Christian Living on Sacrifice

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A Soldier's Sacrifice

Author

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 5:2, 1 John 3:16, Philippians 2:8, Romans 5:8, Galatians 2:20, John 15:13

A chaplain was speaking to a soldier on a cot in a hospital. “You have lost an arm in the great cause,” he said. “No,” said the soldier with a smile. “I didn’t lose it–I gave it.” In that same way, Je...

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Sacrificial Courage

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

John 15:13, Esther 4:14-16, John 10:11-15, 2 Corinthians 5:14-15, Romans 12:1, Hebrews 13:16, Ruth 1:16-17, Luke 10:30-37, Matthew 25:40, Psalm 82:3-4

A truly remarkable example of sacrificial courage took place in Folsom, New Mexico, in 1908. When a flood was racing toward the valley, a resident from the hills warned a local woman, S. J. Brooks, th...

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An Honor to Die for this Child

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Hebrews 13:3, Philippians 2:3-4, Romans 12:21, Isaiah 1:17, Proverbs 31:8-9, Matthew 25:40, John 15:13

During the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, Corrie ten Boom tried to enlist a pastor to help hide Jews. Showing him a Jewish baby in need of rescue, the pastor said “No. Definitely not. We could lo...

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Jesus – Savior: Praise You. Thank

Author

Richard Herman

Keywords

Scripture

John 15:13, Philippians 2:6-7, Matthew 2:13-15, Matthew 5:44, Romans 5:8, 1 John 4:19, 2 Corinthians 9:15

Jesus – Savior: Praise You. Thank You. We’d never have done what You did We’d never give up so much for someone else who cared so little about us. … and we can’t imagine anyone doing it for us. But Yo...

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The Story of Valentine’s Day

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

John 15:13, 1 John 4:10-11, Romans 12:10, Song of Solomon 8:6-7, Genesis 29:20, 1 Samuel 18:20

Valentine’s Day commemorates the date on which Valentine, a roman priest, was executed by order of Emperor Claudius II. Claudius II was embroiled in a number of wars and believed that married men mad...

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Author

Hans Urs von Balthasar

Keywords

Scripture

2 Corinthians 8:9, Romans 6:4, John 12:24, Galatians 2:20, John 15:13

This total self-giving, to which the Son and the Spirit respond by an equal self-giving, is a kind of “death,” a first, radical “kenosis,” as one might say. It is a kind of “super-death” that is a com...

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The Greatest Sacrifice

Author

Richard J. Mouw

Keywords

Scripture

Proverbs 31:8–9, Exodus 1:15–21, Isaiah 58:6–7, John 15:13, Matthew 25:35–40 , Psalm 82:3–4

In The Hiding Place Corrie ten Boom tells of the time she and her father needed to find a safer place for a Jewish mother and child they had been concealing from the Nazis. A local clergyman cam...

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Dying for His Subjects

Author

Charles Colson

Keywords

Scripture

John 15:13, Isaiah 53:5, Philippians 2:8-11, Romans 5:8, Hebrews 12:28, Revelation 17:14, Revelation 19:16

When I was in Moscow in 1990 preaching at the Moscow Baptist Church, just blocks from the Kremlin, I told a packed crowd of worshipers that all through human history, as far back as recorded time and ...

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Wherever Help is Needed

Author

B. B. Warfield

Keywords

Scripture

John 15:13, Romans 12:1, Matthew 10:39, 1 John 3:16, Ephesians 5:25

While written well over a century ago, this excerpt (from the great Princeton theologian) B.B. Warfield’s sermon “imitating the Incarnation continues to inspire the kind of life Christ calls us to: ...

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May This Body Nourish Us in Faithfulness

Author

Jake Meador

Keywords

Scripture

John 15:13, Romans 5:8, 1 John 3:16, Matthew 5:9, Micah 6:8, Isaiah 53:5, Hebrews 12:2

At a funeral Mass for a friend of Archbishop Romero who was murdered by the government because of her faith in Christ, Romero invited those present to follow this Lord who died, this God who sacrifice...

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The Christian Symbols of the Early Church

Author

Philip Schaff

Keywords

Scripture

Revelation 7:17, Luke 15:1-7, John 10:1-18, Psalm 23:1-3, Matthew 4:19, John 15:5, John 10:11

At the same time Church historian Philip Schaff was writing his 8-volume history of the Church, the Roman catacombs were being discovered. Schaff had this to say about symbols Christians used to adorn...

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Finding the Right Pastoral Work–Life Balance: A Few Unbalanced Thoughts

Author

Dan Baumgartner

Keywords

Scripture

John 15:null

I might not be the best person to be writing this. After an eleven-year career in business in my twenties and early thirties, I’ve been an ordained pastor now for nearly twenty-seven years. There are...

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The Faithfulness of a Few

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Proverbs 28:20, Revelation 2:10, Matthew 5:10-12, Matthew 10:22, 2 Corinthians 4:8-10, 1 Peter 4:12-14, Romans 8:35-37, John 15:18-20, Psalm 31:23, Matthew 25:21, 1 Corinthians 4:2, 1 Timothy 6:12, Matthew 24:45-46

Pliny, a Roman Governor serving around 112 AD, faced a challenging situation regarding Christianity. Many Church historians believe that by his time, it had become illegal to profess the Christian fai...

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Author

John Wesley

Keywords

Scripture

John 15:12-13, John 13:1-17, Luke 10:25-37, Romans 13:8, Colossians 3:14

We should always remember that love is the highest gift of God. All of our revelations and gifts are little things compared to love.... Settle in your heart that from this moment on you will aim at no...

