Disappearing in Christ

Time Allotment

If we are really desirous of becoming saints in the ministry as well as of the sanctifying of our church members we will find many occasions given to us every day for turning to God—inward troubles, the strength and obstinacy of temptations, worldly allurements, lack of absolute Christlike kindness to all, not laboring for souls at our maximum efficient best, fre­quent shortcomings and negligences, the fear of losing the kingdom. All these are powerful incentives, indeed, to make us weep before the Lord as we meditate.

Therefore, it is of supreme importance that a certain time should be allotted every day for meditating upon the things of eter­nity. None of us can omit this without be­ing guilty of serious negligence and detri­ment to our souls. There exists a great and urgent necessity to return to the daily con­templation of eternal things; that our minds and wills, deriving fresh strength therefrom, may be fortified against all the attractions and enticements surrounding us, however dazzling and appealing these may be. We must relish and delight in meditating upon the things of God and heaven. We must taste and see how sweet the Lord is here below. For heaven begins now.

It exposes our will to the heat of heav­enly love. Meditation is the water of bene­diction that makes the plants of our good desires grow green and flourish, and which washes from our souls their imperfections.

You have heard the saying that "we must work as if we are going to live forever, but live as if we were going to die today." If we passed away this very minute, would we be prepared to speak the language of heaven on the resurrection morn?

Psychedelic Experience

While meditating upon various themes, I like to think of myself as a drop of water in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. I am lost and surrounded by God's infinite love, truth, and goodness. 0 to plunge myself into this ocean, to drown and disappear in Christ! This is the kind of psychedelic ex­perience I desire, don't you?

All supernatural life consists in our un­ion with Jesus Christ. The direct object of daily meditation is to make this union more intimate and complete, and to make us act as perfectly as possible under the in­fluence of the Holy Spirit. This union be­comes fused and cemented, so to speak, as we ask Jesus to give us His help and strength, without which we can accom­plish nothing.

Here's My Method

Here is the method of meditation I em­ploy. I have always found that if I review briefly two or three points on the subject of my morning meditation the evening be­fore, and go over these in my mind, that my period of union with Christ the next morning will be more fruitful. My mind, while it sleeps, works subconsciously on the points I have reviewed. In the morning I am receptive to all the promptings and influences of the Holy Spirit. This is why the early morning, just after rising, is the best time of day to spend with our blessed Lord.

For example, let's say that tomorrow morning the topic of my meditation will be, "The minister, a witness to eternity." The points which I will review the eve­ning before will be these: 1, as a minister, am a witness to eternity by my life, by my preaching, and by my ministry. I am an ambassador of eternal interests. Am I un­duly attached to anything on earth? Am I often occupied with worldly thoughts and interests?

Jesus Before My Eyes

The following morning the first thing I do is to place myself, in imagination, in the presence of Christ. I adore the dignity and grandeur of His ministry. I try to visu­alize the impressions produced in the soul of Jesus by the thought of eternity. He lived in eternity by His thoughts and aspirations. Was it not to prepare a blessed eternity for me that He was born, suffered, died, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven? In this manner of adoring and loving Him, I have Jesus before my eyes.

Now I am ready to draw Jesus into my heart. How do I do this? By asking Him to come and live in me and have a deeper communion with me than ever before. As the fish is in the water, and the water is in the fish, so, too, Christ is in me, and I am in Him. At this point, I ask my Master to make my ministry conform to His earthly ministry. I pray that my thoughts, words, and actions in the ministry may be carbon copies of Jesus' life. This is the particular favor that I am asking of Him this morn­ing. I need this Christlike resemblance more than anything else in the world. I am convinced that Jesus will grant it to me if I only ask Him.

Compare Ministry With Christ's

Then I consider how Christ was a wit­ness to eternity by His life, His preaching, and by His ministry. I compare my minis­try to His in these three areas. Questions that cross my mind may be: In my daily life do I drink deeply of Jesus' spirit of self-sacrificing love? In my sermons do I teach my church members how to succeed in their temporal affairs, or do I show them how to win eternal happiness and life by living a Christ-centered, Christ-filled, and Christ-revealing life? Do my words from the pulpit have an echo of eternity about them? Am I truly an am­bassador of eternal interests—God's inter­ests? In the pulpit, by the sickbed, in my Bible studies, in my house visits, in my study, in my home life, what is the object of them all? Eternity!

Is the motive that inspires all my works this one: to rescue souls from death and lead them to the kingdom? Do temporal affairs of the world interest me only so far as they are related to eternity? Am I a wit­ness for eternity in my thoughts, judg­ments, and aspirations? Is there a great difference between my point of view and that of worldly people? Must I confess that I often act as though the interests of eter­nity were only of secondary importance in my life?

From Heart to Hands

Following this line of meditation, I take whatever acts and resolutions these thought questions inspire in me. Thus, Jesus passes from my heart into my hands —that is, into the external organs of ac­tion.

A few resolutions I might take could be: Make me realize, dear Jesus, that if I must teach others to despise the passing vanities of this world and walk toward the king­dom, I must first make sure that I, myself, am going that way. I must never forget that I am a minister, a witness to eternity, and keep this thought in my mind, espe­cially in the various exercises of my min­istry.

Last, my morning meditation is con­cluded by a spiritual bouquet. This is a thought or a short sentence that I recall from time to time during the rest of the day. This thought serves to revive in my mind the impressions and resolutions of my morning's meditation, which it briefly sums up. My spiritual bouquet for today would be: "Our conversation is in heaven" (Phil. 3:20). We should always remember that a fruitful meditation is always an ex­ercise of the mind and of the heart.

The ultimate end of daily morning med­itation is not necessarily to learn some­thing, but to produce action: that is, to re­solve to perfect our life by the practice of selfless love throughout the day. The in­spiring thoughts and pious dispositions emanating from our heart are an essential part of our meditation. Just how effective our meditation is, our actions throughout the day will show.

There is a Latin maxim which says: "Nemo dat quod non habet ["No one can give what he does not have"]." If we our­selves are not Christ-filled men, how can we expect our members to fall in love with Jesus? Ellen G. White says it this way: "We can impart only that which we receive from Christ; and we can receive only as we impart to others."—The Desire of Ages, p. 370.

And what is the best way of receiving spiritual nourishment from Jesus?  Through daily morning meditation and communion with Him.