SIMON PHIPPS

Welcome to the final part of my blog series on Dallas Willard's book "The Divine Conspiracy". Please look at the chapter list to move between the other parts of this series. What I learnt From This Chapter The final chapter is an attempt to create a vision of what the divine conspiracy is working towards. It is an incredibly powerful vision and speaks of a life that begins now and carries on into eternity. For me personally the conversation around materialism and the kingdom of heaven were very helpful (I particularly enjoyed the "God doesn't have a brain, and he has never missed it" line). I love Dallas's description of ourself becoming more christlike towards death and the end quote from Augustine's City of God is truly wonderful. Chapter List Introduction Chapter 1 - Entering the Eternal Kind of Life Now Chapter 2 - Gospels of Sin Management Chapter 3 - What Jesus Knew: Our God-Bathed World Chapter 4 - Who is Really Well Off? - The Beatitudes Chap...

Welcome to part 9 of my blog series on Dallas Willard's book "The Divine Conspiracy". Please look at the chapter list to move between the other parts of this series. What I learnt From This Chapter This chapter is a wonderful summary of the life of discipleship. Reading this chapter made me realise that the extent of my trust in God had been one that was purely eschatological or soteriological (i.e. not really about now, but about something that would take place in the future), and so I felt that in the present I was ultimately at the mercy of either nature or of the wills of others. Therefore this chapter made me realise that the discipleship of the Bible is one permeated by a trust in God at every level (a Psalm 23 life). Trust precedes obedience, and our sins stem from a lack of trust in God. This does not mean that life will go our way, but what it does mean is that nothing that happens to us is beyond redemption by God. Chapter List Introduction Chapter 1 - Entering ...

Welcome to part 5 of my blog series on Dallas Willard's book "The Divine Conspiracy". Please look at the chapter list to move between the other parts of this series. What I learnt From This Chapter The main thing that I learnt from this chapter is that there is an order to the sermon on the mount. It is not just a random collection of saying by Jesus but should be seen as a full sermon where the points lead into one another and build upon what has gone before. This has been an extremely profound and life changing insight. Chapter List Introduction Chapter 1 - Entering the Eternal Kind of Life Now Chapter 2 - Gospels of Sin Management Chapter 3 - What Jesus Knew: Our God-Bathed World Chapter 4 - Who is Really Well Off? - The Beatitudes Chapter 5 - The Righteousness of the Kingdom Heart: Beyond the Goodness of Scribes and Pharisees Chapter 6 - Investing in the Heavens: Escaping the Deceptions of Reputations and Wealth Chapter 7 - The Community of Prayerful Love Chapter 8 - ...

Welcome to part 4 of my blog series on Dallas Willard's book "The Divine Conspiracy". Please look at the chapter list to move between the other parts of this series. What I Learnt From This Chapter The beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12) of Jesus are often very misunderstood. Dallas does an amazing job of clearing up many misconceptions, and perhaps the greatest one for me was his statement about how we often take Jesus out of our treatment of the list. The beatitudes only work when we understand who Jesus is and his role in the availability of the kingdom of God. Chapter List Introduction Chapter 1 - Entering the Eternal Kind of Life Now Chapter 2 - Gospels of Sin Management Chapter 3 - What Jesus Knew: Our God-Bathed World Chapter 4 - Who is Really Well Off? - The Beatitudes Chapter 5 - The Righteousness of the Kingdom Heart: Beyond the Goodness of Scribes and Pharisees Chapter 6 - Investing in the Heavens: Escaping the Deceptions of Reputations and Wealth Chapter 7 - The Commu...

Welcome to part 3 of my book notes on the book "The Divine Conspiracy". I will be releasing a new part each week, with each part looking at a different chapter. The contents section below has links to all of the different parts of the series (as I release them it will be updated). What I Learnt From This Chapter This chapter was extremely powerful for me. A lot of my theological reading had been in the vein of the "crucufied God" perspective; centring on that idea of a suffering God, and a deeply aggrieved God at the tragic situations of human affairs. The idea of God as the most joyous being ever took me by surprise. To be completely honest it took a lot of time to sink in, with me working towards some kind of synthesis between the idea of God as a suffering God, and God as truly joyous. Once I had come to that place of acceptance it makes perfect sense to me. There is indeed suffering, but there is also great joy in life, and if God is the one who feels suffering ...

We live in an age where mobile technology enables us to know almost anything that there is to be known in a matter of seconds. In our pockets, we have a device that holds more information than all the great libraries of the past. The same is no less true of our access to the bible. Within seconds I can be reading scripture in any number of translations and languages, as well as a multitude of commentaries and bible reading aids. When I was younger people would extol me on the virtues of memorising scripture lest I be thrown into solitary confinement under a communist state and am stripped of my Bible – but the older I get the more and more unlikely this seems. Therefore, with a bible ever at my fingertips, what could the purpose be of spending my time memorising scripture? The Complexity of Neurology When we think about the brain and memorisation we often think of it like a hard drive on a computer. When we memorise something it is like we are downloading a file in...

*Please note that any book links within this post are affiliate links. This means that if you buy a book through the link, I receive a small percentage of the book price.* Each year I create a list of goals that I intend to achieve by the end of that year. I think that it is great for accountability to state these publicly, but I also hope that it helps someone else creating their goals. Why Goals? A lot of my goal setting tips come from the book “ Seven Habits of Highly Effective People ”, which is an incredible book. The first habit in the book is about being proactive . Without goals, we are more likely to wander through life and not achieve any of the things that we want to achieve. I often speak to people about the hopes and dreams that they have. When I ask them what they are doing to help them achieve these dreams the answer is usually nothing . To this end setting goals helps us to create concrete steps that help us move towards the more long-term things ...