You recognize smooth talk when you hear it. Sometimes it’s too late, though, after you’ve set your heart on what you’ve heard. By then you’ve likely given away something you never thought you would. Smooth talk is a grifter. Thievery’s chiseled but sinister cousin. Always cutting the corner as he pickpockets his way out of town. He was good. Too good. He said just enough but never quite enough. He […]
Eugene Peterson writes in Tell it Slant: A Conversation on the Language of Jesus in His Stories and Prayers (pp51-52): “Prayer can be learned only in the vocabulary and grammar of personal relationship: Father! Friend! It can never be a matter of getting the right words in the right order. It can never be a matter of good behavior or proper disposition or skillful manipulation. It can never be a […]
Then Manoah arose and followed his wife, and when he came to the man he said to him, “Are you the man who spoke to the woman?” And the man said, “I am.” Manoah said, “Now when your words come to pass, what shall be the boy’s mode of life and his vocation?” So the angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, “Let the woman pay attention to all that I […]