From: bhoffert@gte.net (Bonnie Hoffert)
To: LitlChar@aol.com (Jan Mesarch)
Dear Jan;
Thanks for your reply. I promise to not bombard you, at least never more than say 5 pages worth. That's fabulous news about the movie. Is this movie going to be available for us to purchase? Hope so. One of my grandsons has an uncle (other side of the family) who owns a restaurant in Pasadena where a segment of a major film was filmed and it adds a special touch the place. I know the attraction at Temple is Jesus/Yeshua, but a little publicity is okay.
Which Sunday ?
I would like you to know how much it means to me to have you to share with. I know you are a very busy Lady and I don't want to overtax your time, but please remember...you are ministering to a widow. Having had a large family, now grown, and having been married for 42 years, I am used to having people around the house. It is now very quiet and so instead of people I have a computer and email. Please never let me become a burden. Nuff said.
I have been doing a picture of a bird on a branch for my sister-in-law, she turns 80 this year. If you have a favorite bird or flower or tree [that's all I'm capable of at the moment], please let me know and I'll try doing a little one for you. It won't require a prominent place, even the clothes closet will do.
I think you will like todays message from Dr Peterson, so I'll get right to it.
MEDITATION IS MASTICATION
As we prepare to pray, to answer the words God addresses to us, we learn that all of God's words have this characteristic: they are torah and we are the target. God's word is not a reference book in a library that we pull off the shelf when we want information. There is nothing inert or bookish in these words. God's words, creating and saving words every one, hit us where we live.
The moment we know this, that God speaks to us, delight is spontaneous. "The psalms are the liturgy for those whose concern and delight is the torah of the Lord" [James Luther May]. These are not words that we laboriously but impersonally study, as if for an exam. These are not words that we anxiously scan lest we inadvertently trangress a boundary or break a protocol. These are words we take in--words designed for shaping new life in us, feeding the energies of salvation. This delight develops into meditation, torah-meditation. Meditate (hagah) is a bodily action; it involves murmuring and mumbling words, taking a kind of physical pleasure in making the sounds of the words, getting the feel of the meaning as the syllables are shaped by larynx and tongue and lips. Isaiah used this word "meditate" for the sounds that a lion makes over its prey (Isa. 31:4). A lion over its catch and a person over the torah act similarly. They purr and growl in pleasurable anticipation of taking in what will make them more themselves, strong, lithe, swift: "I will run in the way of thy commandments when thou enlargest my understanding!" (Ps. 119:32).
This is quite defferent from merely reading God's word, or thinking about it. This is not so much an intellectual process, figuring our meanings, as it is a physical process, hearing and rehearing these words as we sound them again, letting the sounds sink into our muscles and bones. Meditation is mastication.
These are the words in my mouth;
these are what I chew on and pray.
Accept them when I place them
on the morning altar,
O God, my Altar-Rock,
God, Priest-of-My-Altar.
Psalm 19:14
Hope you like it. It has spoken volumes to me today.
Love,
Bonnie
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Dear Jan;
Thanks for your reply. I promise to not bombard you, at least never
more than say 5 pages worth. That's fabulous news about the movie.
Is this movie going to be available for us to purchase? Hope so. One
of my grandsons has an uncle (other side of the family) who owns a restaurant in
Pasadena where a segment of a major film was filmed and it adds a special touch
the place. I know the attraction at Temple is Jesus/Yeshua, but a little
publicity is okay.
Which Sunday ?
I would like you to know how much it means to me to have you to share
with. I know you are a very busy Lady and I don't want to overtax your
time, but please remember...you are ministering to a widow. Having had a
large family, now grown, and having been married for 42 years, I am used to
having people around the house. It is now very quiet and so instead of
people I have a computer and email. Please never let me become a
burden. Nuff said.
I have been doing a picture of a bird on a branch for my sister-in-law, she
turns 80 this year. If you have a favorite bird or flower or tree [that's
all I'm capable of at the moment], please let me know and I'll try doing a
little one for you. It won't require a prominent place, even the clothes
closet will do.
I think you will like todays message from Dr Peterson, so I'll get
right to it.
MEDITATION IS MASTICATION
As we prepare to pray, to answer the words God addresses to us, we learn
that all of God's words have this characteristic: they are torah and we
are the target. God's word is not a reference book in a library that we
pull off the shelf when we want information. There is nothing inert or
bookish in these words. God's words, creating and saving words every one,
hit us where we live.
The moment we know this, that God speaks to us, delight
is spontaneous. "The psalms are the liturgy for those whose concern
and delight is the torah of the Lord" [James Luther May]. These are
not words that we laboriously but impersonally study, as if for an exam.
These are not words that we anxiously scan lest we inadvertently trangress a
boundary or break a protocol. These are words we take in--words designed
for shaping new life in us, feeding the energies of salvation. This
delight develops into meditation, torah-meditation. Meditate (hagah) is a
bodily action; it involves murmuring and mumbling words, taking a kind of
physical pleasure in making the sounds of the words, getting the feel of the
meaning as the syllables are shaped by larynx and tongue and lips. Isaiah
used this word "meditate" for the sounds that a lion makes over its
prey (Isa. 31:4). A lion over its catch and a person over the torah act
similarly. They purr and growl in pleasurable anticipation of taking in
what will make them more themselves, strong, lithe, swift: "I will run in
the way of thy commandments when thou enlargest my understanding!" (Ps.
119:32).
This is quite defferent from merely reading God's word,
or thinking about it. This is not so much an intellectual process,
figuring our meanings, as it is a physical process, hearing and rehearing these
words as we sound them again, letting the sounds sink into our muscles and
bones. Meditation is mastication.
These are the words in my mouth;
these are what I chew on and
pray.
Accept them when I place them
on the morning altar,
O God, my Altar-Rock,
God, Priest-of-My-Altar.
Psalm 19:14
Hope you like it. It has spoken volumes to me today.
Love,
Bonnie