Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth

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It’s old wisdom, made accessible for the modern Christian, and if modern people are scared of it or turn their noses up at it, it’s to their detriment. The author claims that these disciplines can infuse life with joy, promoting inner peace and fulfilment.

I won’t be adopting the life of an evangelical mystic anytime soon, but there’s plenty I can learn from Richard Foster.Fasting is receiving more attention these days and it rightfully should since it can engender spiritual insights that might not happen any other way. Foster’s division of spiritual disciplines is a trinity of Inward Individual (meditation, prayer, fasting, study), Outward Individual (simplicity, solitude, submission, service), and Corporate (confession, worship, guidance, celebration). Each beloved book of the Bible comes to life with outstanding performances by Jim Caviezel as Jesus, Richard Dreyfuss as Moses, Gary Sinise as David, Jason Alexander as Joseph, Marisa Tomei as Mary Magdalene, Stacy Keach as Paul, Louis Gossett, Jr. In these months – which are strange and unsettling – we want to be a voice that is encouraging and hopeful, and one that points to Jesus. The disciplines are meditation, prayer, fasting, study, simplicity, solitude, submission, service, confession, worship, guidance, and celebration.

Some people like objective descriptions of neat and tidy concepts (like me), whereas others prefer more subjective, open ended, provocative discussion (like Richard Foster, perhaps).Then, you will notice a rather burning sensation in your will, realizing with horror that it is pulling an about-face. As I look back at the days when we could meet together at church I don’t think that was always my heart posture approaching worship. Much in simplicity was akin to Marxism which I'm completely against, but there's a caveat that made it more palatable. In this revised best-selling book, Peter Scazzero outlines a road map for discipleship with Jesus that is powerfully transformative. The purpose of the Disciplines is liberation from the stifling slaver to self-interest and fear” (p2).

He offers crucial new insights on simplicity, demonstrating how the biblical view of simplicity, properly understood and applied, brings joy and balance to our inward and outward lives and 'sets us free to enjoy the provision of God as a gift that can be shared with others. This practice is closely connected to service which can be spelled out in common courtesy, hospitality, and listening. What I learned from this book is, that is normal and, even in those time, He appreciated my perseverance to "press through" and remain disciplined!

Dallas Willard, one of today's most brilliant Christian thinkers and the author of The Divine Conspiracy ( Christianity Today's 1999 Book of the Year), presents a way of living that enables ordinary men and women to enjoy the fruit of the Christian life. The outward disciplines of simplicity, solitude, submission, and service prepare us to make the world a better place. He cultivates the ground, he plants the seed, he waters the plants, and then the natural forces of the earth take over and up comes the grain. In this chapter Foster salutes the value of "Flash Prayers" which are beamed spontaneously at various people we encounter or think about in the course of the day.