A
STEP TOWARD REVIVAL AND UNITY IN THE BODY
page
3
By
David A. J. Seargent
THE
FOUR BASIC MEDITATIONS
Meditation
1
"Our
God is a consuming fire." (Hebrews 12:29)
Comment
This
meditation holds before us the awe and holiness of God.
It brings us to meditate upon that which Rudolph Otto
called the "numinous", the sense of the divine and the awe-full
to which our only proper response is one of holy fear.
Holy fear has somewhat fallen out of fashion these
days, and Christians are all the poorer for that.
Certainly, we have the immense privilege of being able
to approach God through Christ, but we must remember that
this privilege is one that has been won for us by the blood
of Jesus and that the God whom we approach is a God of holiness
and might. We tremble at the power of atomic energy or
of an exploding star. How
much more should we tremble before the Creator of these things. [Printed resources: http://www.unityinchrist.com/whatisgrace/holiness.htm
and http://www.unityinchrist.com/whatisgrace/GoandSInnomore.htm
.]
Meditation
2
"Jesus is Lord"
Comment
The
first part of this meditation shows us the way to the God
who is a consuming fire, and the Way is Jesus. In Jesus, the Fire wears a human body. Through Jesus and only through Jesus can we
approach the Unapproachable and through Jesus alone, Almighty
God comes down to us, not in fire and wrath, but in the Person
of a divine Human Being inviting us to come into a personal
loving relationship with Him!
Jesus is the Way . the way through whom each individual
human being can reach up to God and through whom God reaches
down to each of us.
He is truth . the truth about what God is and what
man ought to be and can be through the transforming power
of the Holy Spirit.
And he is the life . the Life of Deity manifested in
human form so that human life may be transformed and partake
of the Divine Nature in and through Him.
The
second part of this meditation is, or ought to be, our response
to this revelation of Jesus. It focuses upon the central core of Christian
spirituality. It is
the absolutely essential step that we all must take to become
a true Christian. But what does it mean-really-to accept Jesus
as Lord? It means that
we accept him as the central authority of our lives.
We make a definite commitment to live the kind of life
which he desires of us and we both accept this and welcome
the indwelling power of his Spirit who enables us to live
in this way. Acceptance
of Jesus as Lord also implies belief in his divine and human
natures; that he is truly God and truly Man. If he is Lord, he is also Saviour, but only
as both Man and God can he be Saviour. As Man he lifts humanity up to God and as God
he brings divinity down to Man.
We likewise note that Paul also says that no one can
call Jesus "Lord" except he or she be moved by the Holy Spirit
(1 Cor. 12:3). Of course, this does not mean that no one can
simply say "Jesus is Lord" without inspiration (a parrot could
be taught to do this!) but, rather, no one can assert this
with conviction unless he or she is moved by the Holy Spirit.
Asserting and truly believing that Jesus is Lord (which
means being a Christian) is not something that one can do
"naturally". It is,
in a sense, a "mystical experience"-indeed, a divine miracle-dependent
entirely upon the grace of God!
Once we accept him as Saviour and worship him as our
God, his image becomes-as it were-stamped on a sensitized
heart. Something inexpressible
begins to happen in our lives; our existence has a new "feel"
about it which (though very real) is not easy to pin down
with words. A new hunger
begins to appear; a new desire to really surrender more and
more to Jesus and, paradoxically, the more we rise to this
desire, the stronger it becomes. If this inner change truly appears and grows,
we can say that we have truly accepted Jesus as Lord and our
Christian life has begun.
As we meditate on the Lordship of Christ, keeping these
thoughts in mind, we allow ourselves to experience an attitude
of total and complete helplessness in the hands of Almighty
God. We allow ourselves
to feel the weight of our sin and how we are as filthy rags
before the absolute purity of God.
And yet, as we surrender to Him through our acceptance
of the Lordship of Christ, He washes our sins away and looks
upon us as pure with Christ's own purity!
We see Jesus as our life, our everything. We depend totally upon God to bring us to the
point of acceptance of him.
We abandon ourselves completely to God and to the moving
of the Holy Spirit.
Meditation
3
"you
are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it"
(1 Corinthians 12:27).
Comment
As
the previous meditation concentrated upon the individual's
relationship with God through Christ, so this concentrates
upon the life of the believer as a part of the corporate Body
of Christ. All who are members of the church are "organs"
in the Body by and through which Christ has chosen to be active
in the world today.
