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  • illustration

    Tides and Currents

    Author
    Russ Metcalfe
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Isaiah 30:21, Proverbs 4:25-27, Philippians 3:13-14, Romans 5:3-4, James 1:12
    I found that tides and currents do not determine destination. That is what rudders and engines and sails are for. While you don’t dare ignore the tides and currents, you also never get anywhere if you...

  • illustration

    Flying into a Headwind

    Author
    Cody Sandahl
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Psalm 46:1-2, 2 Timothy 4:7, Galatians 6:9, James 1:12, Proverbs 3:5-6, Philippians 3:13-14
    I started flying small Cessna planes when I was in high school, and I vividly remember one flight between McGregor, TX and Austin. We had an incredibly strong tail wind down to Austin, so we got there...

  • illustration

    Paul Making Decision

    Author
    Kevin DeYoung
    Keywords
    Scripture
    2 Corinthians 1:17, Philippians 3:13-14, Acts 20:22-23, 1 Corinthians 16:5-9, Romans 15:20-21, Acts 16:6-7
    You’re not getting the sense that Paul got angelic visits every other day and waited for his dreams, visions of his heart, and supernatural messages written out in the clouds to tell him what to do…Wi...

  • illustration

    Following a King

    Author
    Timothy Keller
    Keywords
    Scripture
    1 Peter 2:21, Hebrews 12:2, Philippians 3:8-9, Revelation 17:14, Luke 9:23, John 10:27, Matthew 16:24
    The Gospel is not about choosing to follow advice, it’s about being called to follow a King. Not just someone with the power and authority to tell you what needs to be done—but someone with the power ...

  • illustration

    The Three Orientations Towards Work

    Author
    Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Hebrews 11:39-40, Jeremiah 1:5, Philippians 3:14, Galatians 6:9, Matthew 25:21
    In his landmark work, Habits of the Heart, the sociologist Robert Bellah describes thee distinct orientations people take with respect to their work. The first orientation is to see your work as a job...

  • 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

    Good vs. Bad Discipline

    Author
    James K. A. Smith
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Hebrews 12:5-11, Proverbs 3:11-12, Psalm 94:12, 1 Timothy 4:7-8, Philippians 3:12-14, Matthew 23:23-24, James 1:22-25, 1 Corinthians 9:24-27
    While formally or structurally speaking, there are mechanisms of discipline operative in both the convent and the prison, in both the factory and the monastery, more specifically, these disciplines an...

  • illustration

    Living From the Center

    Author
    Henri J. M. Nouwen
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Matthew 6:33, Philippians 3:13-14, Deuteronomy 6:5, Luke 10:41-42
    In my home country, the Netherlands, you still see many large wagon wheels, not on wagons, but as decorations at the entrances of farms or on the walls of restaurants. I have always been fascinated by...

  • illustration

    Dirty Boots

    Author
    The Pastor's Workshop
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Proverbs 13:4, Ecclesiastes 9:10, Matthew 25:14-30, Philippians 3:13-14, James 1:22-25, 1 John 1:9, James 5:16
    Pope John Paul I recounted a story about Jonathan Swift and his servant. One morning at an inn, Swift asked his servant why his boots hadn’t been cleaned. The servant replied, “I didn’t see the point,...

  • illustration

    Faith Like a Journey

    Author
    Samuel Rodriguez
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Isaiah 40:31, Acts 20:24, Hebrews 12:1-2, James 1:2-4, Proverbs 3:5-6, Psalm 37:23-24, Philippians 3:13-14
    While global flights and online booking have made travel easier in many ways, other aspects, often related to safety and security, still create challenges. As often as I fly, I could tell you plenty o...

  • Quote

    Author
    William Law
    Keywords
    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.

  • Quote

    Author
    Chuck DeGroat
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Philippians 3:7-11
    When I teach on the dynamics of real change and maturation, I often describe a “furnace of transformation” each of us must pass through for the sake of growth and refinement. I’ve never seen real grow...

  • liturgy

    Adapted from “A Cry for Deliverance” in The Valley of Vision

    Author
    Dustin Ray
    Keywords
    Scripture
    2 Corinthians 5:21, Philippians 3:9, 1 Corinthians 10:13, James 4:7, Matthew 6:13, Romans 12:2, 1 Peter 1:15-16, Galatians 2:20
    Pastor: Heavenly Father, save me from sin! I know I am righteous only through Jesus’ righteousness, but I greatly desire to be more like him! I am your child, so help me to resist the temptation to si...

  • Quote

    Author
    Augustine of Hippo
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Matthew 6:24, 1 Kings 3:1-15, Luke 10:38-42, Philippians 3:7-8, Colossians 3:2, 1 John 2:15-17
    For though [something] be good, it may be loved with an evil as well as with a good love: it is loved rightly when it is loved ordinately; evilly, when inordinately.

