MadHermit

58 minutes ago, Willie T said:

I had never even heard of the book before.  But, I do thank you that I now have it on my hard drive.

One of the great breakthroughs in modern evangelical spirituality is their discovery that early church fathers and ancient Christian monks who spent their whole lives seeking God's face and becoming prayer warriors have lessons to teach modern Christians.  It's so sad that posters like Yown and Shiloh fall under the umbrella of one of Jesus' greatest pet peeves--unteachability.  One would hope that the assessment of the leading evangelical journal in the world  that CofD is one of the top 10 Christian books of the 29th century would arouse Fundamentalist curiosity about its merits.   But they are typically closed-minded to learning from Christians from different traditions and they lack the spiritual integrity to actually read it for constructive discussion and thus they illustrate why the typical denizens of this site are the worst conceivable exemplars of the pursuit of Christian unity.  

Foster is one of my favorite Christian authors because his insights are based on an advanced grasp of Scripture, a thorough knowledge of the whole history of Christian spirituality, and most importantly, a life devoted to prayer disciplines.    If you like C of D, you might also check out his book "Prayer," which discusses the 22 types of prayer and grounds them in both Scripture and tradition.  Other books on prayer may be a better read for some due to their sensationalistic stories, but Foster's book on prayer is in my view the most mature and well-informed.

Well do fundamentalist posters here illustrate Sir Winston Churchill's definition of a fanatic: "A fanatic is one who won't change his mind and won't change the subject."  They lack the courtesy to respect the OP's guideline that the discussion sequentially follow the topical outline and they love to derail the thread by attacking Richard Foster, whose books are mostly relevant to the later issues specified by the OP.  

And Yown's bigotry knows no bounds.  He falsely stereotypes all Methodists as godless liberals, when in fact most Methodists are solidly conservative, evangelical, Bible-believing Christians.   

In  typical fundamentalist fashion, Yown and his ilk attack books they haven't read and don't understand and post false and slanderous reviews that give them an excuse to avoid the thrill of learning firsthand why "Christianity Today" rated "A Celebration of Discipline" one of the top 10 Christian books of the 20th century.  These critics lack the integrity to engage a ground-breaking spiritual work by pondering its specific insights and recommendations.  How ironic that a site like Worthy aspires to be a uniting force in Christendom, but instead inspires such godless and unfair vitriol.  If an evangelical journal like "Christanity Today" rates Foster's book one of the top 10 Christian books of the 20th century, it certainly deserves treatment on a site  with this one's stated purpose.    Sigh!  Let's move on to (2).

(2) Better still, restore 19th century-style class meetings as requirements for church membership.  

By 1870 40% of all Americans (That's "all Americans," not "American Christians") were Methodist.  To be a Methodist you had to attend a weekly Class Meeting.  Class Meetings required church members to give a weekly account of their inner life (thoughts, temptations, faith peace, joy, etc.) and outer life (external events relevant to their spirituality) during the past week.   This discipline was used to help Methodists mature and grow in their faith.  Class members would then counsel each other and pray for each other to address character flaws and flaws in the life of faith.  Then in the early 1900s, Methodism was gaining respectability and members were more private about their personal lives.  So they resented the Class Meeting requirement and decided at their national conference to make it optional.  This decision was in effect a way to abolish the practice.  Methodism has been in a slow, steady decline ever since.  Spiritual disciplines and accountability are essential for spiritual growth. 

14 hours ago, Yowm said:

Yowm: "Sounds like you have been attending Churches like Bethel. Celebration of Discipline is nothing but an occultic new age book garbed in Christianese promoting contemplative prayer. "

Like many Fundamentalists, you pontificate from ignorance by slurring books you have never even read.   "Christianity Today" is a bastion of evangelical orthodoxy and they rated "A Celebration of Discipline" one of the top 10 books of the 20th century!  What you don't get is that there can be no spiritual growth without attention to spiritual disciplines.  The book has insightful chapters on the disciplines of prayer, biblical  meditation, fasting, silence (listening for the voice of God), submission, service, and  worship; and these are solidly biblical themes about spiritual growth.  

