Enter the Gates

"The present moment is a wide-open gate leading to the depths of God."
 James Finley, Christian Meditation, p. 230

There are most likely as many ways to come before God and enter into His presence as there are people. Everyone is so unique, their souls and person stitched together in a unique and differing pattern. I would suggest ,though ,that we are all stitched together with the same thread, for we were all made in the likeness of God.  Those of us that have claimed our inheritance have God within us and if we learn to still our minds we can learn to open up to experience the presence of God and experience a peace that surpasses all understanding.

There is an immense amount of freedom I've found in experiencing the present moment. And I've found that using the tool of mindfulness in worship and prayer and in every moment is a powerful way of experiencing God's presence. I am going to write more on this, but perhaps this is sort of an introduction to this subject on my blog. Oh, and I just want to mention, these are just my own thoughts and reflections on this subject...I'm no way an expert (as this blog's intro states!). This is just an area that fascinates me, that I've experienced personally though am still a novice in fully comprehending and practicing.

I was reflecting the other day that our consciousness is like an onion with different layers. As we peel back the layers less of the onion remains but what does become even more real are the intangible qualities-it's scent and sometimes our physiological responses to it (like involuntary tears!). The more we enter into different levels of consciousness, peeling back the more superficial layers, peeling away our attachments, the ramblings of our mind, the more we start to get to the core of things. I would suggest, God is at our core.

When we let go of ourselves, or who we think are ourselves, and still our mind so that we are an observor to our illusions, to our mind's wanderings, we start to see things more clearly and we start to open our hearts up to God's reality more and more as we become less and less cluttered and hindered by the insufficient things we sometimes cling to for security in our ever-shifting worlds. The fact is, life is impermanent and sometimes it can be downright full of despair and suffering, filled with uncertainty, etc. That is why it is much to our benefit as well as salvation that we cling to the only sure rock there is in which to steady our uneven gait through this life...and that is God. And I believe there is much benefit in centering ourselves and our mind on God and in His presence. It provides us with peace, with direction and with a sense of compassion that we most undoubtedly will extend to others.

On this topic John of the cross wrote:

A soul makes room for God by wiping away all the smudges and smears of attachment. By uniting its will perfectly to God's; for to love is to labor to divest and deprive oneself for God of all that is not God. When this is done the soul will be illumined by and transformed in God.

There are many great writers who speak a lot more eloquently and with more experience than I on this subject. I will be sure to quote passages from them over time on this blog so that maybe we can learn together some of the wisdom and insight God has revealed to them. We all have much to learn from one another, but ultimately God is our infallible source of truth and all His truth is in His Word, so we will explore what His Word has to say about all of this as well.

What are your thoughts? Your experiences, if any on contemplative prayer and Christian meditation?

~many blessings

The Greatest Fear: A Quote by Thomas Merton

The Greatest Fear: A Quote by Thomas Merton

The Greatest fear of all, of being ungrateful to God and betraying him. For it is comparatively little to sin without having confessed God-or known him, that is, in blindness and ignorance and confusion. But to confess Christ and then sin and so betray Christ by ingratitude (knowing His love and great mercy) and then to justify yourself and your sin, what a terrible damnation! That is worse than Pilate's sin, or the horror of the executioner who drove the nails in, orof the soldiers who peirced Him with the spear-it is the betrayal of Judas.

~ Thomas Merton, Run to the Mountain

Matthew 24: 12-13 (ESV)
¹²And because lawlessness will be increased,^(A) the love of many will grow cold.13 But he who endures to the end will be saved.

" He loves thee too little who loves anything together with thee, which he loves not for thy sake." ~ St. Augustine


 “The worth and excellency of a soul is to be measured by the object of its love”. ~ Henry Scougal


Lord,
May our love for you never grow cold. May the temptations and distractions of the world never keep us from seeking you, from making you the most precious treasure of our lives that we hold dear above everything else. May you illuminate your truths to us and give us direction and clarity as we pursue your ways. Thank you for your free gift of mercy, undeserved, that, like showers, fall upon the hearts of sinners turned towards your love, refreshing us, giving us strength and resolve to carry out your will. Forgive us when we fall short, as oftentimes we do. May the eyes of our hearts always be turned to you and may the ears of our hearts always be receptive to hearing the whispers of your precious Spirit.
In Jesus' holy name, Amen.

