Meditation

Transcript

and I'm kind of actually really excited about this tonight's class this is something that's been on my mind a little bit

um for a while now I guess and it's something I've been thinking about obviously for a while now and and we're going to talk about this idea of God consciousness

um I'm not sure of how popular a term that is I know I heard it when I was younger um brother Brian Stiles was kind of the first person I heard used it but I I don't know where it comes from or who coined it um but God Consciousness is this idea of being conscious or aware of God throughout our day-to-day life um and I think it's it's pretty important uh in our life as a Believer and something we want to work on and you know try to be better at being more God conscious seeing him in our lives

um and I'm assuming it's something that we've all struggled with at some point or another in our lives you know between work and personal goals everyday tasks of living like cooking shopping cleaning

um working in the yard you know I find it's really easy for us to try to just go a whole day without really thinking about the role that God plays in our lives it's really easy to just kind of forget about it and kind of just live your life and not really think about it at all

um and I don't know if it's you know the the busyness of our day and age um or if it's just kind of the way things have always been uh but it's easy to let a whole slip a whole day slip by without even thinking about God

um and so what kind of got me you know this is a couple years ago kind of sparked my thoughts on this a little bit um and as you know we're going to share some tools that I've been using uh tonight and what kind of sparked me working on some of these tools is a passage that were pretty mostly familiar with I'm guessing most of us are familiar with um it's a passage of first Thessalonians 5 17. which you know simple Verge just says pray without ceasing great memory verse first for Sunday school if you ever need a good Sunday school memory verse three words pray without Cece

that's such a pretty incredibly hard to ask um when there's so many other things that we have to keep track of throughout our daily life

now I have ADHD

um and if you don't know anything about ADHD

um it makes this issue actually a little bit harder for me than I think for most people um as someone who is has ADHD or really anyone who's neurodivergent

um I think it's um I have this thing called object pertinence or permanence sorry object permanence which essentially means that unless I have some kind of a physical reminder like I need to see something or hear something if I don't have that I I it's really easy for me to completely forget about something

um I can often just completely forget it exists if I don't have that physical reminder so an example is my wife bought me a watch a couple years ago and I decided I was going to put it away for safe keeping because I didn't want to ruin it so watch for special occasions and I completely forgot she had bought me that watch for several years because just something I didn't have I didn't see it I had no reminder of it

um yeah and it's a that's a you know it's a condition that I have and I don't think it's Unique to people with a neurodivergency I just uh

I just think it's something that you know it's a little more difficult

um for me because of because of my ADHD

um so I have reminders I know I have to put reminders down I have to you know leave my tax forms right on my desk so I see them otherwise I'll forget to fill them out I have to keep a checklist of things to do

um and these are like I said issues that I think everyone struggles with um but as someone who's you know struggles with them a little extra a little more I've had to come up with tools and resources to help me um overcome that issue yeah it's a pretty common thing as someone with ADHD you learn to have these little tools that you use regularly to help you live your day-to-day life

and so as you can imagine you know being God conscious when I don't have a physical God that I can look at and see or one who physically speaks to me it's something I've really struggled with for a long time right if I don't have a Bible class to work on or if I don't set reminders for myself I don't put my Bible out somewhere obvious I can go a whole day without really thinking about God at all and it you know it just slips by really easily so when I talk about being God conscious it's not as someone who's an expert at these things and listen I'm not coming at this is you know someone who does this all the time and is very aware of God in my life

um but as someone who's had to implement specific tools to help me kind of get better at it

so what I want to do tonight is look at a few of those tools and we'll talk about some of the biblical principles behind it but then I want to share some of those tools that I have um and use on a regular basis in the hopes that it helps inspire you guys to um

to work on these things as well um and these are tools that work for me I'm not suggesting that these are tools that you all needed to go home and start implementing you know these exact tools take them and make them work for yourself or hopefully Inspire something for you know that you know you can think about for your own life and and helps you in that sense uh you know gives you kind of ideas of what you potentially could do and how to be more god-conscious in your day-to-day life

so before we get into those tools I just want to start off by looking at some of the biblical principles behind those ideas

and I want to start by talking about faith in our day-to-day life this is something I've been if you remember back when I I first you did this Bible class with you guys we spoke on uh the Life of Christ and I one of my big points was you know we want to have a day-to-day faith and not just a grand gesture faith no it's something that I think it's really misunderstood by a lot of our young people or something that I at least misunderstood when I was younger younger and really struggled with and so I've you know it's been on my mind a lot about how can I create this more day-to-day faith and not just a grand gesture of faith

so for example the way we structure our community I think um really revolves around specific Faith moments these like I call grand gestures they're moments that require us to kind of set aside our life our day-to-day life uh specifically to show Faith or do something for God so for example memorial service no one would normally get up on a Sunday and and drive half an hour to an hour to another building uh to sit for a couple hours and listen to someone speak and go through these kind of uh Traditions that we have it's just not something we normally would do in our day-to-day life that's something we purposely set aside Sunday for we relieve the normal flow of our daily life to go do this on Sunday and show our faith to God and that's an important thing don't get me wrong I'm not trying to say these are bad things to do these are just things that their ways of setting aside our regular life to serve God or another example would be the Bible readings um I know many of us actually now listen to our Bible readings or we're working on something else but as a young person growing up it was really emphasized to me how important it was to sometimes specifically to read the Bible and study the word of God like said all other distractions aside and give yourself half an hour just sit and read God's word you know it wasn't something that was a part of my regular life it was something I set aside my regular life for and I dedicated that time just to serving God