Yown: "IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE MYSTICAL GARBAGE THAT RICHARD FOSTER PROMOTES AND I PRAY YOUR EYES ARE OPENED TO SEE THE DECEPTION YOU HAVE FALLEN INTO."

So judgmental without examining his books!   There is a consensus among NT scholars that Paul's theology is thoroughly immersed in mysticism.  Foster eloquently reflects on the practical implications of how our life can be joyfully connected to God in so many richly rewarding ways that promote spiritual growth.  And unlike most evangelicals, he recognizes that we need to learn not just from Scripture, but also from the church fathers and monastics who devote their whole lives to prayer and disciplines hat help establish a deeper connection with God.  

Yown: "Going back to Romans, if you care to actually study the bible,

This insult masks the fact that as a Doctor of Theology (Harvard) I am far, far better trained in reading the Bible in its original languages than you are.   

Yowm: "Going back to Romans, if you care to actually study the Bible, you will notice the context of 'faith comes by hearing' is the actual Gospel by which a person is saved.."

This thread is about church spiritual growth, not salvation.                                                                                                                                         

 

4 hours ago, Yowm said:

Because Churches don't rely on the Holy Spirit (which very thing they are commanded to do) so they need practical strategies to make that reliance a reality??? 

Sir, faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by God's Word. We are Christians here not corporate strategists.

Your glib cliched response illustrates why churches can't upgrade their promotion of spirituality!  Yes, faith comes by hearing, but today's Christians don't spend enough time meditating in holy silence to hear anything directly from God.  That's the reason for Jesus' frequent admonition, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."  Most Christians today are not attuned to spiritual hearing.  Yes, hearing comes by God's word, but by "God's Word" Paul does not have our Scriptures in mind.   His reference is the divinely imparted Word that is mediated through anointed preaching to those who are sufficiently prayed up to hear it.  In other words, there is no substitute for the right spiritual disciplines.  That is why every believer should read Richard Foster's top selling masterpiece, "The Celebration of Discipline."  

I've followed Paul's advice here.    Of course, this is just Paul's nonbinding opinion, but the verse raises 2 interesting theological questions:  (1) What are the criteria for dismissing a biblical teaching on the grounds  that it is just "an opinion" as opposed to God's Word? 

(2) On what basis can we dismiss biblical teaching that we don't like on the grounds that it is biased by cultural conditioning and therefore does not apply to modern times (e. g. the need for women to wear veils in church, the prohibition against men allowing their hair to grow long (But hey, what about Samson?). and Paul's command for believers to greet each other with a holy kiss)?

5 minutes ago, frienduff thaylorde said:

NOT FROM I , it don't .    We need to cease of the ways of man wisdom on how to GROW any thing spiritually.

AND RELY ON THE HOLY SPIRIT WHICH WOULD DO JUST THAT .     I am not against some organization .  But goodness.  IF Folks just followed the SPIRIT

THEIR WOULD BE SPIRITIUAL GROWTH   AND THE HOLY SPIRIT ,  YEAH,   IT PUTS US IN THAT BIBLE .   IN THE BIBLE .   

But as a whole churches don't rely on the Holy Spirit in practice.  So we need practical strategies that help make such reliance a reality and A(1) is an important step in that direction. 

