category

christian living on Unexpected

Search by topic, scripture, category etc..

Or browse by a list of topics or scripture references

87 Results in 993ms
Display
Sorted By

  • liturgy

    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...

  • illustration

    When your Good Christian World Falls Apart

    Author
    Tammy Maltby
    Keywords
    Scripture
    1 Kings 19:1–18, Job 3:42 , Lamentations 3:17–26, Luke 15:11–32 , 2 Corinthians 12:7–10, Psalm 34:18
    In her memoir, Confessions of a Good Christian Girl, Tammy describes the internal turmoil she experienced trying to be a good, rule-following Christian who had unexpectedly built an entire life arou...

  • Quote

    Author
    Thomas Fuller
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Deuteronomy 6:12, Psalm 77:11, Ecclesiastes 12:1, Lamentations 3:21-23, Psalm 103:2
    Leftovers in their less visible form are called memories. Stored in the refrigerator of the mind and the cupboard of the heart.

  • Quote

    Author
    R. W. Church
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Jeremiah 29:11, Isaiah 40:31, Lamentations 3:21-23, Psalm 33:18, Psalm 71:14, Zechariah 9:12
    Hope, never destroyed, however overthrown, never obscured even amid the storm and dust of ruin, is the prominent characteristic of the Old Testament.

  • Quote

    Author
    Emily Dickinson
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Habakkuk 2:3, Romans 12:12, James 5:7-8, Isaiah 40:31, Psalm 130:5, Lamentations 3:25-26
    To hope means to be ready at every moment for that which is not yet born, and yet not become desperate if there is no birth in our lifetime.

  • Quote

    Author
    Gayle Somers
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Isaiah 55:8-9, Ephesians 3:20-21, Romans 5:8, Lamentations 3:22-23, Psalm 103:10-12
    All the cards in the deck of revelation about God’s mercy and kindness are stacked in favor of the unthinkable.

  • illustration

    God’s Inexhaustible Mercies

    Author
    Paul David Tripp
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Lamentations 3:22-23, Psalm 103:17-18, 2 Corinthians 4:16, Isaiah 40:31, Psalm 23:3, Romans 8:38-39, Hebrews 4:16
    One of the stunning realities of the Christian life is that in a world where everything is in some state of decay, God’s mercies never grow old. They never run out. They never are ill timed. They neve...

  • liturgy

    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...

  • Quote

    Author
    Rainer Maria Rilke
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Psalm 23:4, Philippians 3:13-14, Lamentations 3:22-23, Isaiah 43:2, 2 Corinthians 4:16-17, Psalm 30:5, Romans 5:3-5
    Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.

  • illustration

    New Mercies Each Day

    Author
    Paul David Tripp
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Lamentations 3:22-23, Psalm 103:17-18, 2 Corinthians 4:16, Isaiah 40:31, Psalm 23:3, Romans 8:38-39
    One of the stunning realities of the Christian life is that in a world where everything is in some state of decay, God’s mercies never grow old. They never run out. They never are ill timed. They neve...

  • Quote

    Author
    Wendell Berry
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Psalm 71:5-6, Isaiah 40:29-31, Romans 15:13, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Lamentations 3:22-23
    Having hope is hard; harder when you get older.

  • Quote

    Author
    J. R. R. Tolkein
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Jeremiah 29:11, Lamentations 3:21-23, 1 Peter 1:3-4, Psalm 27:13-14, Isaiah 40:31
    It is not despair, for despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not. (Spoken by Galadriel)

  • Quote

    Author
    Lewis B. Smedes
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Hebrews 10:36, Habakkuk 2:3, Psalm 37:7, James 5:7-8, Lamentations 3:25-26
    Waiting is the hardest work of hope.

  • Quote

    Author
    Henri J. M. Nouwen
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Psalm 25:5, Isaiah 40:31, Lamentations 3:25-26, James 1:2-4, Matthew 11:15, Romans 5:3-5, Isaiah 30:18
    Waiting is a period of learning. The longer we wait, the more we hear about him for whom we are waiting.

  • illustration

    Waiting is More than In-Between Time

    Author
    Jason Farman
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Isaiah 40:31, Lamentations 3:25-26, James 5:7-8, 2 Peter 3:8-9, Habakkuk 2:3
    Waiting isn’t an in-between time. Instead, this often-hated and under-appreciated time has been a silent force that has shaped our social interactions. Waiting isn’t a hurdle keeping us from intimacy ...

  • liturgy

    Loving God, you show us grace and

    Author
    Chip Hardwick
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Micah 6:8, Hebrews 12:28, Ephesians 2:4-5, Colossians 3:13, Lamentations 3:22-23, Luke 15:11-32, Jonah 3:1-10
    Loving God, you show us grace and mercy, again and again and again. You shower gifts on us that we could never earn, and you are slow to punish us when we most deserve it. All too often, we forget to ...