and maybe you see the history maybe you don't but um what happened for me in a lot of ways when I was growing up was I ended up living two lives right I had my faith life I had the life I had when I was serving God and going to meeting and you know Bible schools uh doing Bible study but then there was my regular day-to-day life you know when I was at work or school and I I unintentionally created that division between the two you know this is what I'm serving God and this is what I'm just living my life

so when we come to passages like first Thessalonians 5 17 which encourages us to pray without ceasing or passages like Joshua 1 verse 8. Psalms one first one and two and Psalm 119 verse 97 they all encourage us to meditate on God's word both day and night you know we have to ask ourselves am I really doing that if I split my life into two different sections or if I have my faith life and then my regular life am I really meditating on God's word day in and day out

so you know as I was thinking about this like I sort of ask myself what what did the early church uh or the Israelites do did they pray without ceasing like do they meditate on God's word day and night it was actually something they did or is that something that's kind of just like uh you know the high Mark goal that we're supposed to reach for and not actually something we're going to achieve

I mean I can tell you the average Israelite did not spend day in and day out in the temple of God I mean the fact of the matter was they had to live their lives the same way do like we do you know they had to work they had to go and buy food they had to grow food they had to prepare meals they had to clean their homes they had to travel you name it they still had to live their regular lives

I do think it's worth noting that their lives were different than the lives we lived today

um they couldn't really stay up much past Sunset if you think about it you know once the it gets dark we have the privilege of being able to sit here in our lights and and you know have these classes together and read the word

um they didn't have that advantage that we do they couldn't just drive five minutes down the road to the grocery store they'd have to walk you know sometimes a couple hours just to get to the nearest Village

and I think uh they had a lot more what we called mind I I call at least mind free work than ours

um this is a quote from a book I was reading recently um when I was working on this class it says physical labor is great for the mind as it leaves all kinds of time to consider the world other work like accounting and scribing demands little of the body but siphon energy from the mind and as a computer programmer I can relate to that quote a lot there's a lot of days where the day just flies by I'm focused on one specific issue and time just kind of disappears because my mind is preoccupied and before you know it I've mislunged I haven't done my readings I haven't thought about God once my brain is fried and it's already 4 30. the day is pretty much over and I don't feel like doing anything and it's the rest of the evening because I just I've spent all my mental energy just on trying to get through work

so I you know they didn't have that you know you're working in the fields your hands are busy but physical labor their hands are probably a little more busy but their minds were a little less preoccupied

let's turn over to uh Deuteronomy 4 or 6 sorry Deuteronomy 6 Verses 4 to 9. I'll read that

Deuteronomy 6 Verses 4 to 9 reads hear o Israel the Lord your God the Lord is one you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might these words which I'm commanding today you shall be on your heart you shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk with them when you sit in the house when you walk by the way when you lie down and when you rise up you shall find them on your as a sign on your head sorry hand and they shall be on the frontals of your forehead you should write them on the doorpost of your house and on your Gates

you're thinking about or meditating on God's word or talking about it but something that Israel was commanded to do as they lived their daily lives that's what I got from this was that you know something that you do as you're sitting in the house as you're walking down the path as you're coming into the house since you're going out as you're lying down to go to bed it was something that they were meant to do as a regular part of their life was talk about the word of God with those around them

you know I can picture A young John out in the boat quizzing the older Peter about David as they cast their Nets or maybe Rebecca helping Jacob memorize the story of Noah while they worked in the tent or maybe a young Jesus asking Joseph to recite him a Messianic Psalm as he carried the lumber home from the next town over

thinking about God's word was not something they were supposed to set their lives aside to do but to do as they live their day-to-day life it was something that was a part of their regular lives so I think that's something that should be our goal as well right obviously with many of us holding less physical labor jobs you know working in accounting or programming this is often easier said than done um especially when you struggle to think about more than one thing at one time

so what I want to do for the rest of this our time together is just look at a few tools that I've found helpful in my life and if you have any other suggestions or comments as we go through these different tools please feel free to share like I was saying at the beginning I'll try to open it up at certain moments at the end of each tool um to give people an opportunity to share comment if you want

all right so the first the first tool that I found and this is a little contrary to what I just said

um but I think it's an important first step to help us build the habit of meditating and being God conscious the first tool is to set aside specific time to meditate and think on God's word

now when I talk about meditation I I don't I guess I should clarify that this what I'm really talking about here is uh not sitting in a blank room you know with ocean music playing on the background or you know if that's something you find helpful go for it but really what I'm talking about is just setting aside five minutes at the end of your lunch 10 minutes before you go to bed to just unplug from any form of media to put away all distractions and to just think about God in your life spend some time just thinking about the role he's played in your life or how you saw God to that day

um using that dedicated time kind of gives us gives us into the habit of you know looking for God in our lives looking uh for opportunities to recognize him as we go about our daily life

um

yeah we make it a goal then to meditate regularly and as we get that habit formed it becomes more natural like any habit you do the more you do it the more natural it becomes and eventually you'll start being God conscious outside of those specific moments

