Thought Exercise on Condemnation

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A Step to the Block

Author

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 22:1-14 , Daniel 3:16-28 , Esther 4:14-16 , Philippians 1:20-24 , Luke 9:23-25 , Psalm 31:14-15

In Four Quartets , T. S. Eliot writes that “any action is a step to the block.” He means that our actions always draw us closer to death, and in that sense every action we take is a wager of our ...

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The Etymology of Justification

Author

John Stott

Keywords

Justification

Justification is a legal or forensic term, belonging to the law courts. Its opposite is condemnation. Both are the pronouncements of a judge. In a Christian context they are the alternative eschatolog...

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Addicted to Putting People In their Place

Author

Henri J. M. Nouwen

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 18:9-14

As long as we continue to live as if we are what we do, what we have, and what other people think about us, we will be filled with judgments, opinions, evaluations, and condemnations. We will remain a...

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Listen to the New Song of Faith

Author

Brennan Manning

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 61:1-3, Jeremiah 31:3-4 , Zechariah 3:1-5 , John 8:31-36 , Romans 8:1-2, Psalm 103:10-12

With a graciousness and an understanding of human weakness that only God can exhibit, Jesus liberates us from alienation and self-condemnation and offers each of us a new possibility. He is the Savior...

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The Curse of Living Under the Law

Author

Timothy Keller

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 4:4-5, Ephesians 2:8-9, Galatians 2:16, Romans 3:20, Galatians 3:9-10

To have Abraham-like faith brings blessing (v 9). The result of living by the law is that we are “under a curse” (v 10). This “curse” has two aspects. Theologically, anyone who says-. I can be saved b...

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Words of Life, Words of Death: You Choose

Author

John Piper & Justin Taylor

Keywords

Scripture

Proverbs 18:21, Genesis 3:1-6 , Numbers 13:30–14:4, James 3:5-10 , Matthew 12:36-37 , Psalm 141:3

The book of Proverbs is, in ways, a treatise on talk. I would summarize it this way: words give life; words bring death—you choose . What does this mean? It means you have never spoken a neutral ...

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The Covenants of Scripture

Author

Merrill F. Unger

Keywords

Covenant

Scripture

Hebrews 13:20, Genesis 1:26-28, Genesis 1:26, Genesis 3:14-19, Genesis 3:14, Genesis 8:20-9, Genesis 9:5-6, Genesis 12:1-3, Galatians 3:16, John 8:56-58, 2 Corinthians 3:7-9, Deuteronomy 30:1-10, Deuteronomy 30:1, 2 Samuel 7:4-17, Luke 1:31-33, Acts 1:6, Revelation 19:16, Matthew 26:28, Mark 14:24, Luke 22:20, Hebrews 8:8-12, Galatians 3:13-20

Eternal covenant, Heb 13:20—The redemptive covenant before time began, between the Father and the Son. By this covenant we have eternal redemption, an eternal peace from the ‘God of peace’, through th...

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Don’t Look Down But Up

Author

Rowan Williams

Keywords

Scripture

Hebrews 10:24-25, Philippians 2:3-4, Ephesians 4:2, Romans 12:10, 1 Peter 5:5

In his excellent book on the desert fathers, Where God Happens , former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams tells of an encounter between two monastic fathers. The first was Macarius, famous in...

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Which Advent Do We Prepare For?

Author

J. Neil Alexander

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 9:2, 6-7, Isaiah 40:3-5, Luke 1:68-79, John 1:5, 9-14, Revelation 21:1-4, Romans 13:11-12

Is Advent a preparatory fast in preparation for the liturgical commemoration of the historical birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, or is Advent a season unto itself. A sacrament of the end of time begun in t...

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Our Father is Younger Than We

Author

G. K. Chesterton

Keywords

Joy

If you read through G.K. Chesterton’s writings, it will not be long before you recognize the recurring theme of joy. Joy, Chesterton believed, ought to be a central experience of the one who realizes ...

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Confession Reminds Us

Author

Tish Harrison Warren

Keywords

Confession of Sin

Confession reminds us that none of us gather for worship because we are “pretty good people.” But we are new people, people marked by grace in spite of ourselves because of the work of Christ. Our com...

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A Shaming for Taking Selfies

Author

Craig Detweiler

Keywords

Did you follow the shaming of sorority girls that were caught on camera taking selfies during an Arizona Diamondbacks baseball game? The male television announcers bemoaned “every girl locked into the...

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Thomas Merton on Our Complicity with Evil

Author

Jeffrey Bilbro

Keywords

In the interior silence that contemplation opens, Merton recognizes his own complicity in the injustices of society. While the news-as-scoreboard model invites us to view ourselves as the “good guys” ...

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Behavior vs. Identity

Author

Bill Tell,

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 7:19, 1 John 1:8, Romans 8:1, Romans 1:7

A number of years ago I was discipling a young man who had recently been released from the state’s juvenile detention center. As a teenager he had been hooked on drugs, and he had resorted to stealing...

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Words of Life, Words of Death

Author

John Piper

Keywords

Words

The book of Proverbs is, in ways, a treatise on talk. I would summarize it this way: words give life; words bring death—you choose. What does this mean? It means you have never spoken a neutral word i...

