Guard Your Heart

My pastor recently finished a sermon series entitled Password. In this series, he talks about how we protect so much of our personal information with passwords, yet we don’t have a password to keep harmful things away from what matters most: our heart, our soul, and our mind. This meditation was inspired by one of those sermons. I hope it helps you to guard your heart.
You can download and listen to the four sermons in the Password series yourself in the Sermons area of the Rich Fork Baptist Church web site. These sermons were delivered between January 18, 2009, and February 8, 2009.

More Than A Conqueror

Many of us struggle with an identity crisis. Problems that often come from a poor understanding of our true identity include:

• Low self-esteem
• Self-centeredness
• Lack of vision
• Anxiety
• and even Depression

At the heart of it is the identity crisis is the question, “Who am I?”. This is the first in a series of meditations we will release over the next year attempting to answer this question. To answer the question, “Who am I?”, we will meditate on key passages of scripture. In some cases you may see the passage and your identity in Christ in a new, fresh light (as I did with this one).

In Tune with Him

I once heard a popular speaker talking about how to deal with stress in the workplace. He instructed his listeners to combat stress by periodically disengaging from what they were doing and taking a few silent minutes to get back in tune with the world around them. When I heard this, I thought about how one of the biggest sources of stress in the lives of most Christians is that we are too much in tune with the world, and too far out of tune with God. As we allow our spirits to become more in tune with Him, we are able to more clearly feel His presence in our lives, to hear His voice, and to do His will. I’ve written this meditation to help guide you in getting more in tune with Him. I think you’ll find it especially helpful in those times when your world has become more stressful and your focus has turned away from Christ and onto the issues of the day.

I always love to her your comments about these meditations, so feel free to let me know how this meditation has affected your life by posting a comment below. If you have ideas for scriptural meditations you would like to see here, please contact me to let me know.

The Fruit of the Spirit is Gentleness

This meditation is the ninth of a ten part series on The Fruit of the Spirit. Have you ever considered, when reading your Bible or sharing scripture, how your tone of voice can greatly alter its meaning? We might read a passage with a harsh tone of voice and have it come across as judgemental and condemning. We might read that same passage with a soft gentle voice and have it comes across as compassionate and understanding. Our God is a gentle God who wants to give his gift of gentleness to the world through us–the fruit of the Spirit is Gentleness.

We began this series with a contemplative overview of The Fruit of the Spirit, and the next seven episodes focused on the fruits of Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, and Faithfulness. If you would like to do this particular series of biblical meditations in order, you’ll want to begin with these eight meditations.

Welcome to the new and improved Mindful Worship! You should be seeing a lot of changes in the coming weeks and months. I’m working with a new Product Manager (I’ll introduce him later) with a great vision and enthusiasm for this ministry. I’m excited about the partnership and believe you will be excited about the enhancements to come. Completing The Fruit of the Spirit series (there is only one left after this one!) is just the beginning! Stay tuned….

If you would like to listen to the Fruit of the Spirit Series in order:

1. Love
2. Joy
3. Peace
4. Patience
5. Kindness
6. Goodness
7. Faithfulness
8. Gentleness
9. Self-Control

Surrender (My One Word)

This is the second of our meditations inspired by the book, My One Word by Mike Ashcraft and Rachel Olsen.   The book encourages people to choose one word to be their word for the year. During the year you focus on your word. A great way to focus on something is through “mindful meditation”.

This meditation focuses on the word, surrender.  Surrender is my “one word” for 2014.  It has been very challenging looking at things through the lens of this word.  I have gained a greater sense of contentment as I have surrendered areas of my life.  Our hope and prayer is this meditation will help you in your walk with God as well.

The Fruit of the Spirit is Patience

This meditation is the fifth of a ten part series on The Fruit of the Spirit. It has often been said that if you need patience, you shouldn’t ask God for it because the only way to grow patience is to be put in stressful situations where you have to be patient. But what about our patience towards God? And more importantly, what about our patience towards other people? It’s so easy to become frustrated when others don’t act the way we expect them to. It’s so easy to want to rush to correct them, to chastise them, and to change them. God wants us to bear the fruit of His patience through us that His higher purposes might be achieved–the fruit of the Spirit is Patience.

