흑인 목회자들에게 묵상훈련을 할 때 사용하는 강의안입니다. 이것 역시 한국에 있을 때 제가 만들어 사용하던 강의안을 영어로 번역했는데요 교정을 하지 않아 오류가 많이 보입니다. 흑인 목회자들은 귀납법적 성경연구보다 이런 묵상훈련에 대단한 관심과 반응을 보입니다. 한국사람과 정서와 세계관이 비슷해서 그럴까요? ^^
[i]What is Christians’ Meditation? – by Pastor Kim
Jesus says to us, “I am your friend!” (Jn 15:13-15)
- “I no longer call your servants. Instead, I have called you friends.”
The true success is “knowing God,” which means “having an intimate relationship with God!!”
- I would like to call it “enjoying God” Isn’t it wonderful thing?
- Do you think each one of you knows God? It’s very different between knowing about God and knowing about God.
The reason why Jesus Christ came upon us is so that we have life, and have it to the full. (Jn10:10)
- What does that mean – “ life to the full?”
- What is Salvation? “It is a kind of life with full joy, contentment, pleasure given from God.”
The question is: How can we receive and enjoy the full life? Jesus is the only way!
- But we should know the most important thing to be saved through Jesus Christ!
- Jesus wants to lead us to God the Father! **”Relationship with the Father”
- Relationship with the Father is the pipeline of all life and blessings. Ex. How can we have water? We should go to the pipeline of water.
Man can’t live a day without relationship. There are 5 crucial kinds of relationship which could influence people’s life.
1. I to I
2. I to God
3. I to you
4. I to the world
5. I to Satan. Among these, the most important thing is the relationship between me and God. It’s just like a root to a tree. It’s a basic start.
Then how can we know whether we have a good relationship with the Father or not?
-Jesus says, “By their fruit you will recognize them.” “Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.”
- 1Jn1:6; 2:9-11; James1:26,17
- The key is “relationship” **taking life through Jesus and giving it to others.
Jesus came and called His disciples with clear purposes! We can see that in Mk3.
-Triple-fold purposes of divine calling: to be with Him, to teach others, and to free others.
-Triple-fold calling for intimacy, teaching, and authority.
We Koreans’ famous idioms says, “You lost first button, you lost everything.”
-If we get lost in an intimate relationship with the Father, we lost everything in ministry. Even though we might work a miraculous signs, we could lost our salvation. *Mt.7:21-23, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?” Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you, Away from me, you evildoers!”
-What is the true success in church ministry? What is the secret of successful church ministry? Every real success comes from the intimate relationship with the Father!
-When we focus on getting people free, we could get away from the love of God the Father.
-How can we restore the falling love of God? How can we start enjoying the full relationship with God?
“MEDITATION”
We should learn of how our Lord Jesus Christ had meditated while he worked on the earth. Just because He is our way to the Father! He gives us a very important model. He teaches us how to get to the Father by His own life and words.
Let us read Jn. 5:19,20
Today, Jesus shows us an amazing secret of His own life. Secret of a Biblical Meditation!!
-Jesus was always looking at the heavenly Father!!
-Question: why did Jesus went to only one person lying at the pond?
-The answer is given by Jesus in v.17,19
“My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.”
“I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”
Jn8:29-“The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.”
Jn17:4-“I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.”
Jn19:30-Jesus said on the cross, “It is finished.”
What the secret of Jesus Life? “MEDITATION”
-If Jesus focused on meditating, we, who believes in following Jesus as His disciples, should meditate also. It must be an important way of life. It should be our lifestyle itself.
What is a Biblical Meditation then?
-definition: “an activity of writing something into my heart”
-word changes from ‘medikelus’ > meditation > medicine
-Biblical meaning: receiving the Heart of God!!
-Meditating time is like having an intimate relationship with the Father!
-It’s different with Bible study.
Let’s focus on the Life of Jesus!!
-What did He regard as most high valued priority in His life?
-Bible says, “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”(Mk.1:35) The previous day was so full of ministries!!
-Like ancient Israelites got up earth in every morning so that they might gather Manna.
-Like the bible says, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”(Mt.4:4)
Meditation is the secret of success given by God to the man of God.
-When Joshua lost his mentor Moses, God said to Joshua, “Moses my servant is dead. Now then, You and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—the the Israelites. I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses….No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of yours life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them…Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it days and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be dis couraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
-“Bless is the man who delights in the law of the Lord, and on his law meditated day and night.”
Also, meditation is a true worship!!
-Ps.19:1-14, “The heavens declare the glory of God…May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.”
*”Pleasing” implies an activity of sacrifices for God.
How can we please our Lord God? “By meditating the Heart of God, we can surely please our Lord God.” Isn’t it so wonderful for us to please the most highes God just by thinking!!
What do we meditate? What is the difference between meditation and just reading?
-“Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked…” “Counsel” means the sharing the way of thinking!! If you begin sharing the thinking way of the wicked, you cannot help but stand in the way of sinners and end up sitting in the seat of mockers.
-In other words, when you start to share God’s way of thinking, you can get in the way of the Lord, ending up sitting in the seat of the Saints in the Heaven.
-Just focus on the Heart of God!! If you just begin to concentrate that, your whole life will be surely changed by the power of God.
How do we meditate? I want you to know that there are 4 kinds of channels to reveal the Heart of God.
(1) The word of God.
(2) The nature
(3) The life
(4) The character
**If we began to share the Heart of God, we can experience the joyfulness of God and the successful life. This is the real success.
Here are 3 steps of beginning a biblical meditation.
First, we must change our self understanding so that we might catch the hidden Heart of God.
Why is meditation so hard nowadays? It’s just because of unbiblical self image. We must regard ourselves as friends who can share the heart with each other. If we regard ourselves as slaves to do something, we cannot find out the heart of God at all. Many people ask me to teach the secret of meditation. The secret lies in changing self-understanding. If we don’t change our self-images as slaves, we can only feel that job so difficult.
God called us not slaves but managers(stewards). What is the difference between the two? one is unable to share the Heart of the Lord, the other is surely able to.
Like Potiphar appointed the young Joseph as a steward. Just like Pharaoh did.
Secondly, we must observe the life of Jesus who lived a life of meditation. Jesus is our model.
(1) Jesus meditated on the words.(Mt.4)
(2) Jesus meditated on the nature. (Mt.6)
(3) Jesus meditated on the life. (Mt.13)
(4) Jesus needed not to meditated on the character, because He is the living Son of God.
Finally, we must invite the Holy Spirit to help us to see the Heart of God.
-The Holy Spirit the Spirit of Witness, that is to say, the one to show us the glory(heart) of God.
-Above all, you should eager to find out the heart of God, to see the glory of God, and to share the heart of God.
-How could we do that? Ask as many questions as possible unto the Holy Spirit.
Conclusion
-Christians’ power and authority always comes from the intimate friendship with God.
-Christians’ meditation focuses on the revealing heart of God in the Bible, the nature, the life, and character.
-Christians’ meditation is compulsory to all who want to live an authoritative life and ministry.