Christian Living on Gaps

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Gracious God, we confess that we are

Author

Keywords

Scripture

John 4:1-26

Gracious God, we confess that we are often dissatisfied with our lives. We recognize the gap that exists between what we are and what we want to be. Lord, like the woman at the well, we know our failu...

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We Cannot be Closed to Others and Open to God

Author

Mia Levetan

Keywords

Scripture

John 4:20-21, John 13:34-35, 1 John 3:17, Matthew 5:23-24, Hebrews 10:24-25

We cannot be closed off to one another and be open to God. That’s not how this works. Do you remember the commercial when the woman says “that’s not how this works, that's not how any of this work...

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Almighty God, you have surprised us

Author

Scott B. Bullock

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 55:8-9, Matthew 13:44, Lamentations 3:22-23, Psalm 139:7-10, 1 John 1:9, 2 Corinthians 3:18, Luke 2:1-20, John 4:7-26, John 21:1-14, Luke 24:13-35, Matthew 17:1-8, Luke 2:25-38, Luke 1:35-38, Hebrews 13:2, Isaiah 43:19

Almighty God, you have surprised us with your presence in unexpected ways. In the expectations of our routine, we have missed the treasure that you place before us. We come to worship you in community...

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A Vast Geographical Basin

Author

Richard J. Foster

Keywords

The Bible

Scripture

2 Timothy 3:16-17, Psalm 119:105, Hebrews 4:12, John 4:14

The Bible is like a vast geographical basin in which tributary streams feed into the currents of a parent river on its course to the ocean. The riverbanks are interspersed with openings where the trib...

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Author

Jean Pierre de Caussade

Keywords

Scripture

Mark 15:21-39, John 4:4-42, 2 Kings 5:1-14, 1 Samuel 16:1-13, Luke 2:1-7, John 9:1-3, 2 Corinthians 12:9

[God’s grace is] always hidden under the strangest appearances.

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Loving and faithful God, You save and

Author

Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 6:8, Acts 8:26-40, Matthew 28:18-20, John 4:1-42, 2 Timothy 1:7-8, 1 Peter 3:15

Loving and faithful God, You save and sustain us. What marvelous good news You give us through Jesus!Yet we are oblivious to opportunities to share Your grace and love. We fail to see, as Your Word sa...

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Rightly Tuning Grace and Truth

Author

Randy Alcorn

Keywords

Scripture

2 Samuel 12:1-13, Micah 6:8, Ephesians 4:15, Psalm 85:10, John 8:1-11, John 4:1-26

When a musical instrument’s strings go loose, it sounds awful. But you can also overtighten the strings, breaking them or creating discord. There’s a perfect tension to grace and truth, which makes th...

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This Place is Enough

Author

Jenny Odell

Keywords

Scripture

Hebrews 10:24-25, 1 Thessalonians 5:11, 1 John 4:11-12, Philippians 4:11-13, 1 Timothy 6:6-8

A simple refusal motivates my argument: refusal to believe that the present time and place, and the people who are here with us, are somehow not enough. Platforms such as Facebook and Instagram act li...

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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!

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Author

Henry Drummond

Keywords

Scripture

1 John 4:20, John 13:34-35, Matthew 5:16, 1 Corinthians 8:9, Romans 14:13, Matthew 23:13, Luke 15:11-32

How many prodigals are kept out of the kingdom of God by the unlovely characters of those who profess to be inside!

Quote

Author

Austin Fischer

Keywords

Scripture

1 John 3:23, Romans 5:5, Colossians 3:14, 1 John 4:18, Galatians 5:6, 1 Corinthians 13:13

Faith is not the absence of doubt. Faith is the presence of love.

Quote

Author

Richard Lovelace

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 5:1, Romans 8:1, Galatians 2:16, Titus 3:5, 1 John 4:15, Isaiah 61:10, Hebrews 10:14

Much that we have interpreted as a defect of sanctification in church people is really an outgrowth of their loss of bearing with respect to justification. Christians who are no longer sure that God l...

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Moving the Fence

Author

Mike Yaconelli

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 19:1-10, Galatians 3:28, Romans 3:22-24, Ephesians 2:14, Acts 10:9-48, Luke 10:25-37, John 4:4-26

In the Second World War, a group of soldiers were fighting in the rural countryside of France. During an intense battle, one of the American soldiers was killed. His comrades did not want to leave his...

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Doubt over Faith?

Author

Lesslie Newbigin

Keywords

Scripture

Mark 9:24, Romans 10:17, John 20:27, 1 John 4:1, 1 Thessalonians 5:21, Proverbs 3:5-6

Have you ever noticed that the phrases in our culture favor doubt over faith? The famed missionary and theologian Lesslie Newbigin pointed this out when we speak of “Honest doubts” and “blind faith”. ...

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Author

Craig Groeschel

Keywords

Scripture

John 8:32, 1 Samuel 18:20, John 4:1-26, John 3:1-21, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, 1 John 1:7, Ephesians 4:25

It’s difficult for people to love the real you when you are covering up who you really are. We connect with others when we take our mask off and let others in.

