Updates:
- Vanessa's mother continues to improve and should be home Thursday or Friday.
Praise Reports:
- Byron's old house has been rented, praise the Lord!
- The Augustins have been wonderfully blessed in their car-situation.
- Joyce had an amazing trip to St. Louis.
- Elaine's goat, Clover, is doing much better.
Prayer Requests:
- Roy and Shelly have had a great financial blessing and now pray for an open door to find the right home for them.
- Christin's faith project is that the Air Force will allow her to attend her own wedding! Join with her in praying for leave time.
Cleanup Crew:
- On August 29 everyone will do their part!
We further examined practical ways to get in touch with our "inner man".
This could be a s simple as driving without the radio on, hunting alone in the quiet of the woods, praying in the shower, just being alone with God. New Age people say "Meditation is a great way to find 'the answers within', as it helps you to connect with your inner self and tap into your intuition." We are not trying to tap into our intuition, but to the spirit within us as renewed by Christ. One site says this, "An empty mind meditation requires patience and focus. It means you are 'empty' to all of your thoughts from your mind..." We are not to do this (it is just opening the door for any spirit to come our way), instead, we are to fill our minds only with God.
When you are tempted to scoff at such things, remember--Christianity is historically an Eastern religion!
We have to get rid of the mental clutter (schedules, finances, groceries, hair appointments) that pushes prayer out of our minds. This can be helped along by the practical expedient of rocking or walking to distract our bodies, and humming or chanting to distract our minds. Listening to Gregorian Chants might help us concentrate. They also help calm us.
We really meditate on a daily basis already by worrying. We dwell on the negative things in our lives and repeat them over and over to ourselves. Meditating on the scriptures is a wonderful way to turn this destruction around.
But our spiritual life cannot only be inner spirituality. When we are finished concentrating on our inner man and Christ's spirit within us, we have to go out and cook dinner or fix the plumbing.
Repetition is a useful tool for learning and concentration. Repetition in this verse is vain; it was offered up to foreign gods and so did no good. Some people would pray to any god they could think of, just hoping to get their prayer answered by someone. We are not to be like that.
Keep in mind that it is wrong to do meditation for its own sake. We do this because it is Biblical. The difference between us and the New Agers is that we have renewed spirits, mental understanding, and Jesus as our focal point.
