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Blessings,
Rhonda

What is the Condition of Your Soil?

If you’ve been a believer any length of time you’ve heard the parable of the sower. It’s the story that Jesus used to illustrate how God’s word enters a person’s life and what affect it will have once there. In Mark 4 verses 1:20 Jesus told his disciples, “Behold, there went out a sower to sow: And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred. And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

This parable should lead every Christian to ask, what is the quality of my soil? In the first example, the fowls devoured the Word before it even had a chance to hit the ground. This characterizes those who hear about the good news of God and reject it immediately. They want to part of Christianity or what some call organized religion. God’s word or promptings fall on deaf ears. These people remain unbelievers. The eyes of their understanding have been darkened and they are blinded to the truth.

In the next example, the seeds fall on hard or stony ground. This characterizes those who hear God’s word, believe what it says, and receive it into their hearts. They may even pray the sinner’s prayer and receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. But in a short period of time, when they are criticized by their family members and friends for talking about Jesus or becoming a Christian, they put their Christianity on a shelf and continue down their former path.

The third example is where I believe we find the majority of Christians today. These are your devout and church-going Christians. They heard God’s word, accepted Jesus Christ as Savior, and became a member of a church where they attend faithfully every Sunday. They love God and are dedicated to living a Christian life. They tithe or give offerings regularly. They’re also involved in many aspects of the church. But despite of all this, they’re struggling in their family life; their depressed; their discontent; they suffer from negative thinking; their stressed out and often hopeless; they feel overburdened; there is strife in their marriage; their haunted by their past; they feel unfulfilled in their life; they struggle with hidden vices; they work hard to attain more and more. In the parable, these seeds that actually fell on penetrable soil, took root, and produced a crop, but the thorns (daily cares, past life, materialism, and lust), choked out and suffocated God’s word and they have become fruitless believers, whose lives have been stripped of the abundance they have in Christ Jesus.

But why do so many believers end up here? Why isn’t the word of God or the power of God making a significant difference in their lives? I believe the answer lies in their soil. For example, if I were to take a beautiful healthy plant and place it in the middle of a weed infected garden, what is eventually going to happen to that plant? It’s going to be overgrown with weeds and eventually die. It doesn’t matter if I water it everyday, fertilize it, and make sure it gets plenty of sunshine. That plant was already doomed because of the condition of the soil in which it was planted.

That’s the same thing that is happening to us believers. We’re being watered with God’s word, we’re receiving the light of the Son of God, and we’re receiving continual nourishment of the Bible. Yet when it comes to living a truly abundant Christian life, many believers are frustrated and fall short. The thorns continue to take over.

Our soil is symbolic for our minds. Before we became Christians, we held various beliefs based upon our environment, our family, our circumstances, the media, and a host of other variables. Some of us came from broken homes or dysfunctional families (most of us), had an abusive or alcoholic father, may have endured rape or incest, lived amongst gang violence, were verbally abused, and/or suffered advert racism. We saw our parents struggle to put food on the table or saw our fathers cheat on our mothers. Maybe we spent most of your growing years learning about life from in front of our television set. The list is endless. The fallacy is that when we come to Christ all these memories, hurts, pains, and conditioning, (the thorns) are just going to erased from our consciousness. No they’re not. They are a part of our soil. And although they be dormant for awhile; it only takes the right trigger to get them to resurface again.

I believe Jesus made it really clear in Matthew 9:17, when he said to his disciplines you can’t put new wine into old wine bottles because it will ruin the new wine and destroy the old bottles. The two just don’t mix. When we try to plant God’s truth into our old degenerated mind without first examining and eliminated our faulty mindsets, beliefs and patterns, it just like trying to put new wine into an old bottle.

God tells us to renew our minds and to cast down every thought that exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ. Unfortunately, many of the thoughts we think go unchecked; they’re unconscious to us. They have become a part of who we are. We have thought them so long that they have become our identity and we just live them out as though they were the truth. They control us and we don’t even realize it.