God and Nature

I wrote these thoughts while spending some time at my favorite quiet place, by the river not far from our house. They contain some reflections on God's greatness and put into perspective the beauty and wonder of nature:

Tufts of grass sprout up amidst a bed of rocks lining the river's curves. Birds swoop and dive high above among the treetops, sounding their calls, bidding adieu to another fine day. Atop my makeshift perch of impressive quartz, I look at the vast array of stones surrounding me. If it were a snapshot I would title it "Impermanence", for every rock I see has a continually evolving story that no one but God will ever know.

Sometimes when I look at a particular rock, in its misshapen and irregular shape, bearing deep grooves, sporting gashes along its contour where elements have taken off whole pieces, I wonder where along the river, or perhaps buried inside some deep glacier, did it have its beginning. Such a thought is almost hard to comprehend-the genesis of a stone. Even with a tree, one could come to wonder where it got its beginning. Of course in the seed from which it sprung from, but what about the tree that seed came from? And the tree before that? Have you ever wondered what the very first tree looked like? What kind it might have been? Could such a thing ever be figured out, with total certainty?

Even the Bible, which serves as no science text book but regardless does give an account of the beginning, does not get very specific. It tends to speak more in general terms, giving account of large groups at a time in terms of their conception. This is naturally because the Bible's message is not one of biology but one of salvation.

I must admit and humble myself that there are some things that mankind will never truly know for sure. We can speculate, hypothesize, and have fun dreaming up the possibilities, but some answers seem to belong to God and God alone.

What exactly does that mean? What could one get from that truth? The truth of an all-knowing diety that has existed before time and exists outside of time wholly independent from our existence? I know to me, it points towards the vastness of God, to His greatness, to His holiness and His soveriegnty over all things. It also is a very humbling thought.






As I return my thoughts back to the rocks surrounding me and look at their living scars I'm reminded of the merciless nature of the natural world. As beautiful as it is, it has little if no compassion on the weak, no pity for the weary. If you can't keep up out here you are welcomed quite readily into the bosom of nature's grave where quite assuredly other creatures will make good use of you. I am reminded that as much as I take refreshment and find awe in its presence, it is really the glory of God manifested that my heart is drawn to. God's love is the direct antithesis of nature's brutality. Where the natural world tramples on the weak, the Lord lifts the weak up. Where the weary found in nature could easily be overcome and drowned by the merciless waves of the sea, the weary who trust in God have only to ask and receive His water, living water, that brings life, not death, and light to the soul.

In relation to nature and God Thomas Merton wrote this:

"When we see things as they are in God (or as we think they are in God) in relation to the goodness and love of their creator, then the things are filled with more beauty and mores significance than would be possible if we just looked at the thing for its own sake....The tree offers us shade, which is pleasant, and so reminds us of God's mercy and love which is pleasant and full of solace, and the tree appears to be the instrument of God's mercy and love for the just and the unjust alike.

...The tree is a living thing, nourished as we are by the Lord God, and holding up its leaves and branches loving the air and the light that move around and among it, and nourished by the sun and the rain and the rich ground: and so, loving the tree, not for itself, we are able to achieve the imaginative self-identification with it poets and Saints both seek after and we love it in something of the same kind of way as Saint Francis loved and understood the birds and living creatures.

The soul cannot enjoy things, it can only enjoy itself or the love of God. It cannot enjoy trees: but God and his mercy and love are everywhere in the air, in the trees, in our hearts. So we can be struck with love and sympathy and understanding for the Godliness that is in all the things around us, that proclaim the immense and unfailing love of their creator."

                                        ~ Thomas Merton, Run to the Mountain, p. 26-27

I think Merton, in this passage, gives much for one to reflect on when spending time in nature.
Anyways, I don't want to make this too long, but if any of you have any thoughts towards this topic I'd love your feedback :)

~Many blessings

Verse of the Day: Isaiah 56:3-8

Isaiah 56:3-8 (English Standard Version)

 ³Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say,
   "The LORD will surely separate me from his people";
and let not the eunuch say,
   "Behold, I am a dry tree."
⁴For thus says the LORD:"To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
   who choose the things that please me
   and hold fast my covenant,
⁵ I will give in my house and within my walls
   a monument and a name
   better than sons and daughters;
 I will give them an everlasting name
   that shall not be cut off.
 ⁶"And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD,
   to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD,
   and to be his servants,
everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it,
   and holds fast my covenant—
⁷ these I will bring to my holy mountain,
   and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
 their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
   will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer
   for all peoples."
⁸The Lord GOD,
    who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares,
 "I will gather yet others to him
   besides those already gathered."



