It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old…or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!
You never know when I might play a wild card on you!
Dr. Marilyn Hickey, founder and president of Marilyn Hickey Ministries, has served in a wide variety of roles: author, teacher, pastor’s wife, mother and grandmother, preacher, broadcaster, peacemaker and spiritual diplomat. She’s known and loved worldwide for her daily radio and television broadcasts that have helped several generations learn to read the Bible and integrate its principles into daily living. Marilyn is joined by her daughter Sarah Bowling for their TV show, Marilyn and Sarah. Sarah is Vice President and founder of Saving Moses, a humanitarian initiative dedicated to reducing infant mortality worldwide. She is speaks at seminars, conferences, and college campuses throughout the world. Sarah and her husband, Reece, are senior pastors of Orchard Road Christian Center, near Denver, founded by Marilyn Hickey and her late husband, Wallace.
Visit the author’s website.
30 Meditations on Rest is the first of a meditation series by well known Bible teacher Dr. Marilyn Hickey and her daughter and ministry partner, Sarah Bowling. In this volume, readers learn how to meditate and focus on the importance of rest. The authors maintain that rest begins in the mind and offer 30 supportive biblical meditations designed to renew and refresh world-weary readers. Convenient tear-away Scripture cards are included to help people maintain focus amid the busyness of life. Dr. Hickey, over 80 and going strong, says she and Sarah launched the series to challenge those who associate the word meditate with drudgery, saying, “It’s our desire for the reader to experience a life transformation that will take place as these principles are applied.”
Product Details:
List Price: $12.99
Paperback: 160 pages
Publisher: Whitaker House; Pap/Crds edition (September 2, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1603749012
ISBN-13: 978-1603749015
AND NOW…THE FIRST CHAPTER:
or not, here I come!” One child was “it,” and he would cover his eyes on home
base as all the other children ran and hid. The object was for those who were
hiding to get “home” before they were found.
that is essential to our walk as Christians that I want to present here.
what, when, where, and how” of doing this. The Bible says, “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You!”(Psalm 119:11). When
we hide the Word in our hearts, it not only keeps us from sin, as the psalmist
said, but it also will bring success.
with promise: “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.”
(Ephesians 6:2–3)
is accompanied by a specific promise: that you may be well and “live long on the earth.”
to lead Israel into the Promised Land. After forty years in the wilderness, Joshua was chosen
to fulfill the hundreds-of-years-old pledge. In Joshua 1:8, he
received a command to meditate. The instruction was for all people, as you’ll see from reading further Scriptures on meditation,
and it carries a promise that goes with everything in your life. This Scripture
enlightens us about hiding the Word. It says,
shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all
that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you
will have good success.
1:8)
night, and if you speak that Word and obey it, everything in your life will be
prosperous and successful!”
I’ve become excited about what meditating on His Word accomplishes. It is
important that you understand what meditation is and what it will do for you.
Meditating on God’s Word changes lives—in fact, it is life.
medication. If you know me, I’m sure most of you know Sarah Bowling. She’s a
wife, a mother, a teacher of the Word, a pastor, and my television cohost on Today with Marilyn and Sarah. And, if
you did not know, she is my daughter. She ministers alongside Reece Bowling,
her husband, who is senior pastor of Orchard Road Christian Center, in
Greenwood, Colorado. The crux of her heart’s cry is a ministry she founded,
called Saving Moses, which concentrates on saving young children, from newborns
to the age of five.
is what she says:
I was in my early twenties. I was spending the summer doing missions work in
Hong Kong. At the time, I was a schoolteacher and had made some bad decisions
in my personal life during the preceding school year. During my time there, I
was not only involved in missions work but I also was trying to get past the
dilemma created by those choices. Thankfully, I had supportive people around me
and made great friendships.
what helped my thinking the most was my experience with memorizing and
meditating on Colossians 3. I found that the longer I memorized and meditated
on those verses, the more healthy my mind and thoughts became. As I continued
to progress through the chapter, it felt as though the verses I memorized were
figuratively washing out all the garbage those bad decisions had deposited in
my mind. Furthermore, it felt like those verses were not
only cleaning my mind, but they also were replacing destructive mind-sets with
more truth-oriented thoughts and convictions.
experience and the transforming power of meditating on the Bible. Subsequently,
I’ve used the principles of meditating over the course of my life with equally
powerful results and transformations.
