Nourishing Your Spirit

by Stratton Jennings

          

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Meditation isn’t just for monks and priest anymore, many Christians are also enjoying the benefits of spending time with God in quietness and solitude. Christian Guided Meditations take the guess work out of meditation by providing believers with a method of meditating on God that doesn’t contradict with their Christian faith. Most Christian Guided Meditation Cds or recordings include a progressive relaxation and scriptural narrative that includes biblical stories, relevant scriptures, positive affirmations and relaxing music.

It is important that the Christian Guided Meditation Cd, mp3, or recording you choose begins with brief relaxation exercises that prepares you to receive God’s word. Deep breathing exercises that engage your diaphragm are one of the best ways to relax not only your body but your mind. Many guided meditations will have you inhale deeply, hold the breath for several seconds and then exhale. Next, they guide you through relaxing each area of your body from your head down to your feet. Once you are relaxed, your subconscious mind is much more receptive to receive God’s words. (more…)

          

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By Rhonda Jones

Recently, I receive a letter from a subscriber who asked what was the best way to incorporate Christian meditation into their daily life. In this article I want to outline ways you can include Christian meditation into your daily schedule that has made my life so much more rewarding and fulfilling. There are numerous benefits to meditating on God and spending time in His presence. These include developing a more intimate relationship with Christ, eliminating worry and stress, creating a space for God to speak to our hearts, and becoming more sensitive to the Holy Spirit to name a few. However this article places more emphasize on the logistics than the benefits and gives some ideas of making Christian meditation a daily reality in your life as well.

In this  article I will also share with you some tools I use that are indispensable to me and have made my time with God so much richer. These are not requirements because in actuality to meditate or spend time with God, all you really need is a willing heart and a quiet space.  (more…)

          

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“Well, Lord, I was told today at church that if I would get on my face and worship You, I could find some answers . . . that I could connect with You . . . that You would change me. Is this what they meant?”

My nose was beginning to get a little rug burned so I turned my head and let my cheek rest on the floor. I continued to lay there for almost two hours. You see, I was desperate. My history was more than a little embarrassing. I was 40 years old and here’s what I had to show for it: a divorce, a bankruptcy, a lost business, $500,000 of debt, and the prestige of being a convicted felon. It’s true that I now was married to a wonderful woman and had some great friends. But the shame of my past still dominated my thoughts.

My list of atrocities did not happen overnight. I strung them out over a 22—year period. What’s interesting is that during those years I consistently read my Bible, went to church or Bible studies, prayed, and openly spoke about my love for and commitment to God. Yet I was a mess. A terrible disciple of Jesus Christ. So, in many ways, lying on my face that day was a “retreat.” I had retreated into God’s presence to lay down my old life—and, hopefully, emerge with something new. (more…)

          

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Good Day Sacramento Channel 10 features  my Christian Meditation, Affirmation,  and Relaxation Cds.

          

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My love affair with God is growing and growing. Although my new love for God started in church almost 20 years ago, it wasn’t until God separated me unto himself and took me through a desert experience that I began not to just know of God, but truly experience Him on a personal level.

As new or immature believers in Christ, our walk is generally characterized by what we do for God. Although the gift of salvation is free, it’s hard for our natural minds to comprehend that we can get something for nothing. Our church leaders also weight us down with a litany of what good Christians do. Good Christians never miss a Sunday Service, attend weekly bible study, volunteer in several ministries, read their Bibles everyday, and the list goes on. As a result, when we fail to meet these standards, guilty feelings surface and fear sets in. We may even question whether we are saved.

The irony is that going to church doesn’t necessarily constitute a relationship with God just as not going to church suggests a lack of one. The first time I stopped going to church I was guilt-ridden. I must be in a back-slidden condition I ponderedt, although my heart was just as devoted to God as ever.  Scriptures like, “do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together,” surely meant I was on my way to hell. Yet at that time in my life going to church left me feeling empty. It was just a weekly ritual, a habit that I had been doing for years and I was tired of putting myself through its misery. (more…)

          

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“Come unto to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.”- Matthew 11:28

I truly believe that depression is the result of internalized fear. Fear can take many forms such as anxiety, worry, guilt, regret, jealousy, and even anger. Usually we fear a loss or unwanted situation.  For example, fear of losing a loved one, wages, health, or even face can cause great anxiety. These situations, if not properly dealt with, steal our peace of mind and well-being.

As Christians, it’s important not to mask or deny our fears. Often we will try to cover our fears and insecurities with faith words. We often put on that Christian happy face and tell others we are blessed or everything is fine, even though there is deep pain in our heart.  In solitude, we may earnestly pray and ask God to take our pain away or sing songs of worship and praise, only for that heavy feeling to return again and again.

Though heartfelt, prayer and praise alone may not help in eliminating our negative emotions.  Instead of releasing them, they are buried further down into our subconscious mind, where they gnaw at us and weigh us down creating a perpetual dark cloud over our heads. 