Happy Sabbath! I pray all of you enjoy praising and worshipping our amazing God today and being filled with His spirit. :) ~blessings

God as Judge, a quote by J.I. Packer

"The problem of the psalmist who saw inoffensive people being victimized, and the ungodly "not in trouble as other men" but prospering and at peace (psalm 73), is echoed again and again in human experience. But the character of God is the guarantee that all wrongs will be righted someday; when "the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgement will be revealed" (Romans 2:5) arrives, retribution will be exact, and no problems of cosmic unfairness will remain to haunt us. God is the Judge, so justice will be done.

Why, then do we fight shy of the thought of God as Judge? Why do we feel the thought to be unworthy of him? The truth is that part of God's moral perfection is his perfection in judgment. Would a God who did not care about the difference between right and wrong be a good and admirable Being? Would a God who put no distinctions between the beasts of history, the Hitlers and Stalins (if we dare use names), and his own saints, be morally praiseworthy and perfect? Moral indifference would be an imperfection in God, not a perfection. But not to judge the world would be to show moral indifference. The final proof that God is a perfect moral Being, not indifferent to questions of right and wrong, is the fact that he has committed himself to judge the world."

                                                 ~ J.I. Packer, Knowing God, p. 143







I highlighted some of the quote that I thought particularly drove some of Packer's points home. I thought this was a refreshing perspective on God as being Judge of the world. Sometimes a lot of what one hears nowadays in regards to God being judge is oftentimes put in a negative light. In fact, it seems, as society tries to continually make everything relative all the time, people tend to avoid the thought of God judging the world. But actually, it is a good thing! It means our loving and compassionate God is in complete control and that true justice will prevail.

~Blessings

Judging Less, Loving more

‎"It is easy to be repelled by false "mortification of the flesh" where people shout against sin and have in their hearts nothing but hardness and uncharity, and really are so busy hating sin that they have no time to love God."

~ Thomas Merton, Run to The Mountain, p. 71

When I read this passage from Thomas Merton's book, Run to the Mountain (his first journal), I couldn't help but think of how his reflections are just as appropriate for the time period we find ourselves in now as they undoubtedly were for the time period Merton found himself in when he wrote it.  Perhaps within humanity we all come equipped with a built-in "pharisee gene". It does seem like people regardless of the time period they are dropped in, and Christians certainly come into this category, never tire of judging others.

Whether it is homosexuality, premarital sex, being guilty of illegal offenses, involved in drugs, or any of the other sins that we think do not contain us in their snares, there are vices and pitfalls aplenty to raise our voices against in today's society. But what good does it do towards the advancement of God's kingdom? How does raising our voices against sin continually build the body of Christ up and add to its numbers? In the process of doing so, do we become blind to the notion of reflecting the love and light of Christ?

I could see in a way how it would build the body up-for when there is something to fight against people find themselves energized and motivated to get organized, to pursue injustice and the wrongs of this world with zeal and great gusto. And sometimes that isn't always a bad thing, sometimes that can be very good, it all has to do with what one is motivated against. Right now I'm talking about the moral and legal infractions of those in society that modern Christians speak out so much against. How does this add to its numbers? I would say the judgemental tone of intolerance that is so prevelant today and getting so much attention from a certain subset of Christians actually turns people off from running towards Christ...for if the very people who are critical, judgemental and damning are supposed to reflect the very nature of Christ...I don't know if that would spur me to run to His throne either!

If Jesus was able to hang out and eat with sinners, so can I! All of us can...and have a witnessing influence to those who don't yet know the love of God.



Some verses to ponder when reflecting on this topic:


Proverbs 10: 12 Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.

1 Peter 4:8 ⁸Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

 

1 John 4:7-8  ⁷Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

 

Titus 3:2 To speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy to all people.

 

 

Back to refecting on Merton's quote. I would say instead of judging others, loving God does far more to oppose the darkness of the world than hurtful words flung at already wounded souls. To love God, and realize His reality surrounds us and permeates this world and that even those who we might resist being tender towards were created by the same God who we love, has a way of changing one's attitude and one's heart. Loving God cannot but transform one's heart. And if we are continually being transformed to kinder, gentler, more compassionate people that is going to make a far more difference than angry and bitter words.

 

The Bible makes it clear that God seeks humble hearts. And a humble heart isn't a judging heart because a humble heart has a sense of introspection that, like a mirror, reveals to the saintly sinner their own vices, their own downfalls, their own failures and their own desperate need for God. We are no more worthy of God than those we judge!

 

Mother Teresa once said:

 

We are all capable of good and evil. We are not born bad: everybody has something good inside. Some hide it, some neglect it, but it is there.