1. Make regular attendance of a small prayer group a requirement for church  membership.                                                                                          

I have learned over many years that regular small prayer groups are far more powerful and effective than either prayer during the Sunday service or telephone prayer chains.  Though retired, I continue to attend a small interdenominational prayer group that I started prior to retirement.  We have seen the blind receive a healing touch, huge blood clots vanish, needy souls given up for dead by doctors healed, and broken families receive a measure of reconciliation or at least unexpected help to minimize the tensions.   These results are far more impressive than what I have observed from Sunday service prayers and telephone prayer chains.  I'm not sure I fully understand why.  Perhaps the very act of inconveniencing oneself on a snowy week night to participate in group prayer is already an act of faith that helps make a decisive difference.  Also, prior to our oral petitions, we take time to strengthen each other by sharing testimonies and we enter a holy silence to still our minds, to place the needy under God's loving and protective care, and to receive all the grace, power, and guidance we need to pray more effectively and, where necessary, to be part of the answer to our petitions which are the subjects of our oral prayers later.  

Believers attend Sunday services for reasons other than prayer and pastors find it very hard to induce members to join a regular prayer group.  Sermons can fire people up to pray for revival, but prayer meetings for this purpose usually quickly peter out.  As for telephone prayer chains, it is too easy to lay the phoned in request aside and give I only perfunctory prayer attention.  It is for this reason that membership in a regular weekly small prayer group might be needed as a requirement for church membership.  I say this with trepidation, fully aware that any church that tries to implement this policy will lose many members who are unwilling to pay this price.  For this reason, I never tried to enforce this membership criterion in any church that I've pastored.  But the subject of this thread is how church's can promote spiritual growth in their members and I think we need some sadly and inevitably smaller churches with this level of commitment.  

Almost all churches need to find new ways to upgrade congregational spirituality.  But what concrete steps can and should they take to achieve this goal?  As a retired pastor, I have come to certain conclusions about how we do church and I  want to share some simple and practical ideas that might best promote spiritual growth in a congregation.  I have left out doctrinally divisive themes because I want to focus on strategies whose appeal crosses denominational lines.  Please don't comment on B or C below until A has been thoroughly explored.  Examine A-C and feel free to suggest other practical and realistic strategies that I have omitted.  

A. Corporate Spirituality Apart from the Sunday Service:                                                                                                                                                                      

1. Make regular attendance of a small prayer group a membership requirement.                                                                                                                               

2. Better still, restore 19th century-style Methodist class meetings as requirements for church membership.                                                                                 

3. Sponsor these forms of community outreach: a weekly soup kitchen for the poor, a monthly service at a local assisted living facility or nursing home, an advertised monthly potluck dinner and movie night featuring Christian movies or Hollywood movies on spiritual themes with a brief discussion period afterwards.

B. The Structure of Sunday Worship Services:                                                                                                                                                                                         

1. Serve Holy Communion twice a month and make an extended period of holy silence for confession and listening for divine guidance a regular part of the Communion service.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

2. Require at least some of church music to express the sermon's theme.                                                                                                                                            

3. Regularly observe the Lent and Advent seasons by creating worship services with appropriate themes, music, and rituals appropriate to both seasons.  

C. The Enrichment and Expansion of the Preaching Ministry:                                                                                                                                                               

1. Require pastors to accept preaching mentors or mentoring groups.                                                                                                                                                  

2. Actively train lay preachers and create opportnnties for them to preach on Sunday morning or at other services.

I was 12 when I wrote this poem on unrequited love.  I entered it in a poetry contest, but I lost and my loss destroyed my aspirations as a poet   So I quit writing poems.  Sigh!

My heart is broken

at the very thought

that Thou hast spoken

of our love as naught.

Our sharp-edged story

has etched in my mold

mem'ries of thy glory

encased in pure gold.

Charms of other girls

Cannot cast thy spell.

So I shed most pearls

to our sweet farewell.

