Renovation of the Heart
Putting On the Character of Christ
by Dallas Willard
Summary
The renovated heart is the hope of humanity, the one and only thing that will bring an end to the evil of our world. Sadly, our local church congregations seem to be ill-equipped to assist us on the journey toward the necessary spiritual transformation. Churches have become distracted by the goal of maintaining themselves as institutions—confusing the vessel with the treasure that it is mean to hold. The Church’s focus as become skewed toward getting people into heaven, losing sight of the actual goal of getting heaven into people.
Renovation of the hearts is a process that Jesus intends to work out within community. Within gatherings of His apprentices, who help each other learn to love God with all of their heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love neighbor as self. Communities with which Jesus promises to remain until the work is complete.
Author’s Website
Renovation of the Heart - Book by Dallas Willard
Favorite Quotes
“God intrudes, gently and in many ways, but especially in the person of Jesus Christ. It is he who stands for love, as no one else has ever done, and pays the price for it.”
“Irredeemable harm does not befall those who willingly live in the hand of God.”
“The natural condition of life for human beings is one of reciprocal rootedness in others. As firmness of footing is a condition of walking and secure movement, so assurance of others being for us is the condition of stable, healthy living. There are many ways this can be present in individual cases, but it must be there. If it is not, we are but walking wounded, our life more or less a shambles until we die.”
“It is a…serious error to make ‘outreach’ a primary goal of the local church congregation, and especially so when those who are already ‘with us’ have not become clear-headed and devoted apprentices of Jesus…the most successful work of outreach would be the work of inreach that turns people, where they are, into lights in the darkened world.”
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