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  • illustration

    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...

  • illustration

    A Wedding & A Reaffirmation of Covenant Love

    Author
    Tim Chester
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Luke 22:19-20, Galatians 3:26-27, Colossians 2:11-12, Titus 3:3-7, 1 Corinthians 10:16-17
    Baptism is like a wedding. It is a covenant act, a relationship-making agreement, in which commitments are made. A couple may love one another. But feelings can go up and down. That is why marriage is...

  • Quote

    Author
    John Calvin
    Keywords
    Scripture
    1 John 5:13, Galatians 3:14, Titus 3:5-7, John 14:26, Romans 8:16
    We shall now have a full definition of faith if we say that it is a firm and sure knowledge of the divine favor toward us, founded on the truth of a free promise in Christ, and revealed to our minds, ...

  • Quote

    Author
    John Calvin
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Philippians 1:6, Galatians 3:28, John 17:21, 1 Corinthians 12:12, Colossians 1:17-18
    It is a promise which eminently deserves our observation that all who are united to Christ and acknowledge Him to be Christ and Mediator will remain to the end safe from all danger, for what is said o...

  • illustration

    Baptism Gives us Assurance in Our Faith

    Author
    Elyse M. Fitzpatrick
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Zechariah 13:1, Ephesians 1:7, Acts 2:38, Romans 6:3-4, Galatians 3:26-27, Colossians 2:12, Titus 3:5, 1 Peter 3:21
    For us, Jesus instituted two ongoing signs to confirm our confidence in the gospel of his grace, the first of which is baptism. Though simpler and less obviously supernatural than the ten plagues on E...

  • Quote

    Author
    Emil Brunner
    Keywords
    Scripture
    1 John 2:1-2, Hebrews 8:6, Galatians 3:20, 2 Corinthians 5:18-19, Romans 5:8, Hebrews 9:15, John 14:6
    In Christianity faith in the Mediator is not something optional, not something about which, in the last resort, it is possible to hold different opinions, if we are only united on the ‘main point’. Fo...

  • Quote

    Author
    Timothy Keller
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Galatians 3:28, John 8:32, 1 Peter 3:15, Deuteronomy 6:6-7, Acts 17:11, Colossians 2:8, Proverbs 22:6
    It is always crucial to remember that our beliefs are formed not only through reason and argument but also through social conditioning.

  • illustration

    Defining What it Means to Be Blessed

    Author
    H. Norman Wright
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Genesis 12:2-3, Psalm 103:1-2, Deuteronomy 28:4-5, Genesis 47:7, Psalm 1:1-3, Galatians 3:8-9, Genesis 12:2-3, Genesis 27:1-40
    To bless generally means to speak good or to do good things for another. There are many types of blessing in Scripture. The first is the blessing God communicates to people. When God blessed Abraham b...

  • illustration

    Blessing: A Life with God

    Author
    John Ortberg
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Genesis 12:2-3, Psalm 1:1-3, Matthew 5:3-12, Galatians 3:8-9, Genesis 12:2-3
    Blessing in the ancient world was the highest form of well-being possible for human beings. The Greeks referred to the blissful existence of the gods as “blessed.” For Israel, blessing included not ju...

  • liturgy

    God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – You (A)

    Author
    Richard Herman
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Colossians 3:14-16, John 17:20-23, Galatians 3:26-28, Romans 12:4-5, 1 Corinthians 12:12-14, Ephesians 4:4-6
    God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – You know what it’s like to be many and one at the same time. In You, we too are many … yet one. You’ve made us _one body—_a single family unified for one purpose;...

  • Quote

    Author
    Martin Luther
    Keywords
    Scripture
    John 3:5, Mark 16:16, 1 Peter 3:21, Colossians 2:12, Galatians 3:27, Romans 6:3-4, Acts 2:38
    Thus, we must regard baptism and put it to use in such a way that we may draw strength and comfort from it when our sins or conscience oppress us, and say: ‘But I am baptized! And if I have been bapti...

  • Quote

    Author
    Edwin Markham
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Luke 19:1-10, Ephesians 2:14, Galatians 3:28, 1 John 4:7-8, John 13:34-35, John 8:1-11, Luke 10:25-37
    He drew a circle that shut me out— Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. But love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle that took him in!

  • liturgy

    Gracious and loving God, Father, Son

    Author
    Richard Herman
    Keywords
    Scripture
    James 5:15, Psalm 147:3, Galatians 3:28, Matthew 5:44, 2 Corinthians 5:17, 1 Corinthians 15:54-55, Ephesians 4:32
    Gracious and loving God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit: We praise you for how wide, how high, and how deep is Your vast love for all people. Incarnate in Jesus, You offered Your life for the healing of ...

  • illustration

    A Naming Ceremony

    Author
    Tim Chester
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Matthew 28:19, Romans 6:3-4, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Galatians 3:26-27
    Your own baptism was a naming ceremony: you were baptized “in[to] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19). That naming ceremony no more changed your heart than did ...

