In a recent sermon on navigating life’s valleys, I suggested packing the Psalm 23 Survival Kit to help you come out the other side. This beloved Psalm is packed full of essential truths and God’s promises to help carry you through “the valley of the shadow of death.” I want to recommend Dallas Willard’s little book on Psalm 23 called Life Without Lack. … More Psalm 23 Survival Kit for Life’s Valleys
“Anyone who listens to my teaching and puts it into practice is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock.” Matthew 7:24 Dallas Willard wrote relentlessly urging Christians to place real, rugged apprenticeship to Jesus back at the center of Christian faith and the church’s task. The problem, Willard says, is that “The … More Jesus As LifeCoach
“Most problems in contemporary churches can be explained by the fact that members have not yet decided to follow Christ.” … More Quotabes: Dallas Willard
“The obviously well kept secret of the “ordinary” is that it is made to be a receptacle of the divine, a place where the life of God flows.” -Dallas Willard … More A Breathtaking Reality
Dallas Willard has been a guiding light and master sage for many pastors who believe at the center of their craft is the call to deeper inner transformation of the human soul. His writings are a goldmine of thoughtful wisdom and, more importantly, his personal life and legacy reveal a man who had the smell … More Renovation of the Heart
The question of the evangelist should be: “If you don’t die tonight, what are you going to do tomorrow?” And the answer should be: “I’m going to trust Jesus with all my life, with everything, and that will allow me to live in the Kingdom of God.” -DALLAS WILLARD
It was an evening back in early September 2002. The weather was perfect, as usual. It was San Diego. I had left everything familiar behind and moved west for my first semester of seminary at Bethel West. I was lonely. I was scared. I was adrift without a clue of what the future held. That’s … More A Steady Guide in an Unsteady World
I pulled the little chain and nothing. My little green lamp didn’t turn on. I checked the bulb to see if it was dead or not screwed in tight. The bulb was fine. Pull the chain—nothing. Hmmm? My favorite green lamp simply wouldn’t work. Just as I was beginning to grow frustrated and ready to … More “Behold, Electricity is at Hand!”
We’re all like lumps of clay that over time have been shaped and molded by dozens of influential hands — and experiences and words and ideas and moments and conversations and books and dreams and successes and failures — but mostly people. I am a firm believer in learning from people of different persuasions, and … More Some Key Influences
I went there to look for a new book to read, but found myself reading the bookstore and its shoppers instead. Let me share what I observed. Steady traffic by the Diet and Cookbook section. Many people concerned with their physical appetite and eating habits browsed through Magic with Meats, Vegetarian and natural food options, … More Lazy Day Observations at Barnes & Noble
Tim Morey pulled these excerpts from a Dallas Willard interview at Out Of Ur. I, too, have been listening to a series of lectures by Dallas myself this past week. He’s been an enormous influence in my life and a magnificent gift to the 21st century church. As a 30-year old visionary leader who often … More Dallas Willard: A Gentle Prophet
An inquisitive high school freshman from our youth group emailed me the following question today: Q:“What do you think the Bible means by the Kingdom of God?” This is such a central theme of the NT and yet it is so dynamic and varied in its uses and references that one does not blame someone … More Q & A – The Kingdom of God in a Nutshell
These are not the BEST books I’ve read. There are definitely books more profound, better written, more well-known and vastly more influential. But there are books that we read at certain times in our own spiritual and intellectual journeys that just come at the perfect time to open new windows of thought, challenge previous convictions … More My Top 3: Impacting Books
Jeremy L. Berg 