uh I like this uh there's two Psalms here that kind of help with this uh Psalm 119 verses 148 says my eyes anticipate the night Watchers when I may meditate on your word it was a time that the psalmist had set aside like I'm going to when I lay down on my bed you know it's dark at seven I'm gonna lay down on my bed from Seven I'm not tired yet until eight o'clock I'm gonna spend an hour just meditating on God's word you know they spent that they set aside that specific time to sit there and think about uh God and and his word and what it meant to them Psalm 63 verse 6 says the same thing pretty much it says when I remember you on my Med or on my bed I meditate on you in the night watches so this idea is like as you're laying down when it's dark just take a moment to reflect to think about God's word and kind of set that time specific time to do it

um yeah like I said I can understand why Knight would be appealing for them without their modern lighting

um so that is a time that maybe we can try um you know like I said I like to do it after lunch I like to spend some amount of time after my lunch just sit and think about God's word really is that you know find a time that's a regular habit in your life um and just you know ask yourself questions where do I see God in my life what can I how can I recognize him more regularly

the next tool kind of ties into that once I'm gonna just keep going before we open it up here really quick

um because if you're someone like me with ADHD sitting in a dark room for 30 minutes without any form of stimulation is absolute torture I can't stand it um so the next suggestion is to use a tool or a tool that you can use is to write a journal you know as you take that time to sit and meditate take notes right you know write it down um as you reflect on your day and what you did and why you did it write write it down in a journal uh it can be helping be more definitive in the way you think um it's a nice way of recording things so you can go back and reflect on previous days as well and if you really want to get technologically advanced you can keep a video Journal my wife finds this pretty hilarious but I did a road trip last summer out to Peter and Melissa's wedding and I was by myself so I would record myself as I was driving and would monologue all the way to record my thoughts and and I found it great as a way for going back and reflecting on those different days that I got to have was to go back and watch that video uh Journal that I kept

the more reflective I think we are the more we're going to for God's example in our own lives and the more we do that the more we'll start to see them so any thoughts or comments there on those first two tools

I love that verse in Psalm 119 the I think the version that you quoted

spoke of the psalmist anticipating the watches of the night like you know looking forward oh I'm gonna have this break from the day-to-day from the you know the travails of work and I'm gonna you know joyfully meditate on the word that's kind of you know that's interesting to me

you know there's a time when uh my oldest Paul went off to college I set an alarm on my phone

um

and it went off you know every day at the same time and it was designed to cause me to pause and to think of my son and to pray you know for him and for his situation you know

and I haven't done that in a while but I had done that for a long time sort of uh that stimuli to like Snap me out of uh you know whatever I was doing so yeah thanks for those reminders yeah there's a lot of really neat tools that we can use in today's society to help jog our memory like that you know um I even uh even something as simple as posted that I like posted notes during covet my wife and I had posted notes all over the house to kind of remind us of different things and uh they can be really I know there's a lot of really different options you can get really creative with those you know external reminders yeah

yeah

Gideon this is Dana Pratt and I love journaling too I think that's such a powerful method for connecting us with God and um I have found often journaling after doing the readings because so frequently we just kind of do the readings and it goes straight out of our minds but when I do the readings and then it often becomes a prayer that I Journal you know maybe just a short sentence or two but it's then it's there it's tangible you like you said with your Journal you can look at it again be reminded of things you've learned and hopefully it makes the tracks in your brain a little deeper with doing the readings for the day

yeah for sure I like that

all right I will keep going again if you want to keep jumping in there I have another comment we've got plenty of opportunities I'll open up a few more times here

um the next tool that I had um is a little different it's not an exercise I do every day um but it's one that I found really helpful uh as you know kind of when I talk about meditation and taking time just think about things

um the next tool that I really enjoy or I would like to share is this idea of thinking about the people who have influenced you in your life and helped make you the person you are today and you know I really like this idea like taking time specifically to say you know wow I really appreciate how this person has influenced me in this way and you know I I can see myself trying to emulate them in this way like because it makes us self-reflective right we have to pick out qualities that we have um and the or that we need to work on but then it's also outwardly reflective right it's recognizing how other people have been so influenced us towards those positive traits or who we would like to emulate better um because they're kind of a role model to us so for example what this kind of looks like um you know I'll take time we'll set aside a specific time and did this a lot on my uh you know just recently in the past few months um where I would you know say hey I really appreciate how I learned a lot of my speaking skills and my class formats from Brother John Doe and these are made up names just to be clear I figured it's better than using real names just for the sake of uh an anonymity um but sister Sue taught me how to be a real chiffer Giver I saw her example as a real show for cheerful Giver that's something I you know I really want to emulate that in my life uh brother Steve showed me how to kind of be the balance needed in a situation rather than just defaulting to the personality or what I personally felt was important you know to kind of make sure I'm checking myself against the balance of what's needed in that specific situation uh Tim dear taught me how to love being at meeting and how to greet everyone with with enthusiasm and a five five and a hug uh brother Bob taught me that um you could always find a role in the Ecclesia and that serving behind the scenes is one of the most important rules you can have yeah I took the time to sit and reflect on on all those different characteristics you know remembering how they had influenced me when I was younger how they've influenced me now and how I want to emulate them

um and I think it really helps me refocus on what matters right it reminds me of the characteristics that I want to have I'm not as cheerful of a giver as sister Sue was um but whenever I take time to remember on her influence her on my life it re-motivates me to try and be better it helps me to look for opportunities where I can be more like she was

