Christian Living on Rejection

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Life’s Greatest Trap

Author

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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Contempt, a Prayer of Confession

Author

Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 4:31-32, Matthew 5:44, Colossians 3:12-13, James 4:11, 1 Peter 2:1, Romans 12:10

Contempt is so painful To be dismissed, disregarded Questioning instead of dignity Accusation instead of personhood I have felt its sting and hollowness As have you, my Jesus Help me hear the needed m...

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A Biblical Understanding of Sin

Author

Richard Plass

Keywords

Scripture

Galatians 5:17, 1 Peter 2:25, Romans 8:7, James 4:4, Ephesians 2:1-2, Isaiah 59:2, 1 John 3:4

In the New Testament sin is not merely an individual, privatized transgression of a moral standard (sins is typically used for specific transgressions). It is far more radical than that. Sin is a mist...

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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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Author

Henry Law

Keywords

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

Elisabeth Elliot

Keywords

Scripture

John 15:18-20, 1 Peter 2:21, Romans 5:3-4, Mark 15:16-24, 2 Corinthians 4:8-10, James 1:2-4

If we do anything to further the kingdom of God, we may expect to find what Christ found on that road - abuse, indifference, injustice, misunderstanding, trouble of some kind. Take it. Why not? To tha...

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Author

William S. Stoddard

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 53:5, 1 Peter 2:24, Hebrews 12:2, Romans 5:8, Colossians 3:13, Luke 23:34

Forgiving the unforgivable is hard. So was the cross: hard words, hard wood, hard nails.

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Donne, Undone

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 5:31-33, Matthew 19:4-6, Romans 8:28, Proverbs 22:1, 1 Timothy 3:7, Titus 2:7-8, Philippians 2:15, 1 Peter 2:12, Galatians 6:4-5, Daniel 1:17-21

While movies and novels often present stories of a budding love interest willing to give up everything for “true love” (Romeo and Juliet, for example), the renowned poet, and later clergyman, John Don...

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Author

Luke Norsworthy

Keywords

Scripture

1 Peter 2:2, Colossians 2:6-7, Philippians 3:12-14, Ephesians 4:15, Galatians 5:1, 2 Corinthians 3:17, Romans 12:2

For some, faith begins with a hard shell, a rigid set of answers and platitudes that keep them safe but eventually prevent them from growing into who they could be. The system that was initially prote...

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Caring Christians

Author

Ralph Neighbor

Keywords

Scripture

1 John 3:18, 1 Peter 2:12, Matthew 5:16, Luke 6:32-35, Romans 5:8

Even if people reject the gospel, we still must love them. A good example of this was reported by Ralph Neighbour, pastor of Houston’s West Memorial Baptist Church (in Death And The Caring Community ...

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O God, you are the sure foundation and

Author

Chip Hardwick

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 62:6, 1 Peter 2:4-6, 2 Timothy 2:19, Psalm 18:2, Ephesians 2:19-20, Isaiah 28:16, 1 Corinthians 3:11

O God, you are the sure foundation and the certain cornerstone. Building on you brings life, yet we often turn away and try to find hope by building on other foundations. Self-esteem, money, career, f...

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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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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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Evangelists Are Seen as Salesmen

Author

Don Everts and Doug Schaupp

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 5:14-16, John 13:34-35, 1 Peter 2:12, Titus 2:7-8, 2 Corinthians 5:20, Matthew 10:16

In another day and age, God, religion and church enjoyed the general respect of the culture. Not today. Religion is suspect, church is weird, and Christians are hypocrites. Distrust has become the nor...

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Author

Tom Howard

Keywords

Scripture

2 Timothy 2:23-24, Ephesians 4:, 1 Corinthians 12:12-21, 1 Corinthians 14:26-28, 1 Peter 2:1, John 17:21, 1 Corinthians 3:3, 1 Corinthians 12:25, 1 Corinthians 1:11-13, Matthew 12:25-26

Christian disunity is and remains a massive impediment to the gospel itself—the proclamation of which is and should be evangelicalism’s strong suit.

