Thought Exercise on Steadfast Love

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A Love that Will Not Let Me Go

Author

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 29:15–30, Job 1:2, 19:25, Isaiah 54:4–10 , John 21:15–19, Romans 8:35–39, Psalm 34:18

George Matheson was just entering the bewildering teenage years when doctors informed him he was going blind. Undeterred, he pressed on with his education and graduated from the University of Glasgow ...

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The Church Readerboard

Author

Dan Baumgartner

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 147:11, Proverbs 11:, Proverbs 12:22, Jeremiah 9:24

We have an outdoor church readerboard (yep, manual, press-in-the-grooves-black-plastic-letters) near a busy street that I enjoy changing every couple of weeks. The challenge of saying something meanin...

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Happy Marriages

Author

John Gottman and Nan Silver

Keywords

Scripture

Proverbs 31:11-12, Ephesians 5:25-28, Colossians 3:19, 1 Peter 3:7

Happy marriages are based on a deep friendship. By this I mean mutual respect for and enjoyment of each other’s company. These couples tend to know each other intimately—they are well versed in each o...

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Love Does not Insist on Its Own Way

Author

Dave Peterson

Keywords

Scripture

1 Corinthians 13:4-7, Philippians 2:3-4, Colossians 3:12-14, John 13:1-17, Luke 10:25-37, Genesis 37:50, 1 Peter 4:8

Once, while on vacation, on our way to church, Terri and I got into a disagreement over something. When I felt I was losing, to make my point, I stopped the car and got out. We were on a country road....

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Pursuing Uncertainty through Pilgrimage

Author

Shelly Miller

Keywords

Allow the presence of God to be the bridge through your uncertainty. The axis of uncertainty is disorientation, and let’s face it, who wants to be spinning in all directions while in transition? Resea...

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The Trickiness of Defining Love

Author

John Mark Comer

Keywords

Scripture

Deuteronomy 7:7–9 , Hosea 3:1–3, Exodus 34:6–7, John 15:12–13 , 1 Corinthians 13:4–7 , Psalm 136:

In love . What does that even mean? “Love” is a junk drawer we dump all sorts of ideas into, just because we don’t have anywhere else to put them. I “love” God, and I “love” fish tacos. See ...

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Love Stories

Author

Mike Cosper

Keywords

Love

Scripture

Ephesians 5:32, John 3:16, 1 John 3:16, Romans 5:8, Ephesians 5:25-27, John 3:16

Love makes people do crazy things. The stories we tell in literature and film are full of examples of the crazy things people will do for love. Love empowers Odysseus through madness and suffering, dr...

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Wound With Mercy Round and Round

Author

James Bryan Smith

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 8:38, Psalm 139:7-10, Luke 15:11-32, Isaiah 54:10, Psalm 103:17-18, Lamentations 3:22-23, Jeremiah 31:3

Nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate us from God’s love. St. Paul reminded the Romans of this when he wrote, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things p...

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The Love of God Wrapped About Him

Author

Thomas Kelly

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 4:1-3, Psalm 30:5, Romans 8:28, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Psalm 34:18, Isaiah 43:2, Psalm 23:4, Job 1:, Job 2:, Job 42:, 2 Samuel 11:, 2 Samuel 12:, Genesis 37:12-36, 1 Kings 17:8-24, Daniel 6:, Psalm 34:18

The sense of Presence! I have spoken of it as stealing on one unawares. It is recorded of John Wilhelm Rowntree that as he left a great physician’s office, where he had just been told that his advanci...

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A 25 & 50 Year Martyrdom

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

R. Paul Stevens, Professor Emeritus at Regent College, was visiting the Wedding Church in Cana of Galilee with his wife Gail when a hilarious event took place. After introducing himself to the residen...

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Holding on for Dear Life

Author

Max Lucado

Keywords

There is the story Dan Mazzeo tells about his father, “Pop,” a first-generation Italian American who was struggling with metastatic liver and lung cancer. When doctors gave him less than a year, Pop b...

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You Are There First And Forever

Author

Søren Kierkegaard

Keywords

In this short prayer by Søren Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher describes how the love of God always precedes our own devotion: “Father in Heaven! You have loved us first, help us never to forget ...

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Love for the Long Haul

Author

Timothy Keller

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 30:18, James 5:7-8, Psalm 37:7

Patience is love for the long haul; it is bearing up under difficult circumstances, without giving up or giving in to bitterness. Patience means working when gratification is delayed. It means taking ...

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Christ Will Hold Me Fast

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 121:3-4, Matthew 14:22-33, Romans 8:38-39, Philippians 1:6, John 10:27-29, 2 Timothy 2:13

Robert Harkness (1880-1961) was an Australian pianist influential in the transition in churches from organ to piano music. Early on, he traveled with evangelist R. A. Torrey and played at his evangeli...

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There is an Ebb and a Flow

Author

Chuck Swindoll

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 8:38-39, James 2:13, Psalm 46:1-2, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, Isaiah 54:10, Psalm 103:8-10, Lamentations 3:22-23

Dear Lord, Today I thought of the words of Vincent Van Gogh. It is true that there is an ebb and flow but the sea remains the sea. You, oh God, are the sea. Although I experience many ups and downs i...