So how do we become more conscious of our thoughts? By becoming still and listening. By spending regular time in solitude and seclusion so that the thorns buried deep within us can escape.
By paying attention to what we’re doing and asking ourselves, is this behavior working for me anymore, am I really getting what I want out of life, or am I just surviving.
By recognizing and acknowledging the hurts and injustices we have faced, then enduring their pain and offering them up to Jesus for inner healing.
By stopping all that were “doing,” those things we’ve been told we need to do to succeed, and begin to “abide” in Christ and to linger in his presence where we are changed from within.
By becoming a seeker of God, “seek ye first the kingdom of God” and all we need will be added (the opposite of acquiring) unto us.
By meditating on God, contemplating and reflecting on each word in every passage we read and measuring ourselves and our behaviors by it and then petitioning God to mold us into the man or woman he created us to be.
By becoming fully present and living each moment fully aware and focusing on today and what really matters to us and taking no thought for tomorrow. The future is in God’s hands. Only then can we begin to eradicate and clear the soil of our hearts and embrace God’s truth and live it to the fullest.

In the last example, the soil fell upon good ground, and it yielded fruit that sprung up and created a 30, 60, and 100 fold return in God. When we tend our soil and eliminate its weeds, thorns, and other debris, this is the Christian life God created for us all. “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” John 10:10.

Has the Church Lost It's Spirituality?

The other day I was having a conversation with a friend regarding the lack of spirituality in the church. I was telling my friend that I had spent over 20 years being a faithful member in one church or another. I participated in many groups and committees, was on the witnessing team, participated in children’s church, and was a Sunday School and Youth Group teacher. For years, I’d never miss a Sunday service and often attended mid-week service as well. Some churches became my family, others I made lots of friends. In my early days as a Christian I absorbed the word of God. It was my first 5 years of being a Christian that I memorized most of the scriptures I know. I ate, slept, and breathed Christianity.

Over the years, my relationship with church took on many facets. Over different periods I attended church to growth spirituality, other times looking for a husband, still other times desiring a social life, and then came a period that I had no desire to attend church at all. I would often find myself in the pews thinking, what in the heck am I doing here? I couldn’t wait until service was over. Church had become a ritualistic habit for me. After one disappointing church experience after another, I decided to take a sabbatical. I had done this before, many years early but then was overridden with guilt. The thought of not going to church had to mean I was backslidden and on my way to hell! But this time it was different, perhaps I was more mature. I knew my relationship with God was strong and my going to Church out of habit had not much to do with it.

Many years early I went through a period of utter despair. I had lost something very meaningful to me and it tore me right at the core of my heart. There was so much pain in my life and my routine habits of being a good Christian didn’t stop me from hurting. I did all the things I was supposed to do, but my condition didn’t improve. This was the time in my life that I entered what I we often hear as “desert.” There I was alone and forsaken. Everything stripped away. Everything but God. Except, during this time, my old ways of connecting with him didn’t seem to work for me anymore. This was a sign that God was requiring something deeper of me. This is when I became a seeker and at the same time I became a receiver. This is when my eyes of understanding began to open and God’s word, the scriptures, and his Voice began to animate in my life.

The old way of approaching God wasn’t good enough for me anymore. I was beginning to build a relationship with Him. I would actually sit on my couch and talk to Him aloud. His voice became so much more clearer to me. I saw new revelations in everything, especially in the scriptures. I began to desire the deep spiritual truths of God, truths that would lead to a more joyful, fruitful, and peaceful life. I wanted to be taught by the Holy Spirit. I often meditated on the scripture that said, once the Holy Spirit comes, we wouldn’t even need a teacher, because the Holy Spirit would teach us all things. I’m living proof of this, as are many others. I began to realize the Spirit of God that lives inside all of us and is waiting for us to become aware of him and to trust Him.


