Quotes from Dallas Willard

The world that contains the possibility of evil is the one that also contains the greatest possibility of good. And the question of why God allows evil to happen has to be put against the question of what a world where evil could not happen would be like. It's by working on those questions that people can come to some resolution in their minds about the reality of evil and what it means.

This impotence of "systems" is a main reason why Jesus did not send his students out to start governments or even churches as we know them today, which always strongly convey some elements of a human system. They were, instead, to establish beachheads of his person, word, and power in the midst of a failing and futile humanity.

Remember, in Colossians we are told that in him are hidden "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (2:3). And, of course, it's perfectly logical that the reason all the treasures are hidden in him is because he made everything. So if you're engaged in research in some field, you should take him in as your partner, because he really does know what makes things work. Regardless of what you're working on, Jesus has the knowledge required to solve your problems.

God seeks us. The basic nature of God is one of loving community.

The experience of a life without lack depends first and foremost upon the presence of God in our lives, because the source of this life is God himself.

the only definition of eternal life found in Scripture is John 17:3: "And this is eternal life, that they might know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

Like King Saul, many of us have our own versions of a witch of Endor (1 Sam 28).

No good tree produces bad fruit, nor any bad tree good fruit…. The good person, from the good treasured up in his heart, produces what is good. LUKE 6:43–45

It is well known how hard it is to provide a benign order within human means. For the problem, once again, is in the human heart. Until it fully engages with the rule of God, the good that we feel must be cannot come. It will at a certain point be defeated by the very means implemented to produce it.

And they shall live with His face in view, and that they belong to Him will show on their faces. Darkness will no longer be. They will have no need of lamps or sunlight because God the Lord will be radiant in their midst. And they will reign through the ages of ages. REV. 22:4–5

The body is important, but the mind is all-important. And the most important thing about your mind is what it is fixed upon.

Human initiative is not canceled by God redeeming us; it is heightened by immersion in the flow of God's life.

The revolution of Jesus is in the first place and continuously a revolution of the human heart or spirit.

If you are thinking of becoming a Christian, I warn you you are embarking on something which is going to take the whole of you, brains and all…. One reason why it needs no special education to be a Christian is that Christianity is an education itself.

The material universe is both an essential display of the greatness and goodness of God and the arena of the eternal life of finite spirits, including the human.

The intellect is good. Our natural abilities of perception are good, and they are not opposed to faith. Please hear me: our natural abilities are not opposed to faith. Yes, we live by faith and not by sight, but try not using your sight at all and see how that works. When Jesus walked this earth, he used all of his human powers—all of them—and we are called to devote all of our human powers to God in order that we might live under him as he intended.

Today there is no foundation. Ultimately what rules in a discipline today is the social pressure of the best professional opinion, and that changes.

It can't be any other way. If salvation is to affect our lives, it can do so only by affecting our bodies. If we are to participate in the reign of God, it can only be by our actions. And our actions are physical—we live only in the processes of our bodies. To withhold our bodies from religion is to exclude religion from our lives. Our life is a bodily life, even though that life is one that can be fulfilled solely in union with God.

I don't believe God messes with our minds. He is not mean, and if he has something to say to me, he will say it.

Thoughts are where we make our first movements toward God and where the divine Spirit begins to direct our will to God and his way.

Ultimately what rules in a discipline today is the social pressure of the best professional opinion, and that changes.

If you believe God has told you to do something, ask him to confirm it to you three times: through his word, through circumstances, and through other people who may know nothing of the situation."[20] This precept of three witnesses is not a law, but it is a good rule of thumb in an area where rules of thumb are badly needed.

If we are to know the abundant provision of God's unlimited resources, we must also understand how Satan works to rob us of that experience. He does so by deceit.

Love is a gift from God, who is love. We can seek a gift and we can receive a gift, but we do not perform for a gift. So, when we read passages of Scripture like those above, we must remember that the call to us is not to do as much as it is to receive.