#meditate on the word

[therapy-bites]

Welcome to Sunset Reflections!  Debbie and Doc Heath here, your friendly Neighborhood NeuroMechanic!

One of the healthiest neuroscience-based training exercises is the identification of “targets for gratefulness” (TFG).

Once identified, we can utilize our mindfulness techniques (please join in and follow our Mindful Good Morning posts) to explore various aspects of our gratefulness in relation to a targeted event, situation, circumstance, person, object, thought, or realization.  This can be in relation to ourselves, others, or the universe around us.

1) CHOOSE Target for Gratefulness (TFG)

2) EXPLORE overlooked aspects of TFG

3) BREATHE as you become mindful of these precious facets.

4) AGREE with yourself to continue being mindful of this gratitude focus as you prepare your evening meal, as you enjoy each bite of food, as you spend time with yourself or others significant to you.

5) REALIZE that gratitude, like oxygen, may be breathed in and out, sharing with others in our own personal orbit. 

6) SHARE your TFG in the comments below.  We can all benefit from one another’s experiences.

***TherapyBites Podcast NOW AVAILABLE***

It’s all about the Psychology of EveryDay Life & Relationships.

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E1. Bonus Intro Episode

E2. Scary Stories from the DARK RECESSES Beneath the Therapy Couch

E3. Spooky Tales, Scary Therapy, & Staying Psychologically Safe

E4. Barking Werewolf Ruins the Day

E5. Zombies & Depression Quicksand

E6. Spirits, Unsafe Spaces, & Other Tales of Terror

E7. Myths, Monsters, & Scary Stress

[penningthoughts]

Lord help me to be truly prosperous with the riches you want me to inherit as your daughter in a way that glorifies your name!

Help me through temptations, any unbelief on anything and also help me do good so that I am not sinning by omission unwisely or acting in a way unlike the character you would like me to have.

Amen!

[baabaahosanna]

Disconnected!

It starts slowly.

You will get more and more occupied.

Slowly losing the appetite for spending time with God.

When you’ve gone distant from the Source, you are disconnected.

We become deeply engrossed in chasing worldly pleasures and wealth, causing us to sacrifice our moments with the Lord. The constant focus on earning a living leads us to overlook the importance of building a meaningful existence.

As we relentlessly pursue material riches and the perceived joys they bring, a divide gradually forms and expands. Subsequently, the seed of anxiety starts to infiltrate our lives. When our thoughts and energy are consumed by daily problems and stresses, it becomes challenging to allocate time for our spiritual connection with God.

Have we allowed insignificant matters to take precedence and allowed neglect to overrun our spiritual well-being?

Make him first in your life once again. Give him your time. Give him your heart. Your whole heart.

[luthienne]

Fady Joudah, from A Palestinian Meditation in a Time of Annihilation

[psalmonesermons]

Give us this day our daily bread Part 3

How can we maximise our nutrition from the bible?

In Part 2 we considered what Jesus meant when he said, ‘I am the bread of life’ and saw that we absorbed from Jesus the bread of life, his life, his character, his example, his teaching i.e. food for our souls. We need to feed on God’s word (bible) every day of our lives because it contains the nourishment we need for our souls.

Today in Part 3 we consider how can we maximise the benefit from what we can take from our daily bread?

We now consider the practice of Christian meditation on the word of God (bible).

Does anyone have a favourite scripture or keynote verse?

Psalm 1 is the keynote scripture for my life.

1 Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked

or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers,

2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.

3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season

and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers.

When Psalm 1 was written the law was most of the bible that existed at that time.

We can extrapolate it today to include all the bible (word of God).

The Hebrew word for meditate means ‘moving the lips’ or ‘mutter’.

In a sense we talk to our ourselves about the verse.

Another analogy is that we should be like a cow chewing the cud i.e. we chew the food and swallow then let it come back up so we can chew it again and again.

In practice this means that we should choose a verse or portion of scripture and keep chewing on it until its meaning becomes clear to us.

I did this with the verse ‘I am the bread of life’ that Jesus spoke in John 6.

What does bread do, what does life mean and so on?

Ask yourself about the meaning of the passage of scripture you are reading.

Here are some other scriptures that show believers taking God’s word into themselves.

Jeremiah 15:16 When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, Lord God Almighty.

Ezekiel 2:8 But you, son of man, listen to what I say to you. Do not rebel like that rebellious people; open your mouth and eat what I give you.” 9 Then I looked, and I saw a hand stretched out to me. In it was a scroll,

Rev 10:9 So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, “Take it and eat it. It will turn your stomach sour, but ‘in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey.’”

Joshua 1:8 Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

So, the idea of eating or taking God’s word into yourself is thoroughly biblical.

Let's do it!

Amen

Personal Prayer

[flowerytale]

Frank O'Hara, from "Meditations in an Emergency"; The Collected Poems

[seanswoodburnings]

Zen moments pyrography art plaque, bonsai artwork. Come visit my Etsy shop:

[leonardospoetry]

constantly on this search

[asoftepiloguemylove]

