Christian Living on Commandments

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Loving God, you command us to love you

Author

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 22:34-40, Mark 12:28-34, Luke 10:25-28, Leviticus 19:18, Deuteronomy 6:4-5

Loving God, you command us to love you and to love our neighbors wholeheartedly. This is a lifelong struggle for us. As we confess our inability to follow this commandment, please help us to find crea...

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Author

Frederick Buechner

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 22:35-40, Mark 12:28-31, Luke 10:27, Deuteronomy 6:4-5

To be commanded to love God at all, let alone in the wilderness, is like being commanded to be well when we are sick, to sing for joy when we are dying of thirst, to run when our legs are broken. But ...

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Collect for Purity

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Scripture

John 4:7-26, Isaiah 6:1-8, Revelation 4:11, Matthew 22:37, Ezekiel 36:26-27

Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you,...

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Almighty God, we bow before You, humbly

Author

Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 22:34-40, Mark 12:28-34, Luke 10:25-28, Leviticus 19:18, Deuteronomy 6:4-5

Almighty God, we bow before You, humbly able to admit how small, fragile, and dependent we are. Unfortunately, for many of us, it takes a disaster to convince us that we are not in control. Over the p...

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Each of us, Lord, has failed to fully

Author

Charles Teixeira

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 4:32, Luke 19:1-10, Matthew 22:37-39, Philippians 2:3-4, 1 John 1:9, Romans 3:23

Each of us, Lord, has failed to fully observe your beauty. We fall in love with our own image and are left disappointed and alone. Please be faithful to us, Jesus, even when we turn from You. We...

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Author

Alexander Schmemann

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 22:29-30, John 6:35, Revelation 19:9, Matthew 22:2, Luke 14:15, Isaiah 25:6

Man must eat in order to live; he must take the world into his body and transform it into himself, into flesh and blood. He is indeed that which he eats, and the whole world is presented as one all-em...

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Come to the Table

Author

Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia

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Scripture

Matthew 11:28-30, Revelation 19:9, Psalm 23:5-6, Isaiah 55:1-2, Luke 14:16-17, Luke 22:19-20, John 6:35, Psalm 34:8, Isaiah 25:6, Matthew 22:2-4, Proverbs 9:5-6

In the midst of all you are facing Your burdens Your responsibilities Your hustle Hear the invitation “Come to the Table” In the midst of all you are facing Your longing Your ambition Your distractio...

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Giving Myself

Author

Mark E. Strong

Keywords

Scripture

Colossians 3:23-24, Psalm 51:17, Luke 21:1-4, Matthew 22:37, 2 Corinthians 9:7, Mark 12:41-44, Romans 12:1

I heard a story about a little boy who wanted to give God an offering but had nothing to give. He sat on the floor, watching people pass by and place their offerings in large wicker baskets. How he lo...

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The Greatest Imaginable Number of Readings

Author

David Hare

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 22:21, Isaiah 5:8-9, John 6:63, Matthew 22:15-22, John 8:1-11, Colossians 2:2-3, 2 Timothy 3:16-17

Jesus Christ was prone to making comments which seem to support an almost infinite variety of exegesis. A remark like ‘Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and ‘unto God the things that are ...

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Author

W. H. Auden

Keywords

Scripture

Colossians 3:13, Luke 10:25-37, Luke 19:1-10, Luke 15:11-32, Ephesians 4:2, 1 John 4:19, Romans 5:8, Matthew 22:37-39

You shall love your crooked neighbor with all your crooked heart.

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Author

Henry Drummond

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 15:11-32, Matthew 22:37-40, Revelation 21:1-4, Mark 10:17-27, John 3:16, Romans 8:38-39, 1 John 4:16

We know but little now about the conditions of the life that is to come. But what is certain is that Love must last. God, the Eternal God, is Love. Covet, therefore, that everlasting gift.

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Author

Lesslie Newbigin

Keywords

Scripture

Galatians 6:2, Acts 2:42-47, Matthew 22:37-40, Ephesians 4:15-16, 1 Corinthians 12:12-14, Genesis 12:3

From its very beginning the Bible sees human life in terms of relationships...The Bible does not speak about "humanity" but about "all the families of the earth" or "all the n...

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Author

Galileo Galilei

Keywords

Scripture

Colossians 2:3, 2 Timothy 2:15, Matthew 22:37, 1 Thessalonians 5:21, Proverbs 18:15, Romans 12:2, Isaiah 1:18

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.

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Lord and God, Father of our Lord Jesus

Author

C. Hassell Bullock

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 22:37-39, Ephesians 1:17-18, Colossians 1:19-20, 1 Corinthians 15:20-22, Romans 5:8, Hebrews 4:15

Lord and God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we have only begun to comprehend the wonder of the Incarnation, that you in Christ would become one of us, that you in Christ would live among us and be ...

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Pledging Allegiance to a Party

Author

Eugene Cho

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 32:1–4, 1 Samuel 8:6–9, Daniel 6:6–10, Matthew 22:20–21, Acts 5:29, Psalm 146:3–5

Followers of Jesus should not be in bed with any of the political parties. Even if one affiliates with a particular party, may we maintain a posture to collaborate, listen, hold accountable, and engag...

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Author

Oscar A. Romero

Keywords

Scripture

John 14:6, Matthew 22:37-38, Matthew 4:18-19, 2 Corinthians 5:14-15, Luke 10:40-42, John 10:11

Christianity is not a collection of truths to be believed, of laws to be obeyed. Christianity is a person, one who loved us so much, one who calls for our love. Christianity is Christ.

