DISQUS

Jan · 1 year ago

Just FYI, prayer meetings here that are organized by major intercessors also make the Mexican pastors nervous.

Joseph Cotten · 1 year ago

Okay, from the linked "fascinating related article", check out this quote:

"The same clinical picture always emerges. It begins with general anxiety and nervousness, and then the tourist feels an imperative need to visit the holy places. First, he undertakes a series of purification rituals, like shaving all his body hair, cutting his nails and washing himself over and over before he dons white clothes. Most often, he lifts the white sheets from his hotel room. Then he begins to cry or to sing Biblical or religious songs in a very loud voice. The next step is an actual visit to the holy places, most often from the life of Jesus. The afflicted tourist begins to deliver a sermon, demanding that humanity become calmer, purer, and less materialistic.

Dr. Bar-El, says that besides their bizarre behavior, everything else about the tourists in normal"


Yeah, that's gotta be a demon. Ha! The Holy Land Demon!

Martha Margaret · 1 year ago

Ahhhh, here is the irreverent, sarcastic and hilarious brother in law (one of them!)that I know and love. I had been pretty worried that the pastorate would make you all religious and goody-goody. I should have known better, given your sacreligious family history! :)

Yes, this is a pet peeve of mine too. Is it really #27 or did you make that up? If not, I want to know what the first 26 are.

ded · 1 year ago

It sort of smacks of "christian" superstition, eh?

Greg · 1 year ago

Well there goes my "Holy Relics" online shopping business I was putting together... I remember back in the "Shofar Mania" of the mid-1990s someone (I won't name the name!) kept trying to get your father-in-law to blow the shofar at LWCF and Ben kept on coming up with very creative reasons to put the guy off. Finally, the guy came and said that Ben wasn't qualified to do it because "only those whose lips were anointed by God were allowed to blow the shofar." Guess what? Amazingly enough he then informed us that God had anointed his lips for "such a time as this." This shofar madness was only further propagated when it was blown to open the evangelical movement's "March on Washington" in 1996 (the day I officially left evangelicalism due to its hokeyness and cheesyness. I later returned to the fold, mind you after the turn of the century). Anyhoo, if it was good enough for the Christian "Million Man March," the guy reasoned, then it was certainly good enough for LWCF. So, if my memory recalls it correctly, poor Ben fiiiinally let the hyper guy blow the darn thing.

Personally I'm holding out for one of those Holy Hand Grenades of Monty Python Holy Grail fame...

Martha Margaret · 1 year ago

Ben, I want to know what your dad thinks about all this...he was the main one at Jubilee blowing the shofar. Remember that HUGE one he got? It was so big and it stank inside.(I guess like a ram??) I will never forget the first time I heard it being blown...it scared me half to death -- that thing was so loud!

Ben Cotten · 1 year ago

@Martha: I made the "#27" up, but I'm sure I could think of 26 more. ;-) I'd like to know what Dad thinks too. I haven't seen the shofar make an appearance in quote a while, but I'm sure he could still blast that thing like Gideon if he wanted to. I must admit, he is the most skilled shofar player I've heard. He could get several tones out of it, as I recall.

@Greg: Holy Hand Grenade, indeed! After all, it is the only way to kill an attack rabbit.

@Joseph: That part of the article made me laugh too. I mean, how can you use the word "normal" concerning anyone who shaved all their body hair, donned a bed sheet and wandered the streets of Jerusalem calling themselves Elijah? It seems to me that at that point you have been permanently removed from the "normal" category.

Reed · 1 year ago

All right, the coolest shofar I ever saw was one that was bored out on the smaller end with a trumpet mouth piece unceremoniously and probably unsacramentally inserted so any "unclean, gentile schmuck" could blow the thing. As a one time brass man, I had to give it a go - It put a very, dare I say, "pastoral" vibe on the theme from "2001 A Space Odyssey"

Good morning Dave...

John Lunt · 1 year ago

Hmmm... I've been an intercessor most of my Christian life.... I never did the prayer shawl or shofar thing... but I really like the anointing oil with cool smells....

By the way, pastors and Sunday morning sermons are a little weird too don't you think

I mean most of our intercession is - God make sure the Pastor gets it right this time... :-) Sorry, couldn't resist.

Fun post and for the most part I agree with you... except for the scented holy land oil blessed by one of the televangelist prophets.

Michael · 1 year ago

Well, I think Ben's "problem" with all things Jewish goes back to his parading around town on one Halloween night singing at the top of his voice, "We are the circumcision that worships God in the Spirit." He might need some personal ministry because of that . . .

Sarah (Real Life) · 1 year ago

I got stuck at one of those prayer meetings ALL NIGHT one night in college. It was two hours away from home, and I of course was not driving. They were doing some special dance with the shawls and entrancing music in the background. I spent the whole night praying I could go home! The people I went with thought I was demon oppressed because I thought the whole thing was insane.

Morris · 1 year ago

Please pray for Ms Mamta for her safety, protection, deliverance.Her mother & sisters are getting her forcibly married to a person whom she does not like.That boy has beaten her on the street and in the commercial area.She is afraid cause she is all alone for no one is standing with her or supporting her in this situation.Pray that trhe Lord would intervene and make a way out for her in this situation. She is a believer. She may be have compromised with the situation cause theres no other option for her.But still we believe in the God of Miracles.Pls pray for a miracle to take place and that she would be delivered.Pls pray for the miracle totake place before 26th of this month.

Jenny · 1 year ago

Hi
May God take you beyond your peeves and into His presence. the saddest site I have seen in some time - why, as His people have you chosen to use something so trivial to attack the work of intercession. Unless you yourself have the heart to intercede for the lost, you won't find yourself at intercession and will be able to criticise outside of the experience of prayer. The Body of Christ will rise with the witness it was intended to when the house of God stop throwing mud at each other and enjoying the effects of fragmented ministries founded on spiritual jealousy, and it will have and it will be the fruit of unity.

It seems that using such a simple concept, your humorous attack on intercession, the enemy has managed to cause suspicion over prayer - it is lack of prayer that sees the church of God in such a state of apathy in many cases.

Use your influence to call the church to prayer.

Turn the power to communicate using the web into construction of the image of God's people and stop adding to the derision that the enemy enjoys while God's own people destroy one another.

You are the Body of Christ. Unite and serve - don't divide and rule. The fruit of the ministry is UNITY - JOHN 17.

My suggestion is that you pray before your write.

Ben Cotten · 1 year ago

I'm not against intercession at all. Thanks for noting that this was a humorous post because that was the intent. To laugh at ourselves a bit and simply admit that we do some silly things.

It sounds like you aren't really offended about prayer but rather that we are laughing over the things we often do thinking that they will increase the effectiveness of our prayer.

Do those prayer shawls and shofars = intercession to you? Is it offending you that I am separating the two with a smile on my face?

I find it really interesting that my serious posts rarely get this kind of reaction. It's when we laugh that people get angry.

Martha Margaret · 1 year ago

Good explanation, Ben.

Ryan Miller · 1 year ago

Grace and peace...
Grace and peace...