Christian Living on Character Transformation

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The Lion in the Marble

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Keywords

Scripture

2 Corinthians 3:18, Romans 8:29, Philippians 2:12-13, James 1:22-25, Colossians 3:10, Ephesians 4:22-24, 1 Peter 2:2-3, Hebrews 12:11

There was once a sculptor who worked hard with hammer and chisel on a large block of marble. A little child who was watching him saw nothing more than large and small pieces of stone falling away left...

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Author

Henry Ward Beecher

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Scripture

1 Peter 2:2, 1 Thessalonians 3:12, Genesis 37:50, Exodus 3:11–12 , Isaiah 40:29–31 , John 15:1–5, Romans 5:3–5, Psalm 1:1–3, Luke 2:40, 52; 1

Christian character is not an act but a process, not a sudden creation but a development. It grows and bears fruit like a tree; it requires patient care and unwearied cultivation.

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God the Artist: Crafted to Make a Statement

Author

JR Woodward

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 2:10, Isaiah 64:8, 1 Peter 2:9, 2 Corinthians 3:2-3, John 17:18

When I think of masterpieces, I think of art. But what is art? I like the way that Thomas Hoving, who was the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, put it: “Art happens when anyon...

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Imitating the Master

Author

John Koessler

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 5:1-2, Philippians 2:12-13, 2 Corinthians 3:18, 1 Corinthians 11:1, 1 Peter 2:21-23, John 13:15

My father was an artist. He had a black leather sketchbook filled with cartoons and doodles. As a boy I was enthralled by his drawings and wondered how I could learn to draw like him. I began by traci...

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Which Comes First, Identity or Behavior?

Author

James Bryan Smith

Keywords

Scripture

1 Peter 2:9-10, Ephesians 2:19-22, Galatians 2:20, Colossians 3:1-3, Romans 6:11-13

I am not perfect, and I will struggle with the “old Jim,” who was and is influenced by American culture, narratives and values. But the key is that identity comes before behavior. We almost always do ...

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Gracious God, You have called us out of

Author

Allen Thompson

Keywords

Scripture

1 Peter 2:9, Colossians 1:13-14, Galatians 2:20, Ephesians 4:22-24, Matthew 16:24, Philippians 3:20-21, John 8:36

Gracious God, You have called us out of darkness and into the light of Your love. You have redeemed us and made us whole in order to set us free from bondage. The challenge You place before us is to d...

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Author

Henry Law

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Scripture

Philippians 2:5-8, John 1:14, 1 Corinthians 10:13, 1 Peter 2:24, Romans 8:3, Matthew 20:28

What self denial! What self abasement! What self emptying! He, whom no infinitudes can hold, is contained within infant’s age, and infant’s form. Can it be, that the great ‘I AM THAT I AM’ shrinks int...

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Author

C. S. Lewis

Keywords

Scripture

Philippians 4:13, 1 Peter 2:9, Colossians 3:10, Hebrews 11:1, 2 Corinthians 5:7, Galatians 2:20, Romans 10:9

We are what we believe we are.

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The Unique Quality of Christians

Author

James Bryan Smith

Keywords

Scripture

Galatians 6:10, Hebrews 11:13-16, 2 Corinthians 6:9-10, Matthew 5:44, 1 Peter 2:11-12, John 17:15-16

In an early Christian document known as the Epistle to Diognetus (c. A.D. 120-200), the author wrote a response to some propaganda circulating in the Roman Empire. People had spread false rumors about...

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Author

Martin Luther

Keywords

Scripture

2 Peter 3:18, Hebrews 12:1-2, 1 Peter 2:2, Colossians 3:10, Romans 12:2

This life therefore is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness, not health, but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing towar...

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Author

Brian Zahnd

Keywords

Scripture

Colossians 1:20, Ephesians 2:10, John 12:32, 1 Peter 2:24, Philippians 1:6

Every cross adorning a church is in itself a sermon—a sermon proclaiming that if Christ can transform the Roman instrument of execution into a thing of beauty, there is hope that in Christ all things ...

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Living up to the Name "Christian"

Author

Scott Bowerman

Keywords

Scripture

Micah 6:8, 1 Peter 2:2, James 1:4, Galatians 5:22-23, Colossians 2:6-7, Romans 12:2

Some years back, on the Today Show, Maya Angelou was asked, with all that she had accomplished, could there be any more objectives, unfulfilled wishes, for her to pursue? Angelou said, “Oh, my, yes. I...

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Studying our Parts

Author

Brian Dembowczyk

Keywords

Scripture

Philippians 2:5, Ephesians 5:1-2, 1 Peter 2:21, Colossians 3:16, 1 John 2:6, John 13:15

Imagine you were cast to play the role of legendary baseball player Babe Ruth in a biography of his life. You could simply follow the script, reading out what is written. How much better, though, to s...

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Leader: Arise! Shine! Christ’s Church

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 60:1, Matthew 5:14-16, 1 Corinthians 12:12-14, Colossians 1:18, Ephesians 2:19-22, Galatians 6:2, 1 Peter 2:9

Leader: Arise! Shine! Christ’s Church has assembled. People: We are one body, with Christ as our head. Leader: What kind of body is this? People: The Body of Christ, brought together not by huma...

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Traveling the Highway

Author

John Bunyan

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 16:11, Psalm 23:3, Psalm 119:105, Ephesians 2:8-9, 1 Peter 2:24, Micah 7:19, Romans 6:6

Now I could see in my dream that the High-way Christian was to travel on was protection on either side by a Wall, and the Wall was called Salvation. Burdened Christian began to run up the High-way, bu...