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Our Loves Can’t Hold the Weight of our Expectations

Author

Timothy Keller

Keywords

Scripture

John 4:4-26, Genesis 22:1-19, Luke 10:38-42, Mark 10:17-27, Matthew 6:33

The ultimate reason for our misery, however, is that we do not love God supremely. As Augustine so famously put it in prayer, “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they fin...

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An Opportunity to Excel in Love

Author

Gary Thomas

Keywords

Love

Scripture

Galatians 5:13-14, Romans 16:3-4, Acts 18:1-3, Genesis 17:21, John 13:1-17

Marriage calls us to an entirely new and selfless life. . . . Any situation that calls me to confront my selfishness has enormous spiritual value, and I slowly began to understand that the real purpos...

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Kindness and the Character of God

Author

Christopher H. J. Wright

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 34:6–7, Genesis 39:21, Micah 6:8, Titus 3:4–5, Luke 6:35–36, Psalm 136:1

In the Old Testament, God is often praised for his kindness. There is a beautiful word in Hebrew— hesed —which is so rich in meaning that it gets translated in many ways. Very often it is translat...

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Life Isn’t Fair

Author

Gillian Marchenko

Keywords

Marriage

Scripture

Matthew 20:13-16

In this excerpt from Gillian Marchenko’s memoir on her battle with depression, Still Life , her husband, a pastor named Sergei describes the reality that both life, and marriage, are often not as...

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Patience is More Than Endurance

Author

Oswald Chambers

Keywords

Patience is more than endurance. A saint's life is in the hands of God like a bow and arrow in the hands of an archer. God is aiming at something the saint cannot see, and He stretches and strains...

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Following Jesus Requires Real Commitment

Author

Bradley Long

Keywords

Scripture

Proverbs 3:5-8, Matthew 22:37, Romans 12:1-2, Luke 14:26-27, Deuteronomy 6:5, Luke 16:13, Mark 12:30, John 14:15, Matthew 16:24-26, Luke 9:59-62, Matthew 6:24, Hebrews 11:13-16, Hebrews 10:38-39, Matthew 6:33-34, Matthew 10:37-39

What are you willing to do for love? An instructor for the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course shared with a class the major hang-up he had to get over before asking his wife to ma...

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The Fuel of our Identities

Author

Timothy Keller

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 22:1–14, Isaiah 43:1–2 , Exodus 14:13–14, Romans 8:15–17, Luke 15:11–32 , Psalm 46:1–2

If you think of your identity and heart as an engine, you could say there is a kind of fuel that powers it cleanly and efficiently—and a kind of fuel that is not only polluting but also destroys the e...

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Trust: That Rare & Priceless Treasure

Author

Paul de Jaegher

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 22:1-14 , Exodus 14:13-14, Proverbs 3:5-6 , Matthew 8:23-27, Philippians 4:6-7, Psalm 37:3-5

Trust is that rare and priceless treasure that wins us the affection of our heavenly Father. For him it has both charm and fascination. Among his countless children, whom he so greatly loves and whom ...

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Christian Character Defined: John Stott

Author

Mark Labberton

Keywords

Scripture

John 3:16, Isaiah 58:10-11, Colossians 2:9-10, Romans 8:38-39, Psalm 16:11, 2 Corinthians 9:8, Philippians 4:11-12

As a study assistant to the Anglican pastor and writer John Stott during my early years as a believer, I witnessed John’s faithfulness in public and private, as a highly visible speaker and as a nearl...

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Wholeheartedly Committing to God's Will

Author

Frank Laubach

Keywords

Scripture

John 4:14, John 4:1-26, Isaiah 58:11, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Psalm 1:3, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, Matthew 6:10, Proverbs 16:9, Hebrews 13:20-21, James 1:5, John 6:38-40

Frank Laubach recounts the profound shift in his life that came when he wholeheartedly committed to following God’s will: Before that moment, I was barely alive—like a tree rotting from within. Bu...

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The Still, Small Voice of Love

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

1 Kings 19:11-12 , Isaiah 43:1, Deuteronomy 31:6, Matthew 3:16-17, John 10:27, Psalm 46:10

Many voices ask for our attention. There is a voice that says, “Prove that you are a good person.” Another voice says, “You’d better be ashamed of yourself.” There also is a voice that says, “Nobody r...

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Discipleship Should Fuel Fascination

Author

Samuel Whitefield

Keywords

Beholding beauty produces fascination, and fascination is the best way to transform a person. Consider a young man in love. Parents, professors, mentors, and friends can plead with a young man to chan...

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What Matters Supremely

Author

James I. Packer

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 49:15-16, Galatians 4:9, John 10:14-15, Matthew 10:29-31, John 17:9-10

What matters supremely, therefore, is not, in last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it- that He knows me. I am graven on the palms of His hands. I am never out o...

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The Sap, the Strong Bond of Love

Author

Daniel Bourguet

Keywords

Scripture

John 15:1-16, Luke 19:1-10, John 4:7-26, John 21:15-19, Galatians 5:22-23, Ephesians 3:17-19

The strong bond that unites the vine and the branches has to do with the sap that flows through them. Jesus does not here use the word “sap,” but nonetheless gives a lengthy excursus on love in a way ...

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C.S. Lewis & Joy Davidson: A Mystical Way of Revealing God

Author

Les and Leslie Parrott

Keywords

Marriage

One of the most compelling love stories in our time involves a couple who, in the beginning, lived an ocean apart. He was a scruffy old Oxford bachelor, a Christian apologist and an author of bestsell...

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