  • illustration

    I Am Baptized

    Author
    Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Romans 6:3-4, Ephesians 2:8-9, Colossians 2:11-12, Titus 3:5, Galatians 3:27
    If you’ve read or watched any of the biographies of Martin Luther, you will already know that he struggled at times with bouts of anxiety, self-loathing, and perhaps even depression. Shortly after his...

  • liturgy

    Prayer for the Unity of the Church

    Keywords
    Scripture
    Romans 12:4-5, Colossians 3:14, Galatians 3:28, John 17:20-23, Ephesians 4:3-6
    O God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Savior, the Prince of Peace: Give us grace to take to heart the great dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions. Take away all hatred and prejudice...

  • liturgy

    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...

  • Quote

    Author
    J. Gresham Machen
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Titus 3:5-7, Hebrews 11:66, Galatians 3:14, Romans 3:28, Galatians 2:16, Romans 5:1
    The N. T. never says that a man is saved on account of his faith, but always that he is saved through his faith, or by means of his faith; faith is merely the means which the Holy Spirit uses to apply...

  • illustration

    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...

  • illustration

    A Relationship Among Fellows

    Author
    Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Colossians 3:14-15, 1 John 1:7, Ephesians 4:3-6, Galatians 3:28, Philippians 2:1-2
    Did you know that the history of the word “fellowship,” is, rather simply, a relationship among fellows? The idea of a fellowship being that two or more people have been bonded together in some signif...

  • illustration

    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...

  • illustration

    What Does it Mean to Be Blessed?

    Author
    H. Norman Wright
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Genesis 12:1-4, Mark 10:13-16, Psalm 1:1-3, Matthew 5:3-12, Galatians 3:8-9, Matthew 19:13-15, Numbers 6:24-26, Luke 18:15-17, Luke 24:50-51, Genesis 27:1-40
    Ask a dozen people what the word blessing means and you’ll probably get a dozen different answers. For many people, it means financial security. For some, it means good health- For yet others, it mean...

  • illustration

    The Greatest Knight

    Author
    BBC Two
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Romans 6:3-4, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Galatians 3:27, 1 Corinthians 10:16-17
    In a documentary film on the medieval statesmen William the Marshal, professor Thomas Asbridge shares his experience of the power behind Marshal’s knighting ceremony. It provides an interesting coroll...

  • illustration

    The Prime Sacrament

    Author
    Martin Luther
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Romans 6:3-4, 1 Corinthians 12:13, Galatians 3:27, Colossians 2:12
    Baptism is the prime sacrament, the foundation of them all…There are two things which baptism signifies, namely, death and resurrection…We call this death and resurrection a new creation, a regenerati...

  • illustration

    Brené Brown Struggling to Belong

    Author
    Brené Brown
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Numbers 12:null, Joshua 2:null, Matthew 9:9, Mark 5:1-10, Mark 5:25-34, Luke 19:1-10, John 4:1-42, Galatians 3:28
    Belonging can be such a fickle and painful process in life. As the popular researcher and writer Brené Brown describes in her book, Braving the Wilderness, she struggled to fit in after moving to New ...

  • illustration

    Mercy and Minivans

    Author
    Jen Wilkin
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Romans 3:23-24, Isaiah 53:5, 2 Corinthians 5:21, 1 Peter 2:24, Galatians 3:13
    My husband, Jeff, is an excellent driver. He has never had an accident, excepting two incidents in high school which hardly bear mentioning— Several years ago, I was driving across town to get to a sp...

  • illustration

    “Christians:” Worshiping God in Equality

    Author
    John M. Perkins
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Acts 13:1, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Galatians 3:28
    Christ followers were first called Christians at Antioch—about fifteen years after the birth of the church at Pentecost. There must have been something remarkable about this particular group of believ...

  • illustration

    The Upside-Down, Strangely Beautiful Kingdom

    Author
    Russell Moore
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Acts 17:6, Revelation 5:9-10, Galatians 3:28, Romans 8:17, Matthew 5:3
    The kingdom of God turns the Darwinist narrative of the survival of the fittest upside down (Acts 17:6–7). When the church honors and cares for the vulnerable among us, we are not showing charity. We ...

  • illustration

    Paul and Onesimus

    Author
    Melinda Joy Mingo
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Romans 15:7, Matthew 18:21-22, 1 Corinthians 12:13, Romans 12:10, Galatians 3:28, Colossians 3:13
    One of my favorite Bible illustrations of someone willing to go against the norms of society to befriend another based on love and forgiveness is found in the New Testament book of Philemon. It is a m...

  • illustration

    Tell Them About the Dream, Martin!

    Author
    Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Matthew 5:9, James 2:8, Proverbs 21:3, Romans 12:21, Isaiah 1:17, Galatians 3:28
    Most of us in the United States know the famous “I have a Dream” speech Martin Luther King Jr. gave at the Lincoln Memorial as part of the 1963 March on Washington. On a sweltering, humid day in the n...
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