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Featured Advent One De La Tour

The Long­ing of God to Be Con­nect­ed to You

Writ­ten for the first week of Advent as part of the Ren­o­varé resource Med­i­ta­tions on the Birth of Jesus, Miri­am Dixon and Mar­garet Camp­bell engage our imag­i­na­tions to help us hear God’s invi­ta­tion into restored relationship.
Miriam Dixon Margaret Campbell
Miriam Dixon & Margaret Campbell
November 25, 2020
Bird mid flight

Life Goes On

In this med­i­ta­tion, Howard Thur­man — one of the great preach­ers of the twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry and spir­i­tu­al advi­sor to Mar­tin Luther King, Jr. — invites us to over­come by evil and despair by attend­ing ​“to the lit­tle graces.”
Howard Thurman
Howard Thurman
November 20, 2020
Hands holding grapes

Come, Then Stay

Alive. Vibrant. True. Acces­si­ble. Anoint­ed. These are good words to describe the writ­ing of Andrew Mur­ray, which has endured for gen­er­a­tions. Here is the first day of his clas­sic thir­ty-one day devo­tion­al, Abide in Christ.
Andrew Murray
Andrew Murray
November 13, 2020
Child listening

Hear­ing and Obeying

With straight­for­ward clar­i­ty, Richard Fos­ter explains that ​“Chris­t­ian med­i­ta­tion, very sim­ply, is the abil­i­ty to hear God’s voice and obey his word. It is that simple.”
Richard J. Foster
Richard J. Foster
November 13, 2020
Pomegranate

The For­ma­tion of Chris­t­ian Character

From W.S. Bruce’s 1908 book, The For­ma­tion of Chris­t­ian Char­ac­ter, this buried gem of wis­dom out­lin­es why the words​“Chris­tian” and​“char­ac­ter” can’t be separated.
William Stratton Bruce
November 6, 2020
Church sprouting

What Do Spir­i­tu­al For­ma­tion Based Con­gre­ga­tions Look Like?

In this May 2006 pas­toral let­ter to the Ren­o­varé com­mu­ni­ty, Richard Fos­ter lays out the char­ac­ter­is­tics and prin­ci­ples of spir­i­tu­al for­ma­tion based con­gre­ga­tions, and puts prac­ti­cal skin on them with per­son­al stories.
Richard J. Foster
Richard J. Foster
October 30, 2020
Roof hole

A Mag­nif­i­cent Act of Mercy

In Mark’s Gospel, four men dug a hole in a roof to help their friend. ​“Their child­like trust in Jesus’ pow­er to heal their par­a­lyzed friend rav­ished Jesus’ ten­der heart.” Ask­ing for mer­cy, Fil Ander­son points out, requires humility.
Fil Anderson
Fil Anderson
October 23, 2020
Snail

Learn­ing To Trust The Slow Work Of God

Car­olyn Arends reminds us that spir­i­tu­al for­ma­tion is a slow process by design. ​“Let’s not mis­take God’s patience for inactivity.”
Carolyn Arends
Carolyn Arends
October 22, 2020
Woman older looking up

Acknowl­edg­ing God in All We Do

“Dis­ci­ple­ship means learn­ing to acknowl­edge God in all we do,” writes Dal­las Willard, ​“and it takes a lot of learning.”
Dallas Willard
Dallas Willard
October 14, 2020
Bonhoeffer 3x2

Bon­ho­ef­fer­’s Road to Freedom

Read anew some well-con­sid­ered words from Diet­rich Bon­ho­ef­fer on the ​“four great dimen­sions of a spir­i­tu­al life that lead to free­dom in all its facets.” Richard Fos­ter intro­duces us to them in this excerpt from Streams of Liv­ing Water
Richard J. Foster Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Richard J. Foster & Dietrich Bonhoeffer
October 12, 2020