F4F | The Danger of Lectio Divina

2 views

Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20081120194113/http://www.marshill.org/pdf/hc/practices/LectioDivinaINDGROUP.pdf Support Fighting for the Faith Join Our Crew: http://www.piratechristian.com/join-our-crew Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PirateChristian Merchandise: https://www.moteefe.com/store/pirate-christian-merch/ Fighting for the Faith Radio Program: http://fightingforthefaith.com Social Media Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/piratechristian Twitter: https://twitter.com/piratechristian Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/piratechristian/ Video Sermons https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3F7uxFcG5dgyk4--OYgwPQ Sermons http://www.kongsvingerchurch.org/sermons Sunday Schools http://www.kongsvingerchurch.org/bible-teaching Bible Software Used in this Video: https://www.accordancebible.com Video Editing Software: https://adobe.ly/2W9lyNa Video Recording Software: https://www.ecamm.com Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

0 comments

00:14
Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Roseborough. I am your servant in Jesus Christ.
00:21
This is the channel that compares what people are saying in the name of God to the Word of God. So, have you ever heard of the practice called
00:28
Lectio Divina? Yeah, the popularized versions of it that are running around through evangelicalism, through liberalism, emergent postmodern woke type churches, that all comes down through monastic mysticism.
00:44
And we're gonna do a little bit of a blast to the past today, but we're gonna be talking about Lectio Divina and what exactly is wrong with it.
00:51
And the short answer is that it doesn't pay attention to what the
00:57
Scriptures say. Instead, it teaches you to subjectivize or to use the
01:03
Scriptures to springboard, you know, into a personal revelation that you're supposed to get from God or some mystical experience that's supposed to happen.
01:13
But it doesn't actually teach you to meditate properly on God's Word. There is concept in Scripture as it relates to meditating on the
01:21
Word of God, which requires you to think on and constantly be chewing on in your brain the actual content of what the
01:30
Scripture says. So with that, let's whirl up the desktop and head on over to the
01:37
Wayback Machine. If you're familiar with the Wayback Machine, let me pull up my web browser. The Wayback Machine at archive .org.
01:46
Yeah, years and years and years ago, there was a fellow that everybody was following and thought was the coolest thing ever.
01:53
Rob Bell. You guys remember that guy? Now there's a name I haven't heard in many years.
01:59
Yeah, Rob Bell. Yeah, he was one of these postmodern emergent types who just steered himself and his congregation into the hard, hard liberal left and abandoned any concept of sin, repentance, forgiveness of sins, or anything like that.
02:21
And years and years and years ago, back in 2008, 2009, years and years ago,
02:28
I actually covered this on the Fighting for the Faith podcast. And it ended up, the very words that you see in front of you, this is from a
02:36
PDF that used to be available on the Mars Hill website, marshill .org.
02:42
This was the Mars Hill Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan that Rob Bell used to pastor.
02:49
And they had a whole section on their website dedicated to spiritual practices. The prayer exominant, which is a
02:58
Jesuit thing, which comes to Ignatius Loyola, and the Lectio Divina, which you will see here is a monastic practice.
03:07
And, you know, so think of it this way. Have you ever been sitting in a small group Bible study?
03:14
And maybe, you know, Brenda or Karen is leading the small group study.
03:21
And Karen, she reads one sentence of scripture out of context. And then she opens with a prayer.
03:28
And then she says, let's go around the room and share. And we're going to share what does this verse mean to you?
03:37
And so somebody says, oh, when I read this verse, I think of rainbows and unicorns.
03:43
And I think of bunnies and squirrels and everybody getting along in a sustainable world without systemic poverty.
03:51
Oh, that's so good. Yay. You know, of course, if I were sitting in a
03:56
Bible study like that, and it came around to me, I'd go, it doesn't matter what it means to you. The question is, what does the text say?
04:04
What does the text mean? What did the author, God, the Holy Spirit intend for you to understand in this text?
04:12
Well, Lectio Divina is a lot like those small group Bible studies. It doesn't matter what the text says.
