Christian Living on Paradox

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Scripture

Galatians 2:20, James 1:2-4, Isaiah 53:5, Romans 8:28, Matthew 16:24-25

It is not what we do that matters, but what a sovereign God chooses to do through us. God doesn't want our success; He wants us. He doesn't demand our achievements; He demands our obedience. T...

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Lord, high and holy, meek and

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Scripture

Matthew 16:24-25, Philippians 1:21, Romans 8:18, Matthew 23:12, James 4:10, Psalm 23:4

Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly, Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision, where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights; hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold thy glory. Let me lear...

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Shoot (or Throw)—Don't Aim

Author

Darren Pollock

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Scripture

Matthew 16:25, Luke 17:33, Mark 8:35

Whether playing baseball or basketball, one of the first sports lessons kids are taught is the counterintuitive truth that focusing too much on aiming where you want for the ball to go is likely to ba...

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How We Get our Calling Wrong

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Scripture

James 4:17, 2 Corinthians 4:5, Micah 6:6-8, Matthew 16:23, Jeremiah 17:9

First, we get our calling wrong when we imagine that God needs us, to be the hero of our own story, rather than Christ. Second, we routinely misdiagnose the problem of our world, underestimating estim...

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Starving Amongst Abundance

Author

Dave Peterson

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Scripture

1 Corinthians 9:8, 1 Timothy 6:6-10, Luke 12:16-21, Matthew 16:24-28, Matthew 6:19-21

Dave Nessia was starving himself to death while hoarding food. It was on the hit reality show Alone. After 73 days alone in the wilderness, he had lost 40 lbs. and his blood pressure had fallen to 80/...

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When Success looks like Failure

Author

Donna Barber

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Scripture

Matthew 6:19-21, Matthew 16:26, Philippians 3:7-8, Proverbs 16:8, Luke 12:15, Proverbs 23:4-5, Ecclesiastes 4:7-8

Sometimes our successes can be more devastating than our failures. We fight, strain, and struggle in pursuit of something or someone that looks to be good, and after days or months or years, we obtain...

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The Church: Divine and Human, Sinners and Saints

Author

Roderick Strange

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Scripture

Exodus 32:, 1 Kings 18:19 , Isaiah 6:, Matthew 16:18, Ephesians 5:25–27, Psalm 130:

In this short excerpt, Father Roderick Strange speaks to those who want to write off the church. It is written primarily to a Roman Catholic audience, but it relates quite well to Protestants as well:...

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Author

Iain Duguid

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Scripture

2 Corinthians 11:14, Matthew 4:1-11, Matthew 16:23

We often forget that temptation can come from any quarter, even from within our own family circle. We expect the Devil to assault us like a roaring lion, as ugly and fearsome as can be. We don’t expec...

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Author

Don Everts and Doug Schaupp

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Scripture

Matthew 19:29, Hebrews 12:2, 2 Corinthians 4:17-18, Romans 8:18, Matthew 16:25-26, Luke 9:23-24

Entering the kingdom is just like this: it’s a thing of great joy and great cost. The cost is clear, but nothing is compared with what is being gained.

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Author

C. S. Lewis

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Matthew 16:24-26, Colossians 3:1-3, Romans 8:12-13, Romans 6:18-19, Galatians 2:20, Colossians 3:5, 2 Timothy 2:3-4, 1 Peter 4:1-2, Luke 9:23, Mark 8:34-38, Luke 14:26-28

Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favourite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end...

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Convictions Rooted in God's Word

Author

Tim Muehlhoff & Richard Langer

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Scripture

Daniel 3:16-18, 1 Kings 18:16-39, Matthew 16:13-17 , Romans 4:18-20, Romans 14:5-12 , Psalm 119:105

[M]ost Christians attach their convictions to Christ personally. In other words, we form our convictions in order to please Jesus, not ourselves. Convictions do not express what we think or feel or li...

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Author

Jaroslav Pelikan

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Scripture

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 , Job 19:25-27 , Isaiah 43:1-3, Matthew 16:13-18 , 2 Timothy 1:12-14 , Psalm 133:1

My faith life, like that of every one else, fluctuates. There are ups and downs and hot spots and cold spots and boredom and ennui and all the rest can be there. And so I’m not asked on a Sunday morni...

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Taking up the Cross

Author

Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia

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Scripture

Matthew 16:21-28, Mark 8:34, Luke 9:23, Matthew 10:38

Merciful Jesus Grant us courage to deny privilege to lay down favor and safety and take up the cross of opportunity and justice Merciful Jesus Grant us courage to deny consumerism to lay down conve...

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Free us, Lord, from our obsession with

Author

Walter Brueggemann

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Scripture

Luke 10:25-37, Matthew 16:24, Acts 2:44-45, James 2:14-17, Mark 10:43-45, 1 John 3:17-18, John 13:14-15, Isaiah 58:6-7

Free us, Lord, from our obsession with ourselves long enough to care for others; to be so concerned about the well-being of the human community that me don’t have to worry about our place, our church,...

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Author

Jeanne d'Arc

Keywords

Scripture

Galatians 2:20, 1 John 3:16, Matthew 16:25, Hebrews 11:1, 2 Timothy 4:7, Philippians 1:21

Every man gives his life for what he believes. Every woman gives her life for what she believes. Sometimes people believe in little or nothing, and so they give their lives to little or nothing. One l...

