BE STILL
BE
STILL DVD and Psalm 46:10:
The
Be Still DVD by Fox Home Entertainment was released in April, 2006. See
the official
Be Still DVD site, Psalm
46:10: Many
are saying that Psalm 46:10 supports the practice of contemplative
prayer and the silence. But
What Does Psalm 46:10 Really Mean? Question: What does New Ager Deepak Chopra have to say about Psalm 46:10? In
an interview with Larry King, KING: What's the first step toward knowing him [God], or her or it? CHOPRA: The first step is the ability to sit down quietly, close your eyes and do nothing and listen to the silence within you. As the Bible says, "Be still and know that I am God," which literally means if you go in the gap within your thoughts, which is the window to your soul, you start to eavesdrop on the cosmic mind. KING: That's an Eastern concept. But how do you to that when so many things get in the way? CHOPRA: You just have to sit down and take the time, and if you do it on a regular basis, it becomes very profound. It's a learned ability. I taught my children to do this when they were 4 years of age. And they have been actually extraordinary children because they were grounded and centered from age 4 onwards. See Entire Interview based on Chopra's book, How to Know God. A
Still Small Voice?
by Pastor Larry DeBruyn Elijah's Mt. Horeb experience, when he heard "a sound of sheer silence" (1 Kings 19:12, NRSV), stimulated in the church a tradition of desert spirituality which pursues solitude in order to experience the divine. Practitioners of lectio divina (i.e., reading sacred things) also desire such encounters. They say: "When we read the Scriptures we should try to imitate the prophet Elijah. We should allow ourselves to become women and men who are able to listen for the still, small voice of God (I Kings 19:12); the 'faint murmuring sound' which is God's word for us, God's voice touching our hearts. This gentle listening is an 'atunement' to the presence of God . . . ."[1] About Elijah's experience of hearing God's "still small voice" (KJV, NKJV) questions arise. Does 1 Kings 19:20 endorse contemplative spirituality? Was the prophet's encounter with God in the cave on Mt. Horeb/Sinai a mystical "atunement"? Read entire artice, A Still Small Voice Be
Still ... Not Contemplative By Any Means
Pastor Joel Curry Oak Park Church, Winona Lake, IN "Psalm 46 deals with the choices we have before us in times of difficulty. It is not a call for a contemplative life, but a challenge to depend entirely on God, His sovereignty, His power, His love, and His care. "In times of difficulty, one of my first impulses is to take matters into my own hands—try to figure out what needs to be done and then get busy and do it. There certainly are times God wants us to get up act boldly and decisively to deal with difficulties, within the guidelines of making good and righteous decisions, of course. And there are also times when the right decision is to stop trying to solve the problem and to sit down and let Him do the work and determine the timing. Those often are the situations where no matter how hard we try, all we can do is to make it worse. Usually, that's when we have to admit our motivations are vengeance, selfishness, reactions to anger, etc. Often, when it is the hardest to be still and depend on Him, that's when we should do just that. "Psalm 46:10 can be misunderstood and misinterpreted. The Hebrew term translated 'be still' in many modern English translations means to 'abandon, relax, stop striving.' It pictures a soldier who puts down his weapons, stops fighting, and lets down his defenses, because the danger has passed. "Verse 10 is not calling on us to live a contemplative, passive life, but to take a very active step of faith! God is so dependable that it is as though the danger we still see has already passed, because He has already solved the problem. The verse doesn't just tell us to cease striving. It also tells us to know that He is God. That includes the ideas of acknowledging that He is God: that He is great above my understanding; that He is sovereign and perfect in how He deals with me; that nothing escapes His notice and nothing is beyond His ability." Pastor Joel Curry Oak Park Church, Winona Lake, IN |
