dallas-willard Quotes About christian

“Spirituality has thus come to be regarded by the world as those futile, self-torturing excesses of strange men and women who lived in far-off, benighted places and times. Accordingly, the One who came to give abundance of life is commonly thought of as a cosmic stuffed shirt, whose excessive "spirituality" probably did not allow him normal bodily functions and certainly would not permit him to throw a frisbee or tackle someone in a football game.”

God Christian Spirituality Christ Holiness Kingdom Living

Book:The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives

Source: The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives

“The disciple of Jesus is not the deluxe or heavy-duty model of the Christian-especially padded, textured, streamlined, and empowered for the fast lane on the straight and narrow way. He stands on the pages of the New Testament as the first level of basic transportation in the kingdom of God.”

Way Firsts Christian Jesus Levels Duty Pages Models Heavy Kingdoms Disciple Testament Empowered Kingdom Of God New Testament Lanes Transportation Fast Lane

Book:The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’s Essential Teachings on Discipleship

Source: The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’s Essential Teachings on Discipleship

“Many Christians were suddenly prepared to look at traditional methods of spiritual formation. They could not help but see that spiritual growth and vitality stem from what we actually do with our lives, from the habits we form, and from the character that results.”

Looks Character Helping Christian Spiritual Form Growth Results Our Lives Habit Method Prepared Traditional Spiritual Growth Stem Vitality Formation Spiritual Formation

Book:The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives

Source: The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives

“When we think of "taking Christ into the workplace" or "keeping Christ in the home," we are making our faith into a set of special acts. The "specialness" of such acts just underscores the point - that being a Christian, being Christ's isn't thought of as a normal part of life.”

Thinking Home Christian Christ Special Normal Workplace Parts Of Life Specialness

Author:Dallas Willard

“The organized churches must become schools of spiritual discipline where Christians are taught how to own without treasuring (Matt. 6:21); how to possess without, like the "rich young ruler," being possessed (Mark 10:22); how to live simply, even frugally, though controlling great wealth and power.”

School Christian Spiritual Young Church Wealth Rich Taught Discipline Mark Organized Possessed Rulers Spiritual Disciplines Live Simply

Author:Dallas Willard

“History has brought us to the point where the Christian message is thought to be essential concerned only with how to deal with sin: with wrongdoing or wrong-being and its effects. Life, our actual existence, is not included in what is now presented as the heart of the Christian message, or it is included only marginally.”

Heart Christian Sin Deals Existence Effects Essentials Messages Concerned Wrongdoing

Author:Dallas Willard

“Even professing Christians, by and large, devote to their spiritual growth and well-being a tiny fraction of the time they devote to their body, and it is even tinier fraction if we include what they worry about.”

Ifs Wells Body Christian Spiritual Growth Worry Tiny Well Being Spiritual Growth Fractions

Author:Dallas Willard

“The real issue relating to exclusiveness is whether or not the Christian actually has a relationship with God, a presence of God, which non-Christians do not have. Apart from Christian spiritual formation as described here, I believe there is little value in claiming exclusiveness for the Christian way.”

Way Believe Littles Real Christian Spiritual Values I Believe Issues Formation Relationship With God Presence Of God Spiritual Formation

Author:Dallas Willard

“What Paul is clearly saying is that if anyone is worthy of being saved, they will be saved. At that point many Christians get very anxious, saying that absolutely no one is worthy of being saved. The implication of that is that a person can be almost totally good, but miss the message about Jesus, and be sent to hell. What kind of a God would do that? I am not going to stand in the way of anyone whom God wants to save. I am not going to say 'he can't save them.' I am happy for God to save anyone he wants in any way he can. It is possible for someone who does not know Jesus to be saved.”

“If we do not make formation in Christ the priority, then we're just going to keep on producing Christians that are indistinguishable in their character from many non-Christians.”

Ifs Character Christian Christ Priorities Formation

Author:Dallas Willard

“If we reject the Christian answer, we still have the problem. We're going to adopt some alternative, because the questions will not go away, the questions of, "What kind of person am I becoming?" and "What is my role in that?" and so on.”

Ifs Kind Persons Stills Problem Christian Answers Roles Becoming Alternatives Rejects Going Away

Author:Dallas Willard

“I was in a fascinating meeting where one man had been in China recently. A Chinese professor has found evidence that Christians reached Western China before 90 AD. Before 90 AD! The idea isn't all that astonishing when we think about it. That's what the disciples thought they were supposed to do! And, I'm sure, the disciples just said, "That's it. Let's go!" And they all wound up dead. But everyone else did too!”

Thinking Men Said Ideas Christian Found Evidence Meetings Western China Wounds Chinese Fascinating One Man Professors Ads Disciple Astonishing

Author:Dallas Willard

“The world can no longer be left to mere diplomats, politicians, and business leaders. They have done the best they could, no doubt. But this is an age for spiritual heroes- a time for men and women to be heroic in their faith and in spiritual character and power. The greatest danger to the Christian church today is that of pitching its message too low.”

“The greatest issue facing the world today, with all its heartbreaking needs, is whether those who, by profession or culture, are identified as ‘Christians’ will become disciples – students, apprentices, practitioners – of Jesus Christ, steadily learning from him how to live the life of the Kingdom of the Heavens into every corner of human existence.”

Source: The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’s Essential Teachings on Discipleship

“We must understand that God does not "love" us without liking us - through gritted teeth - as "Christian" love is sometimes thought to do. Rather, out of the eternal freshness of his perpetually self-renewed being, the heavenly Father cherishes the earth and each human being upon it. The fondness, the endearment, the unstintingly affectionate regard of God toward all his creatures is the natural outflow of what he is to the core - which we vainly try to capture with our tired but indispensable old word "love".”

“The greatest danger to the Christian church today is that of pitching its message too low.”

Today Christian Church Danger Messages Lows Pitching Christian Church Church Today

Author:Dallas Willard

“Consumer Christianity is now normative. The consumer Christian is one who utilizes the grace of God for forgiveness and the services of the church for special occasions, but does not give his or her life and innermost thoughts, feelings, and intentions over to the kingdom of the heavens. Such Christians are not inwardly transformed and not committed to it.”

Giving Doe Feelings Christian Heaven Church Christianity Grace Special Intention Committed Kingdoms Occasions Consumers Transformed Grace Of God Special Occasion

Author:Dallas Willard

“Spiritual formation for the Christian basically refers to the Spirit-driven process of forming the inner world of the human self in such a way that it becomes like the inner being of Christ himself.”

World Way Humans Self Christian Spiritual Spirit Process Christ Driven Formation Inner World Spiritual Formation

Book:Renovation of the Heart: Putting On the Character of Christ

Source: Renovation of the Heart: Putting On the Character of Christ

“A great part of the disaster of contemporary life lies in the fact that it is organized around feelings. People nearly always act on their feelings, and think it only right. The will is then left at the mercy of circumstances that evoke feelings. Christian spiritual formation today must squarely confront this fact and overcome it.”

People Thinking Facts Feelings Today Christian Spiritual Lying Left Circumstances Mercy Overcoming Disaster Contemporary Organized Formation Evoke Spiritual Formation Contemporary Life

Author:Dallas Willard

“We Christians should be aware that there's something at stake in cultural participation that we wouldn't have been concerned about if all we did was worry about the messages in culture.”

Ifs Should Has Beens Christian Culture Worry Messages Concerned Stakes Participation

Author:Dallas Willard

Dallas Willard Quotes

Filter quotes by topic

Famous Dallas Willard Quotes