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Heavenly Father, we confess that we too often

Author

Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 43:1, 1 Peter 2:9, Matthew 25:31-46, Isaiah 6:1-8

Heavenly Father, we confess that we have too often forgotten that we are Yours. At times, we live our lives as if there was no God and we fall short of being who You created us to be. We have lived fo...

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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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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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The Sheep Follow the Shepherd’s Call

Author

Eric F. F. Bishop

Keywords

Scripture

John 10:11-18, Matthew 18:12-13, 1 Peter 2:25, Ezekiel 34:11-12, John 10:3-4, Luke 15:4-6, Isaiah 40:11

During the riots in Palestine in the middle thirties a village near Haifa was condemned to collective punishment by having its sheep and cattle sequestrated by the Government. The inhabitants however ...

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The Debt Must Be Paid

Author

Peter Kreeft

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 3:23-26, 1 Peter 2:24, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Ephesians 1:7, Colossians 2:13-14, Isaiah 53:5, Hebrews 9:22

Mercy goes beyond justice, it does not undercut it. If I forgive you the hundred dollar debt you owe me, that means I must use one hundred dollars of my own money to pay my creditors. I cannot really ...

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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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Our Unworthy Cornerstones

Author

Ryan Bundrick

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 2:20, Isaiah 28:16, 1 Peter 2:6-8, 1 Corinthians 3:11, Hebrews 12:27-28, Psalm 118:22, Matthew 21:42, Mark 12:10-11, Luke 20:17

The cornerstone was a critical element of ancient architecture, the anchor that the rest of the building relied on. The cornerstone was the stone that set the alignment of the entire building. Every o...

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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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Author

Emil Brunner

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 3:23-25, 2 Corinthians 5:21, 1 Peter 2:24, Ephesians 2:13-14, Colossians 1:19-20

Only at the cross of Christ does man see fully what it is that separates him from God; yet it is here alone that he perceives that he is no longer separated from God. Nowhere else does the inviolable ...

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An Unfortunate Comparison

Author

James Merritt

Keywords

Scripture

John 10:11, John 10:27-28, Luke 15:4-6, Matthew 9:36, Mark 6:34, Isaiah 53:6, Psalm 23:1-3, 1 Peter 2:25

Jesus doesn’t just use the shepherd metaphor when he refers to himself as the door. Over and over in the Bible, we are compared to sheep. Some people think it’s heartwarming. But I hate to tell you, i...

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Repentance for the Religious

Author

John W. Rilling

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 3:25, Hebrews 9:28, Matthew 4:1-2, 1 Peter 2:24, Psalm 51:1-2, 2 Corinthians 5:21

Written almost a hundred years ago, this excerpt from the Reverend John W. Rilling points out one of the main reasons we continue to observe Lent, a period of repentance and discipline for many who ca...

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We affirm the good news that this

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

1 Timothy 1:15, 1 Peter 2:24, Romans 6:11

We affirm the good news that this saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He personally bore our sins in His body on the cross, s...

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Author

Kevin DeYoung

Keywords

Scripture

1 Peter 2:9, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, Ephesians 4:22-24, 1 Thessalonians 4:7, Hebrews 12:14, 1 Peter 1:15-16

The hole in our holiness is that we don’t really care much about it. Passionate exhortation to pursue gospel-driven holiness is barely heard in most of our churches. It’s not that we don’t talk about ...

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Author

Dwight L. Moody

Keywords

Scripture

Mark 10:46-52, Romans 10:13, Psalm 145:18, Luke 23:39-43, 1 Peter 2:24, Romans 5:8, Luke 18:9-14

If you are ready to partake of grace you have not to atone for your sins--you have merely to accept of the atonement. All that you want to do is to cry, "God have mercy upon me," and you wil...

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