This week I began re-reading Dallas Willard's 1998 book "The Divine Conspiracy."   I say re-read, because I read most of the book 4-5 years ago, but honestly didn't quite get it...  Maybe it was just the time period I was in - I didn't have much time/space for reflection at the time I first read it (which it needs), or maybe it's that the main thrust of Willard's argument went by me the first time around. 

I'm only two chapters into it this time, but am finding it really, really helpful.  One of Willard's main points is that too often people have made the Christian message, the gospel, out to be something more narrowly focused than it actually is... On one end, it is only talked about as it relates to forgiven of sins and eternal life in the future when we die.  And on the other end, the gospel is only expressed in terms of social action and confronting evils of society.  Willard trys to point people back to Jesus' central message, the kingdom of God,  and encourages his readers that if they embrace that as the central theme (which definitely includes the two things I just mentioned) we will experience more and more of the eternal life Jesus talked about. 

Here is my favorite quote from the first chapter.  Willard says that God's kingdom, "in the person of Jesus, welcomes us just as we are, just where we are, and makes it possible for us to translate our 'ordinary' life into an eternal one.  It is so available for everyone who from the center of his or her being calls on Jesus as Master of the Universe and Pirnce of Life will be heard and will be delivered into the eternal kind of life."   p. 31

Maybe I'll post some more thoughts as I keep reading.  That's enough to chew on for now...  :)