Eugene H. Peterson Quotes

Source: Eat This Book: Study Guide

“Pastors are highly susceptible to the sin of sloth.”

“Sloth is most often evidenced in busyness ... in frantic running around, trying to be everything to everyone, and then having no time to listen or pray, no time to become the person who is doing these things.”

Trying Persons Running Praying Sloth Frantic

Author:Eugene H. Peterson

“Love is not a word that describes my feelings; it is not a technique by which I fulfill my needs; it is not an ideal, abstract and pure, on which I meditate or discourse. It is acting in correspondence with or in response to God in relation to persons.”

Love Needs Persons Feelings Love Is Acting Pure Ideals Relation Response Technique Abstract Discourse Correspondence

Book:God's Message for Each Day: Wisdom from the Word of God

Source: God's Message for Each Day: Wisdom from the Word of God

“There is something about Christmas that requires a rug rat. Little kids make Christmas fun. I wonder if could rent one for the holidays. When I was tiny we would by a real tree and stay up late drinking hot chocolate and finding just the right place for the special decorations.”

Ifs Littles Real Kids Fun Healing Wonder Tree Special Findings Late Hot Drinking Tiny Holiday Chocolate Rats Little Kid Right Place Decoration Christmas Magic Hot Chocolate

Author:Eugene H. Peterson

“Exile (being where we don't want to be with people we don't want to be with) forces a decision: Will I focus my attention on what is wrong with the world and feel sorry for myself? Or will I focus my energies on how I can live at my best in this place I find myself?...'I will do my best with what is here.'”

People World Want Feels I Can Energy Force Decision Attention Focus Sorry Exile

Author:Eugene H. Peterson

“Wisdom is the art of living skillfully in whatever actual conditions we find ourselves.”

Art Conditions Actuality Art Of Living

Author:Eugene H. Peterson

“Worship does not satisfy our hunger for God; it whets our appetite.”

Doe Worship Hunger Appetite Trust In God Commitment To God Intimacy With God God Within Us Hunger For God

Book:A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society

Source: A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society

“A person has to get fed up with the ways of the world before he, before she acquires an appetite for the world of grace.”

World Way Persons Grace Acquire Feds Appetite Fed Up

Book:A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society

Source: A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society

“The word 'christian' means different things to different people. To one person it means a stiff, upright, inflexible way of life, colorless and unbending. To another it means a risky, surprised-filled adventure, lived tiptoe at the edge of expectation...If we get our information from the biblical material, there is no doubt that the Christian life is a dancing, leaping, daring life.”

“We've all met a certain type of spiritual person. She's a wonderful person. She loves the Lord. She prays and reads the Bible all the time. But all she thinks about is herself. She's not a selfish person. But she's always at the center of everything she's doing.”

Thinking Persons Spiritual Certain Lord Wonderful Type Praying Mets Selfish Ministry Selfish Person Wonderful Person

Author:Eugene H. Peterson

“The Spirit works through community. Somebody will have a stupid, screwy idea. That's okay. The point of having creeds and confessions and traditions is to keep us in touch with the obvious errors.”

Ideas Spirit Community Stupid Tradition Okay Errors Obvious Confession Creeds

Author:Eugene H. Peterson

“People are not problems to be solved. They are mysteries to be explored.”

People Problem Mystery

Author:Eugene H. Peterson

“I cannot fail to call the congregation to worship God, to listen to his Word, to offer themselves to God.”

Failing Offers Worship Congregation Worship God

Author:Eugene H. Peterson

“I think pastors are the worst listeners. We're so used to speaking, teaching, giving answers. We must learn to be quiet, quit being so verbal, learn to pay attention to what's going on, and listen.”

Thinking Giving Used Answers Pay Attention Teaching Worst Quiet Quitting Pay Attention Listeners Pastor

Author:Eugene H. Peterson

“People learn to shop for churches; there is no loyalty to the church. They're consumers being attracted to one product or another. I think it's sacrilege, to tell you the truth, it really is.”

