Richard J. Foster

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Articles & Essays by Richard J. Foster

Book Excerpt from Life with God

Seeing the Bible Afresh

Published April, 2008 • Featured June 12, 2018

Is it time to see Scrip­ture with new eyes? For any­one ​“starv­ing at the spir­i­tu­al feast,” Richard Fos­ter offers a par­a­digm for Bible study called the Immanuel Prin­ci­ple — God with us.

Book Excerpt from The Making Of An Ordinary Saint

Understanding Study

Published October, 2014 • Featured June 5, 2018

“Study is the process where­by our minds take on an order con­form­ing to the order of what­ev­er we con­cen­trate upon.” Richard Fos­ter suc­cinct­ly intro­duces this mon­th’s dis­ci­pline of study.

Article

The Purpose of Fasting

Published December, 1977 • Featured May 22, 2018

In this excerpt from Cel­e­bra­tion of Dis­ci­pline, Richard Fos­ter helps us see that ​“fast­ing must for­ev­er cen­ter on God. It must be God-ini­ti­at­ed and God-ordained.”

Book Excerpt from The Making Of An Ordinary Saint

Understanding Fasting

Published September, 2014 • Featured May 8, 2018

“Fast­ing is the vol­un­tary denial of an oth­er­wise nor­mal func­tion for the sake of intense spir­i­tu­al activ­i­ty.” Richard Fos­ter explains the what and why of this mon­th’s focus discipline.

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

We Never Outgrow Asking

Published July, 1992 • Featured April 25, 2018

Ado­ra­tion or con­tem­pla­tion may seem nobler than ask­ing God for some­thing. But Richard Fos­ter kind­ly insists that peti­tion isn’t a low­er form of prayer — it’s our sta­ple diet.

Book Excerpt from The Making Of An Ordinary Saint

Understanding Prayer

Published September, 2014 • Featured April 10, 2018

In April 2018, we’re look­ing togeth­er at the dis­ci­pline of prayer. With whom bet­ter to start, then, than Richard Fos­ter, whose book Prayer: Find­ing the Heart’s True Home has blessed so many over the years? Join us in explor­ing a dis­ci­pline that God uses to wel­come, embrace, and change us.

Interview

Forty Years of Celebration of Discipline: An Interview with Richard Foster

Featured April 5, 2018

Richard Fos­ter chats with Paul Ander­son of George Fox Uni­ver­si­ty about the 40^th anniver­sary of Cel­e­bra­tion of Dis­ci­pline, how that first book led to many oth­ers, why Ren­o­varé came into being, the ways being a Quak­er shaped his inter­de­nom­i­na­tion­al out­reach, and what the future holds.

Book Excerpt from Celebration of Discipline

Technology Cannot Nourish the Soul

Featured March 14, 2018

Forty years ago, tra­di­tion­al ways of grow­ing in grace had large­ly fall­en by the way­side of west­ern Chris­tian­i­ty. Yet, many had a strong desire to find prac­tices to enter more ful­ly and deeply into Christ­like­ness. Richard Fos­ter penned Cel­e­bra­tion of Dis­ci­pline as a response to this need.

Book Excerpt from The Making Of An Ordinary Saint

Understanding Meditation

Published October, 2014 • Featured March 6, 2018

Prayer is the inter­ac­tive rela­tion­ship we have with God about what we and God are work­ing on togeth­er. Chris­t­ian med­i­ta­tion is the lis­ten­ing side of this inter­ac­tive relationship.

Article

An Experiment with Ignatius' Spiritual Exercises

Published March, 1993 • Featured February 15, 2018

In this clas­sic newslet­ter arti­cle, Richard Fos­ter shares his exper­i­ment with the rhythms of Ignatius’ Spir­i­tu­al Exer­cis­es dur­ing Lent.

