Jul 24, 2022
458 For The Sake of My Holy Name, A Guided Christian Meditation on Ezekiel 36:22-25 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 connecting with God. Let your
stomach be a balloon inflate, deflate.
Bible verses for Meditation:
Ezekiel 36
NIV
22 “Therefore say to the Israelites, ‘This is what the Sovereign
Lord says: It is not for your sake, people of Israel, that I am
going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which
you have profaned among the nations where you have gone. 23 I will
show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among
the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the
nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Sovereign Lord,
when I am proved holy through you before their eyes.
24 “‘For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from
all the countries and bring you back into your own land. 25 I will
sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse
you from all your impurities and from all your idols.
NRSVA
22 Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It
is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act,
but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the
nations to which you came. 23 I will sanctify my great name, which
has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned
among them; and the nations shall know that I am the Lord, says the
Lord God, when through you I display my holiness before their eyes.
24 I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the
countries, and bring you into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle
clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your
uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse
you.
Meditation:
Many times when we hear of the great acts that God has done for us we hear that God did them for us. We hear powerful professions of the Love of God. The inriquit and eternal plan he has made. We know of his intentions to save us before the foundations of the Earth we laid. He sent his Son to die for us because he loved us. These are powerful ideas. They are rooted in the truth of the gospel. God loves us. This is undeniably true. We love him because he first loved us, a scripture says in 1 John 4:19. Yet in our comfortable moments when we are overconfident of our own goodness we can be tempted to think that this is the only way it could be. The world tells us we deserve a life filled with happiness and ease, free of guilt regardless of what we do.
Yet this misses a much more profound truth. God loves us, first because who God is, and in some ways, in spite of what we have been. This is far from a demeaning idea. It shows us our true value is not an argument of the situation of our birth, our past, the temptations that come into our hearts. Our value is determined by God. In the end of Ezekiel we read of prophecies where God will redeem Israel, for His Name’s sake. It is because God’s name is so valuable that we are able to be cleansed with God’s water poured upon us. We can be cleaned from all our idols by Him.
Yours and my salvation are therefore a matter of much more firm stuff than our own transitory identity. It is founded in the Name of God. In this moment invite Jesus Christ to guide your heart and be your savior. For the sake of His holy name he will cleanse you.
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 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 can you live consistent with the cleansing power God offers you?
This week I performed a funeral for a family from Africa. The amount of family that was physically present was not that large but there were many friends who were just as close as family in some ways and their presence and comfort was amazing.
Final Thought:
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