Warren’s book, The Purpose Driven Life.
Rick is the founder and senior pastor of Saddleback Church, in Forest Lake,
California. This is what he said in his book about meditation:
His mercy, etc.—throughout each day. And the only way a Christian can do this
is by knowing God—and the only way a Christian can know God is through His Word. Meditation
(similar to the process of “worrying”), which is only “focused thinking,” is
accomplished when one mulls over (contemplates, ponders) God’s Word continually
during the day.
children—to speak to His children in a close and personal way. To properly
meditate requires a life of studying God’s thoughts recorded in the Bible. It
also means that a Christian should continuously review biblical truths when
they are presented in sermons, radio broadcasts, Bible studies, etc.”[1]
enemy has desperately tried to mask the topic of meditation on God’s Word. He’s
brought in many counterfeits, such as transcendental meditation, and all kinds
of distraction. Whenever you see the devil putting up a smokescreen, you can be
sure he’s counterfeiting something real. The devil never created anything. All
he can do is falsify and imitate what already exists.
“Who” of Meditation
rush
advance, prosper, make progress, succeed, be profitable
make prosperous, bring to successful issue, cause to prosper
show or experience prosperity, prosper
see how success and prosperity go hand in hand? This Hebrew word has the
correct signification. When I read “to advance,” I think of wading across a
river or pushing forward toward a goal. Proverbs 13:19 says, “A desire accomplished is sweet to the soul.”
riches falling upon you. Also hidden in this good word is the meaning “to
finish well.” God’s Word has happy endings.
connotation means it brings promotion.
meaning and make an equation straight across the line. Do you want to prosper
as a wife, a husband, a mother, an employer, an employee, a friend, a sweetheart,
a neighbor, a minister, or as a Christian? Meditation on God’s Word is the unusual
key that unlocks all of His success. It is the solution, and we need to know what it is and
how to do it.
They may say, “Well, God gave Joshua success because he had to take the
Promised Land.” But I want to tell you that God did more than tell us to take
the Promised Land—He told us to take the world for Jesus.
passage, God is talking about a “blessed man.” He says:
counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat
of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be
like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its
season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.
the key element of being blessed, prosperous, and successful in every area of
your life.
a task that is time-consuming and difficult. However, meditation does not need
to be drudgery. Rather, I have discovered that it adds a refreshing quality to my study of God’s Word. It is my desire for
you to see transformation take place when you begin applying the principles of
meditation to your own life. As Rick Warren suggested, if you know how to
worry, you already know how to meditate!
found in Joshua 1:8. “Blessed is the man….”
The man who meditated on the Word will be prosperous and successful in all that
he does. Shall we embrace the truth of meditating? Or shall we simply stand
aside and, with words and acts, watch other Christians meditate? We are too
busy, too old, or too “out of it” to be bothered.
meditation. It states, “Blessed is the
man who…meditates” (Psalm 1:1–2). The word blessedness is not found in the Hebrew text, because there is no
such thing as a singular blessing, only plural blessings. Psalm 1 says that
meditating will give you vitality “like a
tree” (Psalm 1:3). It will give you security, for you will be “planted” (verse 3). Your capacity will
be unlimited because His sources are “the
rivers [plural] of water” (verse
3). You will be fertile, because
meditating “brings forth its fruit” (verse
3). You will have seasons and perpetuate, because your “leaf…shall not wither” (verse 3). What prosperity! Everything you
do “shall prosper” (verse 3).
yourself?
received, I’ve condensed hours of study, practical experience, and character
studies on meditation, which I believe will compel you to meditate on His Word—letting
it dominate and change your life for the better. I pray the Lord will throw
open the shutters of your spiritual understanding so that you may receive all
the blessings He has for you in the fullness of His Word.
will. Embrace this truth. There’s only one way to go—forward!
My Review:
5/5 Stars!!!
Wonderful book, highly recommend to everyone….I loved the pull out cards to use as reminders. These cards have the verses on them and serves as a great reminder to have 30 days of rest of meditation..
A Greater Yes 