are so confused and worried about finding it. I'm reading a book entitled "Let the Reader Understand" (McCartney/Clayton) for my hermeneutics class. The last chapter is dedicated to helping the reader rightly understand (no pun intended) how to find God's will and the numerous misconceptions we have about this process. I wanted to share some of what the authors have written, thus giving me a better a better understanding of this subject.
First, I want to go back to chapter 9 and establish the foundation of my purpose. The chapter as a whole is dedicated to "The Bible in Worship and Witness." It covers the use of Scripture in public and private worship, and in evangelism. The authors state that the purpose of public teaching is "for the hearers to interact with the God's Word, to come under the influence of its author," the author being God himself, of course (p. 249). What then happens by way of this influence is conformity to the author, because we become like those we spend the most time with. "We absorb their values and standards, their likes and dislikes, their goals and presuppositions." As God's influence grows in our lives, we not only become more knowledgeable of his ways, but we develop an agreement with them. Paul says in Romans 12:2, a classic “go-to” verse on this subject, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” The renewing of our minds comes through the influence of God’s word as we study and meditate on Scripture. This in turn will play out in our lives. As our minds are renewed to become more like that of God’s, though finite, so too will our actions reflect his. Some of you might be seeing where this is going but I will continue.
This biggest misconception of God’s will is the idea that it is something hidden and we must find it, thus the terminology used in contemporary Christian circles. Scripture nowhere warrants such truth nor provides a formula for doing so. But if we are to understand and follow God’s will, why is the Bible seemingly ambiguous about how to do it? Again, misconceptions abound because of wrong interpretation of the Greek words we translate as ‘will.’ I am not going to dive into etymology here, as its absence will not hinder my purpose.
As I read through this chapter I made the connection between what Ch. 9 said about being under God’s influence, which causes conformity to His character and to finding God’s will in Ch. 10. In Ephesians 5:1 Paul commands the church to “be imitators of God.” To be an imitator of God simply means to act like God. We have seen that a life that reflects God comes from knowing him as we spend time with him. The Bible tells us that God is righteous and kind in all of his ways (Ps 145:17). So if we act like God, as we imitate him so too will we be righteous and kind in our ways. Of course we will not always do so because we are still sinful people, but our lives will increasingly be godly in nature.
I don’t want this conclusion to be overly simplistic but we make so much of “finding God’s will” when it is not nearly as difficult as we make it. As we sit under the influence of God through study and meditation we will become more knowledgeable of his ways and our lives will be conformed to his character. If our lives are conformed to his character, we will make choices that he would make. God always acts justly and rightly. So we will act justly and rightly as we become more like him. How can we not do his will if we are in conformity to his own character?
"Do you want the truth? You can't handle the truth." We have all heard this quote at some point in our lives if you are at least over the age of 15. Truth is something that we must all come to grips with whether we like it or not. Many go through life not ever really thinking about what they believe for various reasons. Maybe they just don't care. Maybe they think they have everything under control. They know it all. But maybe they are scared of the truth. As my last blog said the truth hurts but sometimes we have to endure it for the sake of truth. Recently a friend and I were discussing how we both agree on what it takes for a person to discover what they believe. You have to first think about it. Then you have to learn about it and finally talk about it. All of these elements help us to solidify our beliefs. But we must have the desire for truth. (hence the title...)
It was not until college that I was faced with the challenge of my beliefs. Being that I go to a Baptist college I am not talking about non-believers challenging my faith. I am talking about some of the tough, sensitive doctrinal issues in the church that most would rather sweep under the rug. I have dealt with many of these such as infant baptism, women in ministry, and election or predestination. Some might think that infant baptism is not that touchy but it is when you were baptized in the Episcopal church and raised in the Methodist church, both of which practice infant baptism. That was one of the harder discussions I have had with my mom. I had to decide what I believed to be biblical baptism. It wasn't until college that I heard someone tell me they did not agree with a woman in a certain position in church. Once again I had to take my stance on one side or the other. And then came "election." Yes, I said "election." This one proved to be the more difficult of the three. Election is one of the hardest doctrines to deal with especially when you have grown up on the opposite side of the fence. I ended up doing my senior paper on it this semester but I enjoyed it because I wanted to know the truth.
