Faith and Work on Cynicism

Quote

Author

Keywords

Scripture

Ecclesiastes 5:10-12 , 2 Kings 5:15-27, Isaiah 55:1-2, Matthew 16:26, Luke 12:16-21 , Psalm 49:6-8

A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

illustration

Anti-Intellectualism has been a problem in the church for some time now. Consider the words of the 17th century English clergyman Joseph Glanvill, who had this to say about the role of reason in faith...

illustration

What is Faith? Is it a Way of Knowing?

Author

Travis Dickinson

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 15:1-6, Exodus 14:10-14, Joshua 1:9, Psalm 23:, James 2:14-26

There’s no shortage of the religiously faithless who seem eager to tell us what faith is. Many of these characterizations of faith are reminiscent of Mark Twain’s precocious schoolboy who quipped, “Fa...

Quote

Author

Paul Tillich

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 3:11-12, Matthew 14:28-31, Mark 9:24 , James 1:5-8 , Psalm 13:1-2, Psalm 42:5

Doubt isn’t the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith.

illustration

It is Better to Question than Merely Accept Difficult Circumstances

Author

Phillip Yancey

Keywords

Scripture

Job 13:23–24 , Genesis 18:25, Habakkuk 1:2–3 , Mark 9:24, Romans 8:22–26, Psalm 73:2–3, 16–17

If the Book of Job reaches across two and a half millennia to teach anything to men and women who consider themselves normal, decent human beings, it is this: Human beings are sure to wander in ignora...

Quote

Author

Charles Schwab

Keywords

I have yet to find the man, however exalted his station, who did not do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than under a spirit of criticism.

Quote

Author

Andrew Sullivan

Keywords

Modernity slowly weakened spirituality, by design and accident, in favor of commerce; it downplayed silence and mere being in favor of noise and constant action. The reason we live in a culture increa...

Quote

Author

Marc Maron

Keywords

Scripture

Job 3:11-13, Isaiah 45:7, Habakkuk 1:2-3 , Matthew 27:45-46 , Luke 22:42-44, Psalm 73:16-17

I’m a paranoid agnostic. I don’t think God exists, but I’m sure there is some sort of force out there working against me.

illustration

The Frustrating Unpredictability of Faith

Author

Don Everts and Doug Schaupp

Keywords

Scripture

Galatians 6:9, John 3:8, Ecclesiastes 11:5, Isaiah 55:10-11, John 6:44

Writing about ministering to postmodern skeptics, Don Everts and Doug Schaupp share a helpful insight into the mystery of God's movement: The first lesson they have taught us about the path to f...

illustration

Seeking a Better Way

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 11:1-9 , Isaiah 58:6-12, Jeremiah 29:4-7, Matthew 5:14-16, Acts 2:42-47, Psalm 133:

In the land whose founding metaphor was the mutuality of John Winthrop’s seventeenth-century vision of a “city set on a hill,” we live more and more in estranged, hostile, exclusive enclaves, linked o...

Quote

Author

Sheila Heen and Douglas Stone

Keywords

Whether we are easily swamped or nearly waterproof, there’s one wiring challenge we all face: Bad is stronger than good. Psychologist Jonathan Haidt elaborates: “Responses to threats and unpleasantnes...

illustration

Are People in the West Abandoning Faith or Just the Church?

Author

David Zahl

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 32:1-4 , 1 Kings 18:21, Jeremiah 2:13, Romans 1:25, Psalm 115:4-8, Acts 17:22-23

In this excerpt, author David Zahl challenges the common belief that religion is “in decline.” He argues that while Westerners, particularly younger generations, may be distancing themselves from the ...

illustration

G. K. Chesterton: The Great Defender of Tradition

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 20:1-17, Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Matthew 15:3, 2 Thessalonians 2:15, Psalm 119:97-98

G. K. Chesterton was well-known (and iconoclastic) in his defense of tradition in a time when progress was all the rage in Western Europe- in technology, in the sciences, in philosophy. Chesterton, on...

Quote

Author

Rick Warren

Keywords

Targets

You'll never do anything creative, innovative or world changing if you fear criticism. Pioneers are easy targets for arrows!

illustration

Business: A Dog-Eat-Dog World?

