Christian Living on Conversion

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Baptized but not Converted

Author

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 13:24-30, Matthew 23:1-36, Acts 5:1-11, Acts 8:9-24, Mark 16:15-16

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, of Sherlock Holmes fame became a zealous spiritualist later in life. He would often give public lectures on the subject. At one such meeting, he gestured enthusiastically while...

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Author

Ambrose Bierce

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 13:34, Ezra 7:10, Acts 2:42, 1 Corinthians 2:4-5, Romans 10:14-15, Luke 4:18-19

HOMILETICS, n. The science of adapting sermons to the spiritual needs, capacities and conditions of the congregation.

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Author

Frederick Dale Bruner

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 13:null

Luther and Calvin believed that both the Roman church on the right and the Zwinglian and Anabaptist churches on the left made the Lord's Supper too much a place WHERE BELIEVERS DID THINGS FOR GOD ...

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Common Things and Cracks in the Surface of Reality

Author

Barbara Brown Taylor

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 15:11-32, Matthew 18:22-35, Luke 16:19-31, Matthew 13:3-8, Matthew 20:1-16, Matthew 13:24-33, Matthew 13:44-50, Mark 4:26-29

The child became a man and the man became a preacher whose sermons were full of commonplace things: seeds and nets, coins and fishes, lilies of the field, and birds of the air. Wherever he was, he had...

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Getting to the Roots

Author

Barry L. Rowan

Keywords

Scripture

Jeremiah 17:7-8, Colossians 2:6-7, Psalm 1:3, Ephesians 3:16-19, Matthew 13:3-8, Mark 4:1-9

The word radical comes from the same root as the word radish and literally means “root.” It’s truly a root word! But apart from the painful pun, it has something to teach us. So often, when we think o...

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Even the Little Parts are Necessary

Author

Eunice McGarrahan

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 13:31-32, Mark 4:30-32, Luke 13:18-19, 1 Corinthians 12:, Romans 12:4-8

One could imagine a comparison between a car’s oil drain plug and its electronic ignition system. One is as low-tech (and unimpressive) as could be, while the other is highly sophisticated. But a car ...

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The Treasure of a Lifetime

Author

Randy Alcorn

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 13:44, Hebrews 14:26, Colossians 2:2-3, Philippians 3:8, Luke 12:33-34

A first-century Hebrew walks alone on a hot afternoon, staff in hand. His shoulders are stooped, his tunic stained with sweat. But he doesn’t stop to rest. He has pressing business in the city. He vee...

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Author

Augustine of Hippo

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 13:13, Matthew 13:1-23, Isaiah 6:9-10, Isaiah 6:9-10, John 9:39-41, 2 Corinthians 4:4, Ephesians 1:18

You called, shouted, broke through my deafness; you flared, blazed, banished my blindness; you lavished your fragrance, I gasped; and now I pant for you; I tasted you, and now I hunger and thirst; you...

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Ceaseless Motion and a Sense of Achievement

Author

Thomas Merton

Keywords

Scripture

Jeremiah 17:10, Mark 4:1-41, Mark 4:19, Matthew 13:22, Matthew 13:18-23, Luke 10:25-37

Thomas Merton describes those who never experience the gift of a contemplative life. His explanation for why some people never experience this can be found in his book, New Seeds of Contemplation: [T...

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Author

Eugene Peterson

Keywords

Parables

Scripture

Luke 15:11-32, Matthew 18:22-35, Luke 16:19-31, Matthew 13:3-8, Matthew 20:1-16, Matthew 13:24-33, Matthew 13:44-50, Mark 4:26-29

The Parable is a form of speech that has a style all of its own. It is a way of saying something that requires the imaginative participation of the listener. Inconspicuously, even surreptitiously, a p...

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Author

Thomas Keating

Keywords

Scripture

Micah 6:8, Romans 14:17, Colossians 3:17, James 2:14-17, Matthew 5:13-16, Matthew 13:44

“To what shall I liken the kingdom of God?” Jesus asked. The kingdom is manifested in ordinary daily life and how we live it. Can we accept the God of everyday life? If we can, then we can enjoy the k...

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Author

Kline R. Snodgrass

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 13:, Mark 4:1-20, Luke 8:4-15

The question for each parable is: How did Jesus seek to change attitudes and behaviors with this parable?

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Location, Location, Location

Author

William W. Klein

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 10:25-37, Matthew 13:34-35, Acts 13:15, Mark 12:28-31, John 10:22-23

As in buying real estate, three principles are crucial to understanding a person’s words: location, location, and location. We cannot make sense of what someone says unless we understand the context i...

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For Dummies

Author

William Rowley

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 13:31-32, Isaiah 55:11

Mark Batterson met John Kilcullen at a writers' conference where they shared their stories. Kilcullen’s massively popular “For Dummies” series of books began with a single comment: “Do you have an...

