Quotes from Richard J. Foster

A Spiritual Discipline is an intentionally directed action by which we do what we can do in order to receive from God the ability (or power) to do what we cannot do by direct effort.

There is one major difference that has occurred in the past forty years that does indeed impinge upon the spiritual life. I can state it in one word: distraction. Distraction is the primary spiritual problem in contemporary culture.

Even more insidious are the ways we are bombarded by the broad distractions of constant noise, constant demands, constant news.

our physical capacity for sustained attention is decreasing.

There is, however, a better way to live. For all who are longing for a new start, allow me to provide you with a spiritual exercise (the Spiritual Disciplines can come in many forms) that can begin to free you from the crippling grip of multiple distractions.

Be encouraged by the teaching of Thomas Aquinas that "habit overcomes habit.

To be effective pray-ers, we need to be effective lovers.

John Wesley once said: "Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God…such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on earth."9

Self-denial is an unfamiliar concept for many of us today, and we worry that it requires losing our individuality. But all self-denial means is realizing that we do not always have to have our own way, that our happiness does not depend on getting what we want.1

However brightly the light may shine, it can be seen only by those who are spiritually prepared to receive it. 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.'" —A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy 8

Of this much we can be sure: if we love the creation, we will learn from it. In The Brothers Karamazov Dostoevski counsels, "Love all God's creation, the whole and every grain of sand in it. Love every leaf, every ray of God's light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day."4

I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man. All the good from The Savior of the world is communicated to us through this Book." —Abraham Lincoln5

The fruit of the Spirit is the outward evidence of the inward reality of a heart "abiding" in Christ.

God has given us the Disciplines of the spiritual life as a means of receiving his grace. The Disciplines allow us to place ourselves

One caution: our souls will never grow in God if we read the Bible solely to get ammunition to defend ourselves or to defeat others. No. We read the Bible to be fed. We read it to be converted, to be strengthened, to be taught, to be rebuked, to be counseled, to be comforted. As we sit under the Bible for sustained periods, we will be formed by the experience.

To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God. —WILLIAM TEMPLE To

As Foster writes, "We will never have pure enough motives, or be good enough, or know enough in order to pray rightly. We simply must set all these things aside and begin praying. In fact, it is in the very act of prayer itself—the intimate, ongoing interaction with God—that these matters are cared for in due time."1

God first acts in grace and mercy by delivering the people, and then the people respond in gratitude and thanksgiving by obeying the commandments. Put succinctly: the crossing of the Red Sea comes before the giving of the Ten Commandments. How

To worship is to experience Reality, to touch Life. It is to know, to feel, to experience the resurrected Christ in the midst of the gathered community. It is a breaking into the Shekinah of God, or better yet, being invaded by the Shekinah of God.* God

many things tempt our hearts to put them first and God second. We must root out the desire to worship these things and focus on the true God. The

OUR CHOICE IS either to trust our plans with all our heart or trust our God.

The water was only parted once they had acted in faith and followed God. They could not count on any plans, because God gave them none. He only gave them himself. God was the plan.

Every soul belongs to God and exists by His pleasure. God being who and what He is, and we being who and what we are, the only thinkable relation between us is one of full Lordship on His part and complete submission on ours. We owe Him every honor that is in our power to give Him. Our everlasting grief lies in giving Him anything less." —A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God 4

Kierkegaard writes, "…riches and abundance come hypocritically clad in sheep's clothing pretending to be security against anxieties and they become then the object of anxiety…they secure a man against anxieties just about as well as the wolf which is put to tending the sheep secures them…against the wolf.