Jeff

“The Beatitudes, in particular, are not teachings on how to be blessed. They are not instructions to do anything. They do not indicate conditions that are especially pleasing to God or good for human beings. No one is actually being told that they are better off for being poor, for mourning, for being persecuted, and so on, or that the conditions listed are recommended ways to well-being before God or man. Nor are the Beatitudes indications of who will be on top “after the revolution.” They are explanations and illustrations, drawn from the immediate setting, of the present availability of the kingdom through personal relationship to Jesus. They single out cases that provide proof that, in him, the rule of God from the heavens truly is available in life circumstances that are beyond all human hope.”
― Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy: A Study of Spiritual Reality in Christian Thought

“We do not just hear what Jesus said to do and try to do that. Rather, we also notice what he did, and we do that too. We”
― Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy: A Study of Spiritual Reality in Christian Thought

“There are books so alive that you're always afraid that while you weren't reading, the book has gone and changed, has shifted like a river.”
― Marina Tsvetaeva

“Circumstances and other people are not in control of an individual’s character or of the life that lies endlessly before”
― Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy: A Study of Spiritual Reality in Christian Thought