The faintest thought could be the voice of God and can cure second hand faith
I’ve never been satisfied
With religious information,
But Christ-centered contemplation,
Floods me with inspiration.
Information without wonder is drab. Information that stirs the heart is thrilling!
To contemplate is to ponder with wonder. Contemplation discovers the splendid in the simple. I like to be quiet and let the living Jesus assemble the fragments of my thoughts. Sometimes the faintest thought, on the back burner of the brain, is the voice of God. As the living Jesus tries to lead you from within, you either follow or ignore Him.
Activate your heart to contemplate, meditate, ruminate, wonder and ponder. Christianity without contemplation is a deflated hot air balloon. Listen to Jesus. You can go beyond secondhand (inherited) faith and experience the living Jesus directly. When you humbly contemplate the living Jesus, He will lead your thoughts and feelings.
The Bible is for contemplation, not just for study. Let the words burn in your heart. Ponder the One the Bible calls Emmanuel (God with us). Connection with the living Jesus is within the heart, not in physical surroundings.
The Christian message is more than religious information. It must include lifestyle transformation. Religious information can instruct the mind, but Christ-centered contemplation heals the heart. Ongoing, spiritual contemplation of the living Jesus, is life-transforming.
When I contemplate nature’s nonverbal communication, I hear shouts of praise to God. Through out nature and in the depths of our being, God speaks, even when we won’t hear, yet without inner openness and receptivity to the voice of God, we’ll ignore Him.
Christ-centered, spiritual reading, ignites my connection with the living Jesus. Christ-centered contemplation will end your frustration and overcome your stagnation. Open-hearted contemplation, enables me to recognize and adore Jesus thru out the day.
Religious information and church services are poor substitutes for the living Jesus. The original Christmas events (and other biblical events) deserve our spiritual contemplation, not just our sentimentality.
The current of life is humility. Even pride gets swept away by it. Contemplation requires it. Let your heart be seized by the reality of the living Jesus.
Jesus doesn’t need a religious institution to organize and run His body. He can do it Himself. To confine Jesus to organizations is like confining love to them. Both Jesus and love are matters of the heart, not institutional hierarchies. Humans don’t need to join an organization in order to follow and obey the risen Jesus.
