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  • illustration

    Doubt is in Everyone

    Author
    John Ortberg
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Jeremiah 29:13, Proverbs 3:5-6, Romans 8:24-25, Hebrews 11:1, John 20:27
    Writer Michael Novak says that doubt is not so much a dividing line that separates people into different camps, as it is a razor’s edge that runs through every soul. Many believers tend to think doubt...

  • Quote

    Author
    Mark Batterson
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Romans 8:28, Jeremiah 29:11, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Isaiah 55:8-9, Proverbs 3:5-6
    If you let your circumstances define the way you see God, you are a prisoner of perspective. Or worse, a prisoner of your past mistakes! But if you let God define the way you see your circumstances, y...

  • 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...

  • Quote

    Author
    Randy Alcorn
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Galatians 2:11-14, Jonah 3:4, Proverbs 3:3-4, Colossians 4:6, Micah 6:8, Ephesians 4:15, John 1:14
    Truth-oriented Christians love studying Scripture and theology. But sometimes they’re quick to judge and slow to forgive. They’re strong on truth, weak on grace. Grace-oriented Christians love forgive...

  • Quote

    Author
    Lauren F. Winner
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Proverbs 3:5-6, Philippians 4:6-7, 2 Corinthians 12:9, James 1:5-6, Hebrews 11:1, Ephesians 4:11-13, 1 Corinthians 12:4-6
    Maybe God has given some people belief like a pier, to stand on (and God has given those people’s steadiness to the church, to me, as a reminder, as an aid), and maybe God has given others something e...

  • Quote

    Author
    Vaclav Havel
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Romans 8:28, Hebrews 11:1, Jeremiah 29:11, Proverbs 3:5-6, Isaiah 55:8-9, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
    Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.

  • Quote

    Author
    Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Matthew 21:21, Romans 10:17, 2 Corinthians 5:7, Proverbs 3:5-6, Mark 9:24
    The deepest, the only theme of human history, compared to which all others are to subordinate importance, is the conflict of skepticism with faith.

  • 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

    Doubt over Faith?

    Author
    Lesslie Newbigin
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Mark 9:24, Romans 10:17, John 20:27, 1 John 4:1, 1 Thessalonians 5:21, Proverbs 3:5-6
    Have you ever noticed that the phrases in our culture favor doubt over faith? The famed missionary and theologian Lesslie Newbigin pointed this out when we speak of “Honest doubts” and “blind faith”. ...

  • Quote

    Author
    Source Unknown
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Psalm 138:6, Isaiah 57:15, Philippians 2:8-9, Luke 18:14, 1 Peter 5:6, Proverbs 3:34, James 4:10
    The way up is to go down; the way down is to go up.

  • Quote

    Author
    Henri J. M. Nouwen
    Keywords
    Scripture
    2 Timothy 1:7, Ephesians 4:1-3, Philippians 2:3-4, Proverbs 3:5-6, Hebrews 13:7, Isaiah 42:16, 1 Timothy 4:12
    So the first and most basic task of the Christian leader in the future will be to lead his people out of the land of confusion into the land of hope. Therefore, he must first have the courage to be an...

  • Quote

    Author
    Warren W. Wiersbe
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Galatians 6:1, John 4:1-26, 2 Samuel 12:1-14, Proverbs 3:3-4, John 1:14, 1 Corinthians 13:6
    Truth without love is brutality, and love without truth is hypocrisy.

  • illustration

    Control Issues

    Author
    M. Robert Mulholland Jr.
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Proverbs 16:9, Jeremiah 29:11, John 15:1-27, Proverbs 3:5-6, Galatians 2:20, Matthew 6:25-34
    In their excellent book Invitation to a Journey , M. Robert Mulholland and Ruth Haley Barton describe the foundation of life as being spiritual in nature. This means we are constantly be “formed” s...

  • Quote

    Author
    Krister Stendahl
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Proverbs 3:5-6, Proverbs 16:18, Proverbs 26:12, Matthew 23:12, Luke 18:9-14, 1 Corinthians 8:2-3
    Our vision is more obstructed by what we think we know than by our lack of knowledge.

  • illustration

    A Firm Conviction

    Author
    Ben Patterson
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Isaiah 40:28-31, Ephesians 3:20-21, Psalm 147:5, James 1:5, Proverbs 3:5-6
    The foundation of faith is a firm conviction regarding three things about God—his perfect love, wisdom and power. Like a three-legged stool, no combination of two will do. There must be all three for ...

  • Quote

    Author
    Alexander Pope
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Philippians 2:3, Proverbs 3:5-6, Galatians 6:3, James 3:17, 1 Corinthians 4:5, Matthew 7:1-2
    ’Tis with our judgments as our watches, none Go just alike, yet each believes his own.

