Richard Foster’s Celebration of discipline #2: Prayer

 I think what surprises me about this chapter is Foster’s expectancy that prayer will, basically, work. I realise I was expecting cautious explanations of how if we look for our prayers to come true, we’ll be sorely disappointed.Of course, the Bible doesn’t say this, and neither does Foster.
He doesn’t give a recipe for success, but [...]

Growing with the Bible in the New Year

A sermon I gave yesterday at Agape Chinese Baptist Church. 
New Year’s resolutions
A New Year feels like a fresh start. We have a whole year ahead of us, not yet spoilt by mistakes or our old ways of doing things. Of course, Chinese New Year isn’t until February 7th, so you have a little longer to make up New [...]

Getting up early to pray

At lunch time today I got to this line from Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline:

David’s desire for God broke the self-indulgent chains of sleep: ‘Early will I seek Thee’ (Ps 63:1). (p. 44)
While reading a book, when I agree with something already, I tend to tick it.  If it challenges what I think, but it [...]

Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline #1: meditation

Starting with meditation has always been a stumbling block for me reading Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline. It’s a toss up between that and fasting for what’s more difficult for me. I guess these are two that require a lot of discipline.
The reason I find meditation so hard is that I don’t like silence much. [...]