04:19
Instead, you know, the Bible is just used as a springboard for, well, you know, you having a personal direct revelation from God, which has nothing to do with the content of what the text says, or, you know, you get the idea.
04:39
So all that being said, let's do a little bit of something. We'll go back into the archives of Fighting for the
04:45
Faith, the podcast. And we used to do these Max Holliday sketches, and we did one specifically on Rob Bell's Lectio Divina.
04:54
Now, only on the individual part. You'll see that when we actually work our way through it. But, you know, but when we work our way through this, what we did is we took this concept, and then we applied a logic technique known as reductio ad absurdum.
05:10
We took this technique and ran it to its most absurd conclusion to demonstrate the fallaciousness of this practice.
05:19
This practice is nowhere taught in Scripture. Nowhere. In fact, God's Word and how it defines what it means to meditate on God's Word runs directly contrary to this whole practice of Lectio Divina, which it comes through Roman Catholic mystic monks and people like that, like the
05:40
Cistercians, the Benedictines, and I would even argue the Jesuits and people like that.
05:46
And all of that being said, Martin Luther himself, when he was a Augustinian monk, he used to practice spiritual practices akin to, if not the very same as Lectio Divina, and he repudiated them later in life and directly said that these practices deny the incarnation of Christ.
06:09
And so, we'll talk about the problem, if you would, of the principle behind this, and it's known as enthusiasm.
06:16
So, with that, let's go back into the archives of the Fighting for the Faith podcast and listen again to that Max Holliday sketch regarding Rob Bell's Lectio Divina.
06:26
Here we go. This is a resource made available by Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
06:55
Lectio Divina is an ancient spiritual practice, and in Lectio Divina, we seek to experience the presence of God through reading and listening, prayer, meditation, and contemplation.
07:08
Lectio Divina can be done as an individual or a group. Are you ready to begin? Yes, I guess
07:13
I am. All right. Begin by choosing a section of scripture that you would like to read and pray.
07:20
You can choose the text randomly or use a liturgical book like the Book of Common Prayer.
07:26
Try not to set a goal for how much content you will cover. The goal is to listen for and experience
07:32
God and his presence. I guess I'll go randomly then. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.
07:39
Catch a scripture by its toe. If it's gospel, let it go. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.
07:46
Preparation for Lectio Divina. Next, do what you must to hear from God.
07:54
If you need to find a quiet room or sit in silence for several minutes or sit in a comfy chair, take whatever posture will help you prepare to receive and experience
08:03
God's presence. Okay, let's see. I've got my comfy chair and oh no.
08:14
You out there! How am I supposed to experience the presence of God if you are using a jackhammer?
08:21
Shut up! Druth is sorry about that, ma 'am. Yeah, you better be sorry! Next, when you sense that your heart is prepared, begin by slowly reading the passage of scripture that you have selected.
08:34
Don't move too quickly through any sentence or phrase, and as you read, pay attention to what word or phrase or idea catches your attention.
08:44
Okay, I don't know when I'm supposed to be ready. There's no kind of timer on me. Anyway, um, the passage of scripture.
08:52
Judas hung himself. Judas hung himself. Judas hung himself.
09:00
Next, begin to meditate on the word, phrase, or idea that captured your attention.
09:06
Repeat it again and again. Hung himself. Hung himself.
09:13
Hung himself. What thoughts come to mind as you meditate on this word, phrase, or idea?
09:20
Suicide. What are you reminded of in your life? Um, an early death.
09:26
What does it make you hope for? A different passage of scripture. Next, begin to speak to God.
09:34
Tell God what word, phrase, or idea captured your attention and what came to mind as you meditated upon it.
09:40
Lord, the phrase was, Judas hung himself. It's not a good feeling.
09:47
How is God using this word, phrase, or idea to bless and transform you? How should I know that?
09:54
Tell God what you have been thinking and feeling as you've listened and meditated. I'm feeling depressed. Tell God how you hope this word, phrase, or idea will change your heart to be more like his.
10:05
This is rubbish. A complete waste of my time. I could be out trimming the petunias or burying the cat or something.
10:12
If I'm going to experience God, I'm going to do it the old -fashioned way. Just open the Bible and read it.
