The greatest issue facing the world today, with all its heartbreaking needs, is whether those who, by profession or culture, are identified as โChristiansโ will become disciples โ students, apprentices, practitioners โ of Jesus Christ, steadily learning from him how to live the life of the Kingdom of the Heavens into every corner of human existence.
Dallas WillardYou really can't justify anything else but giving your whole attention to spiritual formation in Christ.
Dallas WillardGenerally speaking we don't want to hear from the soul. We want it to just do its job. Unfortunately, in a broken world, it also is broken, and we're going to hear from it because many of the ordinary miseries and extraordinary glories of human life are expressions of the state of the soul.
Dallas WillardIn the story of the good Samaritan, Jesus not only teaches us to help people in need; more deeply, he teaches us that we cannot identify who โhas itโ, who is โinโ with God, who is โblessedโ, by looking at exteriors of any sort. That is a matter of the heart. There alone the kingdom of the heavens and human kingdoms great and small are knit together. Draw any cultural or social line you wish, and God will find his way beyond it.
Dallas Willard