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A Kingdom of Priests

Author

Eugene H. Peterson

Keywords

Scripture

1 Peter 2:9, Isaiah 11:6

When the Hebrews, recently enslaved but now free, were gathered at Sinai to begin their formation as a free people, God spoke the words that defined them over against their four centuries of slavery i...

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O Lord, We marvel that you would take

Author

Barbara Duguid

Scripture

Colossians 3:12-14, Romans 12:2, 1 John 1:9, Ephesians 2:14-16, Romans 5:8, 1 Peter 2:24

O Lord, We marvel that you would take on flesh and blood in order to be crucified, killed, and buried for us. You humbled yourself and submitted to the hatred of sinful men, accepting the thorns, the ...

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Reflecting on Shusaku Endo’s Novel and Film, Silence

Author

Nikki Toyama-Szeto

Keywords

Scripture

1 Peter 2:12, Galatians 3:26-28, 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, John 13:34-35, Acts 2:42-47, Matthew 28:19-20, James 2:17-18

In Silence, Shusaku Endo writes of the journey of Portuguese Jesuits journeying to Japan. It is a conversation about those who intend to take the path of Jesus, only to find they are on the path of Ju...

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Live Differently

Author

Trinity Lutheran Church, Lisle, Illinois

Keywords

Scripture

1 Peter 2:13, 15-17, 1 Peter 2:24, Galatians 5:1

Pastor: Peter challenges Christians to live differently than the world around them with these instructions: Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority, People: for...

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The Evolution of the Rose

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 52:8, John 15:1-10, Ephesians 2:19-22, Romans 11:11-24, 1 Peter 2:9-10

A couple years ago I got to take a tour of the Huntington Library in Pasadena, California. The name is a bit misleading because what they are most known for are there amazing gardens. And so we were o...

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Adapted from 1 Peter 2:9-10, 25

Author

Jacob Traeger

Keywords

Scripture

1 Peter 2:9-10, 25

Go, as God’s own people and proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light: Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had...

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Christian Love: The Antithesis of Envy

Author

Robert C. Roberts

Keywords

Scripture

1 Peter 2:1, Galatians 5:26, 1 Corinthians 13:4, 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, Philippians 2:3-4

The Christian’s self-understanding is that she is precious before God—however much a sinner, however much a failure (or success) she may be by the standards of worldly comparisons—and that every other...

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Your torture puts hostility to

Author

Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 2:14, 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, Galatians 3:28, 1 Peter 2:24, Romans 5:8

Your torture puts hostility to death Your broken body breaks down every dividing wall Your blood makes us blood What wondrous truth What dazzling grace Bring us near again, Jesus Help us remember an...

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Suffering is Walking in Jesus' Path

Author

Elizabeth Elliott

Keywords

Scripture

1 Peter 2:21, Luke 9:23, Philippians 3:10, 2 Timothy 2:11-12, Matthew 16:24-25

Amy Carmichael was a passionate missionary to India. She gave her life for the sake of those who had suffered the consequences of an unyielding caste system. She also had her suffering, due to physica...

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Not Being Chosen

Author

Eugene H. Peterson

Keywords

Belonging

Scripture

Ephesians 1:4, Romans 8:28-30, 1 Peter 2:9

Verb two: God chose. “Just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love” (Eph.1:4) Everybody I have ever become acquainted with has a story,...

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The Gettysburg Address & Identity Formation

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

2 Corinthians 5:17, John 1:12, Romans 6:3-4, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, Hebrews 10:24-25, 1 Peter 2:9

Why is it that countless American school-children memorize the Gettysburg Address each year? Is it a simple civics lesson? An opportunity to learn about the Civil War, a turning point in American hist...

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What is a Christian?

Author

Bill Rodenberg

Keywords

Christians

Scripture

2 Thessalonians 1:3, 1 Peter 2:2, 2 Peter 3:18, Mark 5:19, Luke 14:23, Acts 1:8, Matthew 5:16, Luke 8:16, Philippians 2:15, Mark 4:1-20, Luke 8:4-8, Psalm 12:6-8, Psalm 91:1-2, Luke 8:39, 1 Peter 2:9, 1 John 5:13, 2 Corinthians 5:1, 2 Timothy 3:1-5

The word “Christian” has lost much of its meaning in our culture. It means “Christ in one.” As you communicate the Good News of Jesus Christ, this is what God expects of a Christian: He expects us to...

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Life’s Greatest Trap

Author

Henri J. M. Nouwen

Keywords

Scripture

1 Peter 2:9-10, Romans 8:31-32, Psalm 139:1-4, Ephesians 2:10, John 21:15-19, Ephesians 3:17-19

Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection. Success, popularity, and power can indeed present a great temptation...

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The Church's Funeral

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

1 Corinthians 12:12-27, Ephesians 4:15-16, Revelation 3:1-3, James 2:17, Matthew 16:18, Hebrews 10:24-25, 1 Peter 2:4-5, Romans 12:4-5, Acts 2:42-47, 1 Corinthians 3:9

The story goes about a young man (or woman!) with dreams of growing a small church nestled in rural Oklahoma. Despite his relentless efforts, the church continued to teeter on the edge of extinction a...

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Incarnational Ministry: The Life of Father Damien

Author

John Ortberg

Keywords

Scripture

1 Peter 2:24, Romans 8:3, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Isaiah 53:4, John 1:14, Philippians 2:6-8

Father Damien was a priest who became famous for his willingness to serve lepers. He moved to Kalawao, a village on the island of Molokai in Hawaii that had been quarantined to serve as a leper colony...

christian living on Character Transformation

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