Meditate | To Acknowledge

Meditate is a monthly column in which insights gained from meditating on the Word are shared. We welcome your insights, too, in the form of comments or even your own article. Contact us if you'd like to write a submission for this column. -Editor

 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths” (Proverbs 3: 5-6).

I love the reminder that my understanding of a situation is not the whole picture. So often, reality is much better than what my mind is thinking about it. For the past week, I kept opening the Bible to this passage in Proverbs, that when we acknowledge and trust in the Lord, He will direct our paths. At first glance this seems like an intellectual exercise

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Meditate | The Inner and the Outer and the Inner in the Outer

Meditate is a monthly column in which insights gained from meditating on the Word are shared. We welcome your insights, too, in the form of comments or even your own article. Contact us if you'd like to write a submission for this column. -Editor

The outer self contains attributes that harmonize [with the inner self] and attributes that clash…Even the ones in the outer self [that harmonize], since they form a unit with the inner self…belong to the inner self.

The inner and outer selves in any individual can never become one…When we have been reborn, it seems as though they exist united in us, but they are the Lord’s. Anything harmonious is the Lord’s, whereas anything discordant is ours. Secrets of Heaven 1577

In regard to separation, we need to see that it is not a separation but a muting…When it quiets down, though, it seems to go away, since it seems nonexistent. Secrets of Heaven 1581

So it turns out the outer self has qualities that harmonize with the inner self in addition to ones that clash. Who knew? That adds a nuance to the idea of the outer self described in last month’s Meditate. But there’s a twist. The twist is that the attributes or qualities that harmonize in the outer self actually belong to the inner self. What? If the qualities that harmonize with the inner self that are in the outer self are actually just the inner self, why make the confusing claim in the first place that they are the outer self’s?

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Meditate | Shoveling

Meditate is a monthly column in which insights gained from meditating on the Word are shared. We welcome your insights, too, in the form of comments or even your own article. Contact us if you'd like to write a submission for this column. -Editor

"Behold, the wicked brings forth iniquity;
Yes, he conceives trouble and brings forth falsehood.
He made a pit and dug it out,
And has fallen into the ditch which he made" (Psalms 7:14-15).

"The Lord witnessed the outer self at its most beautiful, when united with the inner self. He also witnessed what it is like when not united to the inner self (verses 10, 11, 12, 13 [quoted as follows])" (Secrets of Heaven 1538).

"And Lot raised his eyes and saw the whole plain of the Jordan, that it was well watered (before Jehovah had destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah), like the garden of Jehovah, like the land of Egypt as you come to Zoar.
And Lot chose for himself all the plain of the Jordan; and Lot set out from the east, and they separated, a man from his brother.
Abram lived in the land of Canaan, and Lot lived in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent as far as Sodom.
And the men of Sodom were very evil and sinful against Jehovah" (Genesis 13:10-13).

Lately I’ve had ample opportunity to witness what my outer self is like when not united to the inner self. It’s painful to witness the outer self chugging along in all its falsity and compulsion. What’s worse though is the stretch of time when I’m falling for it,

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Meditate | Heading South

Meditate is a monthly column in which insights gained from meditating on the Word are shared. We welcome your insights, too, in the form of comments or even your own article. Contact us if you'd like to write a submission for this column. -Editor

If you bring out your soul for someone starving and satiate an afflicted soul, in the shadows your light will rise, and your darkness will be like midday. (Isaiah 58:10)

And he [Abram] moved from there onto a mountain to the east of Bethel and spread his tent; Bethel was toward the sea and Ai toward the east. And there he built an altar to Jehovah and called on Jehovah’s name. And Abram traveled, going and traveling toward the south. (Genesis 12:8-9)

Toward the south means into goodness and truth and so into a condition in which inner things would be clear. (Secrets of Heaven 1456)

Heading south sounds pretty nice right now given that the thirteen winter storms so far this season have made this the third snowiest winter in Philadelphia’s recorded history. Actually, I like snow—it’s the cold that’s really getting to me. I long to be somewhere sunny and warm! Not coincidentally, heading south on a spiritual level would feel pretty good, too! What’s going on before Abram travels south?

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Meditate | A Memorable Start to the New Year

Meditate is a monthly column in which insights gained from meditating on the Word are shared. We welcome your insights, too, in the form of comments or even your own article. Contact us if you'd like to write a submission for this column. -Editor

“And…” (Genesis 1:1, Genesis 1:2…Revelation 22:19; occurring 28,364 times, it is the most common word in the New King James Bible)

The Shining Word “And”

“And” teaches us to say yes
“And” allows us to be both-and
“And” teaches us to be patient and long-suffering
“And” is willing to wait for insight and integration
“And” does not divide the field of the moment
“And” helps us to live in the always imperfect now
“And” keeps us inclusive and compassionate toward everything
“And” demands that our contemplation become action
“And” insists that our action is also contemplative
“And” is the mystery of paradox in all things
“And” is the way of mercy
“And” makes daily, practical love possible

(Adapted from The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See,
pp. 180-181, in Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation, “Yes And,” for January 11^th, 2014)

I received a new journal for Christmas and my first entry in it occurred on January 3^rd, a day that began in Minneapolis and ended with us all sick in bed in a hotel room in Denver…we were meant to be in Philadelphia. Or were we?

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Meditate | Walking In The Dark

Meditate is a monthly column in which insights gained from meditating on the Word are shared. We welcome your insights, too, in the form of comments or even your own article. Contact us if you'd like to write a submission for this column. -Editor

“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.” Isaiah 9:2

“Even the dark shall be light about me.” Psalm 139:11 

“’Darkness’ in Isaiah 9:2 symbolically means falsities such as existed at that time, and which still exist at this day among upright Gentiles—because of their ignorance of truth. These falsities have goodness stored up within them because they have goodness as an end in view. Those, therefore, who are in these falsities are able to be instructed in truths—if not in the world then in the next life—and when instructed they also receive truths in their hearts. The reason for this is that goodness loves truth, and also joins itself to truth when it is heard.” Apocalypse Explained 526 and Secrets of Heaven 9256 as quoted in the Bryn Athyn Church Christmas Readings for 2013.

Nevermind any deliberation about what it might mean to be a Gentile, let alone an upright one or not, I see a reflection of the state described in this passage in my own life. There is a strong inclination in me to condemn myself on account of what falsities I suspect I’m operating under, amidst a thick fear of the outcome if I am to continue to live in that darkness. This mindset is paralyzing, and yet I convince myself it is warranted.

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