10:18
Don't be so silly and modern. So hopefully that makes the point.
10:42
And if you're not sure, we'll actually walk through this document so you can see the issue. But before we do that, let me take a look at a couple of biblical texts, a few biblical texts.
10:52
We'll get a basis on this from scripture. And the first text we're going to go to is actually found in Genesis chapter 3.
11:00
And we're going to look at the concept known as enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is God within -ism.
11:06
Somehow I need to hear the voice of God inside of my heart. And this will always lead you astray.
11:14
In fact, it was the serpent in the Garden of Eden that turned Adam and Eve into enthusiasts.
11:20
Rather than listening to the external word of God, they instead went internal.
11:26
And that's what created so much of the problems that we have today. In fact, let me back up just a little bit.
11:34
And we're going to note, Genesis chapter 2, verse 15 through 17 says this,
11:41
Yahweh Elohim took the man, put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to keep it. And Yahweh Elohim commanded the man saying, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat.
11:54
For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. That is an external word that God gave to Adam.
12:03
And then we learned from Genesis 3, you know, kind of filling in the dots here, that Adam taught this to Eve.
12:11
And so this is an external word. This wasn't felt within his heart.
12:16
This was something heard with Adam's ears. You know, the day you eat of that tree, you will surely die.
12:23
External word of God. Does God ever lie? You know, never. So when we get to Genesis chapter 3, then the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that Yahweh Elohim had made.
12:36
And he said to the woman, did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, well, we may eat of the fruit of the tree that's in the garden, but God said, you should not eat of the fruit of the tree that's in the midst of the garden.
12:50
Neither shall you touch it, lest you die. Now, this little part here is not in Genesis 2.
12:57
And it just makes you wonder if the issue here is that Eve is, well, she's new to the catechism, if you would.
13:04
She's new to learning the basics of the Christian faith. And I call it the Christian faith all the way back to the
13:10
Old Testament. And as a result of it, you know, when I teach the basics of the Christian faith to youth and others, if they don't quite get it on a first grasp, maybe they get the gist of it, but kind of mess things up a little bit on maybe their memorization and stuff like that.
13:26
You know, I don't fault them. You know, she's in the ballpark. She's got it right that you're not allowed.
13:32
God said, extra notice, this is outside of her. But watch what happened. The serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die.
13:41
For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you'll be like God, knowing good and evil. And so what the serpent's doing here is basically engaging in a false narrative regarding God, making
13:52
God out to be some kind of a capricious, jealous deity who doesn't want humanity to reach their full potential, right?
14:00
God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you'll be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman, watch what happens here.
14:07
When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was a delight to the eyes, that the tree was to be desired to make one wise.
14:15
Where's Eve going? Internal. She's looking for the voice of God inside of her.
14:25
Feelings, nothing more than feelings. So the devil made an enthusiast out of her.
14:34
And rather than listening to the external word, meditating on it, believing it, trusting it, obeying it.
14:40
Instead, she's, well, I've got the feelies, the feely feels. And, you know, well, it's, it does look good for food.
14:49
That's feelings. And it's a delight to the eyes. It's so pretty. I can't help it.
14:54
It's so beautiful. And it was desired to make one wise, the feely feels, right?
15:00
She thinks that's the voice of God. It ain't, right? Then she took of its fruit and she ate of it.
15:06
And she also gave some to her husband who was with her. He ate. And then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked.
15:15
And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. In other words, Martin Luther actually, in the small called articles in the
15:22
Lutheran confession said that the devil made enthusiasts out of Adam and Eve. And that's the problem.
15:27
This is the source of all heresy. Rather than listening to the external word of God, you listen to your mind.
15:32
You listen to your heart. You listen to your feelings. You listen to your desires, right? So there you are.
15:38
You're at work. And of course, you've been married for 15 years. And in comes a woman who, whoa, she's hot.
15:45
And boy, you've got the feely feels and the wobbly wibblies and all that kind of stuff, right? And you sit there and go, she's my soulmate.
15:53
I'm going to divorce my wife and I'm going to love her. Yeah, no. And God tells you, thou shalt not commit adultery.
