rumitoid

Back in ancient times, 1986, I had a friend, a solid Christian, recommend I meditate on Heaven, its endless peace and joy, to center myself in His kingdom. Sounded good to me. I had just returned to the Church after a few years absence for varied reasons. I was sober two years. That night, I sat in my darkened bedroom and tried to conjure eternal peace and joy; I lasted maybe two minutes or so. The thought drove me nuts. Who would want that existence? Over the decades I have gotten the same results. That was not life. Triumphs and tragedies is life. Struggle and overcoming, or at least doing your best to. That was life. Lolling around on some cloud without any challenges or strife was like being in a vegetative coma.

Terrible thinking I know. I wish that meditation was more comforting, but it wasn't. Perhaps if there was an escalated version of life, like level 20 of a video game, fine. Who in God's name would want endless peace and joy for all eternity? Maybe we are somehow changed when we get there, what we knew of actual being in the world forgotten. Yet I still could not grasp what was the use of eternity. Sing unending praises to the glory of God? Would a God really want that? I found that impossible to believe. Automatons without a care or worry, even in rapture, would bore the God of creation, of great complexities and diversity, of predator and prey, of a wide range of emotions.

I do not think that Christians give enough thought to their concept of Heaven

Zemirah Loc: Sojourner En Route...

Rumi, 1986 doesn't sound that ancient to me, and for Bible believing Christians, the endless peace and joy of being a Christian is an every day reality now and every other day. It does not wait upon heaven.

Knowing that we are in Christ, and that the Holy Spirit resides within us is sufficient for all life's hurts, trials, temptations, tribulations and woes.

If you are in the body of Christ, the ekklesia, the congregation, the "called out" ones, you cannot "return to the church." You, we, are the church. You could have, perchance, stopped fellowshipping, i.e., no longer assembling together with your Christian brothers and sisters.

Next, meditation itself:

For some, meditation is emptying the mind while gazing at one's navel enroute to communing with the spirit world which surrounds us.

Christian meditation isn’t ever described within Scripture as it is commonly thought of today. Western civilization has been greatly influenced by the meditation techniques of Eastern religious mysticism.

The biblical foundation for meditation is the reality of God speaking, teaching, and acting within the affairs of man, which is the witness of Holy Scripture.

In the Garden, Adam and Eve talked with God and God talked with them - they were in communion, but after their Fall, their perpetual communion was disrupted, for their conscience had been activated, they now knew good from evil, and Adam and Eve hid from God.

Meditation: Refers to any of a variety of spiritual practices which result in mental activity as "quiescence" - quiet, still, or inactive. The English word comes from the Latin meditatio, better translated as "contemplation."

In the late 19th century, occultic, demonic Theosophy appropriated "meditation" to refer to spiritual practices from Hinduism, Buddhism, and other Eastern mystical religions. Thus the English word "meditation" now refers to the Hindu Sanskrit dhyana (meditative practice requiring deep mental concentration), the samādhi (a meditative trance state in Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism and yogic schools), or the pranayama (ancient belief that by controlling your breath you control the movement of the "life force" ("prana") through your body.

Within Eastern religions, meditation is a central part of their mystical religious spiritual practice, whereas, within Biblical Christianity it is not, as routinely disengaging the mind is not encouraged, nor is putting oneself into a receptive trance state, so if practiced at all, it is a fringe activity.

Mysticism: From the Greek (mueo, "to conceal"), is the pursuit of achieving communion with an ultimate reality, a divine, spiritual truth, i.e., a spiritual deity through direct, personal experience (intuition or insight) rather than through rational thought; the belief in the existence of realities beyond intellectual apprehension that are directly accessible through personal experience; or the belief that such experience is a genuine, desirable source of knowledge not perceived or absorbed through the mind or intellect.

Within the ancient Hellenistic (Greek) world of paganism, "mystical" referred to the secret religious rituals for those who had been demonically initiated into their pre-Christian pagan "Mystery Religions," which always left them believing they possessed divinity within themselves, i.e., that they were one with divinity, and needed no sovereign God or salvation through a divine savior, which precluded them from seeking out the God of Creation, which is, of course, why Satan invented all false religion.

Christian meditation is silent reflection upon God's visible works in nature (Psalm 143:5; 145:5) or God's Word (Psalm 119:15, 23, 27, 48, 78, 148).

Central to the biblical view of meditation is obedience. The biblical stress is on ethical change, character transformation, and obedience to the Word of the Lord.

Christian meditation is defined as "hearing and obeying."

We are called to silence, to stillness, to quieting our "creaturely activity," as the old writers put it. Simultaneously, we are called to the action of right behavior, through obedience to His will by practicing His ways.

In Matthew 6:34 Jesus implies that we need not worry about the future:

“Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."

You will understand and appreciate heaven when you get there.

1st Corinthians 15:54 "So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory."

"It is not darkness you are going to, for God is Light. It is not lonely, for Christ is with you. It is not unknown country, for Christ is there." Pastor Charles Kingsley (1819-1875)

Rose42

You can change rumitoid. The key is wanting to change and calling on Christ. The hardest thing to do for any of us is let go of our pride and realize that we need Him.

rumitoid

Very wise words. Thank you my friend. That is what I expected other Christians to jump at in my spiritual threads: bring forth the truth in a cohesive argument. Honor God, as you have done in your response. But too many here would trade that opportunity just to insult me.

rumitoid

Wow, thank you. Excellent! It is just pride, I guess. I need him.

Armageddun Loc: The show me state

Amen