Joan Tierney Why Are You Haunted? / @/oceaii (tumblr) / Liv Ullmann Changing / The Elektra Complex / Rosario Castellanos Monologue of a Foreign Woman from "Meditation on the Threshold: A Bilingual Anthology of Poetry / unknown / @/violentcherries (tumblr) / @/nutnoce (tumblr) / Jean-Paul Sartre Nausea / unknown

i. Joan Tierney Why Are You Haunted? [ "This haunting is architectural. It is not about you. It is about where you are. There are bones in the foundation. This house is a graveyard. This house is a corpse. You are inside the corpse. That makes you the maggot." ]

ii. @/oceaii (tumblr) [ Black and white illustration of a deer. The deer looks forwards in the first panel and turns back to face the audience in the second panel. "Turn and face / the person you've become." ]

iii. Liv Ullmann Changing [ "I will never forget the loneliness I knew as a child. For a period in my life I hid behind a mask. Did not want to acknowledge any longing. / Now it is a part of me-something I can share. / Both the loneliness and the longing." ]

iv. The Elektra Complex [ "If you were to peel the skin of me apart as a fig's, you would finally understand. I am my mother's daughter. From poisoned seeds sprout poisoned fruits." ]

v. Rosario Castellanos Monologue of a Foreign Woman [ "I didn't want / to be the dead star / that uses borrowed light to survive." ]

vi. unknown [ Black and white illustration of two deer. They are both labeled with words. The deer in the background says "just be." The deer in the foreground replies "just being is the hardest part." ]

vii. @/violentcherries (tumblr) [ "the environment you are not thriving in is not yours forever / IT'S OKAY TO LEAVE / ... / IT'S OKAY to abandon the things you used to love" ]

viii. @/nutnoce (tumblr) [ Black and white illustration of a scorpion doing chores. It's tail just barely curls over the front of a clothes line. Various pairs of socks hang from the clothes line. It stands before a bucket with more clothes inside. "I come from the toughest, meanest place you can imagine. / I want to be gentle, I want to die gently, but / It seems that when life gets hard / I have to get harder to match." ]

ix. Jean-Paul Sartre Nausea [ "I am going to outlive myself. Eat, sleep, sleep, eat. Exist slowly, softly, like these trees, like a puddle of water, like the red bench in the streetcar." ]

x. unknown [ "1. Man is a MORAL animal. / 2. You can get human beings to do anything - IF you can convince them it is moral. / 3. You can convince human beings that anything is moral." ]

[balancedmeditation]

Watch "Zen Meditation Music, Reiki Music, Chakra, Relaxing Music, Music for Stress Relief, Zen 💙 13-30" on YouTube

[mismasphotography]

Capturing a spirit

I was meditating all morning, pressing a remote control button when suddenly I captured a special light in the frame. It felt like capturing the spirit with a child in a womb.

Bled, Slovenia 🇸🇮

[jakerhodes1001]

Deep Relaxing Music ☯ Meditation Music 🌿 Sleep Music 🙏 Ambient Music 🎵 1...

[eyeseverupward]

Words of Life Scripture Meditation Week 15

Words of Life Scripture Meditation Week 15

Good morning! Week 15 is now available. I’d love to hear how these meditations are blessing you. Feel free to leave a comment or contact me! Scripture for Meditation week 15

[nuggetsfromgodsword]

Spiritual Exercise

DATE WRITTEN: Sunday, 2022-08-21WRITTEN AT: Okeechobee, FL Bible Reference: 1 Timothy 4:7-8Translation: Living Bible (TLB) Bible Text: 7 Don’t waste time arguing over foolish ideas and silly myths and legends. Spend your time and energy in the exercise of keeping spiritually fit. 8 Bodily exercise is all right, but spiritual exercise is much more important and is a tonic for all you do. So…

[renewed-daily]

Repentance

I recently learned that I was never really ‘saved’. 

I know of God, I believe in God, I was raised in the church and I was even baptized when I was 13 years old but I was never really saved. It was my youth pastors who helped me pray the prayer - asking God to come into my heart - and telling me I was saved after I repeated those words. But only God can tell you you’re saved. And I am still unsure if I have ever truly heard him. 

I’ve never truly been ‘revived’ because I never truly repented.

Repentance is not just asking for forgiveness of your sins, but a change in behavior. It is a continual walk with God, and different way of thinking. It’s when you stop worshipping the things of this world and become more like our Creator. (There are no other Gods but him - so it makes no sense to put so much of our time into the things of this world).

Romans 13:12-14 says

The night is almost gone; the day of salvation will soon be here. So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes, and put on the shining armor of right living. Because we belong to the day, we must live decent lives for all to see. Don’t participate in the darkness of wild parties and drunkenness, or in sexual promiscuity and immoral living, or in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And don’t let yourself think about ways to indulge your evil desires.

Ephesians 5:3-4 says

Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people. Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes — these are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God.

All I have ever done my whole life is sin. All everyone’s ever done is sin. But by the grace of God, and his mercy, we have the privilege and the opportunity to be renewed again and live in the light so that when salvation comes we don’t need to fear.

We need to fear judgement day. Most of what we love to do, love to watch and say.. God hates. (and don’t get me wrong I’m still figuring out what’s okay and what’s not okay in His eyes)

I encourage you all to repent. Repent and mean it. Start by worshipping the Lord, admit your faults and misconceptions of the way we should be living and pray. Pray for forgiveness and guidance.

Put to death:

Lust

Impurity - sexual immortality

Worshipping the things of this world

Pride (this is extremely hard for me)

Gossip - slander

Cursing (this is hard for me)

Rid yourself of :

Anger - Rage (hard).

Malicious behavior

Obscene stories - lies

Temptation

Debauchery

We are going to slip up at times. But the point is getting to a point where it’s harder to live in the false ways of the world.

Meditate in the word every day and night. Pray - spend quality time with God. This is how you repent, get revived, become saved. 🤍

UPDATE (December 27th 2022)

repentance is also a continual thing. we are going to mess up daily , but God will show favor to those who pray and work for self discipline and control. David was highly favored, he did terrible things but he always turned to the Lord in repentance and for forgiveness and mercy. Follow the examples given to us in Gods word.