Posted by Chris on Jun 9, 2011 in
Church,
God,
Life 
While I was meeting with my MAGL cohort in Colorado Springs, we talked a lot about books. Since books and audiobooks are such a big part of my life, a classmate suggested I create a reading list. This series will tackle that question.
If you could read only one book about Jesus, it should be The Divine Conspiracy. Dallas Willard masterfully explains the core topic of Jesus teachings, The Kingdom of God, and how we are to respond to them.
The book begins with a discussion of the very idea of a kingdom, how we each have our own, and what it means for God to have one. At it’s most basic, the Kingdom of God is “the dome under which God is King.” He then goes on to explain that if Jesus is God, he is also the smartest person that ever lived. He also explains that Jesus teachings were meant to be taken as serious ethical directions for individuals and societies. The majority of the book works through Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount.
What makes Willard’s writing so meaningful is that he is a foremost a highly astute philosopher. Yet despite his intellectual prowess, the majority of his teaching is based in the belief that we can, and should do what Jesus said. He shows how very simple, yet difficult, it is to live in the kingdom of God.
Divine Conspiracy is on my vert short list of almost yearly reads. When I read it, I feel like I am finally seeing who Jesus is, and how his teachings were meant to change our lives and the world.
You can find The Divine Conspiracy here in paperback, digital, and audio.
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Tags: books, Dallas Willard, discipleship, if you could only read one book, Jesus, spiritual formation, The Divine Conspiracy, Willard
Posted by Chris on May 5, 2011 in
Life 
I’m halfway through my first week of Character, Community and Leadership, the first on campus course for my Master’s of Arts of Global Leadership. The class takes place in Colorado Springs, within walking distance of the Garden of the Gods. The other members of my cohort are men and women from over a dozen countries on every continent.
This course is structured around a few principles. One is that we must learn from our journeys. The other is that adults learn the best when they are self directed. Practically, this means that much of our first week is spent hearing each others stories. These are amazing, since many of the participants are people who have experienced powerful callings. They have given up much, and gained much in return. They are also practitioners, with hands on experience living out the way of Christ in places like Liberia, Thailand, Florida and D.C. We also spend a lot of time unpacking our experiences of reading various leadership and character related texts, my favorite being Willard’s Renovation of the Heart.
I have high hopes that big things are happening here, for all of us. I would like to ask your prayers that this will be a watershed experience for me, where I will learn a lot about who I am, and what God has in mind for me.
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Tags: 2011, books, Colorado, Fuller, MAGL, Willard
Posted by Chris on Aug 20, 2010 in
God 
Recenly, I knocked out Dallas Willard’s Hearing God and The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence. Both books deal with communicating with God, and have a lot of insight on the barriers and benefits to it.
Willard suggests that rather than asking the question, “Why doesn’t God talk to me?” we should ask the question “Why should God talk to me?” As he always does, Willard breaks these mystical concepts into clear relational processes. We never ask the question, why would a stranger, who I have no interaction with talk to me? Rather, we will here from God, as we do life with him in the kingdom.
Although I have some struggles with the image of piety that Brother Lawrence projects, he offers an excellent example of how to do life with God. He spent much of his life in a kitchen. He would start his time there with prayer, asking God to be with him as he made omelets. Afterward, he would review his day, what went well, what did not, and share that with God.
Maybe God just wants to be treated like everyone else who is a major part of your life.
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Tags: 40 Books in 2010, Dallas Willard, Hearing God, prayer, The Practice of the Presence of God, Willard