a lot of those people that I I mentioned or you know part of why this one can be so impactful is a lot of those people have passed removed moved away from my life um they've kind of left a hole in my life or in the Ecclesia and taking time to remember them and the impact they've had on my life that just can kind of be at peace with the fact that they're no longer around it also reminds me that there are people still in my life who have influenced me and and I want to make sure I thank them for that and express that to them

um and they really appreciate the role that they've played in making me who I am any thoughts or comments on that one I think I think it's one that doesn't have to be every day but you know once a month uh or so just take time to really reflect on those people it it can be a really nice tool

not so much self uh internally talking about it Gideon but um or actually one going one step further is to actually make mention to those people

um you know on uh I was baptized uh October 16th and on every October 16th I try to send a note to uh brother Steve and brother Steve because they were the ones who uh help me get through you know my Bible lessons and led me to be baptized so that's not only beneficial to me it's beneficial I think to them for sure I mean people I know when people give me positive feedback that lightens my step through the rest of the day and brings it brings a smile I think it's uh yeah natural follow-on so thanks for that

them

I like to think that uh

that we take a little like you know also each of us are made up of the kind of little bits and pieces of other people that we've taken who have influenced us in our lives and so to really think about it that way that you know let's break down a specific character and be like this is the characteristic that I've learned from this person you know again it gives you that kind of that Clarity or that a bit more definition that I yeah but the idea of going to the people who who have still you know you still have and and yeah it's something I really want to get better at because I know there are definitely a few people that I know I didn't express it enough and I I you know something I regret a little bit and I want to make sure I don't feel like that again right I want to make sure that's something I'm sharing with people while they're still around because yeah you know looking back as someone who's grown up in the truth I've had some amazing influences in my life and uh yeah being able to share that's really special

yeah thanks for that Gideon that's an interesting idea

um I like Jim's idea as well as letting those people know but

um you make an interesting point that a lot you know things change and people move on and

um you can lose track of the people who have influenced you and uh that's unfortunate so so I think it's important to keep in touch and also like you put it to remember what they've done for you I think that's a that's a great point to make thank you for doing appreciate it yeah and I I love the idea of thinking about people in gratitude as opposed to like thinking only about those people that might need help or those people who are sick or I mean that's important too yeah but I don't know that I've ever considered like going through the you know the church directory and saying yeah you know I'm really grateful that this individual specific person you know and reflecting on that specific thing that they might have said or done or a general character trait I think I'm gonna try and Implement that yeah that's really good I appreciate it Gideon if if I might get in uh also the idea of journaling I I think there are times where we have people coming and going in and out of our lives and and sometimes decades can pass and we may have uh remembered the influence that they had on us but there may have been you know different things that we help them with and advice that we gave them and and we just think well I'll always remember that okay and then maybe 20 30 40 years from now we're faced with the same situation and we could use maybe our own advice in looking into the journal and say you know when that brother or sister was at that point in their life this was the advice that you gave them and and sometimes a journal can help us remember that as well we look you know we can learn a lot from one another as we observe their different aspects of life and I can just say now at 65 I you know I always thought when I was 20 or 30 well I learned that and I'll always remember that but there are some things that you know that do pass with time and so I I I've been I actually went out and bought a journal I just haven't started writing in it but uh but uh it's been on my mind so I you know this might be the final kick here but anyways thank you for that at 65 can you remember where you put that journal no I didn't remember but I got the bill so I know I bought it next to Gideon exactly

and I should say in the context of this right we're talking about being God conscious you know what we're looking for is that you know each of us emulates Christ and and Christ emulates God and so you know when you look for those characteristics that you know here's a time when this person was reflecting God that that's what we're looking to do because it's to encourage us to think about God's character and our lives and things like that more right so uh just add that caveat in there as well that that's all that's how this ties into the god Consciousness part as well if that wasn't wasn't

apparently

oh sorry yeah go ahead

go ahead bye brother goody yep uh yes I remember a sister by the name of Annie Craddock I used to go visit uh many years ago and um

he um

at first I didn't know what to talk about

um being new in the truth and then I noticed when I started talking about the scriptures she was the elderly sister and um I quoted uh John 14 I think I was and uh I quoted it wrong and she said that was my Billy's

um favorite verse she said and uh

he quoted that whole verse uh In My Father's House of many mansions and so forth my point is that I was amazed at this elderly I think she must have been in her 70s or or even early and I was amazed that when I talked about scriptures she was right there if I said anything about anything else she wouldn't respond mm-hmm

Bonnie you got something to add yeah

so the Bible tells us that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak right and we know it means what's up here so I wanted to tell Gideon you're still young right so you're gonna keep filling that up with the right things with God and I can tell you nine out of ten times God will be right there there's something I if I'm not doing something right or my mind is bettered with foolishness about something it will come to me because and that's what I answer to so I think when we fill up our minds with God over time and experience and joy and love with him I think it comes right back as you get older Gideon to begin those you know good habits now but it he is ever with us so you know it works out so I always think of that you know out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak but I think we think there too so I I appreciate that that's it that's good yeah it is it's something getting into this habit you know it's not something that's going to come quickly but it it does come if you can form that habit you'll start to see it more and more again it's one of those the more again again with any habit the more you do it the easier it becomes and what Uncle what uh Brother Richard said uh it stays with you and that elderly sister corrected uh brother there because she understood it like she could elaborate it because about her son Billy but I mean there it stays with us very clearly you know not perfectly but very well so I think when scripture says learn a new song yeah that's that's the new song where to learn is you know not the old man but the the new song you know of the history inspiration of God singing in our hearts you know I like that yeah well there you go