16:03
You see the idea here? You don't go with your feelings. You go with what the word says and what it means in context.
16:12
We are to meditate and think on the actual content of God's word.
16:18
And it's with that then we consider a few texts. Deuteronomy 6, 4 through 7.
16:26
Shema Yisrael, Yahweh Eloheinu, Yahweh Echad, right? Shema Yisrael, the
16:32
Lord our God. Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, Echad. You shall love the Lord your
16:37
God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.
16:44
You shall teach them diligently to your children. You shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise.
16:54
Note here that the expectation is you actually are engaging with the content of scripture.
17:03
What it says, what it means, talking to your children about it, diligently applying yourself to it, diligently teaching others what it says, what it means.
17:14
God is speaking to us through his inerrant, inspired, living and active word, right?
17:22
And so Deuteronomy 6, 20. When your son asks you in times to come, what is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that Yahweh our
17:33
God has commanded you? Then you shall say to your son, we were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt. Note, this requires you to interact with the stories, to know what they say, what they mean, what happened in the history of Israel, what happened in the history of Christians and Christianity, right?
17:49
The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and Yahweh showed signs and wonders and great and grievous against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all of his household before our eyes.
18:00
You're meditating on the actual content, the words, the real meaning of those words and what those stories are pointing to, right?
18:09
And Yahweh commanded us to do these statutes to fear Yahweh our God for our good always, that he might preserve us alive as we are to this day.
18:19
And it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to do all of his commandment before Yahweh our
18:24
God as he has commanded us. Joshua chapter 1 verse 8 says, the book of the
18:29
Torah shall not depart from your mouth, the book itself, its actual contents, what's in it, but you shall meditate on it day and night.
18:38
And meditate here is totally different than the concept of Eastern meditation that comes down to us in the form of Lectio Divina, as well as you think of contemplative practices, as well as, you know, like, you know, the, you know, meditation where you go, right?
18:56
In that type of meditation, the goal is to turn your mind off.
19:02
The goal is to get your mind to silence and for you to just feel or experience, right?
19:10
Okay. But here to meditate is to actually think on, think of like a cow chewing the cud.
19:17
There you've got the word of God and you're sitting there and just chewing on, right?
19:23
And you're meditating on the actual content of what the word says.
19:28
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, then you will have good success.
19:38
And then throughout the Psalms, man, listen to these words. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, this is
19:44
Psalm 1, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is on in the law of Yahweh and on his law, he meditates day and night.
19:57
It's on the actual content. So think of it this way, a right way to understand this. You know, today you go to church, your pastor opens up the word of God and he exegetes a biblical text, rightly divides at law, gospel, sin, grace, repentance, forgiveness of sins, proclaims
20:13
Christ and his saving work and office and all the things he's done for you, calls you to repent of your sins.
20:21
And you in faith respond by repenting and trusting in Christ.
20:26
And then maybe throughout the next few days, you're thinking about that sermon. You're thinking about what God's word says and thinking about the incongruity that exists within your own life as compared to what you heard
20:39
God say to you through his word, rightly exegeted in context and the actual meaning of what that passage says, right?
20:50
So his delight is in the Torah of Yahweh. On his law, he meditates day and night.
20:56
Psalm 77, 11 through 15 says, I will remember the deeds of Yahweh.
21:02
Yes, I will remember your wonders of old. How are we supposed to do that, by the way? Oh yeah, by reading, thinking on, meditating, letting our mind engage, talking about it with our children, teaching our children, talking about it with our spouses, talking about it with other
21:20
Christians. I will ponder all of your work. Meditate on your mighty deeds. Note, meditate on your mighty deeds.
21:28
That requires your brain to be engaged with the actual content of the text.
21:36
Your way, oh God, is holy. What God is great like our God. You are the
21:41
God who works wonders. You have made known your might among the peoples. You with your arm redeemed your people and the children of Jacob and Joseph.
21:52
On your mighty works, that requires you to engage the content. Psalm 119, which is like a love letter to the scriptures.
22:01
Oh, it constantly is telling us to meditate on God's law, on his word.