I had grown up on one side of the fence having never looked over into the other yard next door. All I knew was my backyard. When someone picks you up and shows you the other side it can be an eye opening experience. Being faced with these issues I had to decide what I believed to be "truth." I thought about them, learned about them, and talked about them. Interestingly enough I have jumped the fence on every one of those issues. It's not easy to deal with these issues most of the time because of our upbringing. And it's a hard pill to swallow sometimes when you see that scripture clearly points one way when you've been pointing the other. But that can also make it easier. If scripture says it, I believe it and rest upon the truth of God's word and the inerrancy of Scripture. Faith and trust in God's Word are sometimes the only things that allow us to believe what is written in the Bible. It is not a book filled with fairy tales and happy endings everywhere you look. There is suffering and pain, disease and sickness, murder and rape, judgment and death. But if we believe God's Word to be truth then we accept these things and trust that God had a reason for all that happened in these 66 books. These are what many Christians do not want to know about Scripture. We cannot want to know some but not all of the truth. God wants us to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Over the course of my short college career I have developed an appreciation, love, and desire for truth. I believe we all need to have this same attitude towards truth. John says that we have been commanded by the Father to walk in truth (2 Jn. 1:4). To walk in truth one must know the truth. But if we do not desire to know the truth what a miserable life we will lead trying to walk in that which we do not desire. I do not believe that is the way Christ desires for us to lead our lives. To walk in truth is to live by the commands of God (2 Jn. 1:6). The primary command he writes is to love one another. Truth and love are inseparable; they are dependent on one another. We are responsible for the commands which have been revealed to us (Deut. 29:29). We have been given truth in God's Word and we are to WANT to learn it, WANT to apply it, and WANT to defend it as Jude says. If we do not want the truth what good is it to us? None at all.
We have all heard the saying, "the truth hurts." What may seem to be a cliché copout is so true. No one likes to be told they are wrong when they really are but is that not exactly what the Word of God does to us? It exposes our sin. It shows our shortcomings and failures. It is a light in the darkness. We call this “conviction.” It is that feeling in our soul that tells us we just messed up. That feeling is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the light that reveals our sin. When we face the truth we are confronted with two simple choices: accept it or deny it. The choice is ours but so are the consequences.
Accepting the truth of God's Word is a most humbling experience. We stand face to face with the creator of the universe who is just and able to send us into eternal suffering. But we also stand next to the Son of God who is gracious and merciful, pleading our case to the Father. And we fall face down at the foot of the cross. The human mind cannot comprehend the death of Christ. How could one man’s death pay for the sins of all mankind? (This is debatable with those of the Calvinist persuasion.) Christ demands that we lay down our opinions, thoughts, desires, dreams and life at his feet. This hurts. It is a call to deny self and accept Christ (Matt. 16:24-26). It is recognition of the inferiority of our flesh and the superiority of Christ. Giving up our lives to Christ is no easy task but why should we give less than what He gave us? Paul says, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). Our lives belong to Christ because we have accepted the truth of God’s Word.
Accepting truth is not for the faint of heart. Accepting truth and standing upon it daily is guaranteed to bring persecution on oneself. Jesus blesses those “persecuted for righteousness’ sake” for the kingdom of heaven will be theirs (Matt. 5:10). Even Jesus was persecuted. He preached the message of the messiah from the Old Testament and was accused of blasphemy. We as American Christians do not understand persecution in the context of Scripture because we will never face such opposition. We will never have to choose to give up our faith or die or have secret meetings. We are almost totally free from persecution. But we do not even withstand the softest persecution from our friends. We downplay our beliefs to blend in with our surroundings. The truth should be the foundation of our worldview and theology. If we stand on God’s truth the world will surely try to knock us down. But, “Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong” (1 Cor. 16:13).
