You're listening to Encounter, a simple daily podcast made possible by listeners like you.

We hope to help you discover sacred moments in the middle of ordinary days.

If you would enjoy more seasonal and topical meditations, I encourage you to download

the Encountering Peace mobile app where all of the meditations are free, as they should be.

The other day, while I was winding through a restaurant drive-thru lane, I noticed just off to the

side where someone had appeared to set up a temporary camp behind a dumpster, a temporary refuge

from the world.

It seemed abandoned now.

A chair overturned.

The shopping cart was empty, and a tarp was left flapping in the cold winter

wind. But for a season, someone called that place home, their dwelling place. Do you ever find

yourself wanting a place to feel safe? for the presence of God to shine out from

within you, a place to be filled with peace? Well, this meditation from Colossians chapter 3

is a reflection on that longing, to empty yourself of the false hope the world offers, and be filled with the

shining presence of the divine, to dwell with God.

So to begin, whether the first shining rays of morning's sun or the long shadows of evening,

allow the next 15 minutes to be a retreat to contemplate dwelling with God,

having him fill, center, and shine out from within you.

As your eyes begin to close without effort,

center on this place of surrender for a still moment,

this time of yielding, and a silent whispered prayer for the presence of God from john chapter 15 and as i lead us respond simply

lord let your word dwell within me And may he bless the reading of his

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