all right well the next two I want to I want to talk about is one I like the most um I know it says I can say this about all of them but

um this is actually also the inspirational friend I guess I keep putting this down there in my notes I'm realizing that the students first from my class is very inspiration for the class but uh this next tool has really really kind of got me thinking I'm gonna say that because I already said that as well um but this idea of looking for God in your regular life and the things around you

um whether it's something that you hear or whether it's something you experience whatever it may be try to think about a spiritual lesson that you can learn from whatever that thing is now that's this next tool

um the more God contrast we are right the more we'll start seeing God in everyday things

um doesn't necessarily meaning and you know I think this isn't important right this idea of recognizing where God is working in your life that's not necessarily what I'm talking about here though I'm talking about when you for example when I did this road trip out um out to uh Peter Melissa's wedding um I went to as many national parks as I could and I saw some amazing locations and my goal of mine was that anytime I saw an amazing landscape or something I would stop and ask myself what is God teaching me in this moment like what what about the Mississippi River can I learn now what does the Mississippi River teach me about God or you know um all these different Landscapes and things like that what can I learn about God from these things that I'm witnessing and experiencing in my life

um an example so so I'm going to walk you through another example of this um from that road trip

um I had a couple opportunities to watch the sunrise from a Mountaintop and one morning I was in Zion National Park

um and it always remember this is one of the most amazing sunrises I've ever seen it was a beautiful sunrise I'm not sure she was at a spot called lava point which is up above Zion National Park if you know anything about Zion there's some really cool canyons and these high mountains and lava Point actually sits at the top of the Colorado Colorado Plateau overlooking the park

uh and the first thing that struck me as I was sitting up there was uh whoever came up with the saying the night is darkest just before the dawn clearly never watched the sunrise

um if you're an early riser or if you've ever gotten up to watch a sunrise before I just notice how bright it is before the sun even peeks Over the Horizon

um well as I was watching the sunrise I noticed this is something I observed I witnessed and I asked myself what's the spiritual lessons that I can learn from that you know um and this is what I came up with i as I was sitting up there and thinking about this and reflecting on this uh the sunrise is often a type of the return of Christ right uh in the Kingdom in scripture like it's a type that's used in Scripture that we can see

um and so as we picture the end times and the return of Christ I think we can often imagine passages like those will be the days just like lot in Noah or you know the passage of a crisis will a son of man Find Faith or this faith in the earth in that day we often picture so things getting much much worse than they ever were before Christ will return right the night will be darkest just before Christ returns but I don't think necessarily that's the case um do you know where it is darker as I was watching the sunrise I noticed where it is darker before the sun rises is in The Valleys it's in the low parts of the earth and as I sat there in Zion National Park I noticed that the spots were the light of the sun Shone first were the tops of the mountains you know there and then all these passages about Believers ascending and non-believers descending and if we're looking for the crisis Christ return if we're looking for the sunrise you're going to to get to a high point you want to get to the very top of the mountain to watch the sunrise if you're going to do it you're going to ascend up uh into the mountains and if you do that the night won't be darkest just before the dawn in fact we'll be able to see the Light of Christ coming long before he actually appears Additionally you know if when he does return and he does arise that sun does arise it's the tops of the mountains we'll be the first ones to see that light and that sun when he comes If instead we're descending down into the valleys and you know we're hiding down there we're not really looking for the sunrise or looking for Christ or if we're looking from the wrong places it will be darker for us we won't see signs of this coming because we aren't in the right place for it

so am I stretching that a little bit yeah probably um but it's that kind of critical thinking and that kind of analyzing that I think God wants us to do as we witness the world around us as we experience life he's created this world in a very specific way and I think it was intended for us to kind of provoke thought in us right to reflect on who he is in his plan for our world

uh Romans 1 verse 20 says that for since the creation of his of this world is invisible sorry his invisible attributes his eternal power his divine nature have been clearly seen being understood through what has been made so that they are without excuse like through nature we can recognize attributes of God's character and you know this is something we see over and over again done by the authors in the Bible and granted they were inspired um but this idea of finding spiritual principles in the world around us is clearly something that we find rooted in the Bible

um it doesn't apply just to national parks for beautiful landscapes you know we can ask our same thing or ourselves the same questions we see a flower growing in the sidewalk

um when we're you know sitting beside a bonfire when our minds are on the word of God we'll start with some connections from our daily life and the world around us to his word I think I saw brother Ben link uh there on the camera a little bit but Ben gave a class recently on the spiritual lessons that we can learn from the game of chess you know when we start looking for God in our lives you'll find those connections anywhere you look you can find it in the game of chess

