Christian Living on Acceptance

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Love Motivates More Than Fear

Author

Keywords

Scripture

1 John 4:18, Romans 2:4, 2 Corinthians 3:18, Hosea 3:, Titus 3:4-5

One saint used to say that she was the type of woman who advances more rapidly when she is drawn by love than when driven by fear. She was perceptive enough to know that we are all that type of person...

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A Rescue Religion

Author

John Stott

Keywords

Scripture

Titus 3:5, Hebrews 7:25, Romans 5:8, John 3:17, 1 John 4:14, 1 Timothy 1:15, Luke 19:10

Christianity is a rescue religion. It declares that God has taken the initiative in Jesus Christ to rescue us from our sins. This is the main theme of the Bible. You are to give him the name Jesus, be...

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Author

Richard Lovelace

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 5:1, Romans 8:1, Galatians 2:16, Titus 3:5, 1 John 4:15, Isaiah 61:10, Hebrews 10:14

Much that we have interpreted as a defect of sanctification in church people is really an outgrowth of their loss of bearing with respect to justification. Christians who are no longer sure that God l...

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Author

C.H. Lenski

Keywords

Scripture

Titus 3:4-5, Luke 23:39-43, 2 Corinthians 9:8, Romans 6:23, Matthew 20:1-16, Ephesians 2:8-9

The generosity and the magnanimity of God are so great that he accepts nothing from us without rewarding it beyond all computation. . . The vast disproportion existing between our work and God’s rewar...

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Author

John Stott

Keywords

Scripture

John 8:1-11, Luke 15:11-32, Luke 10:25-37, Luke 19:1-10, Luke 2:1-20, Titus 3:4-5, Romans 5:6-8

Grace is God loving, God stooping, God coming to the rescue, God giving himself generously in and through Jesus Christ.

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A Gift That Requires Swallowing your Pride

Author

Timothy Keller

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 3:23-24, Ephesians 2:8-9, John 3:16, Isaiah 64:6, Romans 5:8, Titus 3:4-5, Luke 19:1-10

Christmas is about receiving presents, but consider how challenging it is to receive certain kinds of gifts. Some gifts by their very nature make you swallow your pride. Imagine opening a present on C...

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Grace from the Beginning

Author

Tish Harrison Warren

Keywords

Scripture

John 6:44, Romans 5:8, Ephesians 2:8-9, Titus 3:5

It’s remarkable that when the Father declares at Jesus’ baptism, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” Jesus hasn’t yet done much of anything that many would find impressive. He hasn’...

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Gracious Father, too often we base our

Author

Laura B. Murray

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 2:8-9, Romans 5:8, 1 John 4:10, Romans 8:38-39, Titus 3:4-5, Isaiah 55:1, Psalm 103:10-12, John 15:9

Gracious Father, too often we base our worth on our performance. We believe if we do well, your love grows, and if we falter, your love lessens. Our God, how far this is from the truth. We confess our...

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Author

Brennan Manning

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 9:9-13, Luke 23:39-43, John 8:1-11, Acts 9:1-19, Titus 3:4-5

My deepest awareness of myself is that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ and I have done nothing to earn it or deserve it.

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Gracious God, we ask for Your

Author

Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 43:18-19, Hebrews 10:22, Colossians 3:10, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Titus 3:5, Psalm 51:10

Gracious God, we ask for Your forgiveness and receive it with joyful hearts. Renew our minds so that we may discern what is good. Fill us with Your Spirit so that we may be Your witnesses in the world...

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A Wedding & A Reaffirmation of Covenant Love

Author

Tim Chester

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 22:19-20, Galatians 3:26-27, Colossians 2:11-12, Titus 3:3-7, 1 Corinthians 10:16-17

Baptism is like a wedding. It is a covenant act, a relationship-making agreement, in which commitments are made. A couple may love one another. But feelings can go up and down. That is why marriage is...

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Author

Glen Scrivener

Keywords

Scripture

John 1:16-17, Romans 5:8, Ephesians 2:8-9, Acts 2:38, 2 Corinthians 12:9, Titus 3:5-6, Galatians 4:6

The piling on of grace upon grace is incredible. God had given us his Son. We killed him. In response God says, “I want to forgive you and offer another ‘family member,’ so to speak.” It was a case of...

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We gather today and recognize our need

Author

Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church

Keywords

Scripture

John 10:27, 2 Peter 1:4, Psalm 119:50, Hebrews 10:23, Titus 3:4-5, Acts 17:8, Psalm 34:8, Psalm 42:1-2, Jeremiah 17:7-8

We gather today and recognize our need for You. We admit that it is easy to lose sight of Your goodness and purpose when faced with emotional, physical, and spiritual storms. Forgive us for the times ...

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Author

John Calvin

Keywords

Scripture

1 John 5:13, Galatians 3:14, Titus 3:5-7, John 14:26, Romans 8:16

We shall now have a full definition of faith if we say that it is a firm and sure knowledge of the divine favor toward us, founded on the truth of a free promise in Christ, and revealed to our minds, ...

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Heavenly Father, we come before Your

Author

Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church

Keywords

Scripture

2 Corinthians 5:17, Matthew 6:14, Titus 3:5, Ephesians 1:7, Romans 12:2

Heavenly Father, we come before Your throne of grace to confess our sin. We have been selfish instead of generous; we have been proud instead of humble; we have held grudges instead of forgiving; we h...