Accepting the truth ultimately brings us to salvation. The truth reveals to us that we are sinners in need of a savior. Rom 3:23 says that, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” It is in the very moment when are face down before the cross that we accept the truth of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ for our sins. When you were face down in the midst of your sin, remember how you felt when you were confronted with this truth. You probably felt horrible didn’t you? The Holy Spirit had revealed the truth of sin in your life and you accepted it. But what amazing truth it is that Christ died for us while we were helpless and weak. The truth of sin hurts but the truth of Christ’s death is liberating! We no longer have to bear the burden of our sin for it has been paid for. But we are not to “continue in sin so that grace may abound,” as Paul writes in Rom 6:1. Remember that, “to live is Christ.”
The truth does hurt sometimes but we must endure the pain of truth just as Christ endured the pain of the Cross. Is the pain worth the prize? Absolutely.
The word "truth" does not hold much value in today’s world. The search for an absolute truth has been abandoned for this new idea of "embracing mystery" as Rob Bell, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, says. Bell is one of the leading pastors of the emerging church movement. The emerging church has adopted the beliefs of the postmodernist movement, which dismisses any claim of an absolute truth. John MacArthur's book Truth War deals with this battle of truth in our world. He says, "Postmodernism suggests that if objective truth exists, it cannot be known objectively or with any certainty. That is because (according to postmodernists), the subjectivity of the human mind makes knowledge of objective truth impossible." This is true. The human mind is subjective to our thoughts, feelings, and bias. We view the world based on those things. But is it not ironic that a postmodernist would say that is "true?" As MacArthur says, "Uncertainty is the new truth."
Though the human mind may be subjective, the Word of God is the exact opposite. God's Word is TRUTH! I put an exclamation point there for a reason. It is not subjective to what we as humans think about it. It claims itself to be true. God has given us objective truth in spite of our subjective minds and He wants us to the truth He has revealed to us (Deut. 29:29). Absolute truth is now looked down upon as arrogant and intolerant. Some people probably think God is arrogant and intolerant because in fact God is about Himself and He does not tolerate sin in our lives. That is why He sent His son to die on the cross: to bring glory to His name and free us from sin so that we may have fellowship with Him.
The prophet Isaiah makes one of the boldest statements about God's word. He says in Isaiah 40:8, "The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever" (NASB). David says likewise in Psalm 119:160. "The sum of Your word is TRUTH, and every one of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting." As the church we need to stand upon these promises and preach truth to a world that denies its very existence. But as Paul says in Ephesians 4:15 we are to speak the truth in love. As a whole the church does not do this very well. We have come off as arrogant and intolerant. God's Word is not meant to be taught in such a way, rather it should be taught with humility and love.
You might be wondering why I chose "Truth Wins..." as my blog title. First off the title came from a sticker that a local church gives out that simply says, "LOVE WINS" in black and white. I just swapped love for truth. I have noticed a trend in the Christian world that I see as having potential dangers. This trend is focused on love; loving others for who they are. That is a great thing. People need to be loved. We all want to be loved. But it seems that while people are showing others the love of Christ they have forgotten to share the truth of Christ as well. I could be completely wrong but this is merely my view of the situation. Loving people in spite of their sin is exactly what Jesus did but He did not only love them. He spoke the truth about their sin and that they needed to turn from them. In John 8 Jesus tells some Jewish converts, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." Jesus is the Word as John 1 tells us and the Word contains His commands which lead us to salvation. Don't get me wrong loving the lost is great, but loving people does not get them into Heaven. They have to be set free from their own sin by the truth. The truth is Jesus as John 14:6 says. They need to know that there is only one way and one life and that is through Jesus Christ, who being God does not tolerate sin either. I believe that first we need to love the lost and then, in love, tell them the truth of Christ so that it may set them free from their sin. Ultimately it is the truth of Jesus that sets us free.
Truth Wins...