um so let's go to Second Timothy two this is one to seven here's the passage that kind of talks about this I think second Timothy 2 verses one to seven says you therefore my son be strong in the grace that God or Grace that is in Jesus Christ the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses and trust these to Faithful Men Who will be able to teach others also for hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus no Soldier who's actively engaged or sorry no soldier in active service entangles himself in the Affairs of everyday life so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier and if anyone competes as an athlete he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules the hard-working farmer ought first to receive his share of the crops consider what I say if the Lord will give you understanding in everything so here's Paul looking at three examples in the world around him soldiers Farmers athletes and pulling spiritual lessons out of those things that he's witnessing that's the kind of mindset we want to have as we go about our day as we're interacting with people say what can I learn about Christ in this moment that's being God conscious that's thinking about who God is Christ says it's in Matthew 6 26 through 30 he says look at the birds of the air they do not sow nor reap nor Gather in Barns yet your heavenly father feeds them are you not so much more than they who can being worried cat a single hour to his life and why are you worried about clothing observabilities of the field and how they grow they do not toil no spin uh yet I say to you not even Solomon and His glory was closed like one of these but if God so closed the grass of the field which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace really not much more clothe you oh you have little faith and we can see it's over again and over again in scripture Proverbs 6 6 8 go to the ant You sluggered observe her ways and be wise which having no chief officer or ruler prepares for food in the summer and gathers her Provisions in the Harvest

uh Psalm 145 verse 5 on the Glorious Splendor of your majesty and on your wonderful works I will meditate take time to sit there and think about what God has done and the creation around us and how it can teach us about him uh Psalm 8 verses 3 to 4 when I consider your heavens and the works of your fingers the moon the stars which you have ordained what is man that you've thought of him or the son of man that you care for him

so as you can see something that we see over and over again in scripture this is what we're trying to do in being God conscious see something ask yourself what does this teach me about our Lord thoughts or comments on uh on that one

Gideon I uh really resonate with um you're saying on that topic uh that when you were talking about the

um the Dawn watching it in Zion um

I your my mind went to proverbs 4 18 and 19. uh it says and I have this on my wall in my office I really like this first but the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn which shines brighter and brighter until the full day The Way of the Wicked is like deep Darkness they do not know over what they stumble so it actually has the righteous who who see that light getting brighter and brighter and I think that as we as we wait for and hasten the you know the day of Jesus return

you know there we can the anticipation I think can can make light uh kind of grow in our hearts and Minds more and more and we see God's God's way God's path for us

um but if we're down in those valleys then you know then you're in the Deep darkness and you're going to stumble right can you quote that again sure proverbs 4 18 and 19. Brian I was just going to ask you your thoughts about the uh before the sun actually Rises but the sky begins to brighten you also see a crescendo of the birds beginning to uh the song If you start listening to the birds they'll be very quiet and then as soon as you see a little bit of light you'll see one two three and then there's a whole Crescendo of Life beginning to come back okay and yet the sun hasn't quite appeared yet but they know the sun is about to rise so life begins to return to the Earth at that point

I love sitting on my deck listening listening to those birds uh in the morning you know even Before Sunrise and and yeah I know exactly what you're talking about Chris

also I remember um the Apostle Paul but forget where it is where he said he was in the sea Knight and Day and my mind went too uh where it says sorrow endureth only for a moment but Don comes in the morning

yeah joy cometh in the morning yeah

the night he's he's in the sea at night and and uh I see in it but joy comes in the morning

did you throw your your uh comments I'm really enjoying it

um at the beginning of your class you made some reference to the um the Israelites and how they you know what would they have had to encourage them and

um I think the law if they tried to keep the law kept God always in their minds it was very much something they had to do I heard a rabbi one time talking about and he lived in New York and he decided or a Jew maybe it wasn't a rabbi he decided he was going to try and keep the law just

it was going to do that and he said every aspect of his life was

controlled can I eat this with my morning coffee is this under is is this mixed in the right way has it got the right ingredients for kosher and things like that and it just every aspect of their lives would have been reminding them of God I'm not saying that we should go back to the law but to think it's a powerful lesson and another one one that I heard another Jew who's had been living in Israel and his children then he moved to the North America I don't know whether it was Canada or the states and he said his children in the car when they were driving somewhere would say well what happened here what because when they'd lived in Israel every time he drove in the the

um you know through the land he would be telling them this is what happened in the Bible you know this is where David defeated Goliath and this is where this happened and he said when he came to North America his kids would be saying well what happened here Dad and there was nothing to say

oh that's great I I like that idea of the law because it's true like and this is kind of what gets behind it was what I was trying to get at when I was talking about the day-to-day versus Grand gesture Faith the law wasn't just about sacrifices and rituals and traditions it was about everyday life it was something that was supposed to be part of how they lived their lives and that's what we want we want this to be just a part of how we live our lives and that's something you know we set our side of our life to do no it's it's a part of who we are it's all one thing

all right uh next tool I got two more that I kind of want to get through um okay bear with me we'll try to we'll try to get through these two and then we'll open up for comments again

um the next tool that I have is always ask questions uh this is something just you know as a reminder something to work on trying to do uh always ask yourself questions always ask questions I think it's something that um at least in my life I don't feel like was encouraged enough when I was younger and something I feel like we need to be better at encouraging as a community um it's one of the most useful tools that God's given us right God's given us a brain and the ability to reason so we should use it right we should ask ourselves questions and try to reason out the answers um every day as we're going about your day-to-day life just ask yourself questions think about questions that you may have and write them down ask your friends or family just just get into the habit of using questions regularly um one of my favorite uh friends or peers that I have is someone who asks the best questions

um they're not shy at all about asking questions and I often reflect on how I would like to be more like him um they'll randomly ask me about how my prayer life is doing or he'll constantly ask questions about what I think about this topic in the Bible and they'll hit it with some oddballs sometimes but it's great because it gets me thinking about these things more regularly I guess it's both thinking about it because he's trying to reason now in his mind and he's asking me and I now I'm trying to reason and out and we can have discussion and we can ask for more clarification and we can it helps us both get into the word more and so I think we should do this with ourselves you know we do this with our peers or friends or family ask questions it's a powerful tool