The only thing I have against the World Cup is that it forces me to get up before 7 AM to watch the first game of the day.  I live in the Pacific time zone.  I'm a football and basketball fan.  But for me the World Cup trivializes both the Super Bowl and LeBron's signing with the Lakers.  Soccer is the only truly global sport.  Belgium will win it all

It strikes me as arrogant that we label the Super Bowl winner the world champion rather than the American champion.  Yes, I recognize that the NFL is a stronger league than the CFL, but the USA All-Stars only beat the CFL all-stars 13-11 in their last game.  To label yourself world champion, you should be willing to prove that by playing the best of foreign leagues.  Worse. the MLB champion is declared the  world champion even though US teams often lose exhibition games with Japanese teams.  And is the NBA justified in calling their  winner world champion when they don't allow the European champion to contest that claim?  By contrast, the Canadian dominated NHL only calls their winner the Stnnley Cup Champion, not the world champion.  Sigh!  

A heart-wrenching predicament!  I will respond to both issues separately:

(1) Your Daughter's Desperate Situation: I retired as pastor from my church 3 years ago, but continue my membership in a small prayer group that meets every Monday for 2 hours.  For about 4 years, we have been praying for a member's daughter with issues even more severe than your daughter's, issue complicated by severe mental illness.  Our prayers have brought occasional improvements in her situation, followed by severe relapses.  But we persevered with our intercession and this has paid off wondrously.  Whereas previously this gal was too unstable and violent to live at home, now she has gained sufficient mental stability to do so.  Secondly, whereas in the past she would always refuse her essential medications (substituting addictive drugs for medications), now she has overcome her drug habit and faithfully takes her medications.  ASnd third, whereas she always refused counseling or therapy, now she regularly attends counseling and 12-Step groups, where she is making healthier friendships.  Our little prayer group has also witnessed miraculous healings, including blindness, blood clots, and a healing touch for a stroke case so severe that doctors guaranteed the death was imminent. 

Do you attend a regular prayer group composed of people of faith who get results for their intercession?  If you don't or if your church only has prayer groups that seem to just go through the motions and are little more than an emotonal support group, it is worth your while to call different churches  and explore other prayer groups to see if you can find one composed of people with faith that makes the decisive different. 

(2) I'm sure you have seen a doctor about your insomnia and have googled articles on various strategies for dealing with it.  So I'd make only 2suggestions in addition to joining a prayer group and asking for their intercession about this:

(a) Recognize that you can't "try" to believe.  The very concept of "trying" unconsciously creates the expectation of inevitable failure.  What you can do instead is regular place your need in God's tender care and ask for His protection and will to be done.  The relax in the arms of Jesus.

(b) Once you have joined the right prayer group, you can rrgularly remind yourself that you can't change the free will of your troubled daughter, but you are doing all that God expects of you by your regular attendance of this group.  God is in charge when we regularly participate in the righit prayer group.  

I never said that the case for Jesus' house was conclusive.  But the case is far superior, for example, than the case for the authenticity of the Barden Tomb, which evangelicals routinely visit and falsely believe to be the site of Jesus' burial.  If the ancient tradition about Jesus' house were a legend created centuries later, then we would not expect scientific evidence that it was only occupied around the time of Jesus.  I have toured Israel, but persuaded our group to skip Nazareth in favor of nearby Sepphoris, where Josephus and Jesus likely sold their carpentry goods.  I think the others in our group were glad we did because the ancient ruins of Sepphoris were awesome.  It was only later that the first century dating of this Nazareth house was determined and I wish I had known that at the time.

A case can now be made that Joseph and Mary's house in Nazareth has recently been discovered.  For more details google "The House of joseph,  the Just in Nazareth" and read the zenit article.  Ancient church tradition has long identified this house as Jesus' home, but until recently scholars dismissed this tradition as a legend.  Now scientific dating techniques have dated the house  back to the early first century.  The house was carved out of the rock of a hill.  Remnants of a loom have been discovered inside, which Mary may have used to make Jesus' clothes.  A large empty space has been detected by sonar inside one of the house's walls.  The friend whom I encouraged to join the Bethsaida dig was invited to explore ways to penetrate this hidden space without excessive damage to the house and its walls.  So far he hasn't accepted that offer, preferring to continue with the Bethsaida dig.  

