What is thinking? It is the activity of searching out what must be true, or cannot be true, in the light of the given facts or assumptions. Dallas Willard More Quotes by Dallas Willard More Quotes From Dallas Willard What we can do with these means (our own unassisted strength) is still very small compared to what we could do in acting in union with God himself, who created and ultimately controls all other forces. Dallas Willard unionsactingmean 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. Dallas Willard essentialschristianheart In a world apart from God, the power of denial is absolutely essential if life is to proceed. The will or spirit cannot-psychologically cannot-sustain itself for any length of time in the face of what it clearly acknowledges to be the case. Therefore it must deny and evade and delude itself. Dallas Willard denialessentialsworld You really can't justify anything else but giving your whole attention to spiritual formation in Christ. Dallas Willard spiritualattentiongiving We renovate the heart by, of course, changing it, but we can't do that, really, without changing the other essential parts of the human personality. Dallas Willard essentialspersonalityheart In one way or another, it is a common mistake to think transformation is all in the will. And it isn't! It's in the mind - how we think, what occupies our minds, and so forth. It's in our feelings. It's in our body. Dallas Willard mistakefeelingsthinking In accord with his original intent, the heavenly Father has in fact prepared an individualized kingdom for every person, from the outset of creation. Dallas Willard kingdomsfatherfacts It would be of course a low voltage spiritual life in which prayer was chiefly undertaken as a discipline, rather than as a way of co-labouring with God to accomplish good things and advancing his Kingdom purposes. Dallas Willard disciplineprayerspiritual 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. Dallas Willard realspiritualchristian Everyone receives spiritual formation, just as everyone gets an education. The only question is whether it is a good one or a bad one. We need to take a conscious, intentional hand in the developmental process. We need to understand what the formation of the human spirit is, and how it can best be done as Christ would have it done. This is an indispensable aspect of developing a psychology that is adequate to human life. Dallas Willard psychologyspiritualhands Feelings too must be renovated: old ones removed in many cases, or at least thoroughly modified, and new ones installed or at least heightened into a new prominence. Dallas Willard prominencecasesfeelings God does not 'love' us without liking us. Dallas Willard fondnessdoe My hope is to gain a fresh hearing for Jesus, especially among those who believe they already understand him. In his case, quite frankly, presumed familiarity has led to unfamiliarity, unfamiliarity has led to contempt, and contempt has led to profound ignorance. Dallas Willard ignorancebelievejesus When I left home after graduating high school, I left as a migrant agricultural worker with a Modern Library edition of Plato in my duffel bag. It sounds kind of crazy, but I loved it. I loved the stuff. Before I knew there was a subject called philosophy, I loved it. Dallas Willard crazyplatophilosophy The humility that cringes in order that reproof may be escaped or favor obtained is as unchristian as it is profoundly immoral. Dallas Willard favorshumilityorder That's the secret of Jesus. You watch Jesus and you see he never did "withdraw" and then "attack." All of the time people wanted him to do it and in many ways, but he would not. Then to the body of believers he said, "This will show everyone that you are my disciples, if you love one another," but he had already said, "Love one another as I have loved you." So that's the model. Dallas Willard secretpeoplejesus Theology is just what you really think about God, and if you're going to do that, you'd better use your mind and not just let it be a receptacle - a catch-all for whatever beliefs happen to be passing by. Dallas Willard passing-bymindthinking At the center of care for the heart is the love of God. This must be the joyful aim of our life. Dallas Willard caregod-loveheart Projects of personal transformation rarely succeed by accident, drift, or imposition. Dallas Willard personal-transformationprojectssucceed God inducts us into the eternal kind of life that flows through himself. He does this first by bringing that life to bear upon our needs, and then by diffusing it throughout our deeds - deeds done with expectation that he and his Father will act with and in our actions. Dallas Willard deeds-doneexpectationsfather
