Dallas Willard Quotes

The assumption of Jesus' program for his people on earth was that they would live their lives as his students and co-laborers.

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.

Jesus did not send us into the world to make believers but to make disciples.

The cross is not a mere event in history; it's a way of life! Take up your cross DAILY, Jesus said!

A wise man had said that your Christian life is like a three-legged stool. The legs are doctrine, experience and practice, which is obedience; and you, will not stay upright unless all three are there. In recent years many Christians have not kept these three together.

Jesus is actually looking for people he can trust with his power.

Through discipline, discipline is the other side of discipleship. If you want to follow Jesus, you have to have discipline.

The men upon whose shoulders rested the initial responsibility of Christianizing the world came to Jesus with one supreme request. They did not say, 'Lord, teach us to preach'; Lord, teach us to do miracles,' or 'Lord, teach us to be wise'...but they said, 'Lord, teach us to pray.'

Making disciples isn’t about gathering pupils to listen to your teaching. The real focus is not on teaching people at all–the focus is on loving them.

Does the Gospel I preach and teach have a natural tendency to cause people who hear it to become full-time students of Jesus? Would those who believe it become his apprentices as a natural 'next step'? What can we reasonably expect would result from people actually believing the substance of my message?

Jesus said, 'Go ... and make disciples,' not converts to your opinions.

The Sermon on the Mount is not a set of principles to be obeyed apart from identification with Jesus Christ. The Sermon on the Mount is a statement of the life we will live when the Holy Spirit is getting his way with us.

It’s hard to remember that Jesus did not come to make us safe, but rather to make us disciples, citizens of God’s new age, a kingdom of surprise.

The Bible is teh means through which we are introduced to Jesus and invited to follow Him in the life of humility and service. Secured by the knowledge that in Christ, our origin... and destination is God, we will yield the fruit of service to God. This is the "so what" of our Bible reading. Does it shape our spirits in love and humility? Does it lead us more fully into life with God? (Life with God, p. 34-35)

I'm out to take the Bible, create disciples who make disciples, disciple cycles.

The Bible will always be full of things you cannot understand, as long as you will not live according to those you can understand.

For me, everything is about Jesus and Father and the Holy Spirit, and relationships, and life is an adventure of faith lived one day at a time. Any aspirations, visions and dreams died a long time ago and I have absolutely no interest in resurrecting them (they would stink by now anyway). I have finally figured out that I have nothing to lose by living a life of faith. I know more joy every minute of every day than seems appropriate, but I love the wastefulness of my Father's grace and presence. For me, everything in my life that matters, is perfect!

Discipleship never consists in this or that specific action: it is always a decision, either for or against Jesus Christ.

It's not easy to follow Jesus' example, and if you go to church it doesn't mean you're automatically doing it.

Now is the time to Start a Normal Christian Life!

Confession should be a daily activity for the Christian, whose entire pilgrimage is characterized by the spirit of repentance.

All converted people should labor to adorn the doctrine they profess by humility. If they can do nothing else, they can strive to be humble.

Where it gets weird is that nowadays there are millions of people on this earth who call themselves followers of Jesus, but their lives look nothing like His, and they're not obeying the things that He called them to do.

We all know people who have been made much meaner and more irritable and more intolerable to live with by suffering: it is not right to say that all suffering perfects. It only perfects one type of person ...... the one who accepts the call of God in Christ Jesus.

Prayer, humility, and charity toward all are essential in the Christian life: they are the way to holiness.