Meditation
I’ve been working on a bigger project on meditating on Scripture. This page holds the “chapters,” as it were, and any hodgepodge posts that might relate to it.
1. A Three-Step Method for Meditation
I have a new definition of meditation on Scripture that I’m working with. I’d appreciate reader feedback, because I plan to use this material in future discipleship classes (and Lord willing a book one day!). This post will be an overview of the definition; in future pieces, I’ll dig into the different components in greater detail. Please let me know if …
2. I notice; I wonder; this reminds me - meditative thinking in action
Christian meditation requires a different kind of thinking than the kinds that get most of us through our day. It’s tough to articulate this without sounding woo-woo. The difference between taipa (maximizing the consumption-per-second ratio of an object) and
3. It's All in the Roots
The second step in meditating on Scripture is growing roots into the Word. The image comes from Psalm 1: Blessed is the man … [whose] delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.Thanks for reading Mere Immortals! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
4. The Root of Learning
Of the “roots of meditation,” living is the most important, because the biblical text is meant to change how we live. But we begin with the root of learning, because learning ensures we hear the voice of the Scriptures rightly: to hear what it’s saying, rather than just our own ideas (or to hear nothing because we can’t make sense of it).
4b. Learning: The Grand Drama
In our last piece, we looked at the grand themes of the Bible that both outline its overarching story and also cycle through each part of the story. Reading for the themes of Creation, Covenant, Fall, Redemption, and New Creation can help us make sense of a passage by seeing what particular drama or tension is playing out.
4c. Threads of Meaning in the Scriptures
What is the Bible fundamentally about? My three favorite relatively short attempts to answer are …Thanks for reading Mere Immortals! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. To live under God’s rule means to enjoy God’s blessing; the two go together. That is what we see at the creation in the garden of Eden until the fall. But then hum…
5. The Root of Loving
Ignatius of Loyola was a soldier in the early sixteenth century. … But Ignatius’ fighting ended abruptly when the enemy shot a cannonball that passed between his legs, shattering one and damaging the other. Ignatius was forced to lie in bed for recuperation. He had in the home where he stayed nothing to read but a book on the life of Jesus and a book on …
5a. The Root of Loving: Creativity
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; 2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree
5b. The Root of Loving: Self-Persuasion
As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?”
6.i. Meet the Author, Join the Show
“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” – Deuteronomy 8:3; also quoted by a very hungry Jesus in Matthew 4:4 As important as the roots of learning and loving are, the root of living is the sine qua non
6a. How Christian Growth Works
Big revision: I moved the grace of God to “step 0” instead of the end, largely after being freshly convicted by this Tim Keller talk. The grace of God is the obvious place to begin anywhere in Christianity, including Christian growth. Mea maxima culpa.
Quit Licking the Bug Spray
The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of heaven is at hand; repent and believe the gospel. – Jesus, in Mark 1:15 The word “repent” might summon images of a red-faced jerk with a sandwich board and a megaphone, or a sanctimonious preacher in a 60s musical. We might not know exactly what it means, but it sounds like the …
Grace Will Lead Me Home
Near the end of Tolkien’s Return of the King, two characters – Sam and Frodo – are in one of the darkest stages of their journey. They’ve been alone deep in enemy territory for weeks, with little food or water and constant danger. Their surroundings, both earth and sky, are polluted by the shadow of their enemy’s powe…
We're Talking About Practice
If I may channel Pilgrim’s Progress for a moment, consider two people: Sloth and Practice are both new Christians who begin to feel that they should pray. Neither have a strong desire to pray; just the sense that they should. Sloth shares this conviction with a friend, and then says, “well, thank goodness I’m saved by grace, and not by my own effort,” and…
The Beautiful Game
Corrie ten Boom and her sister Betsie were Dutch Christians who, during World War Two, helped smuggle Jews out of the country. They were eventually caught and imprisoned in the Ravensbruck concentration camp. They managed to sneak in a Bible, and read it together and with other women as often as they were able.