  • illustration

    Hope In God

    Author
    Eugene Peterson
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Isaiah 40:31, Romans 8:24-25, Psalm 27:14, Hebrews 11:1, Lamentations 3:25-26
    Hoping does not mean doing nothing. It is not fatalistic resignation. It means going about our assigned tasks, confident that God will provide the meaning and the conclusions. It is not compelled to w...

  • Quote

    Author
    Jennie Allen
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Hebrews 11:1, Romans 15:13, Jeremiah 29:11, Romans 5:3-5, Lamentations 3:21-23
    Doubt steals hope. And with no hope, everything that matters doesn’t feel as important anymore.

  • Quote

    Author
    Frederick Buechner
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Deuteronomy 6:12, Psalm 77:11, Ecclesiastes 12:1, Lamentations 3:21-23, Psalm 103:2
    Maybe the most sacred function of memory is just that: to render the distinction between the past, present, and future ultimately meaningless: to enable us at some level of our being to inhabit that s...

  • Quote

    Author
    Charles Wesley
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Psalm 86:5, Isaiah 55:7, Lamentations 3:22-23, Ephesians 2:4-5, 1 Timothy 1:15-16, Micah 7:18
    Depth of mercy! Can there be Mercy still reserved for me?

  • illustration

    The Mandelbrot Set

    Author
    Mark Batterson
    Keywords
    Scripture
    1 Corinthians 12:4-6, Lamentations 3:22-23, Psalm 139:13-14, Ephesians 2:10, Romans 12:6-8, Luke 24:50-51
    In fractal geometry, there is a complex set of numbers that produces an infinitely intricate shape when plotted on a plane. It’s called a Mandelbrot set, after the founder of fractal geometry, Benoit ...

  • illustration

    Unfulfilled Prayers

    Author
    Cody Sandahl
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Habakkuk 1:2-4, 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, Lamentations 3:25-27, James 5:13-16
    My son has seizures and intellectual disabilities. A couple of years into that journey, I organized a global prayer vigil for my son. I recruited friends and colleagues in North America, South America...

  • Quote

    Author
    Fredrick Langbridge
    Keywords
    Scripture
    2 Corinthians 4:17-18, Hebrews 11:1, Isaiah 40:31, Romans 5:3-5, Lamentations 3:22-23, Psalm 42:11, Philippians 4:8
    Because of this we have hope: Two men look out through the same bars One sees mud, one sees stars.

  • liturgy

    Father, as adults, we can fool

    Author
    Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Lamentations 3:22-23, Psalm 136:1, Matthew 19:13-15, 1 John 4:9-10, Mark 10:21, Proverbs 3:5-6, John 15:5, Psalm 121:1-2
    Father, as adults, we can fool ourselves into being quite self-sufficient. Yet, You have called us to be precariously dependent upon You. When we see how Jesus welcomes the little children, we can als...

  • Quote

    Author
    Eugene Peterson
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Romans 15:13, Psalm 130:5, Jeremiah 29:11, Philippians 4:6-7, Lamentations 3:25-26, Psalm 27:14
    Hoping does not mean doing nothing. It is not fatalistic resignation. It means going about our assigned tasks, confident that God will provide the meaning and the conclusions. It is not compelled to w...

  • Quote

    Author
    Annie Johns Flint
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Exodus 16:1-36, 2 Corinthians 11:23-30, Matthew 14:13-21, 1 Kings 17:7-16, Lamentations 3:22-23, Philippians 4:19, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
    When we have exhausted our store of endurance, When our strength has failed ere that day is half done, When we reach the end of our hoarded resources, Our Father’s full giving has only begun. His lo...

  • Quote

    Author
    George Herbert
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Hosea 14:7, Jeremiah 31:25, Lamentations 3:22-23, Psalm 23:3, Isaiah 40:31, Psalm 51:10, Ezekiel 36:26
    Who would have thought my shrivel’d heart Could have recovered greenness?

  • Quote

    Author
    Peter Kreeft
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Lamentations 3:22-23, Psalm 103:10-12, Romans 3:23-24, Titus 3:4-5, John 15:13, Ephesians 2:4-5
    We sinned for no reason but an incomprehensible lack of love, and He saved us for no reason but an incomprehensible excess of love.

  • Quote

    Author
    David Dickson
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Psalm 103:11-12, Lamentations 3:22-23, Ephesians 2:4-5, Psalm 36:5-6, Romans 5:20-21, Isaiah 55:7-9, Micah 7:18-19
    Our mind cannot find a comparison too large for expressing the superabundant mercy of the Lord toward his people.

  • Quote

    Author
    Ernst Bloch
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Jeremiah 29:11, Philippians 4:13, Lamentations 3:22-23, Psalm 71:14, Hebrews 11:1, Isaiah 40:31
    It is important to learn hoping. Its work does not despair, it fell in love with succeeding rather than with failure. Hoping, located above fearing, is neither passive like the latter nor imprisoned i...
Top Level Categories by Topic
Top_level_categories by Reference

Obadiah

Nahum

Haggai

Philemon