22:07
I will meditate on your precepts. I will fix my eyes on your ways. You're not going to find that in your heart.
22:13
You're not going to find that by listening to some still small voice. You're going to find it by applying your mind and your heart to what is revealed in the scripture.
22:22
Even though princes sit plotting against me, your servant will meditate on your statutes, on your statutes.
22:29
Make me understand the way of your precepts, and I will meditate on your wondrous works.
22:35
Again, note, engage with the content. Meditating, thinking on, working it out. Maybe even puzzling and working through difficult passages in your mind.
22:45
And if you can't solve it, putting it aside. And then when something else comes up, you go, oh, wait, wait. Maybe this text and this text are working together.
22:51
And then getting to solve and put those things together. I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which
22:58
I love. And I will meditate on your statutes, on your statutes, the actual content of scripture.
23:06
Let the insolent be put to shame because they have wronged me with falsehood. As for me, I will meditate on your precepts.
23:13
Oh, how I love your law. It is my meditation all the day. So note, this isn't sitting there going, oh, and then when a thought comes into your head, oh, we got to clear my mind and take that out and get rid of those thoughts.
23:27
No, no, no, no, no. Brain is engaged in this kind of meditation. My eyes are awake before the watches of the night that I may meditate on your promise.
23:37
And what's the promise? Oh, the forgiveness of sins in Christ. This is a reference to the gospel, meditating on it.
23:44
I remember the days of old. I meditate on all that you have done. I ponder the work of your hands.
23:50
Of course, Psalm 45, five on the glorious splendor of your majesty and on your wondrous works.
23:56
I will meditate. So the idea here is, is that Christians are not enthusiasts.
24:03
We do not somehow meditate on or use the Bible, you know, to kind of go ding, ding, and then spring off into the abyss so that we can feel whatever
24:15
God is saying in the wind, in the rocks, in the trees. No, it's in the content of scripture itself that we meditate on, think on.
24:27
And this is where the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin, builds our confidence and faith in Christ.
24:33
You get the idea. So if we're going to meditate, you got to actually use your brain. And with that, then we consider the
24:41
Lectio Divina, vis -a -vis Rob Bell, which he got from the Roman Catholic mystics.
24:47
He didn't invent this. He just popularized it. He inherited it from Roman Catholic mystics and monks like the
24:54
Cistercians and the Benedictines and others. So Lectio Divina. So we heard this in our
25:00
Max Holliday sketch, but let me kind of tear this apart now, especially when it gets to the group version of it, because you can see so clearly what this isn't.
25:09
This isn't the same type of meditation that scripture calls us to. This is something totally different.
25:15
Lectio Divina is an ancient practice from the Christian monastic tradition. Already we've got a problem.
25:23
Roman Catholic monasticism, biblical? No. A works -based false form of Christianity?
25:34
Yes. Mysticism running amok in many of the different orders within monasticism in the history of Roman Catholicism.
25:42
In Lectio Divina, listen to what he says. We seek to experience the presence of God through reading and listening prayer and meditation and contemplation.
25:53
So I have to ask the question, we seek to experience the presence of God. What is the cash value of that sentence, of that statement?
26:01
We seek to experience the presence of God. So already you can tell something's way off here.
26:08
And this is the same practice, the same type of practice that Martin Luther used when he was a monk before he found the gospel, and he repudiated it later in life, again, claiming that these practices deny the incarnation of Christ.
26:26
And they are a form of enthusiasm, which he says is from the devil.
26:31
And I think Luther is onto something here, right? So in Lectio Divina, we seek to experience the presence of God through reading, listening, prayer, meditation, contemplation.
26:40
Lectio Divina can be done as an individual or as a group, and you'll see this in the group part. So practicing
26:45
Lectio Divina individually, here's how it goes. So begin by choosing a selection of scripture that you would like to read and to pray.
26:54
Listen to this. You can choose the text randomly, eeny, meeny, miny, moe, right?
26:59
Or you can use a liturgical book like the Book of Common Prayer. Try not to set a goal for how much content you will cover.