In our meditation, we remember that the one divine
life-the Holy Spirit-inspires and guides each member of the
Body and that, through each being united with the Holy Spirit,
we are also united with one another.
We seek this deepest life within us-a life manifested
through all desires to surrender to Christ and to follow him.
We dwell upon these spiritual desires and let all other
desires fall away from us. We allow ourselves to be drawn increasingly
into the life of the group and, through the group, into the
life of the Body of Christ.
As each of us allows himself/herself to be drawn into a deepening experience of
the Body and increasingly live for the Body through his/her
role within it, so the Body itself increasingly functions
as the Body of Christ. It comes under the control of the Head as each
of its members more fully yields to the Divine Mind within
the Body . the Holy Spirit.
This deeper inner commitment will show itself in practical
terms as increasing involvement, increasing interest and increasing
desire for involvement in church life and witness. It will also manifest as a growing love for
other Christians . including those of different persuasions,
temperament or background.
Meditation 4
"[you]
. have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge
in the image of its Creator.
There is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised,
barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and
is in all" (Colossians 3:10-11).
"You
are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all
of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves
with Christ. There
is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female,
for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:26-28).
Comment
In
this meditation, we are shown three classes of division between
people and we are assured that they are overcome amongst Christians
through mutual unity within the Body.
The first division is social: Paul exemplifies this by "slave and free", but
today we could also add "employer and employee", "politically
conservative and politically liberal", "professional person
and manual labourer" and so forth.
Think about this. The differences that cause so much division
both within society at large and, all too frequently, at a
personal level, melt away as we become increasingly aware
of the "Body unity". In other words, as we experience fellowship
at this deep level, we increasingly see one another as Christians
first and primarily. The
tags which society may place upon us become decreasingly important.
The second division might be called divinely instituted if
we bear in mind that it was actually the sin of humanity that
made it necessary in the first place. It is the division of
Jew (the chosen of God) and Gentile or heathen (Paul exemplifies
this as "Greek"). What
Paul is saying is that both Jew and Gentile must leave behind
their former position . the Gentile "comes in from the cold",
from beyond the people of God, and is brought into union within
the Body, but the Jew also must renounce any though that he
is right with God simply by virtue of birth within the Jewish
nation. Both
groups are now united in being equally in need of Christ and
individuals from each group can find fellowship together if
they turn away from their past condition and become united
in the Body.
Thirdly, membership of the Body transcends natural
divisions, i.e. sexual (male and female) and racial (Greek,
barbarian, Scythian). Such natural differences include Asian and Caucasian,
Black, White and all of the many innate differences between
people and groups of people that can so often be exaggerated
into matters of real significance.
But these differences too melt away into the unity
that exists between true Christians.
We meditate on this fact and allow the true enormity
of it to become realized in our minds.
With this meditation we touch the very heart of the
unity that alone is adequate to bring Christians of different
theological and denominational differences into true unity
of spirit. We meditate
on this fact.
But the impact of these passages goes beyond church
unity in the usual sense. We imagine the world as it would be if all its people fulfilled the potential for which they were
created and truly become parts of the Body.
Imagine the ideal; all divisions transcended by the
unity of Spirit knitting all parts of the Body together as
all people reflected in their lives the Glory of God. We meditate
on this and pray that God will inspire more and more people
with this magnificent vision.
These
four meditations focus attention upon the four important themes
of unity in the Body of Christ; the majesty of God, the Lordship
of Jesus Christ, and the implications of membership in his
corporate Body, and the church defined.
It is suggested that these meditations be repeated
frequently in order to keep focus.
The Bible is a deep well of passages for meditation.
As we read the Bible, passages will frequently impress
themselves upon us as subjects for meditation.
The Holy Spirit will lead us in this way and I'm certain
that many deep meditations will soon start flowing.
This is God talking to us!
It
is my hope and prayer that many Christians will take seriously
these words and both practice this spiritual exercise themselves
and start small groups that will follow the practice. I believe that this really is a way to true
revival and a way to bring about a God-inspired, God-powered
unity within the Body of Christ.
David A. J. Seargent
If
you are interested in becoming a part of one of these UNITY
MEDITATIVE PRAYER-GROUPS go to the next page.
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