Lectio Divina

There's a holy hush around us,
As God's glory fills this place.
I've touched the hem of God's garment,
I can almost see God's face.
And my heart is over flowing
With the fullness of God's joy.
And I know, without a doubt,
That I've been with the Lord.

Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place.
I can feel God's mighty power and God's grace.
I can hear the brush of angel's wings,
I see glory on each face.
Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place

"Surely the Presence of the Lord is in This Place" by Lanny Wolfe.

Lectio Divina means divine reading or in a more practical sense-- and something which should be evident to any thinker-- is putting yourself into the meaning of each word, person, place and action. It is by putting yourself into every situation that you gain an appreciation and knowledge of others-- and the actions of others. When studying biblical traditions, even the warfare of patriots, you must put flesh and blood on the individuals involved. When you do so, it is much easier to remember scripture, events of history and to have empathy for your fellow man. When you consider a 16-year-old boy named David-- already annointed by Samuel as future king of Israel-- delivering food from a concerned father to his sons in the army, you understand why David-- with a few stones and a slingshot, and before at least 100,000 warring soldiers on both sides-- ran towards the giant, Goliath. (I Samuel 17:48) When you consider the stonings/ beatings/ ship wreck of the apostle Paul, then you can understand why, when thrown in a cistern-prison, 19 feet under ground, he could still rejoice. (Philippians 4:4, Philippians 4:12)

Talk is cheap. It's easy to talk about our love for God, family and country. It is only when you can put yourself in the place of those who have given up everything to serve God, mothers and fathers who have sacrificed to raise children, and veterans who have been blown apart defending their country, that you know the real from the counterfeit-- those who just play games with God, parents who just use their children to showcase themselves, and the people who have never given anything but lip service and taxes to support their country (those who complain the most about taxation, do not pay enough taxes to cover the pavement under their car on the street.)  

Spiritually, God speaks to us through his sovereign word. Let the heathen react; His word has stood the test of time. Not one of his 7,000 promises (found in the Bible) has been broken. The American constitution is written in the patriot's heart.

⁸ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
⁹ For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
¹⁰ For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
¹¹ So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

Isaiah 55: 8-11

Unknown are the psychological, remedial conflicts of early lives. Five to ten percent of all children are now considered ADHD-- a condition unheard of in my early life, and even in my early years as a university student. In my youth, you never heard the phrase-- which you now hear from the lips of everyone, a rubric of society-- "You know what I mean." Say what you mean and mean what you say. Now, if a school child seems normal--talking, active-- Ritalin, the same drug that was given to the Nazi dissenters, is given to the child. Most cities, including the city in which I live, poison their water supplies with fluoride and chloride, just as was the case in Nazi Germany in WWII. It makes the population more passive/docile.

In 1964, Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs defined the still questionable pseudo-profession of psychology with the basic needs of water, food, love, sex, safety and self actualization. After 2000 years this side of the cross, man still has not realized that Jesus, the God man, is still the answer for all the problems in the world. The most important need the world has ever known is Jesus-given liberty-- to be reborn (old man replaced by a new creation,) leaving behind the old man of sin and rejection (as symbolized in immersion-in-water baptism, death chosen by the first man Adam, raised to walk a newness of life given by the second man, Jesus.) (2 Corinthians 5:17) The most important super-natural act in history-- something which the unbelievers/ spectators/ pretenders cannot understand-- is the salvation of man by God, his creator, and is the only answer for all the problems in the world. It is the only way the puny mind of man can understand this supernatural grace of god.

⁵ Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
⁶ Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
⁷ But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
⁸ And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Philippians 2:5-8

This world traveler, while in Citron, China, talked with an old man who, after an earthquake was covered with earth for three days before he was found/recovered. He said to me, "I did not know the person who comforted me [Holy Spirit of God], but He gave me peace through the ordeal." Peace is a cessation of "againstness."

You may gamble with the stock market/ lottery/ trials of this world, but the one place you want to have security is in your heart, placed in the Lectio Divina of choosing eternal life in the splendor of heaven or the horrors of hell.