If we look at this from a logical standpoint, if we focus only on the emotion, its like implementing solutions to a problem that has not been properly identified. In almost all cases, our negative emotions are not the problem but only a symptom of it. The presence of negative emotions is the indicator that something is wrong. Feelings of anxiety, depression, anger, fear, or sadness is our body’s way of saying we are out of alignment with God’s perfect plan for us or His spiritual well-being. If we stop only at the negative emotion or try to eliminate the emotion without going deeper, it’s like putting a band aid on cancer. (more…)

          

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One of the number one questions Christians ask today is, “How do we hear God voice?  How do we know when God is speaking to us or when it’s just our own thinking?” Christians desperately want to hear from God and know Him in an intimate and personal way.  They want to know His voice from amongst their own mental clanging and clutter.  Some believers get discouraged and believe that God has nothing to say to them which makes them feel unloved or inferior.

The good news is that God does speak to His children.  He did throughout the Old Testament, the New Testament, and He does today. How do we know this for sure?  Because the scriptures tell us that God is the same today, yesterday, and forever. However, as the years progressed it appears that God’s voice has become more subtle.  Rarely do you hear people saying that God spoke to them in an audible voice, like he did with Noah and Moses.  We don’t seem to have as many anointed prophets that impart God’s heart to use as with Samuel, Elisha, and Elijah.

For these days and times, God generally speaks to his children through the Holy Spirit deep inside the intricate parts of their heart. Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice.  If you have ever been to a sheep farm, you can see the sheep grazing quietly as they move from one spot to the next. (more…)

          

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My heart is saddened a bit this morning.  Several weeks ago I contacted an online Christian women’s magazine about placing an ad directing believers to my website to get free daily Christian meditations.  After a week with no response, I sent a follow up email and this is the reply I received.

Thank you for your letter. I held on to it to check with a few others and so it took me a while longer than usual. Personally I think the site looks great, but because we have such a legalistic section of an audience I feel that I should avoid websites that may spark controversy among some of the readers, who may misinterpret it as new age. For this reason we have decided that we have to decline. Live Well!”

I have underlined several passages of this letter that I would like to address.  First, it is still beyond me why so many Christians are “legalistic.” If anyone should be tolerant and compassionate it should be us!  I don’t mean tolerant of sin, but tolerant of our brothers and sisters as well as the unbeliever.  Jesus said love your neighbor as yourself.  That doesn’t imply to love him only if he thinks like you, acts like you, looks like you, or is a Christian like you. Your neighbor may be the gay couple with 6 adopted kids! I know that will make some Christian’s cringe. Maybe if we stop being so judgmental we can actually love some people into a relationship with Christ by being a reflection of God’s love. (more…)

          

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Have you heard the saying, I never knew that all I needed was God until God was all I had? We as human-beings are forever attaching ourselves to something in order to feel secure and create an identity. This means usually connecting ourselves to a noun     ( a person, place, or thing). I am a mom; I am a counselor; I own a jaguar; I’m a minister; I have this amount of money saved; I am a member of this church; I’m the CEO of this company, etc. And yes, these may be true but for many of us they circumvent or mask who we really are and they put limits on what we could be. In the event that we should lose a particular title, status, or position we feel lost, fearful, and a big  gaping void may ensue. When we can loose our tight grip and learn to let go of some of these images or false securities, then we become free to experience the true nature of God within us.

(more…)

          

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On May 16, 2009- I was a guest on the GeoGee and Tasha BlogTalkRadio Show where I elaborated on the practice of Christian meditation and its benefits to the born-again believer. Many believers suffer from worry, stress, and mental clutter that interferes with a more fruitful walk with God. Listen to the show to learn more about Biblical meditation and show it can change your life! Listen Now!

          

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Eliminate Stress and Worry Over Your Finances

God is our source and constant supply and their is no limit to his abundance. This 30 minute Christ-centered  meditation will help you to keep your mind on God and his promises and not your circumstances. Click on  Free Abundance Meditation.

          

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Nourishing Your Spirit Blog

Welcome to My New Blog for The Christian Meditator that focuses on Christian meditation and spiritual growth. 

If God said that He seeks those that worship Him in spirit and truth, why do so many Christians try to embrace God only from a mental or psychological perspective? It is only through the spirit of God that we know or understand the things of God. Therefore, if we really want a deeper relationship with Christ, we must connect on a spiritual level. Nourishing Your Spirit Blog is dedicated to the simple yet important habits, rituals, and spiritual disciplines that keep us balanced, creative, healthy, whole, and that feed our spirit so we can know and experience God in a thriving and meaningful way. These are those practices that get pushed to the side for the urgent, but without them we eventually become barren and vanquished. Please subscribe to this blog’s  RSS feed and join me frequently for lessons on keeping your spirit, body and soul nourished and alive.

          

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