Quotes From "Tell It Slant: A Conversation On The Language Of Jesus In His Stories And Prayers" By Eugene H. Peterson

Parables release the adrenaline of urgency into our bloodstream. Eugene H. Peterson

I had escaped the snare of certitude that I welcomed so avidly at first and entered, via the name of Jesus, the wide and comprehensive company of Jesus. Eugene H. Peterson

The Holy Spirit's instruments have no consciousness of His purpose; if they imagine they have, it is a pretty sure token that they are NOT His instruments. Nathaniel Hawthorne Eugene H. Peterson

We learn the language of prayer by immersing ourselves in the language that God uses to reveal Himself to us. Eugene H. Peterson

Apart from childhood and crisis, prayers have a way of being abstracted from the homely and distinctive details that are part and parcel of our ordinary and daily life. Eugene H. Peterson

The truth must dazzle gradually or every man be blind. Emily Dickinson Eugene H. Peterson

God uses language to create and command us. Eugene H. Peterson

Language consists in equal parts of speaking and silence. Eugene H. Peterson

There is nothing quite as destructive to the gospel of Jesus Christ as the use of language that dismisses the way Jesus talks and prays and takes up instead the rhetoric of smiling salesmanship or vicious invective. Eugene H. Peterson

Self-justification is a verbal defense for restoring the appearance of righteousness without doing anything about the substance. Eugene H. Peterson

The temptations that use the raw material of good for evil can continue unrecognized for a long time without awareness. Eugene H. Peterson

When it comes to doing something about what is wrong in the world, Jesus is best known for his fondness for the minute, the invisible, the quiet, the slow — yeast, salt, seeds, light. And manure. Eugene H. Peterson

Money and machines anesthetize neediness. They put us in charge, in control. As long as the money holds out and the machines are in good repair, we don't need to pray. Eugene H. Peterson

The end is where we start from. T.S. Eliot Eugene H. Peterson

The church is the primary arena in which we learn that glory does not consist in what we do for God but in what God does for us. Eugene H. Peterson

Action without prayer thins out into something very exterior. A prayerless life can result in effective action and accomplish magnificent things, but if there is no developed interiority, the action never enters into the depth and intimacy of relationships. Eugene H. Peterson

Prayer is a way of language practiced in the presence of God in which we become more than ourselves while remaining ourselves. Eugene H. Peterson

Spontaneities offer one kind of pleasure and taste of sanctity, repetitions another equally pleasurable and holy. Eugene H. Peterson

Unlike mere action, prayer is not subject to immediate evaluation or verification. If we are addicted to "results" we will quickly lose interest in prayer. Eugene H. Peterson

As we grow into maturity in Christ our distinctiveness is accentuated, not blunted. General directions, useful as they are, don't take into account the details that face us as holiness takes root in the particular social and personal place we are planted. Eugene H. Peterson

Preaching reveals God in action here and now -- for ME. Eugene H. Peterson

There is nothing more common than for people who want to talk about God to lose interest in the people they are talking to. Eugene H. Peterson

We need alert listeners to give dignity to those stretches in our lives when we are not aware of participating in anything we think might be embraced by the kingdom of God. Eugene H. Peterson

We do not become less needy, less dependent when we pray; we become more needy, more dependent, which is to say, more human. Eugene H. Peterson

Cross and resurrection are the South and North polls, true gospel polarities, of a single, undivided, salvation world. Remove either Paul and you've got salvation. Eugene H. Peterson

Without stories we end up with stereotypes -- a flat earth with flat cardboard figures that have no texture or depth, no INTERIOR. Eugene H. Peterson

I have no interest in eliminating the tension between justice and forgiveness by taking justice off the table. Given the subtleties of sin and the persistence of evil, we would soon be living in moral anarchy and political chaos if there were no provision for justice. Eugene H. Peterson