Quotes from Dallas Willard

Jesus' basic idea about this world—with all its evil, pushed to the limit in what he went through going toward and nailed upon the cross—is that this world is a perfectly good and safe place for anyone to be, no matter the circumstances, if they have placed their lives in the hands of Jesus and his Father.

In worship we are ascribing greatness, goodness, and glory to God. It

Worship nevertheless imprints on our whole being the reality that we study. The effect is a radical disruption of the powers of evil in us and around us. Often an enduring and substantial change is brought about. And the renewal of worship keeps the glow and power of our true homeland an active agent in all parts of our being. To "hear and do" in the atmosphere of worship is the clearest, most obvious and natural thing imaginable.

Grace is opposed to earning, not to effort. In fact, nothing inspires and enhances effort like the experience of grace.

The biblical stories know absolutely nothing of blind "leaps of faith," as that phrase is now understood. Such "leaps" are a pure fantasy imposed upon those stories and upon the religious life by the prejudices and tortured turns of modern thought.

In fact, however, no known religions are the same; they teach and practice radically different things. You only have to look at them to see that. To say they are all the "same" is to disrespect them. It is a way of claiming that none really matter, that their distinctives are of no human significance.

Knowledge" in biblical language never refers to what we today call "head knowledge," but always to experiential involvement with what is known—to actual engagement with it.

No wonder he has no real idea of who he will be; and he must content himself with the mere identity: "apprentice of Jesus." That is the starting point from which his new identity will emerge, and it is in fact powerful enough to bear the load.

Satan is our chief enemy, and his primary target is our knowledge of and trust in God.

We can fail to know because we do not want to know - because what would be known would require us to believe and act in ways contrary to what we want.

So, C. S. Lewis writes, our faith is not a matter of our hearing what Christ said long ago and "trying to carry it out." Rather, "The real Son of God is at your side. He is beginning to turn you into the same kind of thing as Himself. He is beginning, so to speak, to 'inject' His kind of life and thought, His Zoe [life], into you; beginning to turn the tin

But what is true of Christianity in its inception and history is true of other religions as well. They all present themselves as providing knowledge of what is real and what is right. To think otherwise is to falsify the very nature of religious consciousness and religious life

Satan is our chief enemy, and his primary target is our knowledge of and trust in God. Satan's constant assault is aimed at our belief in God's goodness and power, that God will supply all our needs, and that we can trust God to be sufficient in all ways.

This current state of affairs may prevent otherwise thoughtful people from seeing the value of what has traditionally been regarded as the best of "common sense" about life and of what has been preserved in the wisdom traditions of most cultures—especially in two of the greatest world sources of wisdom about the human self, the Judeo-Christian and the Greek, the biblical and the classical.

We must put all our desires on the cross.

soldier into a live man. The part of you that does not like it is the part that is still tin."13

What makes the language great and provides the emotional lift is chiefly its picture of God and of life. We learn from the psalms how to think and act in reference to God. We drink in God and God's world from them. They provide a vocabulary for living Godward, one inspired by God himself. They show us who God is, and that expands and lifts and directs our minds and hearts.

C. S. Lewis's discussion of storge, familial love, is endlessly instructive on this point and is required reading for all who intend to have a decent family life.1 He notes that he has "been far more impressed by the bad manners of parents to children than by those of children to parent.

THOSE WITH A WELL-KEPT heart are persons who are prepared for and capable of responding to the situations of life in ways that are good and right.

two main things that will block or hinder a life constantly interactive with God and healthy growth in the kingdom. These are the desire to have the approval of others, especially for being devout, and the desire to secure ourselves by means of material wealth.

Tolerance is not indifference, but a generous regard and even provision for those who differ from us on points we deeply care about.

And we and the public are constantly confronted with professing Christians who, to say the least, do not love one another, but may clearly hate and despise or be indifferent to those around them.

We know, for example, that feelings move us, and that we enjoy being moved.

There is then no question of the possibility of interventions in the course of nature, in whatever degree or form. The physical universe is not a closed system. Miracles are possible simply because of that fact.