Perhaps it would be a wise thing to start looking at the qualities that we have in common with others and not just the differences. Perhaps finding the commonalities would serve as a bridge to understanding and an opportunity towards sharing the message of God's grace and love.
There is a time for anger and a time for action. But I just think, and this is my opinon, it is a blog after all, that a lot of our efforts as Christians against issues are against the wrong kinds of issues.  Let's get angry about the child who is watching helplessly as her mother dies today in some small town in Africa, not knowing what tomorrow will bring because there is nobody else to take care of her. Let's get angry about all the countless people dying because their water is contaiminated. Let's get motivated and spurred on by compassion for this world and feel conviction towards letting the compassion of Christ permeate it! Let's drown this world in the light and love of Christ! Ok..maybe "drown" isn't the best word, but I feel my readers know what I mean! ;)

 

So my unscholarly, unprofessional opinion is this: Let's open our hearts towards God. Let's recieve His spirit within Him. Let's feast upon His words and let them dwell richly within and then take our love, our knowledge and compassion and bring it to a world of suffering, a world of darkness, a world that truly needs it. Let's be a lamp shining in the darkness and let our light bring hope to the hopeless.

 

~Peace and blessings.

 

Verse of the Day: Luke 4:8 w. corresponding Hymn

Luke 4:8 (English Standard Version)
8And Jesus answered him, "It is written,
"'You shall worship the Lord your God,
and him only shall you serve.'




Sometimes that's easier said than done nowadays...to worship God only. Even when we don't realize it sometimes we turn towards other things and away from God, giving glory to the things of this world, or even to ourselves at times, and not enough to the Creator of this world. I pray today that the Holy Spirit shines through all our cluttered thoughts and intentions,through all our misconceptions and illusions, letting there be no chance of anything in our lives to try to steal God's glory from Him today.
I end this entry with one of my favorite hymns. I love the hymn "Be Thou My Vision" and I think it fits well with this Bible vers e because it talks about keeping our eyes on God and God only, not what the world has to offer.May all of you walk in His light and love this day. ~Many blessings

Be Thou My Vision

Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my Wisdom, Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee, Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

Be Thou my battle-shield, sword for my fight,
Be Thou my dignity, Thou my delight.
Thou my soul's shelter, Thou my high tower.
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise,
Thou mine inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

High King of heaven, my victory won,
May I reach heaven's joys, O bright heav'ns Son!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my vision, O ruler of all.

God's Grace

Yes, I'm still reading J.I. Packer's Knowing God.  It's just so full of truths and insights that it's not a book I want to rush through. While reading it last night I came across a really touching hymn that he shares on his chapter focusing on the Grace of God. He doesn't give the name of the hymn, but the writer is Isaac Watts. I thought the words were beautiful and deep, full of meaning, so I figured I'd share it this morning with all of you :)

But there's a voice of princely grace
Sounds from God's holy Word;
Ho! ye poor captive sinners, come,
And trust upon the Lord.

My soul obeys the sovereign call,
And runs to this relief;
I would believe thy promise, Lord,
Oh, help my unbelief.

To the blest fountain of thy blood,
Incarnate God, I fly,
To wash my soul from scarlet stains,
And sins of deepest dye.

A guilty, weak, and helpless worm,
Into thy hands I fall;
Thou art the Lord, my righteousness,
My Saviour, and my all.
 
~ Isaac Watts

I love how he uses the words; run, fly, fall...when he describes himself coming before God. He captures well the desperation of the sinner to be redeemed and to seek the solace and security of God. To be able to run to our God, to fly to Him, to fall at His throne just speaks so much of the trust that the redeemed have in God...I mean we sure aren't running or flying or falling at the feet of a God we fear is going to smite us with His wrath. We know the price has been payed, we know, in our humility that God gave up His perfect son for us...imperfect sinners that will always fall short in our attempts of perfection. He is the God  who works through us to give us the strength we need and without Him we are but a shell of who we are meant to be. He shows that it is essential to be made humble, to admit our weaknesses and fraility, our humanity, to be made whole.

Let's be empowered by God's strength and spirit today and come before Him in humility, confessing our wrongdoings and our weaknesses. Let's be lifted up by His spirit and made whole in a world that continually batters and assaults us with temptations, trials and suffering.

Thomas Keating once said: The winds of Grace are blowing all the time, and it is up to us to raise our sails.

Let's lift our sails today and be carried by the winds of God's grace, may He take us far and may, through His Grace, we bring Him much glory and honor and praise.

~blessings