Which leads me back to that question, why does the church lack spirituality? The kind of spirituality that Jesus described when he said another form of worship is coming, in which God’s worshippers will worship him in spirit and in truth, for those are the types of worshippers God desires. I believe the church lacks this type of spirituality because it puts formulas over relationship. It gives us a 10-point plan. If you do this, you will receive that. It enslaves us with rules, bylaws, and codes of conduct. It imposses the one message fits all type of instruction. It encourages us to “do” for God, but not “abide” in God. It pushes us to be a busy Martha, instead of a doting Mary; which Jesus said is far better. It often puts more importance on the words of those in authority, than on the still small voice of God speaking in our hearts. We’re not encouraged to strengthen that voice and thus it often goes unheard. To many of us know of God, but fail to truly know Him, just as Job said, I’ve heard of you, but now my eyes see you for myself. Or in the case of Moses who spent 40 days with God on Mount Sanai and the children of Israel looked at awe upon his countenance when he came down from again. We see God’s presence from afar.

But where there is a problem there is also a solution. In the book of Acts Chapter 1 after the ascension of Jesus, the disciples were told, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard Him speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” The scriptures go onto say that the men came and waited together in prayer and on that day a sound like a mighty rushing wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

In Acts 2 Chapter 17 it declares, in the last days, God says, I will pour out my spirit on all people, your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions; your old men will dream dreams. Even on your servants, both men and woman, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heavens above…and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

What the Bible is speaking of in the preceding verses is the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the life of believers. The Holy Spirit can manifests himself in the Christian in countless ways. We can speak in tongues, dream dreams, have visions, heal the sick, prophesy, cast out demons, receive wisdom and discernment, and so much more. The Holy Spirit is the power house behind God’s word.

Yet, what is key to this all is that Jesus told the disciplines to “tarry” to “wait” for this manifestation. They didn’t have to strive for it. They didn’t have to look for it. They didn’t even have to pray for it. They were just instructed to wait for it; to wait on God. Isaiah 43: 31 declares … those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary. Why? Because when we are filled with God’s spirit we are endowed with His power, his wisdom, and his strength. And all we need to do to receive it, is to desire it and wait-- linger and abide with God.

So how can we as Christians move from “doing” to “abiding? How do we move from formulas for the Christian life to hearing directly from God for our life “alone”? How do we obtain the manifestation of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of his presence in our midst? I believe it is by being still and waiting, by tarrying until he comes to meet us. It requires the heart of a seeker. It often requires sequestering ourselves from those things that pull us away from God; even the good things like a church meeting. It requires meditating on God and entering into his presence. If the church will point us in that direction, in collective waiting, collective silence, collective presence, and collective listening, then we can learn to know God in the intricacies of our own hearts and spirits. A spirit that knows the way, but needs to be awakened. A spirit that has everything it needs, NOW to live a fruitful, Godly, and joyful life! A spirit that realizes that, the Kingdom of God resides within us and not outside us.

It May Only Be Pretty On the Outside

Last night I had a lengthy and restless dream about moving into a new home. In the dream I had hired 3 men to help load and unpack three huge moving trucks. I had all this stuff, the majority of it items I probably didn't even need. I remember feeling so overwhelmed and weighed down, and at the $65 per hour each I was paying them, I was beginning to worry about the rising expense. Then we arrived at my new home. It looked so nice from the outside, but once we got inside it was a whole different story. The layout and amenities in the house were everything I could possibly want, but it was in need of a tremendous amount of repair. The kitchen floor was made of uneven slats of plywood like an earthquake had moved the foundation. When I turned on the tub faucet, water gushed from underneath creating a household flood. In every room of that house were major problems. As I walked through, I began to sum up what this and that would cost to fix and I became discouraged. The movers asked me if I had seen the inside before I bought the home and for some strange reason, dreams are like that, I had not! I began to feel as though I had made a huge mistake. When I woke up from this sleep-induced nightmare, and thank God it was only that, I asked the Lord what did all this mean. What came to my heart was the lesson of letting go -letting go past mistakes and needless dilemmas or drama, and that some things just aren't worth fixing. At times, we need to just cut our losses and move on. Sometimes things look so pretty on the outside, but inside they cause us great turmoil and anxiety. Some relationships and friendships can be like that, especially if we're unequally yoked. On the surface, the person may appear great, but in our spirits we filled drain, fed-up, and restless. Instead of letting go, we try to fix problems or adapt to behaviors we're uncomfortable with instead of realizing, hey, maybe we're not a good fit. When we do decide to move on, we often bring truck loads of guilt or sad memories with us. Lighting our load will help to lighten our spirits. It could have been a nice house, it had so much potential, but I just wasn't up for the challenge. I wanted something that was move-in ready. Which makes me wonder why would I buy a house without even looking inside? Haste, impatience, and foolishness, come to mind. For me God may be saying, "Hey, take your time, don't just look at the surface of your desires, but check out the inside and all the rooms as well before you make a big investment. Also, get rid of those things that are weighing you down. They may be pretty on the outside, but robbing your spirit on the inside. And lastly, practice the art of letting go and forgive yourself in the process. God is still on the throne.

