Oct 25, 2020

276 To Everything There’s A Season, A Guided Christian Meditation on Ecclesiastes 3:1-5 with the Recenter With Christ app

I'm Chaplain Jared and I work as a hospice chaplain and an ICU chaplain, my purpose in making this podcast is to help you find more peace in your life and to be more open for your heart to be changed by the Spirit of God. By using centuries old form of Christian Meditation named Lectio Divina:

Outline: Relaxation, Reading, Meditation, Prayer, Contemplation and Visualization.

Get into a place where you can sit comfortably and uninterrupted for about 20 minutes.You should hopefully not be driving or anything tensing or unrelaxing. If you feel comfortable to do so, I invite you to close your eyes.

Guided Relaxation / Guided Meditation:

Breathe and direct your thoughts to contacting God. Let your stomach be a balloon inflate, deflate.

Bible verses for Meditation:

Ecclesiastes 3:1-5

NIV
1 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

NRSV
1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
2 a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
3 a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

Meditation on Scripture:

This scripture is an often quoted scripture about the timeliness of God. Many times when I have read this scripture, I see it as a reference to the impermanence of life. It seems to point to the unimportance of changes that occur. When we see it in the context of the previous chapter it adds additional meaning. In the greater context of the book of Ecclesiastes we see an existential wrestle with purposelessness.

The antidote to this purposelessness is God. In other words Although there are changes in life due to the extremes and the thing that happen to us in life, the answer remains unchanged. Its not just a meaningless change from some set of arbitrary markers. It is the fact that the love and purpose of God transcend all of these.

In your life, God loves in as you weep and as you laugh. God’s grace applies as we break down and build up. There are times when we embrace and refrain from embracing, yet our eternal worth before God remains unchanged. This awareness transforms these changes from meaningless noise, to a series of opportunities to reveal spiritual development. When we recognize a shortfall in what we want vs what we experience, our focus can go beyond the desire itself and look to the greater question of how we are developing in our love for God and our neighbor.

God’s goal for us includes undeserved unconditional love, as well as a saving grace and purifying force to lead us toward a recreation in the perfection of God. We don’t need to fear the bad times as some sort of indication that we are not measuring up. Those things come and go. What doesn’t have to be is our developing trust and in Him. Our faith can grow regardless of the circumstance of our life.

Meditation of Prayer:

Pray as directed by the Spirit.

Dedicate these moments to the patient waiting, when you feel ready ask God for understanding you desire from Him.

Meditation of God and His Glory / Hesychasm:

I invite you to sit in silence feeling being patient for your own faults and trials.

Summarize what insights you have gained during this meditation and meditate and visualize positive change in your life:
This is a listener funded podcast at patreon.com/christianmeditationpodcast

Updates:

Final Question: How do you treat the needs of others?

Final Thought: During last week’s episode I recommended a practice of enhancing the naturally occurring moments of life. This can lead to improved mood as we learn to give gratitude to God for these moments. I want to take a moment and perhaps slit a hair between salvation and bringing the kingdom of God into our lives here and now. If we trust Jesus as our savior, he takes our sins away. Yet this is not the only thing Jesus offered. He constantly was trying to teach the people how to bring the kingdom of Heaven to earth. That comes through consistently following Jesus. Practices of gratitude, expressions of worship and faith, as well the most important is developments in our capacity to love as Jesus did, reflect Jesus’ invitations and result in His promised blessings.

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