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Heavenly Father, our Savior told us,

Author

Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church

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Scripture

Matthew 16:25, Luke 17:33, Proverbs 3:5-6, Jeremiah 29:11, James 1:5

Heavenly Father, our Savior told us, "Those who try to gain their own life will lose it; but those who lose their life for My sake will gain it." These are hard words. We confess that we oft...

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Author

Stanley Hauerwas

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 16:24-25, Luke 14:27, Acts 5:29, Philippians 3:20, Matthew 28:18-20, Isaiah 9:6-7, Psalm 22:28

We would like a church that again asserts that God, not nations, rules the world, that the boundaries of God's kingdom transcend those of Caesar, and that the main political task of the church is ...

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Christopher Parkening’s Search For Happiness and Purpose

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 37:4, Colossians 3:23-24, Matthew 16:26, Ecclesiastes 2:10-11, 1 Corinthians 10:31

Considered perhaps the greatest guitarist alive, Christopher Parkening appeared to have it all. Signed to an international recording deal as a teenager, Parkening traveled across the world playing bea...

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O God, we pray for the church, which is

Author

John E. Skoglund

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 42:3, Matthew 11:28-30, Matthew 16:25-26, Proverbs 31:8-9, Micah 6:8, James 1:27, Acts 3:19

O God, we pray for the church, which is set amid the confusion of contemporary life and is face-to-face with a great new task. Be with your church, O God. Grant the church a new birth through the...

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Playing the Part in Oberammergau

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Scripture

Exodus 20:3, Isaiah 53:4-6, Matthew 16:24, John 19:17, Psalm 22:14

An American businessman went to Oberammergau to witness the famous passion play, just before the outbreak of World War II. Enthralled by this great drama that depicts the story of the cross, he went b...

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Gracious God, You have called us out of

Author

Allen Thompson

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Scripture

1 Peter 2:9, Colossians 1:13-14, Galatians 2:20, Ephesians 4:22-24, Matthew 16:24, Philippians 3:20-21, John 8:36

Gracious God, You have called us out of darkness and into the light of Your love. You have redeemed us and made us whole in order to set us free from bondage. The challenge You place before us is to d...

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Author

Bill Hull

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 16:24-25, Acts 9:1-19, Mark 10:17-22, Ephesians 4:1-2, John 8:31-32, Luke 9:23, Matthew 28:18-20

All who are called to salvation are called to discipleship, no exceptions, no excuses!

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The Two Runners

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

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Scripture

Matthew 6:33, Colossians 3:23, Psalm 39:6, Luke 12:15, Acts 15:29, Matthew 5:14-16, Ephesians 2:10, 1 Corinthians 10:31, Jeremiah 9:23-24, Matthew 16:24, Luke 9:62, 2 Corinthians 4:8-9, James 1:12, Romans 8:16-17, Galatians 2:20

The true story of Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams, two British sprinters who qualified for the 1924 Olympic Games, illustrates two contrasting approaches to life and identity. Abrahams was driven by ...

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Warning: May Cause Suffocation

Author

Darren Pollock

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 16:25, Luke 17:33, Mark 8:35

When we focus on saving our own life we lose sight of the source of life itself—it’s as productive as trying to conserve our air supply by breathing into a plastic bag. Just as our lungs need a consta...

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The Christian Self-Actualization Plan

Author

Ashley Hales

Keywords

Scripture

Galatians 5:13-14, Matthew 16:24-25, Romans 12:4-5, Philippians 2:3-4, Ephesians 2:8-10

In her excellent book on following Jesus in the suburbs, Ashley Hales describes one of the ways in which our discipleship has been influenced by modern secular trends such as the desire for self-actua...

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Suffering is Walking in Jesus' Path

Author

Elizabeth Elliott

Keywords

Scripture

1 Peter 2:21, Luke 9:23, Philippians 3:10, 2 Timothy 2:11-12, Matthew 16:24-25

Amy Carmichael was a passionate missionary to India. She gave her life for the sake of those who had suffered the consequences of an unyielding caste system. She also had her suffering, due to physica...

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Author

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Keywords

Scripture

John 4:7-26, John 21:15-19, Matthew 9:9-13, Mark 10:17-22, Matthew 16:24-25, Romans 6:1-2, James 2:17

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace ...

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Rolling the Stone Away

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 16:25, Luke 9:62, Philippians 3:7-8, Acts 20:13-36, Matthew 10:16-42, James 1:2-4, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

The renowned scholar and musician Albert Schweitzer’s life was turned upside down one summer morning in 1896 while reading his Bible. He came upon Matthew 16:25: “For whosoever will save his life shal...

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The Church at the Center of God’s Purposes

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 43:1-7, Deuteronomy 26:16-19, Matthew 16:13-20, Ephesians 2:19-22, Psalm 22:22

What is the place of the church in relation to God’s mission? Pastor John Stott offers some crucial thoughts, For the church lies at the very center of the eternal purposes of God. It is not a div...

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Author

Fleming Rutledge

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 6:1-10, Exodus 33:18-23, Daniel 10:5-9, Luke 24:13-35, Matthew 16:13-17, Psalm 146:8

Any manifestation that reveals Jesus’ true identity occurs because the power of God is at work upon the eyes, ears, and hearts of the recipients

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