Richard J. Foster

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Articles & Essays by Richard J. Foster

Book Excerpt from Sanctuary of the Soul

Heart Transformation and Friendship with Jesus

Published December, 2010 • Featured January 31, 2020

Can there be progress for­ward in our life with God? From Sanc­tu­ary of the Soul, Richard Fos­ter looks at what changes we can expect to hap­pen as we fol­low Jesus and keep ask­ing, lis­ten­ing, and obeying.

Article

Becoming Like Christ

Published February, 1996 • Featured January 12, 2020

For Chris­tians, heav­en is not the goal. The goal is for Christ to be formed in us. Richard Fos­ter shows how that form­ing hap­pens through expe­ri­en­tial, for­mal, and instru­men­tal means.

Journal/Magazine Article

Getting the Big Picture

Published April, 1986 • Featured November 5, 2019

In this clas­sic arti­cle from Chris­tian­i­ty Today, Richard Fos­ter encour­ages Chris­tians to embrace the author­i­ty and wis­dom God has invest­ed in his wit­ness­es — Bible writ­ers and exam­ples in scrip­ture, as well as saints and fol­low­ers of Christ down through the ages.

Book Excerpt from Streams of Living Water

Defining the Social Justice Tradition: The Compassionate Life

Published October, 1998 • Featured October 17, 2019

Social jus­tice is where love meets the road. From Streams of Liv­ing Water, Richard Fos­ter opens up three great themes of the Social Jus­tice Tra­di­tion that are won­der­ful­ly summed up in the Hebrew words mish­pat, hesed, and shalom.

Book Excerpt

The Danger of Spiritual Disciplines

Published February, 1983 • Featured October 1, 2019

Dis­ci­plines of the spir­i­tu­al life put us in a place where we can expe­ri­ence inner trans­for­ma­tion as a gift. Richard Fos­ter warns of pit­falls that can hin­der our way.

Article

Intro to John Wimber's Book _Power Healing_

Published September, 1987 • Featured September 19, 2019

Pow­er Heal­ing by John Wim­ber and Kevin Springer, first pub­lished in 1987, con­tin­ues to pro­vide valu­able insight for Chris­tians into the Why, What, and How of seek­ing heal­ing from God. Richard Fos­ter penned the intro.

Letter

Sitting with Suffering

Published April, 1992 • Featured September 17, 2019

How do we address the suf­fer­ing of oth­ers? What can we say or do to alle­vi­ate their pain? Richard Fos­ter offers some wise words on the spir­i­tu­al prac­tice of pres­ence that will help fill their sea­sons of grief and tragedy with heal­ing and grace.

Book Excerpt from Streams of Living Water

Defining the Charismatic Tradition: The Spirit-Empowered Life

Published October, 1998 • Featured September 3, 2019

“Frankly, there are no ​‘non­charis­mat­ic Chris­tians.” In this excerpt from Streams of Liv­ing Water, Richard Fos­ter val­i­dates super­nat­ur­al spir­i­tu­al gifts and reminds us that in exer­cis­ing them the end goal must always be love and unity.

Journal/Magazine Article

A Life of Prayer and Holy Obedience in a War-Wracked World

Published February, 1983 • Featured August 29, 2019

In this sub­stan­tial piece by Richard Fos­ter on the rela­tion­ship between prayer and holy obe­di­ence in fight­ing spir­i­tu­al war­fare, he reminds us of Edward Payson words, ​“Prayer is the first thing, the sec­ond thing, the third thing nec­es­sary to a min­is­ter. Pray, then, pray, pray, pray.”

Book Excerpt from Streams of Living Water

Defining the Holiness Tradition: The Virtuous Life

Published October, 1998 • Featured August 6, 2019

In this excerpt from Streams of Liv­ing Water, Richard Fos­ter reveals the beau­ty of a vir­tu­ous life by lay­ing out what holi­ness is and is not.

Article

Five Misconceptions that Hinder Prayer

Published February, 1994 • Featured July 30, 2019

There are com­mon mis­con­cep­tions that hin­der a rich and ful­fill­ing prayer life. Richard Fos­ter looks at five of them.

Book Excerpt

How to Start a Prayer Journal

Published May, 1994 • Featured July 25, 2019

Richard Fos­ter invites us to fol­low the lead of dis­ci­ples such as St. Augus­tine, Julian of Nor­wich, and Blaise Pas­cal in the prac­tice of jour­nal­ing our prayers.

Book Excerpt from Streams of Living Water

Defining The Contemplative Tradition: The Prayer-Filled Life

Published October, 1998 • Featured July 9, 2019

“The two most com­mon words used to describe the con­tem­pla­tive way of life are fire and love. Purg­ing, puri­fy­ing fire. Envelop­ing, com­fort­ing love.” In this excerpt from Streams of Liv­ing Water, Richard Fos­ter intro­duces us to the con­tem­pla­tive life.

Book Excerpt from Streams of Living Water

Practical Ways to Live All of Life With God

Published October, 1998 • Featured June 26, 2019

In this excerpt from Streams of Liv­ing Water, Richard Fos­ter pro­vides very prac­ti­cal ways to live all of life — every­day home and fam­i­ly and work life — with God.

Book Excerpt from Streams of Living Water

Defining The Incarnational Tradition: The Sacramental Life

Published October, 1998 • Featured June 5, 2019

God likes mat­ter and uses it ​“to make present and vis­i­ble the invis­i­ble realm of the spir­it”. In this excerpt from Streams of Liv­ing Water, Richard Fos­ter invites us to live sacra­men­tal­ly in all of life.

Book Excerpt from Streams of Living Water

Defining The Evangelical Tradition: The Word-Centered Life

Published October, 1998 • Featured May 30, 2019

From Streams of Liv­ing Water, Richard Fos­ter defines the three themes of the Evan­gel­i­cal Tra­di­tion: the faith­ful procla­ma­tion of the gospel, the cen­tral­i­ty of Scrip­ture, and the con­fes­sion­al wit­ness of the ear­ly Chris­t­ian community.

Journal/Magazine Article

The Day God Died

Published March, 1977 • Featured April 3, 2019

Richard Fos­ter digs deeply into the mean­ing of Jesus’ death on the cross and the heal­ing it makes available.

Letter

Maturing the Spiritual Formation Movement

Published August, 2010 • Featured March 19, 2019

Some of us have been at this spir­i­tu­al for­ma­tion work for a while now, long enough to see quite a mix­ture of help­ful and decid­ed­ly unhelp­ful things set forth. Richard Fos­ter assess­es where we are and pro­pos­es a way forward.

Book Excerpt from Celebration of Discipline

The Path to Joy

Published March, 1976 • Featured February 12, 2019

In the spir­i­tu­al life, the only thing that will pro­duce gen­uine joy is obe­di­ence. Richard Fos­ter explains why in this piece from Cel­e­bra­tion of Dis­ci­pline.

Book Excerpt from The Making Of An Ordinary Saint

Understanding Celebration

Published October, 2014 • Featured February 6, 2019

Richard Fos­ter shares how cel­e­bra­tion pre­vents the spir­i­tu­al dis­ci­plines from dete­ri­o­rat­ing into soul-killing legalisms and saves us from tak­ing our­selves too seriously.