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“Shepherd of Tender Youth” by Clement of Alexandria
Hymnal Page Scan: Praise for the Lord (Expanded Edition) page 452 | Hymnary.org
Audio Recording:
1 Shepherd of tender youth,
guiding in love and truth
through devious ways,
Christ, our triumphant King,
we come your name to sing
and here our children bring
to join your praise.2 You are our holy Lord,
Christ, the incarnate Word,
healer of strife.
You did yourself abase
that from sin’s deep disgrace
you might now save our race,
and give us life.3 You are the great High Priest,
you have prepared the feast
of holy love;
and in our mortal pain
none calls on you in vain;
our plea do not disdain;
help from above.4 O ever be our guide,
our shepherd and our pride,
our staff and song.
Jesus, O Christ of God,
by your enduring Word
lead us where you have trod;
make our faith strong.5 So now and till we die
sound we your praises high
and joyful sing:
infants and all the throng
who to your Church belong,
unite to swell the song
to Christ, our King! -
“A Song of Thanksgiving” by Margaret E. Sangster
Hymnal Page Scan: Chiming Voices: for Sunday Schools 126. A song of thanksgiving! we’ve garner’d the wheat | Hymnary.org
Audio Recording:
1 A song of thanksgiving! We’ve garner’d the wheat,
We’ve gather’d the vintage, all purple and sweet;
Today we may feast for the reaping is done,
The crown of fulfilment our labors have won.
Chorus:
A song of thanksgiving! To Him be the praise,
Who has pledged to His people full strength for their days.
A song for thanksgiving! We honor the name
Of the blessed Jehovah thro’ ages the same.
2 And over the land is the blessing of God,
The banners of peace wave in beauty abroad;
In freedom of conscience the home is secure,
What the fathers bequeath’d to the children of God. [Chorus]
3 Thank God for the schools where the little ones throng,
For their sweet silver voices in story and song;
Thank God for the promise of hope in their eyes,
To serve Him when they to our places shall rise. [Chorus]
4 Thank God for the gospel which carries afar
The tidings once gleaming in Bethlehem’s star;
Thank God that the desert grows bright with the rose,
As o’er its waste spaces life’s glad river flows. [Chorus] -
Christian Meditation: God, the Righteous Judge
In my previous posts, I wrote about how God is the Almighty King ruling over His creation. As King, He is the Lawgiver. In this post we will see that God is also the righteous Judge. At the end of earthly life, everyone has to stand before God’s judgment bar in His court in heaven. We will all stand before Him as guilty sinners, guilty of breaking His holy laws. But if you believed in Jesus and received a free pardon for your sins, you will be justified (declared righteous instead of guilty) not by your own righteousness, but by the merits of Christ’s righteousness that has been imputed to you. You will be accepted in the Beloved.
Take time to envision the heavenly courtroom. Then envision yourself standing before the judgment bar of God. As you stand before God as a guilty sinner, you enter your plea, “I have this one plea: Jesus Christ has died for me. I am redeemed! My sins have been washed away, and I am clothed in the righteousness of Christ.” By God’s grace, you are declared righteous in God’s eyes and are welcomed into your eternal reward in heaven.
As you are contemplating having to stand before God, remember that in the heavenly court, the Judge is God the Father, who graciously provided a way of salvation for you to be able to go to heaven. He was the one who offered you that free pardon of your sins through Christ, so He will definitely uphold it. God the Son, Jesus Christ, is your Advocate with God and is always interceding for you with the Father. Jesus Christ obeyed the Law perfectly and died on the cross in your place so that you can have that pardon. And God the Holy Spirit, is also your advocate. And it was the Holy Spirit that first moved in your heart to make you aware of your sin and your need of God and implanted that new principle of life in you during regeneration. So your salvation is sure. It’s certain. We really can stand before God, clothed in the righteousness of Christ, and be welcomed into heaven. Let the joy of that assurance calm your mind and heart as you meditate on it.
Here is a link to the hymn “The Old Account Settled Long Ago” by F. M. Graham – Learning to Live by Faith. The words in it describe the experience of standing before God’s judgment bar after having all of your sins washed away.
