Quotes from Eugene H. Peterson

The way of faith is not a fad that is taken up in one century only to be discarded in the next. It lasts. It is a way that works. It has been tested thoroughly.

What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for?

The plows of persecution aren't working, and the oxherds haven't even noticed! They plod back and forth, unaware that their opposition is worthless.

GoD-the first step in learning is bowing down to GoD; only fools thumb their noses at such wisdom and learning.

The terrible threat against life, he said in his book God Is Not Yet Dead, is not death, nor pain, nor any variation on the disasters that we so obsessively try to protect ourselves against with our social systems and personal stratagems. The terrible threat is "that we might die earlier than we really do die, before death has become a natural necessity. The real horror lies in just such a premature death, a death after which we go on living for many years."6

Better to meet a grizzly robbed of her cubs than a fool hellbent on folly.

Perseverance does not mean "perfection." It means that we keep going. We do not quit when we find that we are not yet mature and there is a long journey still before us.

The terrible threat is "that we might die earlier than we really do die, before death has become a natural necessity. The real horror lies in just such a premature death, a death after which we go on living for many years.

Teaching resurrects dead words so they live again.

The central reality for Christians is the personal, unalterable, persevering commitment God makes to us. Perseverance is not the result of our determination, it is the result of God's faithfulness.

When you grab all you can get, that's what happens: the more you get, the less you are.

Mercy to the needy is a loan to Got), and Got) pays back those loans in full.

14-16 If you're abused because of Christ, count yourself fortunate. It's the Spirit of God and his glory in you that brought you to the notice of others. If they're on you because you broke the law or disturbed the peace, that's a different matter. But if it's because you're a Christian, don't give it a second thought. Be proud of the distinguished status reflected in that name!

are still men, and not keyboards of pianos over which the hands of Nature may play at their own sweet will." Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Letters from the Underworld

Christian discipleship is a decision to walk in his ways, steadily and firmly, and then finding that the way integrates all our interests, passions and gifts, our human needs and our eternal aspirations. It is the way of life we were created for.

The Bible is basically and overall a narrative - an immense, sprawling, capacious narrative.

relinquishment is prerequisite to fulfillment

A person has to be thoroughly disgusted with the way things are to find the motivation to set out on the Christian way. As long as we think the next election might eliminate crime and establish justice or another scientific breakthrough might save the environment or another pay raise might push us over the edge of anxiety into a life of tranquility, we are not likely to risk the arduous uncertainties of the life of faith.

The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish. [1.15] John pointed him out and called, "This is the One! The One I told you was coming after me but in fact was ahead of me. He has always been ahead of me, has always had the first word.

Judgment is not the last word; it is never the last word. Judgment is necessary because of centuries of hardheartedness; its proper work is to open our hearts to the reality beyond ourselves, to crack the carapace of self-sufficiency so that we can experience the inrushing grace of the healing, merciful, forgiving God.

Too often we think of religion as a far-off, mysteriously run bureaucracy to which we apply for assistance when we feel the need.

I keep praying that this faith we hold in common keeps showing up in the good things we do, and that people recognize Christ in all of it.

I'm in charge of all this—I run this universe!

To be human is to be in trouble.