Hi everyone and welcome to the Bridgetown Daily for Thursday April 9th.

This is Brian Ronson from the Garden Church in Long Beach California standing in for John

Mark.

And I just want to say on behalf of the entire garden community to the Bridgetown community,

we are so excited to be on this journey with you guys.

I know that we are not close by proximity but it's such a gift to have friends who are

pursuing the same things.

We learn from you, we get to journey with you, we pray with you and we just love you.

So so grateful to be on this journey together.

Thanks for everything that you're doing.

So today I get to lead us through a contemplative prayer practice called the Prayer of Examine

and also popularly known as the Examined of Consciousness and even further back known

as the Examined of Conscience.

One thing to remember as you are beginning in contemplative practice is that for the

first six centuries of the church the definition for contemplation was resting in God.

And as time has gone on, people have come to varying definitions or even opinions but

if you just consider that, that this is a way of resting in God, allowing God to form

you and be with you in ways that formal teaching or Bible study or intercessory prayer for

that matter, petitioning and interceding for others, those may not really touch on those

aspects.

So this is just another means for God to shape all the aspects of who we are as persons,

our heart, soul, mind and strength.

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