Dallas Willard has left me with one phrase over the years: “The nature of the Kingdom is to ASK.” In Matthew 7, he puts the context of “asking” squarely in human relationships first, not in prayer. The reason is it follows the paragraph about casting pearls before swine. In dealing with people. it is far… Read more

Dallas Willard’s point in The Divine Conspiracy is simple. Pay attention to the order. So, if we just start with Matthew 7 and plunge into “Do not judge or you too will be judged,” we are in trouble. If we are still dominated by anger, contempt, and lusting, and have not allowed the Kingdom to… Read more

Dallas Willard in his book The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God walks us through the temptations that block us from the flow of Kingdom life. In Matthew 6 there are two major obstacles. One is the approval of others. The second is the bondage of wealth. Treasures are not things that have… Read more

In Matthew 5 Jesus shows us what is true well-being and the goodness of the kingdom heart. We are set free from the constraints of just getting by (living only by the outward fulfillment of the law) and we learn to bear the true fruit of the Kingdom. In Matthew 6 Jesus lays out two… Read more

I don’t know if you’ve seen those signs. It’s usually some political season when they come out. It has always struck me as odd. I really try to pay attention, but why would I want to be angry all the time? Anger is an emotion and in certain states it is actually helpful. Anger happens… Read more

The goal of following Christ is not about doing the kinds of things Jesus did. Not alone. If we focus on what needs to be done, we end up in the trap of the Pharisees. It’s all about actions. The goal of the Kingdom is to become the kind of person from which the deed… Read more

Jesus unpacked the power of the Kingdom of God in the Sermon on the Mount. It is a fuller explanation of what he proclaimed at the end of Matthew 4. The Kingdom of heaven is at hand! (To which we would say, “What does that mean?”) The Sermon is not disconnected statements. Each part leads… Read more

I’ve been going through Dallas Willard’s book, The Divine Conspiracy, and currently reflecting on his view of the Beatitudes. The Beatitudes are not about what we can do. They are statements of spiritual conditions that exist to point out, basically, this: “Blessed are the spiritual zeroes because the rule of God can come to them.”… Read more

In Dallas Willard’s book, The Divine Conspiracy, his whole point with the Beatitudes is they are not something to “achieve.” They are examples of current conditions. It’s “Exhibit A” of the Kingdom being able to touch even the outcasts of society. As soon as my friend reads this he will know I am referring to… Read more

Our teaching models today are mostly about information. I have some, you don’t. I give it to you. You can do with it what you want. Jesus did not teach that way. It was not the way of most teachers in Jesus’ time period, either. It was not just passing along information, or impressing the… Read more