27:07
The goal is to listen for God and experience his presence. But note here, the goal is not to listen to the voice of God in scripture, the living active, theanoustos, word of God.
27:20
No, no, no, no, no. You're using the Bible to springboard, ding, ding, bling, bling, so that you can hear
27:29
God's voice giving you direct personal revelation and a direct personal experience, whatever that is, of his presence, right?
27:40
So your preparation then, you next do what you must to quiet and prepare yourself to hear from God.
27:48
Again, you're not going to hear his voice in the word. You're just using the word to then create the environment by which
27:57
God will say, Hi, this is God in the Holy Spirit. And I'm glad that you're here to get an experience of my presence.
28:08
And so let me reward you with some ghost bumps, you know, and look at that.
28:14
I got ghost bumps, right? And I'm telling you right now that there's a suddenly coming in this next season.
28:24
Yeah, right. We're not hearing what the word says. We're not even meditating on the content of what the word says.
28:30
We're just using the word to find words then that we can turn into a mantra so that we can turn off our brain and experience
28:41
God in an altered state of consciousness. That's what this is. So do what you need to do to quiet and prepare yourself to hear from God.
28:49
If you need to find a quiet room or sit in silence for several minutes or sit in a comfortable chair or whatever posture will help you prepare to receive and experience
29:00
God's presence. Again, Ron Bell didn't invent this. He just basically ripped this off from Roman Catholic monastic mystics, okay?
29:10
So when you sense that your heart is prepared, are we Jedi here?
29:16
You know, how does one sense that you're prepared? Oh, I feel a disturbance in the force, right? When you feel that your heart is prepared, begin by slowly reading the passage of Scripture that you've selected.
29:28
Don't move too quickly through any sentence or phrase. As you read, pay attention to what word or phrase or idea catches your attention.
29:37
If you remember in our sketch, we had the woman who was trying this practice out.
29:43
She randomly turned to a biblical text and the text said, Judas hung himself. And so,
29:49
Judas hung himself, hung himself, right?
29:55
So here's the meditation part. Not focusing on the content of what you're reading. Next, begin to meditate on the word or phrase or idea that captured your attention.
30:05
Repeat it again and again. Hung himself, hung himself, hung himself, right?
30:16
What thoughts come to your mind as you meditate on this word or phrase or idea?
30:22
The idea here is that the thoughts that come to your mind, that's the voice of God, not the words written in the
30:31
Bible. What are you reminded of in your life? What does it make you hope for?
30:37
Meditation is no easy task. As you try to concentrate, don't be disappointed if random thoughts enter your head.
30:43
As they do, offer them to God. I have a random thought. Here you go, God. Here's a random thought.
30:50
Here's another one, God. I have a lot of them today. Here's some more. What does that even mean?
30:57
Can you show me a biblical text where any of the apostles taught us to do this? Any of the prophets? Uh -uh, right?
31:04
Prayer. Now begin to speak to God. Tell God what word, phrase, or idea captured your attention.
31:11
What came to your mind as you meditated on it? How is God using this word or phrase or idea to bless and transform you?
31:22
Tell God what you've been thinking and feeling as you listened and meditated. Tell God how you hope this word, phrase, or idea will change your heart to be more like his.
31:33
See what's going on here? The voice of God is not found in the scripture. The scripture is just used so that you can use that to then meditate, create a mantra so that you can then hear the voice of God, and finish by focusing your attention on the fact that God's presence is with you.
31:53
If you try to focus on God's presence, you sense a need to read the text again, or continue meditating, or to simply continue talking with God.
32:02
Allow yourself to do so. As you do, know that you are in the presence of God.
32:11
What is this? This is not biblical meditation on the word of God. This is mysticism.
32:17
This is enthusiasm. This is God -within -ism. This is teaching you to ignore what the text says.
32:23
In fact, do you think God is going to be pleased with you, with you misusing his word like this, ignoring what it actually says and what it means in order to create a mantra so that you can then somehow directly connect to God in his presence and hear from him directly?
32:38
Not even close. And this is very identifiable then when we consider the group version of the practice.
32:44
Remember those small group Bible studies where you go around the room and share and go, what does this verse mean to me?