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Modernized Anglican Confession

Keywords

Scripture

Titus 3:5, Micah 7:18-19, Joel 2:12-13, Ephesians 1:7, 2 Chronicles 7:14

Almighty and everlasting God, who hates nothing that you have made, and forgives the sins of all those who are penitent; create and make in us new and remorseful hearts, that we, worthily lamenting ou...

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“I am Buying Your Soul”

Author

Victor Hugo

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 45:1-15, Titus 3:5, Romans 5:20, Ephesians 2:8-9, Luke 19:1-10, Luke 15:11-32, John 8:1-11

One of the most powerful illustrations of grace and mercy in all of western literature has to be the great scene between Monseigneur Bienvenu and Jean Valjean in the stirring epic Les Miserables by Vi...

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Tolkien on Happy Endings

Author

J. R. R. Tolkein

Keywords

Scripture

Titus 3:4-5, Ephesians 2:8, Luke 15:11-32, 1 Corinthians 2:9, Psalm 30:5, Ruth 4:13-17

J. R. R. Tolkien coined the term "eucatastrophe" to refer to the unexpected happy ending at the end of a fairy tale, achieved by grace rather than effort. The consolation of fairy-stories,...

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Adapted from John and Ephesians

Author

Scott B. Bullock

Keywords

Scripture

John 15:26, John 16:15, 1 John 2:1, Ephesians 2:null, Philippians 2:13, Titus 3:5

The Spirit of truth has been given to a people who lacked truth. The Advocate has been sent. We who were once without life have been given new life. For it is by grace we have been saved through faith...

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Grace Turns our World Upside Down

Author

Jacob Traeger

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 6:14-15, Colossians 1:13-14, Luke 6:37, Titus 3:5, Hebrews 4:16, 2 Corinthians 12:9, Romans 3:23-24

At the beginning to the musical Les Misérables , the lead character Jean Valjean is arrested by the police, with silver he has stolen from a kindly bishop who had given him shelter. Valjean is plainl...

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Meriting our Salvation

Author

Jen Pollock Michel

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 6:23, Philippians 3:9, Titus 3:5, Galatians 2:16, Isaiah 64:6, Romans 6:23, Ephesians 2:8-9

At the core of every project of self-salvation is the staunch unwillingness to believe that God’s love and forgiveness can be unmerited. Those who would try and save themselves prefer work to rest, ef...

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An Illustration of Faith as Grace, Not a Good Work

Author

Robert Farrar Capon

Keywords

Scripture

2 Kings 5:1-14, Genesis 15:6, Matthew 13:44, Titus 3:5, John 6:29, Romans 5:1-2

In his book The Mystery of Christ , a series of fictionalized pastoral counseling sessions (based on actual events), the Episcopal priest Robert Farrar Capon shares a number of helpful ways of unde...

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Faithful Response to Healing

Author

Eunice McGarrahan

Keywords

Scripture

Mark 5:14-20, Philippians 3:13-14, Isaiah 43:18-19, Titus 3:5, John 3:3

In the story of Jesus and the demon-possessed man in Mark 5:14-20, Jesus gives new life to that man. When the townspeople saw the result of Jesus’ healing – an entirely new man, almost unrecognizable ...

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Not Interested in Being Meek

Author

Jerry Bridges

Keywords

Scripture

Titus 3:2, Colossians 3:12, 1 Peter 3:4, Matthew 11:29, James 1:21

A friend of mine who is an entrepreneur was listening to a CD of a series of messages I had given on the Beatitudes. When he came to meekness, he told me, he skipped over it. He wasn’t interested in b...

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O God, who is rich in mercy, We come

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

1 John 4:9-11, Titus 3:4-5, James 4:6, Romans 12:1-2, Psalm 51:1-2, Micah 6:8

O God, who is rich in mercy, We come before you humbled and in need of your grace. Many of us have been in the church for so long that we have forgotten how each day your mercies are new, your grace ...

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Baptism Gives us Assurance in Our Faith

Author

Elyse M. Fitzpatrick

Keywords

Baptism

Scripture

Zechariah 13:1, Ephesians 1:7, Acts 2:38, Romans 6:3-4, Galatians 3:26-27, Colossians 2:12, Titus 3:5, 1 Peter 3:21

For us, Jesus instituted two ongoing signs to confirm our confidence in the gospel of his grace, the first of which is baptism. Though simpler and less obviously supernatural than the ten plagues on E...

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Author

Philip Melanchthon

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 5:1-2, Titus 3:5, Romans 3:27-31, 1 Peter 1:6-9, Hebrews 11:6, Romans 4:3-5, James 2:14-26

Faith is nothing else than trust in the divine mercy promised in Christ…. This trust in the goodwill or mercy of God first calms our hearts and then inflames us to give thanks to God for his mercy so ...

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Author

Brian Loritts

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 8:38-39, Luke 19:1-10, John 8:1-11, Titus 3:4-5, Ephesians 2:8-9, 1 John 4:10, Romans 5:8

The question of performance-free love transcends ethnicity, gender and socioeconomic status. “Am I forever loved for who I am? Is the background elevator music to our hearts.

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Author

George MacDonald

Keywords

Scripture

James 1:22, Titus 3:8, Philippians 2:13, Romans 12:2, John 14:15

To hold to a doctrine or an opinion with the intellect alone is not to believe it. A man’s real belief is that which he lives by.

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Author

Richard J. Foster

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 8:29, 2 Corinthians 3:18, John 15:4-5, Romans 12:2, Titus 3:5, 2 Corinthians 5:17

The needed change within us is God's work, not ours. The demand is for an inside job, and only God can work from the inside. We cannot attain or earn this righteousness of the kingdom of God: it i...

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