um you know try to stump an elder with a more difficult question or if someone asks you a question don't just shoot out a quick answer

um take time to meditate on it reflect on it and what they're actually asking maybe ask for them more questions for clarification that idea of asking questions back and forth can be really really powerful trying to understand and clarify things

um

if you can't tell like this is a tool that I absolutely love um just because it's really simple like it's a simple thing to do just be like okay what question can I ask myself you know when I'm sitting there eating lunch all right what do I need to know what what do I want to know more about you know what am I thinking about right now

um that's a you know when you get into the habit of it it's a really powerful tool

and I think we find this in scripture as well like this is not a tool that um you know it's just something that I'm pulling out a hat I think this is something that you know God uses in scripture God often asks questions in scripture if you look for it you'll start seeing questions everywhere you know one caught it God asked Cain where is your brother it's not because God doesn't know it's because he wants Cain to reflect on what he's done he's trying to stimulate that that thought process in Kane's mind

um so when we see a question in scripture don't just Breeze by it don't just kind of jump to the answer stop and meditate on it you know Paul Paul does this a lot in his writing he he writes a lot of rhetorical questions if you if you read Paul's writings don't just skip over to what he says in the next verse and look for the answer take a second and reason it out you know shall we continue in sin that Grace May abound I don't know is it really that bad that Grace abounds what's the problem with going on today can I go on sinning if I've Crucified My Flesh with Christ like am I really being a new man if I'm purposely going on sinning take time to think about the other questions and and the answer before you just jump to the next day you know the next verse and recognize you're not always going to find an answer right away there are times where there are questions that we're going to come across that we can't answer right away those are good questions those are those are those are great questions that have to write down um there are times I think you won't ever find an answer I know there's one brother growing up who used to have a question that's in the back of his Bible and probably half of them weren't answered or questions that he had not found an answer to yet um but there were questions that he would bring up and think about and ask people all the time because there was something that was on his mind

um I like this verse Luke 2 verse 19 says that but Mary treasured all these things pondering them in her heart and that Greek word for pondering means to converse with oneself she's like she's talking to herself thinking in her head about you know what do these things mean asking yourselves those questions um about what you know trying to figure out what that all these things the angel had said or meant

um or sorry the Shepherds sorry all the things the Shepherds had done for her had been um as you may not have known right she probably didn't know right away what that meant when these Shepherds came to visit her in the uh in the barn but it's something that she took time to reflect on and think about

there is one great debate over questions though that I think is worth mentioning and it's the debate about whether or not there is such thing as a bad question you know you'll hear often hear your teachers say there's no such thing as a bad question

um my answer to this debate though is I think there is such thing as a bad question and I think a bad question is any question that doesn't follow what I call the first Thessalonians 5 21-22 rule so first Thessalonians 5 21-22 says examine everything carefully that's ask questions you know try to figure out the answer hold fast what is good but reject any form of evil so I think a bad question is a question that we're not actually examining if you're not going to put the time and effort into Define the answer if you're just going to kind of go you're not actually going to start going to listen to the answer when you ask the question don't ask the question right like like if you if you see God tells us we'll find don't give up on answering a question just because it's too difficult I've seen too many friends I think walk away from the truth because they're unwilling to examine everything carefully they're unwilling to kind of put the effort in to figure out what's good and what's evil they ask the question but they were asking it more as an excuse to you know to behave the way they wanted to rather than trying to find and listen to the answer when they've found it God tells us ask and you will be given seek and you will find it won't happen right away but take the time try to find the answer examine everything carefully hold fast so what is good and reject any form of evil additionally use the Philippians 4 verse 8 rule um to help determine what's good and evil Philippians 4 verse 8 again and passage I think most of us are probably familiar with finally Brethren whatever is true whatever is Honorable whatever is right whatever is pure whatever is lovely whatever is of good repute if there is any excellence and if there's anything worthy of phrase meditate and think on these things

the next question is not one or sorry tool sorry the next tool that I have is not one that I'm particularly good at but it's one that I thought I'd share just because it came up a few times in my study on this topic Psalm 143 verse 5 says remember the days of old I I will remember the days of old I will meditate on your doings

I'm used on the work of your hands and that word muse in that verse means to sing or vocally talk about I'm not the most musical person in the world but one good way to meditate on God's word is to sing about it um sing verses sing songs about God music is a powerful tool for memorizing and unlocking memories take time to sing aloud uh that can be a great tool and when it comes to meditating on God's word Psalm 77 verse 6 says I will remember my song in the night I will meditate with my heart and my spirit Ponders I shall remember the Deeds of the Lord surely I would remember your wonders of old I will meditate on your work and Muse on your Deeds your way o God is holy book God is great like our God so sing songs that's another another great tool that we can use

and the final tool I want to talk about I know I said two but I'm going to throw this third one in there is this idea of praying without seasoning now this is a tool that I would say is definitely a personal tool this is something that you know I find works for me I've shared it with a few friends who have outright said that this just doesn't work for them so um it's not something I'm suggesting that you all need to go and do and try

um but for me what this looks like is directing my thoughts towards God whenever I remember to

um and I think it's directly related to the way I think I know some people think differently they've done all these studies on it uh I think in conversations and in words so in my head I'm I've got a little ongoing monologue in the back of my brain

