Meditate | Spiritual Amnesia and What's Really Going On

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 better yet, your own article. Contact us if you'd like to write a submission for this column. -Editor

“Thus says the Lord:

‘Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
Let not the mighty man glory in his might,
Nor let the rich man glory in his riches;
But let him who glories glory in this,
That he understands and knows Me,
That I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.
For in these I delight,’ says the Lord” (Jeremiah 9:23-24).

I long for wisdom, strength, and riches! I want these things, but the passage tells me not to glory in them. Even if I am these things—wise, strong, rich—don’t glory in them. Neither am I to wallow if I find myself their opposites—ignorant, weak, and poor. This passage draws at the weight I’ve given to the way I and my life look outwardly. It spurs my attention to a deeper layer of existence.

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Meditate | Turning Soil

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 better yet, your own article. Contact us if you'd like to write a submission for this column. -Editor

“The church is called the soil [in the Word] because it receives the seeds of faith, or in other words, the true concepts and good urges of faith” (Secrets of Heaven 1068).

“Give ear and hear my voice,
Listen and hear my speech.
Does the plowman keep plowing all day to sow?
Does he keep turning his soil and breaking the clods?
When he has leveled its surface,
Does he not sow the black cummin
And scatter the cummin,
Plant the wheat in rows,
The barley in the appointed place,
And the spelt in its place?
For He instructs him in right judgment,
His God teaches him” (Isaiah 28:23-26).

I happened to read these two passages on the same morning. After reading from Secrets of Heaven, I opened the Word randomly to Isaiah to these verses about soil. I find the image of my spirit as a garden comforting. It is easy to feel brought down by how persistent and ubiquitous my misguided thoughts and subsequent behaviors are. But by translating my spiritual experience to the language of gardens, it becomes nothing to bat an eye at. Of course I’ve got weeds.

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Meditate | In and Out of Control

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

Now when He concluded all His sayings in the hearing of the people, He entered Capernaum. And a certain centurion’s servant, who was dear to him, was sick and ready to die. So when he heard about Jesus, he sent elders of the Jews to Him, pleading with Him to come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus, they begged Him earnestly, saying that the one for whom He should do this was deserving, “for he loves our nation, and has built us a synagogue.”

Then Jesus went with them. And when He was already not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to Him, saying to Him, “Lord, do not trouble Yourself, for I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof.  Therefore I did not even think myself worthy to come to You. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

When Jesus heard these things, He marveled at him, and turned around and said to the crowd that followed Him, “I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!” And those who were sent, returning to the house, found the servant well who had been sick. (Luke 7:1-10)

I have been working on trusting the Lord in my life and contemplating the place of control. What strikes me in the story of the centurion’s servant is how the centurion trusts in the Lord’s power because he has experience being in power himself. And it is this faith that the Lord praises for its greatness.

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Meditate | Who's Watching? Finding Access to the Lord

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 term ‘intermediate self’ is used because the heavenly and spiritual traits in us, which belong to the Lord alone, supply us with an internal self, as shown earlier. Our rational processes, on the other hand, supply us with an intermediate self, or one midway between internal and external. And our responses to goodness, and the facts in our memory, create an external self for us…

The reason that reproducing and multiplying have to do with the intermediate self—the rational self—is that we do not feel the operation of the internal self except in a very general way, at that intermediate level. A single general impression or even a comprehensive general impression is created in our intermediate self by a boundless number of individual components. Just how far beyond counting they are, what they are like, and how they create a dim, general impression can be seen from the demonstration offered earlier at §545. (Secrets of Heaven 1015)

Going with the language of the passages quoted, if I’m having good thoughts, true ideas or good feelings, that’s not me experiencing the internal self—that’s me receiving influx from it into my intermediate self. This is a revelation to me, that if I’m feeling these things, then the goodness and truth that live in the internal self actually have already made the trip to my intermediate self! The connection is there and open or I wouldn’t be feeling those things. That’s a comforting thought.

Let me draw you a scene: We’re at our little, wooden dinner table. There are toys strewn about on the wooden floor. It’s dinner time. The sun has set in the cold winter sky and the shades are drawn in our warm dining room. We’re all hungry and just sitting down to the meal at hand. Kids are yelling, melting down, and I’m grumpy, bursting with short-tempered directives, all the while having negative thoughts about myself and the situation because of it. Hit pause. Take a step back, a step deeper within my mind—who’s noticing all this going on?

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Meditate | Mercy in Life

Meditate is a monthly column in which insights gained from meditating on the Word are shared. This month the insights are shared in the form of two poems. Contact us if you'd like to write a submission for this column. -Editor

"But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God;
I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever" (Psalm 52:9).

"For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well" (Psalm 139: 13-14).

An Olive Tree in the House of God

I remember her kitchen table, thick and dark,
At its center, a bowl of black olives.

I, at that table,
By the door, always open,
She’d serve me a plate of chopped greens.

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Meditate | Strings Attached

Meditate is a monthly column in which insights gained from meditating on the Word are shared. You could write for Meditate, too! Contact us if you'd like to write a submission for this column. -Editor

“There are people who in casual conversation make trivial and derisive comments using phrases from Sacred Scripture—some out of habit and some out of contempt. They believe they are being sophisticated, with their jokes and ridicule. But thoughts and words of this kind cling to the base, unclean notions of such an individual and inflict much damage in the other life, because they come back to the individual with profane ideas attached” (Secrets of Heaven 961).

“For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34).

Certain negative phrases come into my mind and often make their way out of my mouth. Plainly stated, I’ve got a persistent habit of cursing. Whether inherited or adopted, I find myself in certain situations quick to swear or curse. This passage makes me think of the subtle (or maybe not so subtle) effects this habit has on my everyday life in general. What other “base, unclean notions” am I bringing into my mind when I use these words? What profane ideas are attached?

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