The Rejuvenating Effects of Nature

If you live in the country, near a forest, or own a small plot of land consider yourself extremely blessed. Any time we can spend time amongst God creation, we are the better for it. I remember many, many years ago as a newlywed living in a 2 bedroom trailer on a secluded 40 acres that took 40 minutes of winding roads just to get there, but it was worth the drive. Nothing compares to the stillness and quietness, the warm summer nights and the crispy cold mornings, or horse-back riding by moonlight. Three children later, a pending divorce, and too many years of city living, I felt the land calling me home again. With my children, now between the ages of 3 and 5, I moved to a 3 bedroom home on 5 acres. I took my weekly trip to the closest "real" town about 20 miles away to fill my gas tank and buy groceries. When I moved, my friends thought I had lost my mind. The irony is that they were right and this time to abide in the silence and with the earth was my way of finding it again. Me, single and with 3 little kids all alone in the country may seem courageous, but it was one of the most happiest and secure times of my life. My daughters and I spent our evenings walking down the dirt road and feeding apples to the horses, catching tanrantulas, gardening, tending to rabbits, and just being together. We didn't even have a television set. I can't ever remember feeling lonely or fearful. God's creativity, energy, and love abides in his creation and we tap into it everytime we take a break from our busyness and surround ourselves with the beauty of the trees, mountains, foilage, rivers, and the flowers. Like me now, you may not live in the country or near a nature paradise, but you can enjoy the effects of nature by taking daily or frequent walks and observe your surroundings. During that time turn off your thinking and look at every tree you pass, see how many different colors of flowers you notice. Listen to the wind and the chirping of the birds. It can also be a a good time to meditate on a particular scripture, but stay present, knowing that you can't be in two places at the same time: fully conscious and in deep thought. As you quiet your mind and empty your head of constant chatter, you also open a portal for the Holy Spirit to speak to your heart. We all need to get back to our God roots from time to time if we want to maintain our peace of mind and wellbeing.

Christian Meditation Does Not Promote Emptying the Mind

I read several articles lately discouraging the practice of Christian meditation because it encouraged participants to empty their mind thus opening themselves us to occult influence or possession. This couldn't be farther from the truth. First let's examine the mind from the scriptures point of view.

Romans 7:21- When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.

Romans 1:28- Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.

Ephesians 4:23 - to be made new in the attitude of your minds.

2 Corinthians 11:3 - But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

Romans 12:2 - Do not conform any longer to the pattern (conditioning) of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

From these scriptures, along with countless more, we see that the "Christian" mind really isn't so Christian at all. Unless our minds are renewed and subdued by God's spirit, then it's most likely that our minds our controlling our behavior instead of the other way around. Unfortunately, it's our minds that are making most Christians mentally ill. Their mind causes them to worry, to fear, to doubt, and more.