We began this series with a contemplative overview of The Fruit of the Spirit, and the next three episodes focused on the fruits of Love, Joy, and Peace. If you would like to do this particular series of biblical meditations in order, you’ll want to begin with these four meditations.

This has been my most challenging meditation to write yet. It’s hard to believe that it has been over 3 months since I’ve published a new meditation. I believe that God has been growing the fruit of patience in my life during this time, and in yours too–especially if you’ve been anxiously awaiting the release of this meditation. I’m excited about the work that He is doing in my life and yours, regardless of the methods He uses to achieve it. It’s a wonderful journey and I’m glad to take it with wonderful listeners like you.

If you would like to listen to the Fruit of the Spirit Series in order:

1. Love
2. Joy
3. Peace
4. Patience
5. Kindness
6. Goodness
7. Faithfulness
8. Gentleness
9. Self-Control

Find Rest, O My Soul

Life can become very stressful at times. Both our personal and professional lives are filled with
commitments, schedules, deadlines, responsibilities, expectations, and many other demands. Wouldn’t
it be nice to take a short break in the middle of your day just to rest, share some time with your
Savior, and meditate on His promises of peace and rest, so you can renew your energy and
confidence?

In this meditation, we’ll come to Jesus, weary and burdened, and accept His gift of rest. We’ll
take His yoke upon us and find rest for our souls.

Ricky’s Commentary: After I recorded my first meditation, “A Tree and Its Fruit,” and distributed
it to my Sunday School class, one of the ladies in my class told me that she had shared it with
some of her co-workers. She told me that one day, one of them was very stressed, so she shared it
with her as an opportunity to relax and de-stress.

I originally wanted to keep this meditation to around ten-minutes long, but I had to make it a
little longer to get everything in that I felt should be there–and not be too rushed, which would
have defeated the purpose. I hope you enjoy this guided meditation. Let me know what you think in
the comments!

Steve’s Commentary: This is one of my favorite meditations. It is basic and uncluttered. The
message that Jesus has invited us to lay our burdens on Him is so easy to forget. We tend to
remember when the burdens and weight of life are too much to bear on our own. This meditation
helps us remember to “find rest” in Jesus every day, not just when we get to the end of our rope.
The background music in this meditation is, “Above the Clouds,” by Suzanne Teng (used under license
from Magnatune). The song appears on her album,“Enchanted Wind,” available from Amazon.com.

Christmas Through Mary’s Eyes

I love Christmas! I love everything about Christmas: the food, the decorations, the music, the gifts, the family, the joy, and most of all the event Christmas celebrates. Christmas is the celebration of the moment when “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us”. What must it have been like to be there? Was it like the Christmas card nativity scene? Even more interesting is what would it have been like to be Mary?

This meditation will transport you back through centuries of Christmases to the town of Nazareth to see the events of Christmas, through Mary’s eyes. Our prayer is that everyone who hears this meditation will grow in their appreciation for Mary and her faith and a deeper understanding of the miracle of Christmas.

Merry Christmas from Mindful Worship!

I Have Stilled and Quieted My Soul

Having only 3 verses, Psalm 131 is one of the shortest psalms. It is a song of humility and contentment. In these few verses, David demonstrates how we should come to the Lord with simple child-like trust. As I contemplated the passage line by line I began to identify areas of pride in my life and then repented as God brought those areas to light. After coming clean before my Lord, I was able to rest in his presence like a child would rest in the arms of a parent. With full trust in God, rather than myself, I could clearly see a new hope for the future in Christ. When I come into God’s presence with simple child-like faith, surely, I have stilled and quieted my soul.

New Every Morning

Recently, I’ve been thinking that it would be nice to do a guided meditation first thing in the morning, before I even get out of bed. With that in mind, I wrote my latest meditation, New Every Morning.

It’s not necessary to do this meditation while you are still in bed, but it is written with the assumption that it will be done some time early in the morning before you begin your day. The background music in this meditation is “Sacred Ground” by Jon Schmidt (used with the artist’s permission) The song appears on his album “To the Summit,” available from Amazon.com. Let me know what you think in the comments.