Quotes from Richard J. Foster

Do we see a college education, for example, as a ticket to privilege or as a training for service to the needy? What do we teach our teenagers in this matter? Do we urge them to enter college because it will better equip them to serve? Or do we try to bribe them with promises of future status and salary increases? No wonder they graduate more deeply concerned about their standard of living than about suffering humanity. As

all authentic prayer is a scraping of the heart whereby the dregs of the soul are offered up to God.

Solitude The creation of an open, empty space in our lives by purposefully abstaining from interaction with other human beings, so that, freed from competing loyalties, we can be found by God The

Catherine Marshall writes, "Resignation is barren of faith in the love of God…. Resignation lies down quietly in the dust of a universe from which God seems to have fled, and the door of Hope swings shut."2

The twentieth-century Lutheran martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer, when asked why he meditated, replied, "Because I am a Christian.

Thomas à Kempis writes, "It is easier to be silent altogether than to speak with moderation."4

Let us be among those who believe that the inner transformation of our lives is a goal worthy of our best effort. -P. 11

You see, the goal of the Christian life is not simply to get us into heaven, but to get heaven into us!

We simply cannot consider the earth apart from Christ's footsteps imprinted upon it.

I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation." —C. S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms6

Shekinah" means the glory or the radiance of God dwelling in the midst of his people. It denotes the immediate Presence of God as opposed to a God who is abstract or aloof.

Little children, love one another.

Out of the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water" (John 7:38). The astonishing new reality in this mighty flow of the Spirit is how sovereignly God is bringing together streams of life that have been isolated from one another for a very long time.

In contemporary society our Adversary majors in three things: noise, hurry, and crowds.

But when we pray, genuinely pray, the real condition of our heart is revealed. This is as it should be. This is when God truly begins to work with us. The adventure is just beginning.

God, what is man's best gift to mankind? To be beautiful of soul and then let people see into your soul.

When we despair of gaining inner transformation through human powers of will and determination, we are open to a wonderful new realization: inner righteousness is a gift from God to be graciously received. The needed change within us is God's work, not ours. The demand is for an inside job, and only God can work from the inside. We cannot attain or earn this righteousness of the kingdom of God; it is a grace that is given.

The moment we feel we can succeed and attain victory over sin by the strength of our will alone is the moment we are worshiping the will.

For now, do not worry about "proper" praying, just talk to God. Share your hurts, share your sorrows, share your joys—freely and openly. God listens in compassion and love, just like we do when our children come to us.

will not break a bruised reed, or quench a smoldering wick" (Isa. 423; Matt. 12:20).

We pass from thinking of God as part of our life to the realization that we are part of his life.

But the king said to Araunah, "No, but I will buy them from you for a price: I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God that cost me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

Important insights ought never to be limited to the group from which may arise.

Remember that the key to the Discipline of study is not reading many books, but experiencing what we do read.