Was this large hidden space a hideout during the failed Jewish revolt against Rome led by Judas the Galilean in 7 AD at nearby Sepphoris, just 3 miles away with a population in Jesus' day of about 25,000?  The scholarly consensus is that Joseph died before Jesus began His public ministry.  Joseph figures in no story of Jesus' ministry and Jesus entrusts the care of His mother to the Beloved Disciple from the cross, something He would never have done if Joseph was alive to care for his wife.  Judas the Galilean recruited Jewish fighters for his revolt from nearby villages like Nazareth. When the Romans crushed this revolt, those captured were crucified and Joseph may have been among them.  Is this the original reason why Jesus used the image of cross-bearing as an image of discipleship?  These  questions are among the most compelling questions to be posed by those want to investigate "the missing years' of Jesus' life.

An important aspect of a pastoral call are the divine coincidences that provide opportunities for growth an self-discovery.  When I was just 16, I  was unexpectedly invited twice to preach at a rescue mission, mostly for derelicts.  I was a very nervous fire-breathing dragon!  What they didn't tell me is that the men were required to sit through the service's hymns and prayers, but could be excused to eat just before the sermon.  Of course, the lure was the free meal.  It would have been nice if they had explained this to me.  Just as I got up to preach, all but about 20 of the 200 men walked out on me!  I was crushed because I thought this happened because of my youth!  In any case, these opportunities created a burning desire to master the art of preaching to transform.  

Then was I was 18, I became the president of our church's college and career class.  By default, I was expected to conduct the opening exercises of our adult Sunday school session.  This meant I led the singing, prayed, and shared a brief reflection before about 700 adults.  This was a great and unexpected opportunity for me.  I noticed for  example, that my prayers were un consciously motivated in part by a desire to gain praise for my  eloquence!  I finally realized this when a pretty young woman complemented me for a prayer and I felt proud of my performance.  Fortunately, the Spirit gently exposed my motive to me, so that I began to learn what it really means to lead worship for the glory of God.  

Back then, I was very shy one on one, but these opportunities made  me completely comfortably before large crowds.  After a 12=year career as a Theology professor, I entered full-time ministry and found this a very humbling but rewarding spiritual experience.  I do believe that if you're called to preach, your initial flawed efforts will nevertheless exhilarate and challenge you. 

One lesson I learned about preaching is this: your preaching is only as good as your personal theological library.  You need the best commentaries on specific biblical books that display expertise on the nuances of the Hebrew and Greek and on cultural background.  Such a library will help prevent you from "shooting your wad" after a couple of years of preaching on various topics.   Also, you would be advised to seek out and buy the best books of modern sermon illustrations.  The quality of your preaching over time will be greatly effected by how uniquely you bring the text to life with modern stories.  So while your attending seminary, make regular browsing trips to the seminary bookstore to see what lights your fire  with unique applications of Scripture; and when  you're not in seminary make regular trips to the nearest big Christian bookstore for hours of browsing before you decide which books to buy.  You won't regret it.

Usually good preachers are also good teachers.  The more frequent problem is that good preachers, especially pastors of large churches, often lack the interest and sensitivity to be good pastoral counselors.  So they delegate that to lay leaders or assistant pastors.  But a newbie like you will have to start in a small church, where it is usually essential that you develop skills in both teaching and counseling as well.  This fact highlights the importance of the right seminary or Bible school for you.  You need a place with good courses on pastoral care and a good supervised field education program.  If inimate connections with your flock's personal problems does not appeal to you, you probably lack a pastoral calling.  

Have you ever preached a sermon?  A pastoral calling is often confirmed by how you feel after you did so.  The important thing is not how good you were.  Some of the best pastors were nervous disasters in their first sermon.  What matters is how badly you wanted to preach well.  The calling comes from a burning passion, but that passion must be tested in the crucible of experience.  In other words, God often imparts spiritual gifts and callings when we actively explore different ministry options.  

