The place to start for spiritual disciplines | Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth |...

Excellent Book | Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth | Richard J. Foster

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	• Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth Richard J. Foster HarperSanFrancisco, 1998 - 248 pages average customer review:based on 117 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Beginning of a more in-depth spiritual journey

This book is divided into 3 parts. Part 1 dwells on the inward disciplines, covering meditation, prayer, fasting and study. Inward disciplines are about practices by and on one-self leading to inward transformation. Part 2 is about the outward disciplines, covering simplicity, solitude, submission and service. Outward disciplines are about practices reflecting the outward life-style and interaction with the people around. Inward disciplines and transformations reinforce and enhance your outward disciplines and transformations. With inward and outward disciplines being focused on individuals, this leads to Part 3 which highlights on the corporate disciplines, covering confession, worship, guidance and celebration. Corporate disciplines are basically centered on groups of people or the church community, where you as an individual are a participant.

Meditation heightens our spiritual sensitivity which will in turn lead us into prayer. We will then discover that prayer involves fasting as an accompanying means. From the base of these 3 Inward Disciplines, we can move effectively into study which gives us discernment about ourselves and the world in which we live. Through simplicity we live with others in integrity. Solitude allows us to be genuinely present to people when we are with them. Through submission we live with others without manipulation and through service we are a blessing to them. Confession frees us from ourselves and releases us to worship. Worship opens the door to guidance. All the Disciplines freely exercised bring forth the doxology of celebration.

In addition, this book discusses on the differences between Eastern and Christian meditation. Eastern meditation is an attempt to empty the mind, where they stress on the need to become detached from the world and place emphasis upon losing personhood and individuality and merging with the cosmic mind. There is a longing to be freed from the burdens and pains of this life and to be released into impersonality of Nirvana. Detachment is the final goal of Eastern religion. On the other hand, Christian meditation is an attempt to fill the mind, where there is a need for detachment. However it goes beyond the notion of detachment, where we must proceed to go on to attachment. The detachment from the confusion all around us is in order for us to have a richer attachment to God.

Through this book, Foster reiterates multiple times that the purpose of the Disciplines is freedom. Our aim should be the freedom and not the Disciplines. The moment we make the Disciplines our central focus, we tend to turn it into law (becoming modern Pharisees) and consequently lose the corresponding freedom. The liberation is the end; the Disciplines are merely the means. They are not the answer; they only lead us to the Answer.

When we thought we have completed reading and deciphering this book, it actually marks the new beginning of a more in-depth spiritual journey. It will be a journey that spells the presence of the Holy Trinity and beyond believing and understanding the Disciplines, it will instill the desire and ways to be a faithful follower. We have to transit from being a believer to becoming a follower.

The full benefits of this book can be reaped effectively when done in a small group of believers and put into actual practice (which is always the most challenging part!). From the discussions and studies, the book will help you to walk closer to God. However caution needs to be taken that one is firmly grounded in the Christian belief, otherwise one could be easily misled, for example the practice of imagination in the Discipline of meditation.

This book has an accompanying "Celebrating the Disciplines Journal" workbook, which aids in your growth and transformation.

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The place to start for spiritual disciplines

Foster lays the foundation for cultivating a life marked by the spiritual disciplines. He touches on the major aspects of all the basic disciplines--prayer, fasting, journaling, silence, meditation, etc. While he doesn't give a thorough treatment of each one (as this was not his goal), he shows readers the path to developing these vital spiritual habits of the heart. Highly recommended for all looking to deepen their relationship with Christ.

Excellent Book

This is a great book for anyone desiring a more full experience of Christ. I will use it much throughout the years to come.

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Great for Discipleship

I had to buy this book for a class and I love it. It is an older book but it has essentials that modern discipleship has forgotten, like fasting. If you are looking for how you can grow closer to God, the methods in this book will help you.

Classic Overview

A classic overview of spiritual disciplines, Foster's book offers an understanding of Christian growth through prayer and discipline. A good book for beginners.

In the twenty years since its publication, Celebration of Discipline has helped over a million seekers discover a richer spiritual life infused with joy, peace, and a deeper understanding of God. For this special twentieth anniversary edition, Richard J. Foster has added an introduction, in which he shares the story of how this beloved and enduring spiritual guidebook came to be.

Hailed by many as the best modern book on Christian spirituality, Celebration of Discipline explores the "classic Disciplines," or central spiritual practices, of the Christian faith. Along the way, Foster shows that it is only by and through these practices that the true path to spiritual growth can be found.

Dividing the Disciplines into three movements of the Spirit, Foster shows how each of these areas contribute to a balanced spiritual life. The inward Disciplines of meditation, prayer, fasting, and study, offer avenues of personal examination and change. The outward Disciplines of simplicity, solitude, submission, and service, help prepare us to make the world a better place. The corporate Disciplines of confession, worship, guidance, and celebration, bring us nearer to one another and to God.

Foster provides a wealth of examples demonstrating how these Disciplines can become part of our daily activities-and how they can help us shed our superficial habits and "bring the abundance of God into our lives." 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." The discussion of celebration, often the most neglected of the Disciplines, shows its critical importance, for it stands at the heart of the way to Christ. Celebration of Discipline will help motivate Christians everywhere to embark on a journey of prayer and spiritual growth.

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