Book Excerpt from The Making Of An Ordinary Saint

Understanding Submission

Published October, 2014 • Featured February 4, 2018

How does Jesus call us to fol­low him not only to a ​“cross death” but a ​“cross life”? How can we only be tru­ly free when we are cap­tives of the Lord? Richard Fos­ter intro­duces us to the spir­i­tu­al dis­ci­pline of submission.

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

Prevail with God

Featured January 21, 2018

Richard Fos­ter joins us today to offer ​“a mag­nif­i­cent mod­el” of inter­ces­so­ry prayer from the Exo­dus 17 sto­ry of Moses, Aaron, and Hur. Why is noth­ing more impor­tant than this type of prayer in the ​“ongo­ing work of the king­dom of God”? Fos­ter explains in this excerpt from his book on prayer.

Book Excerpt from The Challenge of the Disciplined Life

Spiritual Power May Look Like Weakness

Featured January 7, 2018

“My grace is suf­fi­cient for you, for my pow­er is made per­fect in weak­ness” (2 Cor. 12:8). We share an always time­ly reflec­tion from Richard Fos­ter’s The Chal­lenge of the Dis­ci­plined Life on the immense pow­er hid­den in the seem­ing weak­ness of those who remain faith­ful to God.

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

Release with Hope

Featured January 2, 2018

Some­times, the start of a new year can serve as an impe­tus to let go of the destruc­tive things in our lives. The Prayer of Relin­quish­ment can move us from ​“the strug­gling to the releas­ing,” as Richard Fos­ter writes in his book, Prayer: The Heart’s True Home. Here he shares a per­son­al story.

Book Excerpt from Celebration of Discipline

Celebrate!

Featured December 17, 2017

At Christ­mas­time, we find it fun to pull out some thoughts on the spir­i­tu­al dis­ci­pline of cel­e­bra­tion from Richard Fos­ter’s Cel­e­bra­tion of Dis­ci­pline.​With a nod to all things un-Scrooge from Nephew Fred added in, we’re going North Pole all the way! May these cel­e­bra­to­ry ideas enrich your holiday!

Article

The Contemporary Battlefronts

Published March, 1989 • Featured November 9, 2017

We fin­ish Richard Fos­ter’s con­sid­er­a­tion of what it means to be in the Lam­b’s Army with a look at some cur­rent bat­tle­fronts in the realm of ​“prin­ci­pal­i­ties and pow­ers, the rulers of the dark­ness of this world, and spir­i­tu­al wicked­ness.” The stakes are high, but the Vic­tor is certain.

Journal/Magazine Article

The Peaceable War of the Lamb

Published March, 1989 • Featured November 5, 2017

“We are called into this army with the Lord Jesus Christ as the com­man­der-in-chief who leads his faith­ful peo­ple through all of his­to­ry,” Richard Fos­ter writes in this piece. What is the war he calls us into, and how can we best serve him? Richard explores these ideas in three parts.

Essay

Practicing the Sermon on the Mount

Published October, 2017 • Featured October 19, 2017

Richard Fos­ter invites us to think anew on the Ser­mon on the Mount and, with the help of Dal­las Willard, asks us to engage in some prac­tices to live these star­tling, wise, and impor­tant words of Christ more deeply into our lives.

Book Excerpt from Streams of Living Water

The Stories of Francis

Featured October 5, 2017

The pow­er of God worked through St. Fran­cis of Assisi’s life in innu­mer­able ways, man­i­fest­ing itself in mir­a­cles and astound­ing acts of charity​. Richard Fos­ter joins us to relate some of the sto­ries of Fran­cis that exem­pli­fy his mod­el of the Charis­mat­ic tradition.

Book Excerpt from Streams of Living Water

Introducing Francesco

Featured October 1, 2017

Fran­cis of Assisi is one of our most uni­ver­sal­ly beloved Chris­t­ian saints. Richard Fos­ter joins us to share the sto­ry of how a maraud­ing hooli­gan in the 13^th cen­tu­ry became one of God’s most endur­ing and pow­er­ful wit­ness­es of a Spir­it-filled life. Come spend some time with good St. Frank!