The 3rd verse says,
When at the judgment bar
I stand before my King,
And He the book will open,
He cannot find a thing;
Then will my heart be glad,
While tears of joy will flow,
Because I had it settled,
And settled long ago.As you listen to this hymn, envision yourself being able to stand before God having been cleansed of all your sins and made pleasing in His sight. Feel His great love for you. And rejoice in the hope of heaven!
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“The Old Account Settled Long Ago” by F. M. Graham
Hymnal Page Scan: The New National Baptist Hymnal (21st Century Edition) 388. There was a time I know | Hymnary.org
Audio Recording:
1 There was a time, I know,
When in the book of heaven,
An old account was standing
For sins yet unforgiven;
My name was at the top
And many things below,
I went unto the Keeper,
And settled long ago.Refrain:
Long ago, long ago,
Yes, the old account was settled long ago;
And the record’s clear today,
For He washed my sins away,
When the old account was settled long ago.2 The old account was large,
And growing every day,
For I was always sinning,
And never tried to pay;
But when I looked ahead
And saw such pain and woe,
I said that I would settle,
And settled long ago. [Refrain]3 When at the judgment bar
I stand before my King,
And He the book will open,
He cannot find a thing;
Then will my heart be glad,
While tears of joy will flow,
Because I had it settled,
And settled long ago. [Refrain]4 O sinner, seek the Lord,
Repent of all your sin;
For thus He has commanded,
If you would enter in;
And then if you should live
A hundred years below,
E’en here you’ll not regret it,
You settled long ago. [Refrain] -
Christian Meditation: God, the Lawgiver
In my previous posts I wrote about how God created the earth as a habitation for man and lovingly rules over it as our Almighty King. In this post we will see how God, as the Almighty King, is the Law-giver.
I hope in the future to write about Ezekiel Hopkins’ Exposition of the 10 Commandments. In the introduction, Hopkins says, “Two things in general are required to perfect a Christian; the one a clear and distinct knowledge of his duty, the other, a conscientious practice of it, correspondent to his knowledge; and both are equally necessary.” He says, “Although knowledge may be without practice, yet the practice of godliness cannot be without knowledge. For, if we know not the limits of sin and duty, what is required and what is forbidden, it cannot be supposed but that, in this corrupted state of our natures, we shall unavoidably run into many heinous miscarriages.
Therefore, that we might be informed what we ought to do and what to avoid, it hath pleased God, the great Governor and righteous Judge of all, to prescribe laws for the regulating of our actions; and, that we might not be ignorant what they are, he hath openly promulgated them in his word. For when we had miserably defaced the law of nature originally written in our hearts, so that many of its commands were no longer legible, it seemed good to his infinite wisdom and mercy to transcribe and copy out that law in the sacred tables of the Scriptures;
and to superadd many positive precepts and injunctions not before imposed. Hence the Bible is the statute-book of God’s kingdom, wherein is comprised the whole body of the heavenly law, the perfect rules of a holy life, and the sure promises of a glorious one.
And the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments, is a summary, or brief epitome of the law, written by the immediate finger of God, and contracted into an abridgment not only to ease our memories but to gain our veneration; for sententious commands best befit majesty.”
The 10 Commandments are divided into 2 tables. The 1st table includes our duties to God, and the 2nd table has our duties towards other people.
In Matthew 22, Jesus is asked which is the greatest commandment. Matthew 22:34-37 says,
34Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ c 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ d 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Keep Jesus’ response in mind as you read through this list of the 10 Commandments. The first 4 commands include our duties to God, the last 6 commands include our duties towards other people. If you click on this link, it has a picture of the commandments listed on 2 stone tablets: The 10 Commandments: List and Bible Meaning Explained | Bible Study Tools
The 10 Commandments:
- Thou shall have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:3)
- Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images. (Exodus 20:4-6)
- Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. (Exodus 20:7)
- Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. (Exodus 20:8-11)
- Honor your father and mother. (Exodus 20:12)
- Thou shalt not murder. (Exodus 20:13)
- Thou shalt not commit adultery. (Exodus 20:14)
- Thou shalt not steal. (Exodus 20:15)
- Thou shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. (Exodus 20:16)
- Thou shall not covet. (Exodus 20:17)
As you read through the commandments, you can see how they reflect the character of the King who wrote them. They require us to love and honor God, and to treat other people with kindness and compassion.