  • illustration

    If You Want to Fill your Sunday School Class

    Author
    Dallas Willard
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Proverbs 3:5-6, Exodus 3:1-12, 1 Kings 19:9-13, Romans 12:1-2, Acts 16:6-10, Psalm 25:4-5
    Within the Christian community this leads to a prominence of teaching on the will of God and how to know it. Russ Johnston draws upon his own wide experience to remark how this continues to be one of ...

  • Quote

    Author
    Friedrich Nietzsche
    Keywords
    Scripture
    James 1:5-6, 2 Corinthians 5:7, 1 Corinthians 2:5, Romans 10:17, Proverbs 3:5-6, John 20:29, Hebrews 11:1
    Faith: not wanting to know what is true.

  • Quote

    Author
    John Ortberg
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Matthew 14:31, John 20:29, 2 Corinthians 5:7, Proverbs 3:5-6, Mark 9:24, James 1:5-6
    We live in an age when belief comes hard because we’re much more afraid of being gullible (believing something that’s not true) than we are of being skeptical (not believing something that is true). W...

  • Quote

    Author
    Flannery O'Connor
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Psalm 46:10, John 20:29, Psalm 23:4, Proverbs 3:5-6, Isaiah 50:10, 2 Corinthians 5:7, Hebrews 11:1
    People...think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross...You arrive at enough certainty to be able to make your way, but it is making it in darkness. Don’t expect faith to clea...

  • Quote

    Author
    Terry Tempest Williams
    Keywords
    Scripture
    1 Corinthians 2:5, Romans 8:24-25, James 1:5-6, Romans 10:17, Isaiah 40:31, Proverbs 3:5-6
    Faith is the centerpiece of a connected life. It allows us to live by the grace of invisible strands. It is a belief in a wisdom superior to our own. Faith becomes a teacher in the absence of fact.

  • Quote

    Author
    Barbara Brown Taylor
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Psalm 139:23-24, Luke 18:9-14, James 1:5, Romans 12:2, Proverbs 3:5-6
    The problem is, many of the people in need of saving are in churches, and at least part of what they need saving from is the idea that God sees the world the same way they do.

  • Quote

    Author
    Stanley Baldwin
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Mark 11:22-24, Ephesians 2:8-9, Isaiah 26:3-4, Proverbs 3:5-6, Psalm 56:3-4, Romans 1:17, 2 Corinthians 5:7
    I am one of those who would rather sink with faith than swim without it.

  • illustration

    Americans Approach to Giving

    Author
    Chris Willard and Jim Sheppard
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Acts 20:35, Luke 6:38, Proverbs 3:9-10, Malachi 3:10, 2 Corinthians 9:6-7
    In their book Passing the Plate (Oxford, 2008), Christian Smith and Michael Emerson introduce the phrase “discretionary obligation” as a way to understand the typical American Christian’s approach to ...

  • illustration

    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...

  • liturgy

    God of wisdom, we come before you in

    Author
    Austin D. Hill
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Micah 6:8, Psalm 143:10, Romans 12:2, Ezekiel 36:26-27, Proverbs 3:5-6
    God of wisdom, we come before you in humility. Too often we choose our own way, discern our own path, without looking to you. We ignore the prompting of your Holy Spirit, and choose what is easiest, m...

  • illustration

    The Owner of the Universe

    Author
    Ben Witherington III
    Keywords
    Scripture
    2 Corinthians 9:6-7, Luke 12:33-34, Matthew 6:19-21, Proverbs 3:9-10, Deuteronomy 15:7-8, Leviticus 25:23, Psalm 24:1
    The biblical theology of creation is a negation of theories of private” property and “public” property, our theories of individual ownership and collective or governmental ownership. The biblical view...

  • illustration

    The Rope

    Author
    C. S. Lewis
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Mark 9:14-24, Psalm 56:3-4, Proverbs 3:5-6, Hebrews 11:null, Philippians 1:21, Psalm 20:7, James 1:2-4
    You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death. It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong as long as you are merely using i...

  • liturgy

    All: Gracious God, you promise that

    Author
    Laura B. Murray
    Keywords
    Scripture
    John 8:12, John 1:, Psalm 27:, Isaiah 9:2, Psalm 119:105, 2 Corinthians 4:6, Proverbs 3:5-6, Isaiah 60:1, Matthew 5:14-16
    All: Gracious God, you promise that your light drowns out darkness, yet the darkness is so persistent. We cannot see in front of us, so we look to our own knowledge and ways. Forgive us for turning to...

  • Quote

    Author
    Bernard of Clairvaux
    Keywords
    Scripture
    Ephesians 3:20, Job 42:2-3, John 20:29, 1 Corinthians 13:12, Romans 11:33-34, Proverbs 3:5-6
    I believe though I do not comprehend, and I hold by faith what I cannot grasp with the mind.
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