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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 Field of Chaff & Wheat Growing up Together

Author

John F. X. Harriott

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 32:1–14 , 1 Kings 19:9–18, Isaiah 6:1–8, Matthew 13:24–30 , 1 Corinthians 1:26–29 , Psalm 51:17

The Church is not a clean, well-lit place where everything runs smoothly and actions automatically match ideals. It is, in the words of the Gospel, a field of chaff and wheat growing up together and b...

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Author

Thornton Wilder

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 12:34, Matthew 13:44, Matthew 6:21

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.

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Heavenly Father, we confess that we are not always

Author

Allen Thompson

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 64:8, 2 Corinthians 4:7, John 15:5, Matthew 13:1-23, Luke 10:25-37, John 6:1-14, Luke 1:26-38, Acts 10:

Heavenly Father, we confess that we are not always able, willing, and ready to be vessels of your work. Thank you for the times that you cultivate our receptive hearts and fruitful hands. In your abun...

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Author

Kline R. Snodgrass

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 13:, Mark 4:1-20, Luke 8:4-15

Rabbis spoke of parables as handles for understanding Torah; before parables no one understood the Torah, but when Solomon and others created parables, then people understood.

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Author

Russ Ramsey

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 4:12-17, John 1:45-46, Matthew 13:31-32, Zechariah 4:10, Acts 1:8

In terms of time and space, the scale of Jesus’s earthly ministry was small—three years in a parcel of land where the corners of the world came together.

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Author

David Livingstone

Keywords

Scripture

Acts 20:35, Proverbs 3:9, 2 Corinthians 9:7-8, Mark 10:21, Luke 12:33-34, Philippians 3:7-8, Matthew 13:44-46

I place no value on anything I have or may possess, except in relation to the kingdom of God. If anything will advance the interests of the kingdom, it shall be given away or kept, only as by giving o...

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Dearest Father, we long for light, but

Author

Scott B. Bullock

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 13:43, John 1:1-14, John 8:12-20, 1 John 1:5-10, Psalm 27:, John 9:5, 2 Corinthians 5:1-10

Dearest Father, we long for light, but dwell in darkness. We crave the warmth of the sun, but crawl into our caverns of sin and sadness. We are a people who prefer the misery and melancholy that we kn...

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Author

D. A. Carson

Keywords

Scripture

2 Corinthians 4:17-18, Luke 18:29-30, Mark 10:28-30, Matthew 19:29, Philippians 3:8, Luke 14:33, Matthew 13:44

The kingdom of heaven is worth infinitely more than the cost of discipleship, and those who know where the treasure lies joyfully abandon everything else to secure it.

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An Illustration of Faith as Grace, Not a Good Work

Author

Robert Farrar Capon

Keywords

Scripture

2 Kings 5:1-14, Genesis 15:6, Matthew 13:44, Titus 3:5, John 6:29, Romans 5:1-2

In his book The Mystery of Christ , a series of fictionalized pastoral counseling sessions (based on actual events), the Episcopal priest Robert Farrar Capon shares a number of helpful ways of unde...

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Author

Alistair Begg

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 17:20-21, 1 Corinthians 3:6-7, Revelation 11:15, Daniel 2:44, Isaiah 55:10-11, Matthew 13:33

The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. It happens quietly. It happens inevitably. Don’t underestimate God’s power.

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Author

Meister Eckhart

Keywords

Scripture

1 John 3:9, Genesis 1:11-13, 1 John 3:9, Matthew 13:23, Galatians 6:7-8, John 15:5

The seed of God is in us. Given an intelligent and hard-working farmer, it will thrive and grow up to God, whose seed it is; and accordingly its fruits will be God-nature. Pear seeds grow into pear tr...

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Author

Craig L. Blomberg

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 13:, Mark 4:1-20, Luke 8:4-15

The key to interpreting most allegories [i.e., parables] lies in recognizing what a small handful of characters, actions or symbols correspond to and then fitting the rest of the story in with them.

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Go as God’s people

Author

Jacob Traeger

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 13:23, John 15:5, Psalm 1:2-3, Colossians 2:6-7, Ephesians 3:17-19

Go as God’s people Planted firmly in his love Watered by his word And bearing the fruit of faith

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Author

Os Guinness

Keywords

Scripture

Colossians 1:6, Matthew 13:24-30, John 12:24, Luke 13:20-21, Luke 13:18-19, Matthew 13:33, Matthew 13:31-32

Jesus made clear that the Kingdom of God is organic and not organizational. It grows like a seed and it works like leaven: secretly, invisibly, surprisingly, and irresistibly.

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Father, as we go to our homes and our

Author

Caryl Mickelm

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 13:1-23, Isaiah 6:8, 1 Peter 3:15, Galatians 6:9-10, John 13:34-35, Colossians 4:5-6

Father, as we go to our homes and our work this coming week we ask you to send the Holy Spirit into our lives. Open our ears- to hear what you are saying to us in the things that happen to us and i...

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