Leeds Vineyard

Bible meditation - using natural objects

In preparation for the Vine, I was flicking though my UCB notes to see if there might be any discussion on things that we as believers do that might parallel with "new age" practices.  If you are using a computer daily and if time is pushed the UCB notes are quite a useful thing to have access to on your screen before the working day starts - they can also be used in tandem with the online bible at the www.biblegateway.com.

I came across this note on meditation:

Meditating on God's Word

'...ON HIS LAW HE MEDITATES DAY AND NIGHT.' PSALMS 1:2

If you've never meditated perhaps you think it's too difficult; something only monks and mystics do, or gurus contemplating their navels and reciting mantras in the lotus position. Answer this: do you know how to worry? You do? Then you know how to meditate, because meditating is just:

1) thinking deeply and continuously about something
2) memorising it
3) letting it take root inside you
4) 'owning' it until it becomes a life force operating through you The point isn't how much Scripture you can memorise or quote, but what happens to you in the process.

Meditating on God's Word clarifies, enriches, corrects, directs and challenges you by making you think different thoughts than if you were watching TV, talking on your cell phone or shopping in town. Jesus once asked his followers, 'Why do you keep on saying that I am your Lord, when you refuse to do what I say?' (Luke 6:46 CEV). That's a question He asks all of us. Mentally those folk knew the truth, but they weren't ready to act on it.

David said, 'Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee' (Psalm 119:11 KJV) Meditating on God's Word day and night is the cure for: a) a life of divided loyalties b) a lack of intimacy with God c) a chronically weak faith that causes you to keep coming up short.

As with many people, esp. me, visual or physical things help trigger thoughts/bible verse/songs/memories/prayer. “New Agers” also depend on use of objects (stones/crystals/signs) to try capture whatever force they are looking for.

Taking Sally's idea of drawing out from a photo of something natural, I thought we could start with a large strong board as a communal base (1m X 2m mdf) for people to creatively fix chunks of natural things (or photos where things are perishable or too big/messy) that trigger/focus our thought to words in the bible such as a rock, branch, a vine, leaves, tree, seed, fruit, water. People can then paint around and creatively scribe their verse around whatever they have chosen

People choose one item and thought about which bible verse or line from a song that object helps them to remember….perhaps a Word of reassurance, building-up, encouragement:
  • “You are my rock in times of trouble”
  • ‘He alone is my rock and salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken’
  • ‘The righteous shall flourish like a branch’,
  • ‘I am the vine, you are the branches.’
  • ‘Jesus is my firm foundation’
  • ‘It's like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, though it is less than all the seeds that are on the earth, yet when it is sown, grows up, and becomes greater than all the herbs, and puts out branches, so that the birds of the sky can lodge under its shadow.’
The “meditative” bit happened during the act of fixing the object to the board and whilst they were spending time creatively painting around/on it or writing the verse on or out from the element.

I started one to give the idea and it built up gradually. We kept it for the [Sanctuary} prayer room to help people meditate on God’s word.

Here's what it turned out like:

 
Julia Cameron, 16/09/2006