um so when I remember that I need to make coffee I'll literally say in my head something along the lines of oh yeah I should go make coffee how should I make coffee today I guess uh we don't have any pre-ground beans so I'll have to get the grinder out yada yada I have this monologue that kind of goes on in my head um and so when I'm reminded of God throughout the day I try to change my internal conversation to address God instead of addressing myself um when applicable right so instead of this internal dialogue going on I have a conversation with god going about my daily life so an example of what this might look like is my wife will tell me some news about someone and in my head I'll go man that sounds really tough I hope they're doing gonna be okay God please help uh look help me look for a way to support them if I can um you must know how hard this is actually for them so I hope you're able to help them be okay you know instead of having that conversation with myself I try to direct it to God you know sometimes it'll be like oh man we're really gonna uh we still have to pay for this thing this month I could really put us in a tough situation if we're not careful God please provide for us please make sure that we're going to be okay um you know what's been on my mind so please help me continue to trust in you right so whenever I can get those external stimuli to think about God I try to change the way I think to be directed to God I think an example of this is Nehemiah um who prayed while he was at work bringing the cup to the king there's a good chance that Nehemiah didn't have time to set the cup down step off to the side chamber bow his head before God in a formal prayer he most likely just had to direct his thoughts quickly towards God as he heard this news about Israel and quickly asked for his help as he did his daily job

so I'm not perfect at this I don't actually do this without ceasing you know I don't pray without ceasing literally um but it's a tool that has helped me really become more and more God conscious in my life because I get again the more I do it the more and more I the way I think changes because I start direct more and more of my thoughts towards him

and this one I think really only works once you've had a solid foundation so this is not the one I would say go start with you know build the habit of thinking about God first

um this is something if I had tried to do this when I first really was trying to have more and more God conscious this would have been a lot harder

so I just to kind of close out um God doesn't want us to stop living our day-to-day lives you know he didn't require the Israelites to stop thinning their fields or to spend all day in every year in his Temple he wanted them and us to turn our day-to-day life moments into moments when we're thinking about him we're thinking and praying to him and building a relationship with him I think a really good analogy of this is you know the relationship that we have with a spouse or a child we don't separate our life into moments when we're married and not married you know you don't stop being a parent just because you're at work you do those daily actions you go about that daily routine so that you can be a good parent or a good spouse so you can provide for one another and care for one another you don't let those moments get in the way of being a parent or a spouse

um but you recognize that those day-to-day moments are part of your relationship and I think it should be the same with God right we don't need to put our life on hold to serve God we want to find ways to serve God as we live our life make our faith a day-to-day faith

so that's all my thoughts for tonight um are there any other questions or comments that people wanted to share

just on Psalm 8 Gideon you know us thinking about God I think uh I don't know if you said this and my mind just hasn't caught up with what you said yet but

um you know he's always thinking about us

right who who are we mindful of us right that to me that's just an awesome thought that he is mindful of us and so

uh

to reflect him to show what he does uh that's a perfect uh perfect thing to do I like that no I hadn't mentioned that but that's great I really appreciate that just the same way that you know in The Sermon on the Mount Jesus says don't worry your father knows what you need how does he know what we need he he knows every fiber of our every what is a hair in our head right every fiber of our being he's put in place so he knows us and thinks on us so yeah thanks for that and then just um the fact that you have been so open with us about your

struggles about your

um about the way you do things about the way you think uh you've been very uh very open and exposed yourself to us in a way that helps us learn

um you know I know a lot of people are very private about how they do things and the way that you've shared with us makes it extremely personal and practical right I can do uh those things you're not just giving like far-fetched examples that don't apply to your life

driving down the road having a monologue uh you know while while that would be a unique unique thing to most of us from the first of us uh you know it you're you're teaching us about how

Jesus would have done things how our father does things so thanks for that very important I appreciate it yeah

well thank you Jim for those kind words

I'm not sure the hair on the head analogy works for you but I understand where you're coming from

anybody does anybody else have anything uh there you go it's not very hard for God to keep track of the hairs on Jim's head right no we only have one it's easy

Gideon thank you very much I really like the idea of being in constant thought

um with God and and our Lord and always thinking of that and I really like that idea about

um you know when we pray I went for a walk this morning I was telling Steve that I was praying not my mind was all over the place it was worse than squirrel it was like all over the place I don't even know how my mind was going this morning and I was just like oh but um but I really like that idea of being able to be in constant thought of what we see to to be thankful for what we see or to be thankful for that right yeah

so I appreciate it and and I think it was Dana who said something about journaling after reading I thought that was a great idea you know just a little jot something down I'm like that's great you know and maybe go back each year and say oh yeah that was a good thought so anyway thank you so much and I'm just so happy to see you and give my love to shoshana thanks I hope you appreciate it okay one of the things that keep me in check is that um find myself uh

um constantly almost constantly

um asking God to don't let me offend him and help me to make the right decisions and um even uh give me a little bit more extra food and then I say to myself well he's given everything that is needful and uh he'll give us the desires of our heart and uh uh I find that to be very very true and one last thing is is that we can believe everything that God says why because he's a god of Truth and it's impossible for him to laugh why why

can we how can we depend upon Him utterly because this word is true that everything that God says is true and I find that constantly going through my mind and uh uh that's one of the main keys for me to keep me in check also that day the pain and Agony that he went through to bring us uh to his father