Take time to envision God on His throne as the Almighty King. You could read through Exodus 20 and meditate on the imagery of Him giving the Law to the Israelites at Mount Sinai. Then take time to think about what types of laws this great King gave – holy, righteous, good laws that reflect His attributes.
As we are approaching Christmas, we will be celebrating the birth of our Redeemer. Over time I will be writing more about these topics, but I wanted to write a little bit now about what we are celebrating at Christmas.
How did Jesus save us from our sins? In order to answer that question, we must first understand the requirements of the Law. God requires perfect obedience to His law, and the punishment for one sin is death. But we are born in a sinful condition and continue to sin throughout our lives. So we are not able to obey the law perfectly. We are also not able to cleanse ourselves from our sins. So unless God provided a way of salvation, we would have been forever separated off from God.
You have probably heard Jesus called our Savior, Redeemer, Mediator, Surety, and other names. Each name means something specific, and I will be posting about that on here in the future. A mediator is someone who stands in between 2 people as a go-between in order to try to settle a dispute between them. And that’s what Jesus does for us as our Mediator. There has been an offense – we have broken God’s law. We are separated off from Him by sin. Jesus stands in between God and us as our Mediator. But remember, Jesus is not having to try to convince an angry God to love and forgive us. God provided Jesus to be our Redeemer out of His great love to us. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
Everything Jesus did during His time on earth, He did in our place. He perfectly obeyed the law in our place, which we were totally unable to do on our own. And He took the punishment for our sins in our place.
In Zechariah 3, the cleansing of sin is represented by the removing of a filthy, or sin-stained, garment. Zech. 3:3-4 says,
3Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. 4The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.”
Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put fine garments on you.”
By cleansing us of our sins through His death on the cross, Jesus took away that sin-stained garment. And by working out a righteousness for us through His perfect obedience to God’s law, Jesus provides us with a righteousness that is pleasing to God. So Jesus takes away what is the matter of offense (our sin) and provides us with what will make us pleasing in God’s eyes (an imputed righteousness). When we stand before God, we are accepted in the Beloved, in Jesus. That is how Jesus saves us from our sins. I will write more about this in the future.
When you are contemplating the Law of God, it is important to remember the timing of when it was given in order to understand God’s purpose. The Law was given to the Israelites at Mount Sinai many years after Adam and Eve had sinned in the Garden of Eden. So people were already being born in a fallen state and unable to meet the requirements of the Law when it was given. In the New Testament, Paul explains that the Law was given to make us aware of our sin and our need of a Savior (Rom. 3:20; Rom. 7:7). And all of the sacrifices in the Old Testament sacrificial system pointed to the ultimate once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus for our sins. The New Testament begins with the birth of Jesus and explains throughout the Gospels and the Epistles how Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah that everything in the Old Testament sacrificial system was pointing to. At Christmas, we celebrate the birth of our newborn King – who was born to fulfill the Law and save us from our sins.
So as you are meditating, take time to envision God as the Almighty King on His throne in Heaven giving His law to mankind. Meditate on the goodness of His laws. And also take time to meditate on His grace and mercy to us in sending Jesus to save us from our sins so that we can be reconciled to God through Christ. Here is a link to the hymn “He Wore a Crown of Thorns” by William M. Runyan – Learning to Live by Faith. It is actually an Easter hymn. But I play it at Christmas time because it helps me remember why Jesus came to earth and it helps me meditate on Jesus as King. The first verse says,
1 ‘Twas God’s own Son who came to earth,
Who chose to know a lowly birth;
But, tho’ a King of matchless worth,
He wore a crown of thorns.Think of that King of matchless worth coming to earth to save you. Envision that light shining into the darkness and rejoice in the gift of eternal life with God in heaven.
Links: Ezekiel Hopkins’ Exposition of the 10 Commandments – Ten Commandments: Hopkins
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“He Wore a Crown of Thorns” by William M. Runyan
Hymnal Page Scan: The New National Baptist Hymnal (21st Century Edition) 114. ‘Twas God’s own Son who came to earth | Hymnary.org
Audio Recording:
1 ‘Twas God’s own Son who came to earth,
Who chose to know a lowly birth;
But, tho’ a King of matchless worth,
He wore a crown of thorns.Refrain:
He wore a crown of thorns that I
might wear a crown of glory!
He laid His heav’nly splendors by
to bring me love’s sweet story.