  • illustration

    The Sharpshooter

    Author
    Source Unknown
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Matthew 6:33, Philippians 3:13-14, Isaiah 49:1-2, 1 Corinthians 9:26, Proverbs 12:2
    Some years ago an army sharpshooter was visiting a small town. He was surprised to find bull’s-eyes with bullet holes in the exact center all throughout the village. “Someone or some one’s here must b...

  • Quote

    Author
    John D. Zizioulas
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Romans 5:2-5, 1 Peter 1:3-4, Colossians 1:27, Romans 8:24-25, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Philippians 3:13-14
    [The Christian Faith] has its roots in the future and its branches in the present.

  • Quote

    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 ...

  • Quote

    Author
    Thomas à Kempis
    Keywords
    Scripture
    2 Corinthians 5:15, Colossians 3:1-2, Romans 12:1, John 15:4-5, Philippians 3:7-8, Galatians 2:20, Matthew 6:33
    Let this be thy whole Endeavour, this thy prayer, this thy desire, that thou mayest be stripped of all selfishness, and with entire simplicity follow Jesus only.

  • illustration

    The Crucial Thing

    Author
    Søren Kierkegaard
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Matthew 22:37-39, 1 Corinthians 8:1-3, Ezekiel 36:26-27, Colossians 1:9-10, Philippians 3:10-14, James 1:22, John 14:21
    In a journal entry by the Danish Philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, the great existentialist philosopher describes the importance not simply of grasping the truth of the Christian faith, but having the tr...

  • illustration

    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...

  • Quote

    Author
    Algernon Charles Swinburne
    Keywords
    Scripture
    John 14:2-3, Revelation 21:4, Revelation 22:1-2, Matthew 25:34, 1 Corinthians 2:9, Philippians 3:20-21
    No sign that ever was given To faithful or faithless eyes Showed ever beyond clouds riven So clear a paradise. Earth’s creeds may be seventy times seven And blood have defiled each creed But if such b...

  • Quote

    Author
    George Bernard Shaw
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Philippians 3:13-14, Matthew 11:12, Galatians 1:10, Daniel 3:18, 1 Corinthians 1:27, Acts 17:6
    The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

  • illustration

    Three Dollars Worth of God

    Author
    Wilbur Rees
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Galatians 2:20, 2 Corinthians 5:17, James 2:14-17, John 3:3, Philippians 3:10, Romans 12:2
    I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please. Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk, or a snooze in the sunshine. I don’t want enough of God t...

  • Quote

    Author
    Donald S. Whitney
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Jeremiah 31:33, Ezekiel 36:26-27 , Isaiah 43:1, Psalm 73:25-26, Romans 8:15-16, Philippians 3:20-21
    Thus when someone is born again, the Holy Spirit gives that person new Fatherward desires, a new heavenward orientation whereby we cry, “Abba, Father!”

  • Quote

    Author
    Jonathan Edwards
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Luke 9:23, Proverbs 3:5-6, Psalm 27:4, Philippians 3:13-14, Romans 14:17, Matthew 13:44, Colossians 3:1-2
    The seeking of the kingdom of God is the chief business of the Christian life.

  • illustration

    Moving Forward With Your Life

    Author
    Ray Pritchard
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Matthew 6:14-15, Ephesians 4:31-32, Colossians 3:13, Philippians 3:13-14, Isaiah 43:18-19
    After the Civil War, in an incident recounted by Charles Flood in Lee: The Last Years, Robert E. Lee visited a woman who took him to the remains of a grand old tree in front of her home. There she cri...

  • illustration

    The Blue Pill or the Red Pill

    Author
    Mark Batterson
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Philippians 3:14, John 20:29, James 1:5-6, Romans 10:17, Matthew 17:20, 2 Corinthians 5:7, Proverbs 3:5-6
    There is an iconic scene in the cult classic The Matrix that makes for a great metaphor. Morpheus gives Neo a choice between two pills: You can take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake up in y...

  • illustration

    Shifting Our Focus

    Author
    James Bryan Smith
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Hebrews 12:1-2, 2 Corinthians 3:18, Philippians 3:13-14, Psalm 25:15, Psalm 34:5
    By shifting the focus away from myself and onto Christ and his love for me, I have noticed that everything comes into view. When Martin Luther was suffering under the weight of guilt, his spiritual di...

  • Quote

    Author
    Dietrich Bonhoeffer
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Matthew 11:28-30, Genesis 22:, Acts 9:1-19, Matthew 4:18-22, Matthew 19:16-22, Philippians 3:7-8, Romans 6:22
    Grace is costly because it compels a person to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

  • illustration

    Fear & Growth, Risk & Comfort

    Author
    John Ortberg
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Matthew 8:20, Philippians 3:8, Hebrews 12:11, 2 Corinthians 12:9, Romans 5:3-4, James 1:2-4, Luke 9:23
    Fear and growth go together like macaroni and cheese. It’s a package deal. The decision to grow always involves a choice between risk and comfort. This means that to be a follower of Jesus you must re...
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