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These Impious Galileans

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 22:37-39, Matthew 25:35-40, Luke 3:11, Ephesians 5:2, Acts 2:42-47, James 2:14-17, Galatians 2:10, Psalm 72:12-14

A passage often referred to in order to describe the sacrificial, countercultural quality of the early church comes to us interestingly enough, from one of its strongest critics, known later to histor...

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Author

Jonathan Swift

Keywords

Love

Scripture

Romans 12:9-10, Luke 19:1-10, John 4:1-26, Galatians 5:14, Matthew 22:37-40, 1 John 4:20-21, John 13:34-35

We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to makes us love one another.

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Loving God, we confess today: We don’t

Author

Austin D. Hill

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 4:32, Psalm 51:10, 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, Matthew 22:37-39, Romans 5:8

Loving God, we confess today: We don’t even know what love truly is. We talk about love when we talk about favorite television shows and foods. We talk about love as if it happens to us. We describe l...

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Preaching on Parables: A Simple Framework to Teach Them Effectively

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 22:null, Matthew 22:1

A Special Kind of Story Most Christians have some idea of what a parable is. Ask an adult Sunday school class and you might hear: “It’s a story!” Another might chime in, “with a moral message!” Mer...

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Following Jesus Requires Real Commitment

Author

Bradley Long

Keywords

Scripture

Proverbs 3:5-8, Matthew 22:37, Romans 12:1-2, Luke 14:26-27, Deuteronomy 6:5, Luke 16:13, Mark 12:30, John 14:15, Matthew 16:24-26, Luke 9:59-62, Matthew 6:24, Hebrews 11:13-16, Hebrews 10:38-39, Matthew 6:33-34, Matthew 10:37-39

What are you willing to do for love? An instructor for the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course shared with a class the major hang-up he had to get over before asking his wife to ma...

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Breathe in us, O Holy Spirit,That our

Author

Augustine of Hippo

Keywords

Scripture

Jude 1:24-25, John 14:26, 2 Timothy 1:7, Ephesians 6:10-11, Matthew 22:37-39

Breathe in us, O Holy Spirit, That our thoughts may all be holy. Act in us, O Holy Spirit, That our work, too, may be holy. Draw our hearts, O Holy Spirit, That we love but what is holy. Strengthen us...

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Author

John Stott

Keywords

Scripture

Hebrews 13:16, 1 Peter 4:10, Luke 10:27, Romans 13:8-10, Galatians 5:14, 1 John 4:20, Matthew 22:37-40

Social responsibility becomes an aspect not of Christian mission only, but also of Christian conversion. It is impossible to be truly converted to God without being thereby converted to our neighbor.

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The Heart of Christian Virtue

Author

Richard P. McBrien

Keywords

Scripture

1 Corinthians 13:1-7, Galatians 5:22-23, Matthew 22:36-40, Luke 10:25-37, Ruth 1:16

If love is the soul of Christian existence, it must be at the heart of every other Christian virtue. Thus, for example, justice without love is legalism; faith without love is ideology; hope without l...

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The Thing isn’t the Thing

Author

Emily P. Freeman

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 23:1-3, Matthew 22:37-39, Isaiah 30:21, Psalm 37:4, Philippians 4:6-7

If there’s one thing I know for sure in the kingdom of God it’s this: the thing we often think is The Thing is often not the thing but is, in fact, only a thing. We come forward with a Huge Life Decis...

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The Evil of Apathy

Author

John Shea

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 16:1-8, Matthew 22:2-10

The unjust steward who, hearing he is going to be fired, doctors his master’s accounts to secure another job, is commended precisely because he acted. The point does not concern morality but apathy. H...

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Loving Others

Author

Scot McKnight

Keywords

Scripture

Colossians 3:12-14, Luke 10:25-37, John 4:1-26, Galatians 5:13-14, Matthew 22:37-39, Philippians 2:3-4, 1 John 4:7-8

Let me tell you the story of a great missionary named Frank C. Laubach (1884–1970). He grew up in the farming community of Benton, PA, and served as a Congregationalist missionary in the Philippines. ...

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Author

John Newton

Keywords

Humility

Scripture

Matthew 22:37-39, James 4:10, 1 John 4:7-8, Ephesians 4:2, Philippians 2:3-4, Colossians 3:12-14

I am persuaded that love and humility are the highest attainments in the school of Christ and the brightest evidences that He is indeed our Master.

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Ash Wednesday and St. Valentine

Author

Scott B. Bullock

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 107:null, John 21:15-19, Ruth 1:16-17, Matthew 22:37-39, Isaiah 61:3, Romans 5:8

A Valentine’s Day Tradition What better way to say, “I love you,” than passing your beloved some sugar, corn syrup, dextrose, and glycerin wrapped in a chalkly Necco wafer heart? Maybe some of you re...

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We Are What We Love

Author

James K. A. Smith

Keywords

Scripture

Galatians 5:22-23, Ruth 1:16, Luke 10:38-42, Luke 10:25-37, Colossians 3:17, 1 John 3:18, Matthew 22:37-40

Identities—what makes us who we are, the kind of people we are—is what we love. More specifically, our identity is shaped by what we ultimately love or what we love as ultimate—what, at the end of the...

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