Is anyone familiar with The World Community for Christian Meditation?
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Christian Meditation in the UK | WCCM
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WCCM | The World Community for Christian Meditation
I've been ruminating on this for some days. Please take a look.
Is this okay to practice? Why yes or why not?
Thanks.
Hi Lord'sWarrior, I believe that Christian meditation is an essential Christian discipline that helps us live the Christian life properly, but what is being proposed on the websites you posited for us sounds completely Eastern, not Christian.
Here's what they recommend doing.
Sit down. Sit still with your back straight. Close your eyes lightly. Then interiorly, silently begin to recite a single word – a prayer word or mantra. We recommend the ancient Christian prayer-word "Maranatha". Say it as four equal syllables. Breathe normally and give your full attention to the word as you say it, silently, gently, faithfully and - above all - simply. The essence of meditation is simplicity. Stay with the same word during the whole meditation and in each meditation day to day. Don't visualise but listen to the word, as you say it. Let go of all thoughts (even good thoughts), images and other words. Don’t fight your distractions: let them go by saying your word faithfully, gently and attentively and returning to it as soon as you realize you have stopped saying or it or when your attention wanders. Meditate twice a day, morning and evening, for between 20 and 30 minutes. It may take a time to develop this discipline and the support of a tradition and community is always helpful.
Christian mediation always involves an active mind that is focused on God and His word (and possibly other things of excellence, as well). We quiet our minds of distractions, of course, but we don't empty them, ~
ever~ (which is what focusing on a single word "mantra" is meant to do .. even if that word is from the Bible). We can focus on a single verse or passage, like the Lord's Prayer, for instance, but we never meditate by focusing on a word itself (or even several words) by repeating it/them over and over and over again (it is with other forms meditation, but never with Christian meditation).
Satan cunningly disguises himself and his ways as he operates in this world, and I'm afraid that he is doing that very thing here (by trying to convince Christians to engage in a type of meditation that is anything but Christian, just by calling it "Christian". It's not Christian, but it is dangerous
).
Here are a couple of short articles that may prove to be useful to you:
--David
p.s. - if you have the time, here's just a little bit of what the Bible has to say about Christian meditation (both directly and indirectly). You may, perhaps, notice a developing theme, of sorts
Deuteronomy 11
18 You shall impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.
19 You shall teach them to your sons, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up.
20 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,
21 so that your days and the days of your sons may be multiplied on the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens remain above the earth.
Joshua 1
8 This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.
Psalms 1
1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
3 He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.
Psalms 119
105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
Romans 12:2
2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
Philippians 4
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 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 anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.
2 Timothy 2
15 Be diligent/Study to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling/rightly dividing the word of truth.
2 Timothy 3
16 All Scripture is inspired by God/God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
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