AMERICA NEEDS THE LORD

Written by Irvin L. Rozier


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You said if you shall ask you shall receive Deliver America, O Lord, from those who do deceive Inrepparttar troublesome days that lie ahead Give us day by day our daily bread America is still under Your amazing grace Let us not forsake to seek Your face A great awakening is what we need To Your Word, O Lord, America must heed Greed and strife has a strong hold Inrepparttar 126546 land ofrepparttar 126547 free andrepparttar 126548 home ofrepparttar 126549 bold

Copyright 2004, Irvin L. Rozier

preacher, retired military, author of My Walk with the Lord, www.selahbooks.com


Lectio Divina -- Spiritual Bible Reading

Written by Jeremy M. Hoover


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Contemplation. Contemplation isrepparttar act of sitting inrepparttar 126545 presence of God with total attention and concentration on God. After a time of prayer, we just sit with God.

If you preach or teach, you should use lectio divina as part of your preparation. Sit withrepparttar 126546 text away from analysis and exegesis, and let God speak to you through his word. A sermon or class could follow this four-part cycle.

For a sermon,repparttar 126547 preacher could readrepparttar 126548 passage, describerepparttar 126549 paths he or she explored during meditation andrepparttar 126550 insights found, and offer a prayer to God based onrepparttar 126551 meditation. After, there could be a congregational period of silence for contemplation.

When I teach, I often use lectio divina as an outline. I readrepparttar 126552 passage from my Bible and ask two or three others to readrepparttar 126553 same passage, but from different translations. Then I helprepparttar 126554 class to “meditate”: I ask what words or images struck them fromrepparttar 126555 reading, what they noticed or didn’t noticed, what feelings they had as they read, or what was most surprising inrepparttar 126556 text. We follow these threads, learning from each other, and then conclude with prayer.

Lectio divina is a very helpful discipline for spiritual growth. Ifrepparttar 126557 reader practices lectio divina often, she will begin to plumbrepparttar 126558 depths of her soul and her relationship with God. The single greatest facet of lectio divina is its ability to create a mindset that can actually listen to and for God.

Jeremy M. Hoover is a part-time minister and writes full-time in Windsor, Ontario. Visit his website at http://hoovermarketing.info/amg/introduction.htm to learn how he supports his writing with an online business.


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