Also, have you considered where you might receive your training (Bible school or seminary)?  Your decision on this matter may be crucial to the success of your ministry and a confirmation of your calling.  You really need to research available options thoroughly.  I know many who became disillusioned about their calling by choosing the wrong school for their beliefs and academic level.   But do get training in Greek and Hebrew.  Otherwise, you will be at the mercy of whatever errors your Bible translation of choice might contain and you  won't be able to comfortably use the best resources for Bible study and sermon preparation, which often discuss the relevance of the original languages to the meaning of a text. 

"An open rebuke is better than hidden love (Proverbs 27:5)."

I am a retired pastor and am currently a member of a prayer group at another  evangelical church.  An earlier prayer group at this church decided to focus on spiritual warfare.  They spent much time fasting and praying and were often summoned to intercede in the lives of people victimized by various type of evil influences.  The prayer group's members were all exemplary Christians, but their ministry backfired and almost destroyed the church.  

The group's members were attacked by unusual negative forces in their lives.  False accusations of sexual misconduct were leveled, and when the pastor (wrongly) sided with the female accuser against a male leader of the prayer group, that pastor was forced out of the church!  Interpersonal interactions were so negative that all  but 2 of the 12 members of that spiritual warfare prayer group felt compelled to leave the church.  Yet these members were well grounded in the Word, had exemplary character, and had the purest of spiritual motivations to serve God's kingdom.  I say this because the demise of this group was an inexplicable and devastating defeat and the church would apparently have been better off never to have started such a group.  

I am in effect the new leader of the restarted group and our smaller group has seen many answers to prayer, including miracles of healing and mending of broken relationships.  I remain  wary of further attacks by the Enemy.  It would be easy to blame the former group's members for being spiritually too immature to conduct s spiritual warfare group.  I can find no warrant for affixing blame to anyone involved.  But there is a moral to this story and that moral is the reason I have posted this thread.  What is it?  The Enemy is very clever and deceitful in sowing discord and a spirit of failure among members of Christ's body.  Warfare is just that--warfare, and sometimes it results in battle casualties.  But the cause of the Gospel is too great to avoid the battle and sometimes we must humbly admit a lack of clarity about where we went wrong.  The alternative (in this case) is to be unacceptably judgmental in a desire find scapegoats for a failure many Christians would deem impossible.  

I am a retired pastor and am currently a member of a prayer group at another  evangelical church.  An earlier prayer group at this church decided to focus on spiritual warfare.  They spent much time fasting and praying and were often summoned to intercede in the lives of people victimized by various type of evil influences.  The prayer group's members were all exemplary Christians, but their ministry backfired and almost destroyed the church.  

The group's members were attacked by unusual negative forces in their lives.  False accusations of sexual misconduct were leveled, and when the pastor (wrongly) sided with the female accuser against a male leader of the prayer group, that pastor was forced out of the church!  Interpersonal interactions were so negative that all  but 2 of the 12 members of that spiritual warfare prayer group felt compelled to leave the church.  Yet these members were well grounded in the Word, had exemplary character, and had the purest of spiritual motivations to serve God's kingdom.  I say this because the demise of this group was an inexplicable and devastating defeat and the church would apparently have been better off never to have started such a group.  

I am in effect the new leader of the restarted group and our smaller group has seen many answers to prayer, including miracles of healing and mending of broken relationships.  I remain  wary of further attacks by the Enemy.  It would be easy to blame the former group's members for being spiritually too immature to conduct s spiritual warfare group.  I can find no warrant for affixing blame to anyone involved.  But there is a moral to this story and that moral is the reason I have posted this thread.  What is it?  The Enemy is very clever and deceitful in sowing discord and a spirit of failure among members of Christ's body.  Warfare is just that--warfare, and sometimes it results in battle casualties.  But the cause of the Gospel is too great to avoid the battle and sometimes we must humbly admit a lack of clarity about where we went wrong.  The alternative (in this case) is to be unacceptably judgmental in a desire find scapegoats for a failure many Christians would deem impossible.  

