Celebration of Discipline by Foster

What's next? God is like a commode because He gets rid of your filth?

Come on folks. Stick to the Bible. It teaches us all we need to know about our Heavenly Father.

 

From other posts:

If a person is brought to Christ using any of the above quotes or methods or illustrations, or a person is brought to a deeper understanding and following of Christ ... then I see no problem.

Remember the message does not change, but the method of presenting the message may change. It is the message that is important, not the method.

An example:

I heard this story when I was a teenager. A missionary was working with people in an African country where sheep were unknown. To say that Jesus was a 'good shepherd' would have been meaningless to those he was preaching to. The important animal to these people were pigs. So the missionary said, "Jesus was the good pig keeper." This was meaningful and carried the message of Christ to them and some accepted Jesus as their savior. Don't get hung up on method or cultural language. Carry the message to people in ways they can understand.

 

Best post in this thread.

 

No. Use the Bible; preach the word. Just like every single person in the scriptures did. Nowhere in the New Testament do you see Paul telling his disciples to meditate on a water and let it calm them, or to meditate on how God is like a stick. This is just silly New Age nonsense.

People come to Christ by the Word. They grow closer to Him by studying His Word, and by praying to Him. How do we pray to Him? Using contemplative techniques? NO! Jesus said "Don't pray like the pagans!" He then gives us a model for how we should pray, and it did not include thinking about whiteout.

You pray how Rick Warren and Rob Bell tell you to. I will keep praying how Christ commanded me to.

 

What do you suppose they thought about the "good pig keeper" when they read in the bible how Jesus allowed the pig herd to be drowned in the sea?

 

Answer: desiringgod.org

 

I agree 100% with you! :thumbsup:

 

Is that John Piper's website?

 

He sure did make "deviled ham" out of those pigs too! :laugh::laugh:

 

What you are engaged in is the mystical practice of meditation, not the biblical practice, and you are seeking to justify it pragmatically by your experience.

Richard Foster and his ilk are nothing more than wholesale mystics peddling their wares to the evangelical churches. You have stated with Foster, and if you continue you will continue along the lines of existentialism until you are quite blinded by it that you cannot see the error your in.

You want to meditate? Mediate upon the Holy Scriptures. The Scriptures are sufficient to fully furnish you for every good work. THe Scriptures alone are profitable for doctrine, reproof, instruction in rightousness. The Scriptures are the Word of the Living God which more powerful than any two-edged sword, being a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

God does not give you guidence and truth through inward imaginative journeys. God guides His Church by His Spirit through the Scriptures. If you love the truth more than you love your experience, then I would encourage you to start critically examining what you are receiving.

Richard Foster is mystic Quaker. Looking into Quakerism. Look at how true theologians dealt with quakerism.

I am still absolutely flabbergasted at the ease at which churches swallow these false teachings. The fact that seminaries allow this crap is beyond me. I can only conclude that it the judgement of God against the churches. Or perhaps this is the spiritual adultery and the judgement yet comes. But make no mistake about it, when you seek for oneness with God apart from the Lord Jesus Christ as the ONLY mediator between God and men, and the Scriptures Alone as the ONLY source of revelation, then you will end up in idolatry and heresy.

"Christian" mysticism is itself the heresy. Contemplative Prayer, so-called, is heresy. What your guru is calling meditation is eastern mystical meditation, not biblcial meditation.

 

Excellent post RB!

 

Bump for tinytim