CloserLookBooks.com
Read and Meditate
June 2004
Raymond Kelcy wrote an article for the Firm Foundation, June 10, 1980, titled “Take Time to Meditate.” One of his main points highlights the importance of thinking. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). Brother Kelcy writes,
There is no denying the fact that character is shaped by one’s thinking; and if one’s speech is to be purified, then the source must be purified. He whose meditations are on that which is vile and unlovely will betray his true character in slips of speech, in facial expressions, or in some other way. But he who thinks on that which is good, that which is true, that which is of good report, will likewise show by his words and actions what type of person he is. It is true that only God knows what a person is thinking Ñ that is, God and the one who is doing the thinking. But the fruits of wrong thinking will come out in a person’s life. It is possible to hide selfish and lascivious thinking from one’s fellowmen, but it is not possible to hide the dwarfed and misshaped personality that eventually is formed by a lifetime of such thinking.
I ran across another quote recently: “To read and not to meditate is unfruitful; to meditate and not read is dangerous” (Richard Greenham). To read the scriptures and not to meditate on them will not produce the desired affectÑlives truly affected and governed by the Spirit of God. “To meditate and not to read is dangerous.” Meditating on something other than the Word can lead to dangerous results. Remember the text cited above from Proverbs: “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
As a case in point, consider the behavior of the unconverted Jeffrey Daumer. He confessed that he had embraced the worldview of the atheist concerning the origin of manÑthat he evolved from non-purposive matterÑa view that takes God out of the picture. Mr. Daumer’s behavior illustrates, in a radical way, the dangers of meditating but not reading.
Steven Lloyd