In poverty He walked life’s way,
In Olive’s garden bowed to pray;
He wore a crown of thorns that I
might wear a crown of glory!2 Wonderful Counsellor was He,
Matchless His grace; how could it be
That at the last, He wore for me
That bitter crown of thorns? [Refrain]3 Kind were the deeds that crowned each day,
Gracious the words His lips would say,
While He pursued the fateful way
To wear that crown of thorns. [Refrain]4 Never again His brow shall know
Piercings of agony and woe
But ’twas for us that, here below,
He wore the crown of thorns. [Refrain] -
Christmas Hymn: “For God So Loved the World” by Eliza E. Hewitt
Hymnal Page Scan: For God So Loved the World
Audio Recording:
1. A story sweet and wondrous,
Like heav’nly music swells;
In chimings clear to all who will hear,
Ring out the Gospel bells.Refrain
For God so loved the world
That He gave His only begotten Son,
That whosoever believeth in Him,
Whosoever believeth in Him
Should not perish,
Should not perish,
But have everlasting life.2. When, grieving, brokenhearted,
Because of sin and shame,
We find a joy earth cannot destroy,
Believing on His name. [Refrain]3. This love beyond all measure
Of earth or sea or sky,
Could only show its full overflow,
When Jesus came to die. [Refrain]4. Come, brother, come to Jesus;
His Word was meant for you;
His grace receive, His promise believe,
And sing His praise anew. [Refrain] -
Christmas Hymn: “Like the Sound of Many Waters” by Fanny Crosby
Hymnal Page Scan: Gems of Song: for the Sunday School page 250 | Hymnary.org
Audio Recording:
1. Like the sound of many waters
Rolling on through ages long;
In a tide of rapture breaking—
Hark! the mighty choral song!Refrain
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Let the heav’nly portals ring!
Christ is born, the Prince of glory!
Christ the Lord, our mighty King!2. Lo! the Morning Star appeareth,
O’er the world, His beams are cast;
He the Alpha and Omega,
He the Great, the First, the Last. [Refrain]3. Clap your hands with exultation!
Sing aloud, rejoice with mirth,
Peace her silver wing hath folded:
Lo! she comes to dwell on earth! [Refrain]4. Savior, not with costly treasure
Do we gather at Thy throne,
All we have, our hearts we give Thee,
Consecrate them Thine alone. [Refrain] -
Imagery from John Howe’s Sermon on Acts 1:7
I was reading James Howe’s sermon on Acts 1:7, and I wanted to share with you some imagery from it you can use during a meditation time. In Acts 1:7, Jesus says to His disciples, “It is not for you to know the times and the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.” Howe explains this verse at length in the full sermon. I wanted to quickly share some imagery from the sermon with you.
1. Alternate between thinking about God’s attributes and our capacities as humans:
Howe says, “We ought to admire here the divine wisdom and mercy in conjunction, upon this occasion; that he doth not let us have any more knowledge than what will suit with our power in such things. What a dreadful concurrence would it be in us between infinite knowledge and finite power!”
One way we are supposed to meditate is to alternate between thinking about our own limitations as humans and God’s unlimitedness. It helps us to see that He is that fountain from whom all blessings flow. It increases our faith because as we meditate on how God has infinite knowledge and power and we have limited knowledge and power, we begin to see not only that we can trust Him, but also that we need to trust Him.
This goes along with the imagery from Hannah Whitall Smith’s book God of All Comfort, that we are sheep in need of a shepherd.
2. Let God be eyes to us:
Later in his sermon, Howe says that we are blind as to what will happen tomorrow – we cannot know the future – and we must trust God to be eyes to us. He says, “And so though we be blind and cannot see the product of to-morrow; know not what a day will bring forth; we shall have him to be eyes to us. He will be eyes to the blind, if they will but trust in him; as when a blind person is led by another he useth that person’s eyes, who leads him. Let him lead us on from day to day, time to time and season to season. We cannot see with our own eyes, but is it not better for us that we have better eyes to see with? For we have one to see for us, who seeth infinitely better than we.”