Quote

Author

Nancy Spiegelberg

Keywords

Grace

Scripture

John 4:1-26, Mark 5:25-34, Luke 15:11-32, 2 Kings 4:1-7, Philippians 4:19, Psalm 23:5, Matthew 11:28-30

Lord, I crawled across the barrenness to you with my empty cup. . . . If only I had known you better, I’d have come running with a bucket.

liturgy

Gracious God, we come before you with

Author

Laura B. Murray

Keywords

Scripture

2 Timothy 1:7, 1 John 4:18, Matthew 5:44, Ephesians 4:31-32, 1 Corinthians 16:14, Galatians 5:22-23, Colossians 3:12-14

Gracious God, we come before you with humility, recognizing that doubt has led our decisions. We have allowed fear to lead, rather than love. Because of this, we have been unkind to our families, our ...

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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 ...

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A Hungry/Thirsty Soul

Author

Beth Moore

Keywords

Scripture

John 4:null

The soul can also manifest physical symptoms of need. I like to think of it this way: Just like my stomach growls when I’m hungry for physical food, my spirit tends to growl when I’m in need of spirit...

liturgy

O God who will not let us go, we

Keywords

Scripture

John 4:1-42, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Acts 3:1-10, Romans 10:15, Luke 24:31, Deuteronomy 15:11, Psalm 51:10

O God who will not let us go, we confess that we have been so wrapped up in ourselves that have not loved You with our whole hearts, and we have not loved our neighbors as we love ourselves. By Your g...

Quote

Author

Groucho Marx

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 5:20, 1 Samuel 16:7, Romans 12:2, 1 John 4:1, Proverbs 12:22, John 8:32

Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes.

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Eating With Sinners

Author

David Schuringa

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 7:36-50, Romans 5:8, John 4:7-26, Matthew 11:19, Luke 19:5-10, Mark 2:15-17

Why did it disturb the religious leaders that Jesus ate with “sinners”? To eat with someone is an important symbol of fellowship. And in those days, the Jews had a rule: one is not to have such fellow...

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Jesus did not wait for people to come

Author

Cody Sandahl

Keywords

Scripture

Acts 8:26-40, Matthew 28:19-20, Luke 19:1-10, John 4:1-26, Romans 10:14, Matthew 5:14-15

Jesus did not wait for people to come to him. He went out and delivered the grace of God. As we go out of this place today, may we deliver the grace of God wherever we go as well. Amen.

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Author

Frederick Buechner

Keywords

Scripture

John 1:14, Colossians 1:19-20, Hebrews 1:3, John 4:4-26, 1 Corinthians 1:18

Jesus Christ is what God does, and the cross where God did it.

Quote

Author

Henri J. M. Nouwen

Keywords

Scripture

Jonah 1:4, Psalm 51:, John 4:7-26, Genesis 3:7-10, 2 Corinthians 12:9, Matthew 11:28-29, 1 John 1:8-9

Our inclination is to reveal to God only what we feel comfortable in sharing. Naturally, we want to love and be loved by God, but we also want to keep a little corner of ourselves, where we can hide a...

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The Real Scandal of Jesus’s Ministry

Author

Hans Küng

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 25:35-40, John 8:1-11, Luke 19:1-10, John 4:1-26, John 8:10-11, Luke 19:10

In these acts of love Jesus created a scandal for devout, religious Palestinian Jews. The absolutely unpardonable thing was not his concern for the sick, the cripples, the lepers, the possessed . . . ...

Quote

Author

Randy Alcorn

Keywords

Scripture

John 4:1-26, Colossians 4:6, Psalm 85:10, Ephesians 4:15, John 1:17, John 1:14

Birds need two wings to fly. With only one wing, they’re grounded. The gospel flies with the wings of grace and truth. Not one, but both.

Quote

Author

Minucius Felix

Keywords

Scripture

1 Peter 4:8, 1 Samuel 18:20, Acts 2:42-47, Ephesians 4:2-3, Romans 12:10, 1 John 4:20-21

Our bond, which you resent, consists in mutual love, for we know not how to hate; we call ourselves ‘brethren’ to which you object, as members of one family in God, as partners in one faith, as joint ...

liturgy

O God, who is rich in mercy, We come

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

1 John 4:9-11, Titus 3:4-5, James 4:6, Romans 12:1-2, Psalm 51:1-2, Micah 6:8

O God, who is rich in mercy, We come before you humbled and in need of your grace. Many of us have been in the church for so long that we have forgotten how each day your mercies are new, your grace ...

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The God we worship is steady and faithful

Author

Trinity Lutheran Church, Lisle, Illinois

Keywords

Scripture

Lamentations 3:22-23, Isaiah 55:8-9, Jeremiah 1:5, 1 John 4:19, Psalm 139:7-10, Psalm 42:11, 2 Corinthians 12:9

Leader: The God we worship is steady and faithful; People: Yet He continues to surprise us. Leader: Before we ever knew about God. People: He knew us and loved us. Leader: Even if we are...

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