The LORD Is My Shepherd

July 31, 2014

The LORD Is My Shepherd

“The LORD is my shepherd”

Psalm 23:1a (KJV)

On the desk in my study, is an olive wood carving of The Good Shepherd that I purchased in Bethlehem. The concept of Jesus as the Good Shepherd resonates within my soul and I am drawn to passages such as John 10 where Jesus talks of himself as the Shepherd and his followers as his sheep. God has used the parable of the lost sheep in Luke 15 to often remind me he will never, ever, give up on me. You can find images of The Shepherd, and the scenes of Psalm 23, throughout the New Testament. As an example, in Mark’s description of the feeding the five thousand, “Jesus told the disciples to have the people sit down in groups on the green grass” (Mark 6:30-43). For me, this invokes images of the “green pastures” in Psalm 23:2.

The most pervasive theme of the Bible is God’s longing for His people to know, and to experience, how much He loves us. I believe when God’s love truly penetrates our soul, when we experience His love, a miracle takes place. The Apostle Paul describes the miracle this way, “Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him” (2 Corinthians 3: 18 The Message).

How can we move toward such intimacy with God? Psalm 23 is a very good place to start because it is written in the first person, “The LORD is my shepherd . . .” I encourage you to spend a week with Psalm 23 and just meditate on one verse per day. You may want to use a resource like biblegateway.com so you can easily access several different translations of the Bible.

As you work through this process take time to ponder the words of each verse, and then contemplate what they mean to you and your life. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you if there is anything you need to do, or stop doing, in order to make the verse an authentic reflection of your life.

As your week with Psalm 23 progresses, don’t be surprised if someone observes that your face is shining with the brightness of His face.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.

The Sound of Silence

July 30, 2014

The Sound of Silence

“When the Lamb broke the seventh seal on the scroll, there was silence throughout heaven for about half an hour.”

Revelation 8:1

I am reading Pilgrimage of a Soul: Contemplative Spirituality for the Active Life by Phileena Heuertz. The book is an autobiographical account of Phileena’s pilgrimage to Camino De Santiago which was followed by a six month sabbatical. Her experience was an encounter with the Dark Night of the Soul as described by Saint John of the Cross. The silence of God was her close traveling companion during much of her pilgrimage and sabbatical. I am hosting Phileena as the speaker at our church’s Spiritual Formation Weekend in February 2015, and I look forward to learning more about the pilgrimage of her soul.

One of the questions I want to ask her is whether in hind-sight she has reconsidered the silence of her traveling companion. I too have experienced my encounters in the dark night with my soul laid bare. I too experienced the sound of silence. But in retrospect, I am coming to understand the silence was not so much that my companion, the Holy Comforter, was silent, as it was that I wasn’t listening. Perhaps it is better stated, I wasn’t listening for the truth my companion was offering to me.

The only true silence I can recall experiencing was the twelve hours, or there about, that I was under anesthesia during my cardiac bypass surgery last year. I have absolutely no recollection of those hours. No dreams, no sensations, no sounds until I heard the whirl of the various and sundry medical instruments attached to me when I woke up in ICU. It has been my experience that apart from those few hours in never-never land, my life is filled with sound. Sometimes that sound is audible.

Sometimes that sound is silent. I like this time the best because that’s when I hear the Holy Comforter speaking to me. Sometimes the Comforter is speaking to me through scripture. Sometimes the Comforter is speaking from behind the far mountain range, sometimes he’s on the side of the hill by the wild turkeys, sometimes he is stirring the crows to caw loudly. Sometimes I hear him from the blossoms of the crepe myrtles, and sometimes he’s in the thunder or the splendor of the morning sunrise. Always he’s speaking of the glory of Creation and the Creator’s love for all He has set His hand to, especially those created in His image.

Revelation 8:1 tells us “there was silence throughout heaven for about half an hour.” I take that as an indication that silence is extraordinary in the Kingdom of God. I take that as an invitation to listen more carefully, especially for the voice of God in the silence. 

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.

Take O Lord

July 29, 2014

Take O Lord

“So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.”

2 Corinthians 4:16 (NRSV)

The Apostle Paul had but one ambition for his life, and for the lives of all the followers of Jesus, that “The life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh” (2 Corinthians 4:11b NRSV). Paul had many ways of talking about this reality for the Christian. Sometimes he talked about putting on Christ, or living in Christ, or Christ living in the Christian, or life in the Spirit. I call it seeking to make the life in Christ my way of life. However we refer to this truth, the goal is the same; we want the life of Jesus to be made visible in our mortal flesh.

The Gospels reveal to us the heart of Jesus. We see his compassion, and we see his unwavering allegiance to the Kingdom of God. We see his gentleness and his unconditional acceptance of the last, the lost and the least of people. We see his zest for life, his true enjoyment in being with people, and we also see his uncompromising commitment to the will of God, regardless of the cost. Paul wanted the world to see those very same attributes in his mortal life. Saint Paul wants us to want that for our lives.

How do we achieve this goal for our lives? I have two suggestions, one very difficult and one not so much. First, the difficult. Pray for the courage to pray this prayer of St. Ignatius: “Take O Lord and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding and my entire will. All that I have and possess you have given to me. To you O Lord I return it. All is yours. Dispose of it all according to your will. Give me your love and grace for this is sufficient for me. (St. Ignatius of Loyola, 1491-1556, was the founder of the Jesuits.)

Secondly, begin to dispose of your stuff. As for me, I have set the modest goal of disposing of at least one item of my stuff every day. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.

The Better Righteousness

July 28, 2014

The Better Righteousness

“But I warn you—unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!”

Matthew 5:20

I imagine the disciples recoiled at these words of Jesus, much the same as they did some time later after Jesus had the encounter with the Rich Man and Jesus said, “In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!” The disciples were astounded. “Then who in the world can be saved?” they asked” (Matthew 10:25-26). The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees were well known for their passion in keeping the laws of God. How could these mortal disciples ever imagine their righteousness being better than the Pharisees? However, oftentimes their passion resulted in absurdities such as when they failed to offer assistance to the wounded man in Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan, or the many times they railed against Jesus for healing a person on the Sabbath. The danger in the law is the temptation to be so focused on the law, you lose sight of God, or as Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27).

The church today is polarized. In those churches that emphasize keeping the law, the congregation will learn to rationalize about how much flirting and intimate contact they can make without committing adultery. In other places, church members rail about what they deem as inappropriate dress of some attending church, while remaining silent on countless incidents of racism and oppression in their community. Of course, there are still those like the group Paul addressed in Romans 6:1 who was adept at ignoring the law, “What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound?” (NRSV)

If the disciples were troubled by these words of Jesus, I imagine Jesus would have gently pointed them back to the opening words of his Sermon on the Mount: “God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs” (Matthew 5:3). We enter the Kingdom of God on the back of Jesus, not on our resume of good works or law-keeping. The better righteousness is the righteousness of Jesus: “For Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes” (Romans 10:4 NRSV).

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.