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Step One: Reading Section: This does not mean
reading a lot. It means reading the text until you feel the call
of the Spirit to reflect on the passage or respond to the passage.
V Read a portion of the Bible and
seek out God to reveal a section to you.
V Take at least three words from
your passage and study them.
V Describe how this passage relates
to God’s plan and how this fits into the Bible’s message
as a whole.
Step Two: Meditation Section: this section will
require that you do some imaginative work on your own. You probably
won’t find many answers in a book or sermon.
V Values: Come up with three goals,
ideas, or sentiments in your text.
V World View: How is God portrayed
in your passage? Explain the image of God, which is communicated
by the passage. Is God a warrior, judge, father, etc.?
V Virtues: Come up with two virtues
the text promotes or discourages, ie: selflessness, pride, humility,
vanity, truthfulness, etc.
Step Three: Prayer Section: this section will require
that you actually pray with the passage. What does God want to say
to you or to us through your passage?
V Dialogue: Address God based in
some way on your passage and what you’ve learned about God
while doing this exercise. Begin to examine your feelings and
enter into a dialogue between yourself and God. This is the spontaneous
meeting of the heart of God with the heart of God's beloved creature
through the Word of God.
V Deliberation: Has this passage
changed you in any way? Do you see yourself, others or God differently
now? Consider what you want to do about all this. Is there anything
you can imagine doing differently now that you have encountered
God in the Living Word of God?
Step Four: Contemplation Section: this section
deals with “listening to Him” in simple loving attentiveness
V It is helpful to think of a word
or an image that expresses the “spirit of the passage”
that you may have been processing in your reading, meditation,
and prayer.
V When your mind wanders during
your time of contemplation, center yourself by returning once
again to the “spirit of the passage.”
V Decision: give form and substance
to the choice you make in response to God. What you do about your
encounter with the Living God will verify the authenticity of
the encounter.
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