Some sermons are occasionally infused with prophetic inspiration.  The resulting impact is explained by Paul:

"If all prophesy, an unbeliever or outsider who enters is reproved by all an called to account by all.  After the secrets of the heart are exposed, he will bow down before God in worship, declaring, "God is truly in your midst (1 Cor 14:25-26)."

Jesus preached the Kingdom of God and Paul preached Christ crucified.  But how well do we understand Jesus' central theme?   Here are 5 points to ponder to get you thinking:

(1) In His model prayer, Jesus taught us to pray, "Thy kingdom come."  Ask your self how you would even recognize it if God answered this petition.

(2) Jesus said, "The kingdom of God does not come with signs to be observed.  Nor will people say, "Look, here it is!"  or 'There it is!"  For the kingdom of God is in your midst (Luke 17:20-21)."  

If Jesus' returns to earth and sets up His millennial kingdom in Israel, wouldn't that involved "signs to be observed?"  Wouldn't we be able to say, "Look, there it is?"  How should this saying of Jesus affect your eschatology?                                                                                                          What did Jesus mean when He said, "The kingdom of God is [already] in your midst?"  And when we pray, "Thy kingdom come,"  how can we reconcile that petition with the fact that God's kingdom is already present?

(3) When the disciples ask the risen Lord when the kingdom of God will be established, He replies, "It is not for you to know the times and periods that the Father has set by His own authority (Acts 1:6-5)."   So why do so many Christians believe we are living in the last days when Jesus will return and set up His kingdom on earth.  Didn't Jesus rule out the possibility of making this determination?

(4) When Jesus teaches that "the kingdom of God has drawn near," does He mean that in a temporal or spatial sense?  Jesus' word to the wise scribe, "You are not far from the kingdom of God (Mark 12:34)," seems to imply a spatial sense of proximity, but that must be only an analogy.  So what does Jesus really mean?

(5) The Hebrew/ Aramaic word for "kingdom" ("Malchuth") means both "reign" and "realm."  How should this dual nuance affect the answer to question (4)?"

(1) It was during the Cold War in the 1960s and the might Soviet Union hockey team was making their first tour of Canada.  Tonight they were playing the outmatched Canadian national AMATEUR team.  Suddently a Canadian fan shouted, "To Hell with Kruschev!"  To everyone's shock the Soviet players could not tolerate this idiotic heckler.   They huddled together and then their captain shouted back, "To Hell with Diefenbaker!"  Now Honest John Diefenbaker was our current Prime Minister at the time.  He had just devalued our dollar for the first time to 92 1/2 cents American and was extremely unpopular for this move.  Canadians called their new dollars Diefendollars and created zillions of bogus dollar bills featuring ugly cartoon caricatures of Diefenbaker.  So when the Soviet hockey captain thought he was offending Canadians with a retaliatory shout, "To Hell with Diefenbaker!"  that fan shouted back, "That's what I say too, Molotov!"   and the fans roared with laughter.  

(2) When I was in grad school in Boston, my friend Tony and I went to a Red Sox-Twins baseball game. Our seat was far from the playing field in the bleachers and Tony noticed a couple of vacant box seats right behind home plate.  He insisted on taking those seats, but I protested that the rightful ticket holders might arrive late to the game and take offense at us interlopers.  Tony didn't listen; so I reluctantly joined him.  That much more expensive section attracted well dressed fans and we stood out with our very casual attire.  Minutes later it happened!  2 men in suits came late and shouted that 2 men had taken their seats!  Red-faced, I stood up to leave, when I suddenly realized they were talking to the 2 men in suits sitting next to Tony and me.  So we watched the  whole game as interlopers an laughed at God's sense of humor in scaring us. 