People Thinking Church Products Loyalty Consumers Shops Sacrilege

Author:Eugene H. Peterson

“When you are part of a megachurch you have no responsibility to anybody else.”

Responsibility

Author:Eugene H. Peterson

“The minute the church and pastors start saying what do people want and then giving it to them, we betray our calling. We're called to have people follow Jesus. We're called to have people learn how to forgive their enemies.”

People Want Giving Jesus Church Enemy Minutes Calling Forgiving Betray Pastor How To Forgive

Author:Eugene H. Peterson

“This kingdom of God life is not a matter of waking up each morning with a list of chores or an agenda to be tended to, left on our bedside table by the Holy Spirit for us while we slept. We wake up already immersed in a large story of creation and covenant, of Israel and Jesus, the story of Jesus and the stories that Jesus told. We let ourselves be formed by these formative stories, and especially as we listen to the stories that Jesus tells, get a feel for the way he does it, the way he talks, the way he treats people, the Jesus way.”

“I get asked, 'What do you miss most about being a pastor?' I think it's the intimacy, the incredible gift of intimacy. You go through death with somebody, with their families, and there's an intimacy that comes through that that is just incomparable.”

Thinking Missing Incredibles Intimacy Pastor Incomparable

Author:Eugene H. Peterson

“GOD made my life complete when I placed all the pieces before him. When I got my act together, he gave me a fresh start. Now I'm alert to GOD's ways; I don't take God for granted. Every day I review the ways he works; I try not to miss a trick. I feel put back together, and I'm watching my step. GOD rewrote the text of my life when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes.”

Way Feels Trying Heart Made Book Eye Together Steps Pieces Missing My Heart Tricks Granted His Eyes Reviews Back Together Fresh Start

Author:Eugene H. Peterson

“Prayer gets us in on what God is doing.”

Prayer

Author:Eugene H. Peterson

“That's the whole spiritual life. It's learning how to die. And as you learn how to die, you start losing all your illusions, and you start being capable now of true intimacy and love.”

Whole Spiritual Dies Capable Losing Illusion And Love Intimacy Spiritual Life True Intimacy

Author:Eugene H. Peterson

“That's why I tell stories: to create readiness, to nudge the people toward receptive insight. In their present state they can stare till doomsday and not see it, listen till they're blue in the face and not get it.”

People States Stories Faces Blue Insight Staring Readiness Receptive Nudge Doomsday Nudge Nudge

Book:Stories of Jesus: From the Text of the Message

Source: Stories of Jesus: From the Text of the Message

“Pastors need to know what's going on in the world and what has been going on for 4,000 years. We need a way to read Scripture which is imaginative, interpretive.”

Knows World Way Needs Years Has Beens Scripture Pastor Imaginative

Author:Eugene H. Peterson

“American culture is probably the least Christian culture that we've ever had because it is so materialistic and it's so full of lies. The whole advertising world is just, it's just intertwined with lies, appealing to the worst of the instincts we have.”

World Whole Christian Lying Culture Worst Instinct Advertising American Culture Materialistic Intertwined

Author:Eugene H. Peterson

“In high school I was very much involved in poetry. You cannot read a poem quickly. There's too much going on there. There are rhythms and alliterations. You have to read poetry slow, slow, slow to absorb it all.”

School Too Much Involved High School Rhythm Alliteration

Author:Eugene H. Peterson

“There is nothing terribly difficult in the Bible - at least in a technical way. The Bible is written in street language, common language. Most of it was oral and spoken to illiterate people. They were the first ones to receive it. So when we make everything academic, we lose something.”

People Way Firsts Language Difficult Loses Common Written Streets Academic Illiterate Common Language

Author:Eugene H. Peterson

“There's nobody who doesn't have problems with the church, because there's sin in the church. But there's no other place to be a Christian except the church.”

Problem Christian Church Sin

Author:Eugene H. Peterson

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