So, in my opinion, Christian meditation is not a matter of emptying the mind, but of renewing it. When we quiet our minds through Christ-centered meditation, we learn to gain control over it. Once we can control the compulsive and raging thoughts in our heads, we can alter, challenge, and eliminate them. We can supplant them with the word of God by replacing our worldly and destructive mindsets with Biblical substaneance.

More Science Supports Benefits of Meditation

Just last week I became aware of yet another scientific article supporting the benefits of meditation. This article suggested by being able to name the specific emotion or thought you're struggling with, you can then release or eliminate it. So what does that have to do with Christian meditation? We'll, first of all, meditation helps you to quiet your mind so you can observe what's going on in your head or body. Most people know they just don't feel right or are filled with anxiety but can't distinguish the emotion or where it came from. Learning to "be still" can help you identify these culprits. See article below:


Brain Scans Reveal Why Meditation Works
By Melinda Wenner, Special to LiveScience
posted: 29 June 2007 09:08 am ET

If you name your emotions, you can tame them, according to new research that suggests why meditation works. Brain scans show that putting negative emotions into words calms the brain's emotion center. That could explain meditation’s purported emotional benefits, because people who meditate often label their negative emotions in an effort to “let them go.”

Psychologists have long believed that people who talk about their feelings have more control over them, but they don't know why it works.

UCLA psychologist Matthew Lieberman and his colleagues hooked 30 people up to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machines, which scan the brain to reveal which parts are active and inactive at any given moment.

They asked the subjects to look at pictures of male or female faces making emotional expressions. Below some of the photos was a choice of words describing the emotion—such as “angry” or “fearful”—or two possible names for the people in the pictures, one male name and one female name.

When presented with these choices, the subjects were asked to pick the most appropriate emotion or gender-appropriate name to fit the face they saw.
When the participants chose labels for the negative emotions, activity in the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex region—an area associated with thinking in words about emotional experiences—became more active, whereas activity in the amygdala, a brain region involved in emotional processing, was calmed.

By contrast, when the subjects picked appropriate names for the faces, the brain scans revealed none of these changes—indicating that only emotional labeling makes a difference.
“In the same way you hit the brake when you’re driving when you see a yellow light, when you put feelings into words, you seem to be hitting the brakes on your emotional responses,” Lieberman said of his study, which is detailed in the current issue of Psychological Science.
In a second experiment, 27 of the same subjects completed questionnaires to determine how “mindful” they are.

Meditation and other “mindfulness” techniques are designed to help people pay more attention to their present emotions, thoughts and sensations without reacting strongly to them. Meditators often acknowledge and name their negative emotions in order to “let them go.”
When the team compared brain scans from subjects who had more mindful dispositions to those from subjects who were less mindful, they found a stark difference—the mindful subjects experienced greater activation in the right ventrolateral prefrontral cortex and a greater calming effect in the amygdala after labeling their emotions.

“These findings may help explain the beneficial health effects of mindfulness meditation, and suggest, for the first time, an underlying reason why mindfulness meditation programs improve mood and health,” said David Creswell, a UCLA psychologist who led the second part of the study, which will be detailed in Psychosomatic Medicine.

Why Don't More Christians Meditate?

With all the teaching on transforming the mind, you’d think Christians would be some of the most peaceful, joyful, balanced, and influential individuals on earth. Yet many believers suffer from a chronically negative thought life that keeps them from internalizing God’s truths and results in depression, anxiety, worry, and a host of other mental ailments. Many believers have difficulty living out their Christian walk because they can’t get free from the self destructive thoughts and mindsets from their past experiences and conditioning. “It’s like an invisible tug a war. They fervently try to walk in God’s light but they're constantly being pulled back by their own faulty and debilitating thoughts, habits, and patterns.
Going to church and listening to an inspiring sermon may motivate for the moment, but before long they wears off and they're often back to old behaviors. I believe if Christians would adopt Christian Meditation as a lifestyle, they would reflect more of God's character. Christian Meditaion is a tool to quiet a cluttered mind and will help Christians to learn to abide in God's presence. Learn more about Christian Meditation at www.thechristianmeditator.com.