So envision yourself in the dark and unable to see where you are going. You need God to guide your steps forward. When you envision that, you can see how it is necessary for you to trust in God in order to follow Him. We must trust where He is leading us before we will take that first step. Take note of how you feel when you envision God guiding you in the dark. Are you trusting in Him? Are you used to following His guidance? I find when I practice with that imagery, I still feel hesitation at times and I’m just not used to waiting in that sense for God’s guidance. That’s why we need to spend time meditating on our condition in this world and see that we really are sheep in need of a shepherd…sheep that could not see the way without God. We must wait for His guidance.
3. A restriction that stands between us and tomorrow:
There was another image in the sermon of a filter or insulation between our thoughts about today and our thoughts about tomorrow. Howe says about us not knowing the times and seasons of things, “There is a great deal of compassion in this: that since it belongs to our state as creatures to be able to do but little, to be mere dependencies, impotent things, that therefore we should not have a fore-knowledge of what it would be afflictive to us to foreknow. We are therefore put under a restriction that comes so close to us, as to stand betwixt us and to-morrow. “Take no thought for the morrow; sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.” We are not to range with afflicting thoughts so far as to the next day. Thou wilt have enough in this day to trouble thee with, never let thy solicitude be conversant about the accessions of time. We foolish creatures should fetch the troubles of all our days into every day, if we could foreknow what is to come. Take then no thought for to-morrow! it is enough for you that you have One to think of you, and care for you. And it will make most for your advantage to be looked upon by him every day; who will make your strength to be sufficient for each day when it comes.”
When I read that, I saw in my mind the imagery of a calendar. On a calendar, there is a line between each day, marking off one day from the next. I started seeing imagery of that line being a filter or insulation of some type that would keep my mind thinking about today and not ranging into tomorrow. I saw myself standing in one block of the calendar, or one single day. And instead of looking forward to the next day, I was looking up to God and praying about the events of the current day.
One important point that Howe makes in the sermon is when he says, “We are barred up as to future time; but we are bid to know the present time, and what God calls for at our hands therein.” Earlier in the sermon, Howe explains that Jesus answered His disciples question about wanting to know the times and seasons by reminding them, “Your work and business must be to be witness bearers to me, to my name and truth; to be my agents to carry on the business and design of that spiritual kingdom, which I am intent to establish, and promote, and spread through the whole world. And in order thereunto, you shall have a power come upon you which you shall little understand till you feel it, and which shall furnish you for this great work. ‘You shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.’ (Acts 1:8)” And later in the sermon Howe says, “The present time points out such and such work that we should be intent upon. We cannot indeed know these reserved times and seasons; let us then know the times, that are left open to our view. As now this present time is come, but do we know what ought to be the work of this time? God hath ordered for us this time, this season to be waiting for him, humbling ourselves before him.” In the imagery, I see myself standing in the block of the calendar that is today, asking God what is the work of today?
So the imagery I found in this sermon that we can use during meditation time is:
- Envision a concept in your mind of God’s infinite power and knowledge and a concept of human beings’ finite, or limited, knowledge and power. And then alternate between thinking about the two. You could look up to God in heaven and think of His attributes, and then return your attention to yourself and notice the limitations of human beings in comparison to God.
- Envision letting God be your eyes as He guides you on a dark pathway.
- Envision a restriction for your thoughts between today and tomorrow.
Here is a link to the full sermon: John Howe: Whole Works of the Rev. John Howe, M.A. with a Memoir of the Author. Vol. VI. – Christian Classics Ethereal Library
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How I Started Studying the Bible
I wanted to write to let you know about how I started studying the Bible. I grew up going to church. In Sunday School we would learn memory verses and I had a little book that had verses from Proverbs in it that I would read. I also had a Children’s Bible that I would read through at night before I went to bed.
When I was in about the 6th grade, my mom bought a One-Year Bible. I hadn’t seen one before. I asked if I could look at it, and it was a Bible that was printed in a format of daily devotionals. This was around the year 1994, and it wasn’t long after that before I started hearing people talking about the end of the world. There were people saying that the world was going to end in the year 2000 and there was a lot of stress about Y2K – a fear that computers were going to stop working when they had to change from 99 to 00 for the year 2000.
