37 quotes
In America, the first generation out of slavery invented jazz music. It is a free-form expression. It comes from the soul and it is true.
Blue Like Jazz (2003)
The problem with Christian culture is we think of love as a commodity. We use it like money.
Blue Like Jazz (2003)
It was the affection of Christ, not the brutality of a town, that healed Zacchaeus.
Blue Like Jazz (2003)
Because of sin, I am self-addicted, living in the wreckage of the fall, my body, my heart, and my affections are prone to love things that kill me.
Blue Like Jazz (2003)
The problem with Christian belief--I mean real Christian belief, the belief that there is a God and a devil and a heaven and a hell--is that it is not a fashionable thing to believe.
Blue Like Jazz (2003)
I had the image of a spiritual person, but I was bowing down to the idols of religiosity and philosophy.
Blue Like Jazz (2003)
And that's when I realized that believing in God is as much like falling in love as it is like making a decision. Love is both something that happens to you and something you decide upon.
Blue Like Jazz (2003)
Even our beliefs have become trend statements. We don't even believe things because we believe them anymore. We only believe things because they are cool things to believe.
Blue Like Jazz (2003)
I have come to understand that strength, inner strength, comes from receiving love as much as it comes from giving it...God's love will never change us if we don't accept it.
Blue Like Jazz (2003)
Too much of our time is spent trying to chart God on a grid, and too little is spent allowing our hearts to feel awe. By reducing Christian spirituality to formula, we deprive our hearts of wonder.
Blue Like Jazz (2003)
I went there to try to get my head around this idea, this idea that the problem in the universe lives within me. I can't think of anything more progressive than the embrace of this fundamental idea.
Blue Like Jazz (2003)
I realized in and instant that I desired false gods because Jesus wouldn't jump through my hoops, and I realized that, like Tony, my faith was about image and ego, not about practicing spirituality.
Blue Like Jazz (2003)
Jesus does not want us floating through space or sitting in front of our televisions. Jesus wants us interacting, eating together, laughing together, praying together. Loneliness is something that came with the fall.
Blue Like Jazz (2003)
Early on, I made the mistake of wanting spiritual feelings to endure and remain romantic. Like a new couple expecting to always feel in love, I operated my faith thinking God and I were going to walk around smelling flowers. When this didn't happen, I became confused.
Blue Like Jazz (2003)
Here's what I've started thinking: All the wonder of God happens right above our arithmetic and formula. The more I climb outside my pat answers, the more invigorating the view, the more my heart enters into worship.
Blue Like Jazz (2003)
I honestly don't believe we will be solving the greater human conflict with our efforts. The problem is not a certain type of legislation or even a certain politician; the problem is the same that it has always been. I am the problem.
Blue Like Jazz (2003)
I believe that the greatest trick of the devil is not to get us into some sort of evil but rather have us wasting time. This is why the devil tries so hard to get Christians to be religious. If he can sink a man's mind into habit, he will prevent his heart from engaging God.
Blue Like Jazz (2003)