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Kenōsis and Perichōrēsis

Author

James Bryan Smith

Keywords

Scripture

Philippians 2:6-7, Galatians 2:20, John 10:30, Ephesians 5:21, Colossians 1:19-20, John 15:13, Matthew 20:28

There are two wonderful Greek words that the early church theologians used to describe the Trinity: kenōsis and perichōrēsis. Kenosis is the act of self-giving for the good of another. It is found in ...

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Author

Elisabeth Elliot

Keywords

Scripture

2 Corinthians 11:23-28, Ruth 1:16, 1 John 4:18, 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, John 15:12-13

To love means to open ourselves to suffering. Shall we shut our doors to love, then, and be “safe”?

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Author

Thomas à Kempis

Keywords

Scripture

2 Corinthians 5:15, Colossians 3:1-2, Romans 12:1, John 15:4-5, Philippians 3:7-8, Galatians 2:20, Matthew 6:33

Let this be thy whole Endeavour, this thy prayer, this thy desire, that thou mayest be stripped of all selfishness, and with entire simplicity follow Jesus only.

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Author

Amy Carmichael

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 32:7-14, Mark 10:17-22, Galatians 2:11-14, 2 Samuel 12:1-14, 1 John 3:16, Romans 5:8, John 15:13

If I fear to hold another to the highest goal because it is so much easier to avoid doing so, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

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Gracious God, We build walls to protect

Author

Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 73:25-26, John 15:15, Galatians 2:20, Philippians 3:8-9, Isaiah 55:8-9, Psalm 37:5

Gracious God, We build walls to protect ourselves, but it leads to isolation. We make independence the highest value, instead of complete dependence on You. Forgive us for our inability to surrender e...

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Author

Søren Kierkegaard

Keywords

Scripture

1 Corinthians 13:1-3, John 15:12-13, 1 John 4:19, Matthew 22:37-40, Matthew 19:16-30

To cheat oneself out of love is the most terrible deception; it is an eternal loss for which there is no reparation, either in time or in eternity.

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To Love is to Suffer

Author

C. S. Lewis

Keywords

Scripture

1 John 4:18, John 15:12-13, Romans 12:9-10, Matthew 26:27, Mark 14:15, Luke 22:23, John 18:19

After C. S. Lewis lost his wife Joy to cancer, he wrote these words about the inextricable link between love, suffering, and vulnerability: To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your...

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Foolishness to the Greeks

Author

John Stott

Keywords

Scripture

2 Timothy 2:12, James 1:2-4, Matthew 5:11-12, Philippians 1:29, Romans 8:18, 2 Corinthians 4:17, John 15:20

Nevertheless, what was shameful, even odious, to the critics of Christ, was in the eyes of his followers most glorious. They had learnt that the servant was not greater than the master, and that for t...

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Author

Susan Springer

Keywords

Scripture

John 15:5, Colossians 3:16-17, 2 Corinthians 5:18-20, Acts 1:8, Matthew 28:19-20, Matthew 5:14-16, John 6:51

When he said, “I am the bread of life,” he must have meant he was scattering bits of himself like a trail of crumbs leading us to speak and act and scatter forgiveness in his name to the ends of the e...

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Author

Addison D. Bevere

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 1:13-14, Galatians 5:22-23, 1 Corinthians 2:12-13, Romans 8:9-11, 1 John 2:27, John 16:7-8, John 15:26-27

When he died, he sent his Spirit to teach us the intricacies of the art of living. That’s why his Spirit is the only One who can fill our spiritual vacuum, helping us become truly human.

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Author

Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Keywords

Salvation

Scripture

Colossians 2:9-10, Acts 9:1-19, Mark 10:17-27, John 15:5, Galatians 2:20

[If] Christ is not all to you he is nothing to you. He will never go into partnership as a part Savior of men. If he be something he must be everything, and if he be not everything he is nothing to yo...

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Author

Richard B. Hays

Keywords

Scripture

1 John 4:16, John 10:11-18, Galatians 2:20, Romans 5:8, John 15:13

The content of the word “love” is given fully and exclusively in the death of Jesus on the cross; apart from this specific narrative image, the term has no meaning.

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The Lord our God is rich in mercy, slow

Author

Jacob Traeger

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 5:10, Psalm 103:8, Luke 6:35-36, Colossians 3:13, John 15:12-13, Titus 3:4-5

The Lord our God is rich in mercy, slow to anger, and abounds in steadfast love. He does not pay us back what we deserve, but even while we were his enemies he sent his son to die for us. Christ died ...

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Author

Oscar A. Romero

Keywords

Scripture

Hebrews 12:11, Galatians 6:1, 2 Timothy 4:2, Ephesians 5:11, 1 Peter 4:16, John 15:18-19, 2 Timothy 3:12

The church must suffer for speaking the truth, for pointing out sin, for uprooting sin. No one wants to have a sore spot touched, and therefore a society with so many sores twitches when someone has t...

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Author

William Blake

Keywords

Scripture

1 John 4:10-11, John 13:1-17, Romans 12:9-10, John 15:12-13, Philippians 2:3-4, 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Love seeketh not Itself to please, Nor for itself hath any care; But for another gives its ease, And builds a Heaven in Hell’s despair. So sung a little Clod of Clay, Trodden with the cattle’s feet; B...

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Gracious Father, too often we base our

Author

Laura B. Murray

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 2:8-9, Romans 5:8, 1 John 4:10, Romans 8:38-39, Titus 3:4-5, Isaiah 55:1, Psalm 103:10-12, John 15:9

Gracious Father, too often we base our worth on our performance. We believe if we do well, your love grows, and if we falter, your love lessens. Our God, how far this is from the truth. We confess our...

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