We live in the days of the worship wars among the churches of America. Do we go contemporary or stay traditional? Do we have drums or no drums? Do we utilize screens or no screens? All of these questions are being asked and faced my many churches. Does the style matter? Do the instruments matter? Do screens matter? Yes and no. At the heart of the matter they do not matter. It is good to consider contextualization in worship but the focus needs to be most importantly on glorifying the Father. That is our first concern. Is doing this going to honor our God? Is it going to bring people to see his majesty and saving grace? Countless examples of worship are found throughout the pages of Scripture giving us glimpses into what see as such a complex matter in the church. This essay will show two examples of worship: one from both the Old and New Testaments. We will first look at Nehemiah 8:1-12, when Ezra reads the law and then Colossians 1:15-20.
Nehemiah 8:1-12 gives a great picture of what corporate worship looked like in the fifth century B.C. Much can be said of this passage and it’s application to corporate worship and the basis for preaching in a pulpit but I want to focus on one verse. When Ezra stands and reads the Law of Moses to the people gathered before him, the people immediately stand as he opens the book. In verse 6 after Ezra blesses the Lord, the people respond with a resounding, “Amen, Amen,” and lifted their hands. Then they bowed their heads and worshiped God with their faces to the ground. This worship shows an incredible awe and reverence for God. They stood for the reading of the Law and they worshiped with their faces on the ground. They knew they were unworthy of God’s grace and mercy. They understood what it meant to be rescued.
Rarely does someone ever get on his or her face before God in the midst of corporate worship. I am not implying that this is a requisite for true worship, nor do I believe this passage is saying so but I feel that we have lost our reverence, our awe before the majestic Creator. Verse 6 says that Ezra blessed the great God. (Emphasis mine) When we gather for corporate worship or privately, we must not be absent minded to how great and powerful he is. In Acts 5 we see what happens to Ananias and Sapphira when they lie about what they had given to the church. God struck them dead on the spot. They had lost their fear of God but verse 5 tells us that fear came upon the others. Reverence is a respectful fear of something or someone. It is not being scared as fear is typically associated with. We must remember whom it is that we worship and that is a majestic, holy, righteous, just, and wrathful God. We should fall on our faces in worship just as the Israelites did.
In Colossians 1:15-20 Paul writes out six verses of theological affirmations of the person and work of Jesus Christ. But not only is it theological affirmation; it is also a doxology or praise to Christ. Each verse gives us a foundation for worshiping Christ and what we are worshiping him for. First we worship him for being the image of God. He is that which we strive to be. We are being conformed to his image. (Rom 8:29) He is the example we look to as we seek to be imitators of God. (Eph 5:1) Secondly, we worship him because he is the creator of all things. As created beings we are subject to the lordship of the creator and we worship him for freely and graciously creating us. Thirdly, we worship him because he is eternal and sovereign. He is the God who is. He is the great I AM. He is the Word who, in the beginning, was with God and is God. Jn 1:1) He is also sovereign and in control. He rules and reigns over all creation as he is intimately involved with that which he created. We trust in his control of our lives. Fourthly we worship him because he is the head of the Church. As believers we make up the church, the body of Christ. As all bodies do we, the body of Christ, have a head. The head tells the body what to do and where to go. He gives us purpose and direction. He is our Lord to whom we willingly submit. Fifthly, we worship him because he is God. All that God is dwelt in the man Jesus Christ. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (Jn 1:14) One of the great mysteries of our faith is found in the God/man Jesus Christ. He was fully God and fully man having no separation between the two within him. And lastly we worship him because he has redeemed us by the blood of his cross. Through the blood of Christ we are reconciled to God, not through human means or actions. By grace we have been saved. (Eph 2:8) Christ died for undeserving sinners so that they might be made right before God, live eternally with the Father, and for the glory of the Father. That is who we worship.
It is of utmost importance that we worship rightly. If we do not understand whom it is that we are to worship we will not worship the God of the Bible. That is sin and idolatry. Scripture clearly indicates who it is that we worship. We worship the triune God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God’s word must define our worship, not styles and preferences. In this age of confusion of what worship looks like, who we worship must be set forth and that will determine how we worship. And if we know that which we worship we will worship rightly.
“To the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.”
-Rom 16:27
