Christian Living on Darkness

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Dearest Father, we long for light, but

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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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Coming to Grips with the Reality of Sin

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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Scripture

1 John 3:8, 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10, Matthew 13:19, 2 Corinthians 11:14, John 8:44, James 4:7, 1 Peter 5:8

The psychotherapist M. Scott Peck spent many years of his practice as an agnostic. He, along with thousands upon thousands of his colleagues were taught that evil was a social construct, and therefore...

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Author

Helen Keller

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Scripture

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

I have walked with people whose eyes are full of light, but who see nothing in wood, sea, or sky, nothing in city streets, nothing in books.... It were better far to sail forever in the night of blind...

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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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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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A Field of Chaff & Wheat Growing up Together

Author

John F. X. Harriott

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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

C. S. Lewis

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 27:41, Matthew 10:28, Matthew 13:50

The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.

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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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Good, Good Soil based on the Parable of the Sower

Author

Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23, Luke 8:1-15, Mark 4:1-20

Jesus, you sow yourself The Word of Truth, generously The Word of Life, graciously Defend us from the Evil One Who seeks to snatch us away Fortify us for hard times and costly discipleship That we m...

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Save My Soul, Good Gardener, based on the Parable of the Sower

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 13:1-23, Luke 8:4-15, Mark 4:1-20

Save my soul, Good Gardener Evil flies in wanting to steal my hope Work piles up, insecure boulders ready to crash, leaving no room to root My faith begins to wither as does our relationship Distract...

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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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Don’t Look For the Kingdom in a Place

Author

Brian Hardin

Keywords

Scripture

John 18:36, Romans 14:17, Mark 4:26-29, Colossians 1:13, John 3:3, Matthew 13:33

Continually, Jesus described the Kingdom in terms that one can’t point to and identify specifically—but in every story, the Kingdom was the essential piece. The Kingdom is mixed in and present already...

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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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Adapted from the Parable of the Sower

Author

Dustin Ray

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 13:18-23, Jeremiah 17:8, Colossians 3:16, Hebrews 4:12, Psalm 119:11

Pastor: “Hear then the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what wa...

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Leader: The word of the Lord to the

Author

Jacob Traeger

Scripture

Matthew 13:14-15, Matthew 11:4-6, Psalm 51:17, Hebrews 3:15, Isaiah 6:9-10

Leader: The word of the Lord to the prophet Isaiah says: You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive. For this people's heart has grown dull, and with the...

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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

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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Digging Down Deep

Author

Bianca Juarez Olthoff

Keywords

Scripture

John 15:5, Proverbs 12:3, Isaiah 61:3, Matthew 13:5-6, Ephesians 3:17-19

I’m more of an aboveground type of girl, as in, I like the stuff you can see. Flowers, trees, and vegetation symbolize life, growth, and transformation. The problem with focusing on external manifesta...

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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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Getting Behind the Myths

Author

Thomas Keating

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 thrust of the parables is to subvert the distorted myths in which people live their lives. To understand what we mean by “living in a myth” just think of a couple of our own contemporary myths. Ta...

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Ask, Seek, Knock

Author

Jenny Child

Keywords

Scripture

1 John 5:14, James 4:3, Matthew 13:45-46, Jeremiah 29:13, Matthew 6:33, Matthew 7:7-8, Romans 8:15-16, Mark 10:46-52

May we ask according to your will, not according to our desires, for you will give us what is right for us. May we seek you as the pearl of great price, not half-heartedly but with our whole being, fo...

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The Rule of Heaven

Author

N. T. Wright

Keywords

The Kingdom of God

Scripture

Matthew 13:31-32, Matthew 5:5, Romans 14:17, Mark 1:15, Matthew 12:28, Luke 11:20, Matthew 4:17

The phrase “kingdom of heaven,” which we find frequently in Matthew’s Gospel where the others have “kingdom of God,” does not refer to a place, called “heaven,” where God’s people will go after death....

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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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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

William Law

Keywords

The Kingdom of God

Scripture

James 4:4, Romans 12:2, Mark 8:36, Colossians 3:1-2, Matthew 13:44-46, Philippians 3:7-8

If you have not chosen the Kingdom of God first, it will in the end make no difference what you have chosen instead.

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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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The Land Slows Us Down

Author

Jennifer Dukes Lee

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 55:10-11, John 15:1-2, Matthew 13:31-32, Deuteronomy 11:10-12, Psalm 65:9-10, Leviticus 25:23, Genesis 1:11-12

It’s been right here all along—the land teaching us how to un-hurry our hurry-sick hearts. Land speaks stunning truths through Scripture. The Hebrew word for land is eretz. It is the fifth most freque...

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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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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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Merciful and mighty God, you plant your

Author

Chip Hardwick

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 13:18-23, Luke 8:4-15, Mark 4:1-9

Merciful and mighty God, you plant your seed in all kinds of soil. You speak, hoping that the whole world will listen and heed what you say. We struggle to follow your word. We fail to live up to your...

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