I was only about 12 years old at the time, and I don’t know if I had heard before that Jesus was going to be returning. If I had heard about it, it was only mentioned in a way where I did not understand how serious it would be – although it is not supposed to be terrifying to us. At Youth Group, I saw some sensationalized videos of the rapture where people were disappearing and it was very scary. I started developing a lot of stress about it. One night I was having a panic attack during a thunderstorm because I had heard someone at school say that Jesus was going to return during a thunderstorm. I knew that Jesus was probably not returning at that moment, but I realized then how much the stress of it was affecting me. My mom asked me what was wrong, and I explained that I was distressed because people were saying that Jesus was returning and I didn’t know if what they were saying was true or not. She said that Jesus was going to return, but that she didn’t know much about how it would happen. She thought the things I was hearing were sensationalized, though.
So now I knew it was true that Jesus was returning, but what about everything else that was being said? Was it in the Bible? I remember that particular feeling of uncertainty I felt when I didn’t know if those things were true or not. How would I know if something someone said was in the Bible really was in there or not if I had never read the Bible myself? God reminded me of that One-Year Bible, and I could feel that He was leading me to start reading through the Bible.
Sometime soon after that thunderstorm, my mom took me to the bookstore after school. I went to the Bible section and got a book that said it was about Revelation. I went home and went out and sat down on the deck with my border collie, and started reading through Revelation and the study guide. I knew I wasn’t understanding everything I was reading, but I felt God’s presence there with me as I was reading through His word. I felt a sense of peace. Whatever was going to happen over the next few years, God was going to be there with us. I also noticed that Revelation didn’t say anything specific about the world ending in the year 2000. As I kept reading, I wasn’t sure if the study guide I had bought about Revelation was accurate or not. The Bible I was reading in was an NIV Zondervan Study Bible, so I started reading through those study notes.
After I finished reading Revelation, I wanted to keep reading through the Bible daily. So I started reading through the One-Year Bible. Not long after I started reading through it, I read Matthew 24:36, in which Jesus says about the time when the world will end, “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” I felt a lot of comfort from that verse and was able to stop having as much stress about the world ending. I really enjoyed feeling God’s presence with me as I read through the Bible, so after I got home from school, I would go outside with my border collie and would read through my daily devotional in the One-Year Bible.
When I was 16 years old, I started getting sick. I had to homeschool my last 2 years of high school and was not able to finish college. It took 11 years to get the diagnosis of Eosinophilic Esophagitis and Gastroparesis. During those years, I kept doing my daily quiet time. I used the NIV Zondervan Study Bible that I used to read Revelation in 1994, and read through the study notes for the whole Bible. That took many years. And after I had finished that, I started reading the Matthew Henry commentary and other commentaries and books. I would try to be sure to have quiet time for 30 minutes to 1 hour a day. And a lot of times I would play several hymns also. It made such a difference in my life to have a daily quiet time, so I’m trying to build a resource here on this website for people to use during their quiet times. There will be posts people can read for a devotional time and hymns for people to listen to.
After I got the diagnoses of EoE and Gastroparesis, I was still having a lot of symptoms. In 2012, I was diagnosed with Mind Body Syndrome and started working with a counselor who used a holistic approach. I wrote in my post How to Use Imagery from Hymns in Christian Meditation – Learning to Live by Faith about how she used guided imagery and meditation. So it was in 2012 that I learned to meditate using guided imagery, hypnosis, and mindfulness techniques. During that time, God brought to my mind all of the imagery He has given us throughout the Bible. So I started incorporating Biblical imagery into my meditation time and found it to be a very powerful experience. I’ve recently started writing posts on here about Christian meditation and look forward to continuing to share with you what I have learned. I hope you will find it to be healing and helpful.
So I started reading the Bible to find out what it said about Jesus’ return, and I have learned about it over the years and hope to post about it on here in the future. There are many beautiful hymns that are about Jesus’ second coming. We cannot know when Jesus will return, but as Christians we are supposed to be living with the expectant hope of meeting our Savior face to face, whether that happens after experiencing death at the end of earthly life or whether that happens if we get to experience Jesus’ return during our lifetime. That is how Christians have lived since His ascension – waiting to see Jesus. And we do not need to fear death or Jesus’ second coming because we have received a pardon for our sins and are reconciled to God through Christ.
So again, I’m looking forward to posting about Christian meditation and about what I am learning in my daily quiet times. And I am still hoping to get the website design changed to where there is a menu so that the devotionals will be posted on one page and the hymn recordings will be posted on another page.
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Learning to Live by Faith 