It is actually the second time our little group has gone through it together. I appreciate seeing the growth in my own heart after having applied much of the practical teaching in daily life these past four years. (A wise man once said that the only kind of personal growth charting we should do is after a year or better yet, a decade!)
So seeing as it is the Lenten season once again, I am focusing my meditations on Jesus as we know Him through the Gospel writers - primarily Luke and John (just because they're my favorites!).
Before I dive into my first meditation, I wanted to give a few of the points that Stephen Venable lays out in his class so that you can join in with me in the days that remain before Resurrection Sunday. His words are italicized and my own thoughts are not.
What Is the Purpose of Meditation/Contemplation?
Communion (with God) is ultimately a question of intimacy, and the substance of intimacy is living knowledge. (For example - How much I truly know Tyler is the measure of intimacy that we share together. When we increase in knowledge about someone, feelings follow, but feelings without knowledge are just an empty shell.) The way in which we acquire knowledge of God is through His self-revelation. By direction our attention to the ways in which God has graciously manifested Himself and spoken to us, we encounter the truth concerning Him. (All we know of God is that which He reveals of Himself. If intimacy is having knowledge of God, then how do we know something about Him? He has revealed Himself in His Word. In order for us to encounter that revelation of Himself, we have to listen to His words - hear (like Mary of Bethany in Lk. 10:39-42) and see or behold (like David in Psalm 27:4).)
Christ is to be our premier object of contemplation (meditation). Scripture reveals that the person of Christ is the fullness of revelation, or God's self-disclosure, and is therefore central to both our desire for intimate communion and the loving gaze of contemplation. Lacking this foundational understanding (that Jesus is the fullness of revelation of God and our premier focus in meditation), countless Christians relate to God as though the Incarnation has not happened and seek to know God in a manner more reminiscent of the Old Testament than New Testament reality.
The application of the truths above is that if we desire to grow in the knowledge of God, to find Him and love Him, we must do so by actually fixing our attention and affection upon Christ and not simply mentioning His name. (No one can know God apart from Jesus - not even by just saying Jesus' name.)
Many are sincere but misdirected in their pursuit of God. Unless Jesus is the focal point, all movements toward the Divine will at the least end in frustration, if not confusion. Reading books, attending conferences, and listening to teaching may all be potentially edifying uses of time and may be filled with many, many references to "God" but can result in virtually no enlargement of the heart if it does not result in our vision's being set upon Christ with ever-diminishing distraction. In this light the pandemic of burnout and disillusionment within the body of Christ becomes less enigmatic. One can invest himself with great fervor in religious activities but his spiritual growth will be stunted and his heart unsatisfied if his pursuit is not an overtly relational one centered on the Man Christ Jesus.
In the Exposition of the Gospel of John, A. W. Pink said, "If the believer would enter into a better, deeper, fuller knowledge of God he must prayerfully study the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ as revealed in the scriptures! Let this be made our chief business, our great delight, to reverently scrutinize and meditate upon the excellencies of our Divine Savior as they are displayed upon the pages of Holy writ. Then, and only then, shall we 'increase in the knowledge of God'. The 'light of the knowledge of the glory of God' is seen only 'in the face of Jesus Christ.'"
As we call a generation to wholeheartedness, it is imperative to realize that unless Jesus is central in their study, devotion, and discipleship, they will likely be unmotivated and disenfranchised within seven years, entrenched in a life of boredom and compromise. (We will not grow in the knowledge of God - and therefore love Him more - unless we look upon Jesus and hear Him. We must do the "one necessary thing".) The reason is not because they were unwilling but rather that they were attempting to live a radical expression of Christianity devoid of Christ. They were seeking to embrace a Biblical, sacrificial lifestyle apart from a preoccupation with the Beautiful One who alone can render the difficult way reasonable and sweet to our souls. (This is the pitfall we must war against by giving ourselves daily to meditating on Jesus!)
How Do We Do This Thing Called Meditation/Contemplation?
Step 1 - Locate a scene in the Gospels to meditate on
Step 2 - A. Ponder/think about it as Jesus' mother did (Lk. 2:19, 51)
B. Have a conversation
Ask the Holy Spirit to impress the reality of Jesus in the scene upon your heart. Begin a dialogue asking Jesus what He was thinking and what He was feeling during those moments you have chosen to scrutinize. Speak directly to Him in prayer, drawing your heart into the continuity between the One on the pages of the Bible and the One to whom you sing...
C. Imagine
Place yourself as a participant in the story (insert yourself in the story). Imagine the colors, the smells, the expressions on the faces of the characters. What time of day was it? What was the weather like? What was the tone in Jesus' voice?
In Christian Meditation, Hans Urs von Balthasar said, "We are to be in the stable at Bethlehem as one of the shepherds, go along on the flight into Egypt, place an order with Jesus the carpenter in Nazareth, witness a healing in Capernaum, be among the five thousand who are miraculously fed and so on. This effort is rightly demanded if the matter for meditation is to strike us as something concrete and pregnant with salvation and not pale into insipid abstractions (just a proverbial lesson)."
D. Linger there
Once you have developed the passage in that way, quietly continue to reflect on the Word of Life and ask the Holy Spirit to deepen your reception of the truth. Consider the mystery of the Divine Identity of this Jewish Man described in the text. The One who created all things is the One who sits beside the fire laughing with His disciples.
To help me stay on track, I made another calendar that highlights one Gospel story from today (March 2) through April 8. Feel free to print out, stick in your Bible or notebook, and make any changes you desire.
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