{"id":399,"date":"2025-07-19T23:37:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T23:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/104.193.40.20\/greggfriend-wp\/?p=399"},"modified":"2026-02-08T23:37:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T23:37:21","slug":"how-dallas-willard-approached-scripture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greggfriend.com\/?p=399","title":{"rendered":"How Dallas Willard Approached Scripture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"356\" height=\"550\" src=\"http:\/\/104.193.40.20\/greggfriend-wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-80.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/greggfriend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-80.png 356w, https:\/\/greggfriend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-80-194x300.png 194w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 356px) 100vw, 356px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The Holy Post Book Club gave me a copy of the book, <strong><em>Experiencing Scripture as a Disciple of Jesus: Reading the Bible like Dallas Willard<\/em><\/strong> by Dave Ripper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dallas Willard was a philosopher and a devoted follower of Jesus. This book was written by a fan of Dallas Willard who tries to summarize how Dallas Willard approached the Bible and encourages the reader to follow Dallas&#8217; methods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Google AI summarizes the book very well:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>A key idea from &#8220;Experiencing Scripture as a Disciple of Jesus: Reading the Bible like Dallas Willard&#8221; is that the goal of reading the Bible is not just about gaining knowledge, but about encountering God personally and experiencing transformation through His Word. This aligns with Willard&#8217;s emphasis on the importance of spiritual formation and living a &#8220;with-God life&#8221;. The book encourages readers to move beyond simply studying the Bible to engaging in an ongoing conversation with God through scripture, becoming more attuned to His voice and His will.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><em>It shifts the focus from information to transformation:<\/em><\/strong><em>It highlights that the Bible is not just a book of facts, but a means of encountering the living God.<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><em>It emphasizes personal relationship:<\/em><\/strong><em>The book encourages readers to see scripture as an invitation to a deeper, more personal relationship with Jesus.<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><em>It aligns with Willard&#8217;s teachings:<\/em><\/strong><em>It reflects Dallas Willard&#8217;s emphasis on spiritual formation and the importance of living in God&#8217;s kingdom.<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><em>It encourages active engagement:<\/em><\/strong><em>It calls for an active, ongoing conversation with God through the scriptures, rather than passive reading.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>I respected Dallas and find the summary of his approach to be great. I am not as much of a devotee of Dallas as the author is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Holy Post Book Club gave me a copy of the book, Experiencing Scripture as a Disciple of Jesus: Reading the Bible like Dallas Willard by Dave Ripper. Dallas Willard was a philosopher and a devoted follower of Jesus. This book was written by a fan of Dallas Willard who tries to summarize how Dallas [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":400,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greggfriend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greggfriend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greggfriend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greggfriend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greggfriend.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=399"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/greggfriend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":401,"href":"https:\/\/greggfriend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399\/revisions\/401"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greggfriend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greggfriend.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greggfriend.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greggfriend.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}