Richard J. Foster

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Articles & Essays by Richard J. Foster

Essay

An Everyday Experiment in Hearing God

Published February, 1979 • Featured January 30, 2019

Richard Fos­ter shares a few jour­nal entries from a time when he was tun­ing his ear to ​“the vocab­u­lary of God.”

Book Excerpt from Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home

How We Pray for Daily Bread

Published December, 1991 • Featured January 26, 2019

Trust­ing God ful­ly means learn­ing to ask for our bread, day by day. To those of us who live in a world of effi­cient farm­ing, indus­tri­al bak­eries, and super-sized gro­cery stores, ask­ing for our dai­ly bread may seem a quaint, too triv­ial peti­tion. Not so, says Richard Fos­ter in this excerpt.

Journal/Magazine Article

Jesus Our Present Teacher

Published October, 1977 • Featured January 7, 2019

“Jesus Christ is alive today in pow­er and wants to be your present teacher.” Richard Fos­ter invites us to begin today a lifestyle of lis­ten­ing and obe­di­ence to Christ.

Book Excerpt from The Making Of An Ordinary Saint

Understanding Guidance

Featured December 31, 2018

What is the spir­i­tu­al dis­ci­pline of guid­ance, and how can we fine-tune our hearts to receive what God is giv­ing us? Richard Fos­ter gives us a short introduction.

Book Excerpt from Celebration of Discipline

To Worship is to Touch Life

Featured December 27, 2018

Richard Fos­ter joins us once again to share some thoughts on the imme­di­a­cy of the spir­i­tu­al dis­ci­pline of wor­ship in the with-God life — that sense that we at last are expe­ri­enc­ing Reality.

Book Excerpt from Streams of Living Water

Justice and Liturgical Worship

Featured December 12, 2018

Richard Fos­ter joins us to offer cau­tion from Scrip­ture on the per­ils of divorc­ing our prac­tices of wor­ship from the com­pas­sion­ate heart of our God. Using Amos as his text, Richard con­nects the acts of wor­ship and ser­vice into one joy­ful expres­sion of praise.

Book Excerpt from The Making Of An Ordinary Saint

Understanding Worship

Featured December 3, 2018

Turn­ing to Isa­iah and John’s respons­es to the glo­ry of the liv­ing God as mod­els, Richard Fos­ter gives us a brief intro­duc­tion to the prac­tice of wor­ship, remind­ing us that, whether our encounter with God is one of divine fire­works or a still, small voice, we must answer with awe, won­der, and praise.

Book Excerpt from Celebration of Discipline

The Christian's Authority to Forgive Sin

Published December, 1977 • Featured November 15, 2018

“The fol­low­ers of Jesus Christ have been giv­en the author­i­ty to receive the con­fes­sion of sin and to for­give it in his name.” Richard Fos­ter unpacks the priv­i­lege and pow­er of con­fes­sion in this Cel­e­bra­tion of Dis­ci­pline excerpt.

Book Excerpt from The Making Of An Ordinary Saint

Understanding Confession

Published October, 2014 • Featured November 7, 2018

Con­fes­sion is the spir­i­tu­al dis­ci­pline that allows us to enter into the grace and mer­cy of God in such a way that we expe­ri­ence for­give­ness and heal­ing for the sins and sor­rows of the past.

Book Excerpt from The Challenge of the Disciplined Life

The Vow of Service in the Family

Featured October 30, 2018

This excerpt from Richard Fos­ter’s The Chal­lenge of the Dis­ci­plined Life reveals how to live out the Min­istry of Pow­er, par­tic­u­lar­ly in fam­i­ly life, through the ​“min­istry of the towel.”

Article

Is It So Terrible to be Useful?

Published October, 1988 • Featured October 23, 2018

Draw­ing on a scene from ​“The Last Emper­or,” Richard Fos­ter helps us shift our think­ing from feel­ing used to becom­ing useful.

Book Excerpt from Celebration of Discipline

Self-Righteous Service Versus True Service

Published December, 1977 • Featured October 16, 2018

Richard Fos­ter invites us to dis­cern between self-right­eous ser­vice and true ser­vice, the kind that ​“can serve ene­mies as freely as friends.”

Book Excerpt from The Making Of An Ordinary Saint

Understanding Service

Published October, 2014 • Featured October 9, 2018

“Of all the spir­i­tu­al dis­ci­plines, ser­vice is the most con­ducive to the growth of the grace of humil­i­ty with­in us.” Richard Fos­ter explains why in this snap­shot of Service.

Book Excerpt from Spiritual Classics

Silence Gives Power to Words

Published December, 1999 • Featured September 24, 2018

John Main con­tends that for words to be charged with strength and pow­er, they must spring from the silence of the Spir­it in our inner being.

Book Excerpt from The Making Of An Ordinary Saint

Understanding Solitude

Published October, 2014 • Featured September 20, 2018

“Soli­tude empow­ers us to walk away from all human pre­tense and manip­u­la­tion.” Richard Fos­ter gives us a clear snap­shot of this vital spir­i­tu­al discipline.

Letter

Facing the Fear of Solitude

Published March, 1997 • Featured September 6, 2018

Soli­tude strikes right at the root of our fear of becom­ing unim­por­tant, unneed­ed, insignif­i­cant, use­less— which is pre­cise­ly why we need it. Richard Fos­ter helps us learn how to resign as CEO of the universe.

Book Excerpt from Freedom of Simplicity

Christ the Center

Featured July 31, 2018

Richard Fos­ter draws a pro­found les­son about sim­plic­i­ty from Matthew 6. How are we to live with glad and gen­er­ous hearts? With eyes focused singly on Christ the center.

Journal/Magazine Article

Four Paradoxes of Christian Simplicity

Published December, 2004 • Featured July 17, 2018

Chris­t­ian sim­plic­i­ty is not just a fad­dish attempt to respond to the chaot­ic and mate­ri­al­ist world in which we find our­selves; it is a call giv­en to every Chris­t­ian in every age to fol­low Christ.

Book Excerpt from The Making Of An Ordinary Saint

Understanding Simplicity

Published October, 2014 • Featured July 12, 2018

“Sim­plic­i­ty is an inward real­i­ty that results in an out­ward lifestyle. Both are nec­es­sary. ” Richard Fos­ter explains why.

Blog Post

Guidelines for Simplicity

Featured July 10, 2018

Richard Fos­ter pro­vides a short, sim­ple list of prac­ti­cal sug­ges­tions for liv­ing a life of simplicity.