32:51
Well, here's what it means. So watch this. So the group version, begin by identifying an individual to lead the process.
33:02
Where's this process taught in scripture again? Oh yeah, it's not. This person will then lead the process by reading the selected text three times.
33:11
Judas went and hung himself. Judas went and hung himself.
33:16
Judas went and hung himself. Each reading is followed by a period of silence, after which each person is given the opportunity to briefly share what they are hearing as they listen to God.
33:30
What are you saying, God? You want me to buy an Aston Martin?
33:36
Yes, I received that word, Lord. Uh -huh.
33:42
And then, so first reading. During the first reading, read the text aloud twice. Read through slowly.
33:50
The purpose of the first reading is for each person to hear the text and to listen for a word or a phrase or an idea that captures their attention.
34:00
Note, at no point is this practice teaching you to actually exegete a text, to pay attention to the words in context and ask yourself the question,
34:10
What did God intend for me to understand when He inspired this biblical author to pen these words?
34:19
That's totally missing, right? So, the purpose of the first reading is for each person to hear the text and listen for a word or a phrase that captures their attention.
34:28
As group members recognize a word, a phrase, or an idea, they are to focus their attention on that word, repeating it.
34:38
This is mantra stuff. This is, you know, this is the same kind of Eastern meditation that you get, you know, in Buddhism and stuff like this.
34:47
This isn't meditating on God's word. This is the exact opposite of it. Second reading.
34:53
During the second reading, read the text again. This time, listeners are to focus their attention on how the word, the phrase, or idea speaks to their life.
35:03
That day, what does this verse mean to you?
35:09
Right? What does it mean for you today? How is Christ, the word, speaking to you about your life through this word, this phrase, or idea?
35:19
What is Christ, the word, speaking to you about your life through this word, phrase, or idea?
35:26
After the reading, allow a brief period of silence and then invite group members to share briefly what they have heard, not in the text, outside the text.
35:37
Oh, here's what God is speaking to my heart. And telling me. Third reading, read the text again.
35:42
This time, listeners are to focus on what God is calling them to do or to become.
35:48
God wants me to be a dentist, right? Experiencing God's presence changes us.
35:55
Note, it's not saying that our lives are transformed or our mind is transformed by the word of God.
36:01
No, no, no, no, no, no, no. By doing this, God now, you can experience him directly, his presence directly.
36:08
The word is just the springboard for the mystical experience and the personal revelation. It doesn't matter what the word says.
36:15
Just randomly pick a passage, start reading, wait for the Holy Spirit to highlight a word or phrase, and then turn that into a mantra.
36:22
And now God will start talking to you. Right? So, it calls us to something.
36:29
During the final reading, what is God calling you to do or to be as a result of this experience?
36:37
Note, it's not asking, what is God calling me to repent of because of what this text says?
36:45
What is God calling me to believe because of what this text says? No, no, no, no, no.
36:51
What is God calling you because of this experience? After the third reading, allow a period of silence and then invite group members to share what they are being called to do or to be.
37:05
Finish the exercise by having each one pray for the person on his right. You get the idea.
37:14
So, Lectio Divina, the practice that Rob Bell popularized when he was the bee's knees and everybody was gawking over him in his
37:21
NUMA videos, he just lifted this straight out of Roman Catholic monastic mysticism.
37:26
This is not a Christian practice. This is a total disregard and contempt for what the
37:33
Word of God really says and really means and teaches you pretty much to ignore it. Ignore what the
37:39
Bible says and just take the words, wait for something to highlight and use it as a mantra and then blammo, the
37:45
Holy Spirit appears and gives you an experience that will change your life. This is exactly what it means to disdain and hate
37:57
God's Word. And so people say, oh, we love God's Word. We don't like what it says.
38:02
So, we just ignore that and we totally subjectivize it into this mystical practice where we hear the real voice of God, which isn't found in the scriptures.
38:11
The real voice of God is found in the experience of this practice.
38:18
You get the idea. So, hopefully you found this helpful. If so, all the information on how you can share this video is down below.
38:25
And until next time, may the Lord richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ, his vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.