(5) Aurora was in charge of buying and setting up Communion in the first Methodist church I pastored in East Otto, NY.  There was only one grocery store in town and Aurora procrastinated too long before purchasing the Welch's grape juice for Communion .  The problem arose from the fact that she bought prune juice instead and never told anyone!  When one is participating in the sacraments and expecting the taste of grape and instead tastes prune juice it's  quite a shock!  Aurora apparently thought it didn't matter, but it did to several people.

(6) That same church had no air conditioning.  So one very hot July Sunday, the front door was left open and a large fan was placed in the center aisle to create some cooler air.  Then during the sermon, a curious black cat walked in and down that aisle to check out what was happening and maybe get something out of the sermon?  But the cat got the tip of his tail caught in the fan!  That cat yelped loudly and leapt several feet to escape, thus waking up any parishioners who are dozing off.  

(7) On another Sunday a large bat was sleeping high up on  a wall in the sanctuary.  The ushers decided to leave it alone until the end of the service.  Well, I preach as if truth is measured in decibels!  So my sermon woke up the bat and it started to dive bomb on the ladies sitting near the front.  Their sceams kept them nice nd alert for the rest of my sermon!

I encouraged a friend and member of the church I pastored before retirement to volunteer to work on the archaeological dig at Bethsaida.  The reason Bethsaida's ruins were only recently discovered is that it was originally bordered by a bay that was part of the Sea of Galilee in Jesus' day, but which had long since dried up due to a steady increase of silt.  My friend made important discoveries there.  One high school volunteer found a coin from 37 BC with the Roman general Mark Anthony's face on one side and Cleopatra's face on the obverse.  That coin is priceless.

The reason why Bethsaida is a uniquely rich archaeological site is that it was buried by an earthquake around 100 AD, and so, much of it was preserved in mint condition, including an ancient fisherman's house, complete with fishing equipment, a house wine cellar, and a first century oil lamp in mint conidition.   

When I was a Methodist pastor, I used to visit Rose, a sweet lady with a devastating disease that attacked her immune system and placed her in need of a "medical dog" (Toedoe).  When I visited Rose, I fed Toedoe little doggy treats and she and I became intimate pals.  But one Sunday Toedoe was very disappointed in me.  Rose came forward to receive Communion with Toedoe riding on top of her wheelchair.  When I served Rose Communion, Toedoe looked at me expectantly.  What I failed to realize is that our Communion wafers were the same size and shape as the doggy treats I'd feed her.  When I didn't give her "a doggy treat" like I seemed to have given her mistress, Toedoe whimpered and groaned in disillusionment!  I was sorry to disappoint his sweet little dog and thought to myself, "Maybe I should put a doggy treat on the Communion tray of wafers.  But then the Lord put Jesus' saying into my mind, "Don't give what is holy to the dogs."  I was reminded that Jesus has a sense of humor and recognized that Jesus didn't have expectant dogs like Toedoe in mind when He said that.

A few weeks later, Rose came forward after the service for prayer, but was preceded by Dorla.  As I was laying hands on Dorla and praying for her, Toedoe (sitting atop Rose's wheelchair as usual) began barking furiously at me!  Toedoe was jealous for Rose's sake and had no concept of "Wait your turn."  Toedoe remembered that during my pastoral visits Rose would stop crying and would brighten up when I laid hands on her and prayed for her.  On one occasion, when Rose continued weeping as I was praying, Toedoe gave me a stern look and groaned as if to say, "It's your job to cheer up my mistress--and today you failed!"  I apologized to Dorla (who just laughed) and layed hands on Rose instead and Toedoe expressed her approval. 

Back to Matthew 7:6, the earliest interpretation is found in the Didache (The Teaching of the 12 Apostles), which was written during the NT era.  The Didache takes Jesus' saying to mean, "Don't serve Communion to unbaptized supplicants."  I doubt that this was its original meaning.  "Dogs" was Jewish slang for Gentiles.  I think what Jesus originally meant was this: Don't share essential spiritual teachings with Gentiles who are not ready to hear it and will only ridicule your teaching.