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The Meaning of Blessing

Author

Henri J. M. Nouwen

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 12:1-4, Psalm 1:1-3, Matthew 5:3-12, Galatians 3:8-9, Genesis 12:2-3, Genesis 27:1-40

Let me first tell you what I mean by the word “blessing.” In Latin, to bless is benedicere. The word “benediction” that is used in many churches means literally: speaking (dictio) well (bene) or sayin...

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The Gospel is Freedom

Author

John Stott

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 119:45, 2 Corinthians 3:17, Romans 6:22, Galatians 5:1, John 8:36

Its [Romans] message is not that ‘man was born free, and everywhere he is in chains’, as Rousseau put it at the beginning of The Social Contract (1762); it is rather that human beings are born in sin ...

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Four Powerful Darts of the Devil

Author

Sinclair B. Ferguson

Keywords

Devil

Scripture

Romans 8:31-35, Romans 8:31

“God is against you,” Satan says. “He is not really for you. How can you believe He is for you when you see the things that are happening in your life?” “I have accusations I will bring against you b...

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A Debt We Couldn’t Pay Ourselves

Author

Jerry Bridges

Keywords

Scripture

Colossians 2:13-14, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, 1 Peter 1:18-19, Psalm 49:7-8, 2 Corinthians 5:15, John 8:36

Suppose I sell you a piece of commercial property on which I am already behind in my mortgage payments. You not only pay me a fair price for the property but also pay my overdue payments. Now the prop...

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A Most Cruel & Disgusting Punishment

Author

John Stott

Keywords

Scripture

Deuteronomy 21:23

Roman citizens were exempt from crucifixion, except in extreme cases of treason. Cicero in one of his speeches condemned it as crudelissimum taeterrimumque supplicium, ‘a most cruel and disgusting pun...

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The Hand will Be the First to Burn

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Daniel 3:, Job 1:, Matthew 10:32-33, 2 Timothy 1:7, Psalm 31:24

Thomas Cranmer (1489–1556), the archbishop of Canterbury from 1532 to 1556, played a pivotal role in the English Reformation. A key figure in Henry VIII’s break with the Roman Catholic Church, Cranmer...

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Confrontation Defined

Author

Henry Cloud & John Townsend

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 32:22-32, Exodus 5:1-21, 2 Samuel 12:1-14, Matthew 18:15-17, John 21:15-19, Psalm 141:5

The Latin term for confrontation means “to turn your face toward, to look at frontally.” It merely indicates that you are turning toward the relationship and the person. You are face-to-face, so to sp...

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The Cruelty of Crucifixion

Keywords

Exposed to public view like slabs of meat hung from a market stall, troublesome slaves were nailed to crosses…past. No death was more excruciating, more contemptible, than crucifixion. To be hung nake...

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The Most Damaging Charge

Author

Richard J. Mouw

Keywords

Scripture

Leviticus 19:15, Proverbs 18:17, 1 Kings 3:9, Matthew 7:1–5, John 7:24, Psalm 141:5

At a recent gathering of seminary professors, one teacher reported that at his school the most damaging charge one student can lodge against another is that the person is being “judgmental.” He found ...

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The First to Burn

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Daniel 3:16–18, 2 Chronicles 33:10–13 , Isaiah 50:7, Luke 22:61–62, Psalm 51:10–13 , 1 Peter 3:11-17

Facing imminent death, Thomas Cranmer—the Archbishop of Canterbury who crafted the foundational Book of Common Prayer for Anglican worship—succumbed to terror and signed a document renouncing hi...

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The Conscience Fund

Author

Chuck Swindoll

Keywords

Scripture

Philippians 2:3-4, James 4:10, John 15:12, Colossians 3:14, Romans 12:12

Did you know that ever since 1811 (when someone who had defrauded the government anonymously sent $5 to Washington D.C.) the U.S. Treasury has operated a Conscience Fund? Since that time almost $3.5 m...

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Tearing Down and Building up in the Kingdom

Author

Barbara Brown Taylor

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 65:17-18, Jeremiah 1:9-10, Ezekiel 36:26-27, Matthew 24:1-2, Revelation 21:1-4, Psalm 46:8-10

Since Jesus isn’t attached to the same things we are, he can take the God-view, which is about more than redeeming our individual lives. God means to redeem the world, which is going to require some m...

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Signed & Sealed

Author

Tim Chester

Keywords

Think of a contract. Think perhaps of an employment contract or a memorandum of sale or an IOU. What you hold in your hand is a sheet of paper with a series of commitments written on it. This is what ...

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Stealing Indian Land

Author

George Yancey

Keywords

To illustrate how the racial oppression of previous generations has benefited European Americans, we can look at the fate of Native Americans. When Europeans arrived in North America, Indians owned al...

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A Conscience Held Captive by the Word of God

Author

R. C. Sproul

Keywords

Scripture

Jeremiah 20:7–11 , 1 Kings 22:13–28 , Exodus 32:19–26 , Acts 5:27–29, 2 Timothy 3:14–17, Psalm 119:89–93

When asked to recant of his writings, Luther replied, “Unless I am convinced by sacred Scripture or by evident reason, I cannot recant. For my conscience is held captive by the word of God and to act ...

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