Author

John C. Knap

Keywords

Scripture

Proverbs 22:1, Luke 16:10, Philippians 2:4, Romans 12:10, Psalm 15:2

In his book A Better Way to Think about Business, the late business philosopher Robert Solomon, a student of business jargon, speaks of having been struck by the imagery that peppers many [business] p...

illustration

Seeing Through the Eyes of Jesus

Author

Richard J. Mouw

Keywords

Scripture

Micah 6:8, Exodus 23:2–3, 6, Proverbs 31:8–9, James 2:12–13 , Luke 6:36–37, Psalm 103:8–10

Christian civility does not commit us to a relativistic perspective. Being civil doesn’t mean that we cannot criticize what goes on around us. …Civility is a different matter, though. I can treat ...

Quote

Author

Bill Bishop

Keywords

Like-minded, homogeneous groups squelch dissent, grow more extreme in their thinking, and ignore evidence that their positions are wrong. As a result, we now live in a giant feedback loop, hearing our...

illustration

The Sacred Alters of Modern Life

Author

A. J. Swoboda

Keywords

Our 24/7 culture conveniently provides every good and service we want, when we want, how we want. Our time – saving devices, technological conveniences, and cheap mobility have seemingly made life muc...

Quote

Author

John Donne

Keywords

Let no man be disheartened nor discouraged if he have brought a good conscience and faithful labor to the service of the Lord. Let him not think his wages the worse paid if God do mingle bodily sickne...

Quote

Author

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Keywords

Scripture

Joshua 1:6-9, Nehemiah 2:11-20, 1 Kings 19:19-21, Psalm 122:1, Romans 12:11

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

illustration

“Respecting” Religion by Making it Private

Author

Nancy Pearcey

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 5:1–2, 1 Kings 18:21–39, Daniel 3:16–18, Matthew 5:14–16, Acts 4:19–20, Psalm 2:1–2, 10–12

Most secularists are too politically savvy to attack religion directly or to debunk it as false. So what do they do? They consign religion to the value sphere—which takes it out of the realm of true a...

illustration

Hard Work is Missing and Its Social Decay

Author

Timothy Keller

Keywords

In Hillbilly Elegy the author tells of Bob, who worked with him at a tile warehouse with his girlfriend. Bob missed work once a week, was chronically late, and took many breaks each day, lasting ove...

illustration

Don’t Professionalize Pastoral Ministry

Author

Frederick Buechner

Keywords

Scripture

1 Kings 19:4, Jeremiah 12:1-3, Matthew 11:28-30, 2 Corinthians 4:7-10, Psalm 42:1-5

Ministers run the awful risk . . . of ceasing to be witnesses to the presence in their own lives — let alone in the lives of the people they are trying to minister to — of a living God who transcends ...

Quote

Author

Kevin DeYoung

Keywords

The biggest deception of our digital age may be the lie that says we can be omni-competent, omni-informed, and omni-present. . . . We must choose our absence, our inability, and our ignorance—and choo...

Quote

Author

Tim Muehlhoff & Richard Langer

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 32:1-35 , 1 Samuel 25:2-35, Proverbs 18:2, Mark 3:1-6, James 1:19-20, Psalm 119:66

First, we do not believe that strong convictions cause incivility. Instead, we believe poorly formed convictions cause incivility.

illustration

The Tragedy of the Digital World

Author

Ruth Haley Barton

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 24:15–18, 1 Kings 19:9–12, Isaiah 30:15, Mark 1:35, Luke 5:15–16, Psalm 2:1–2

Recently a professor shared with me a college student’s reflections in response to my earlier writings on solitude and silence: I was not born into a world relatively unaffected by technology lik...

illustration

Is Christian Faith Antithetical to Reason?

Author

Richard Robinson

Keywords

In his book The Allure of Gentleness , Dallas Willard includes a thought-provoking excerpt from Richard Robinson, a prominent atheist thinker from the mid-20th century. In his work An Atheist’...

illustration

When our Prayers Crash into the Ground

Author

Phillip Yancey

Keywords

Scripture

Deuteronomy 6:16 , 1 Kings 18:20-40, Job 1:20-22, Matthew 4:5-7, John 20:24-29, Psalm 73:1-3, 16-17

Nine-year-old Leo Tolstoy , convinced God would help him fly, dove headfirst out a third-floor window and had his first major crisis of disappointment with God. Fortunately, Tolstoy survived the cr...

Quote

Keywords

Scripture

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 , Isaiah 55:6-7, Matthew 25:1-13, Hebrews 9:27-28, Psalm 90:12, 2 Corinthians 10:5

My thought it is a wanton ranger, It skips away; I fear 'twill bring my soul in danger On Judgment Day...

illustration

When Ideas have Consequences

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 4:1-16 , Exodus 32:1-35 , 1 Kings 12:1-20 , Matthew 7:24-27, Psalm 1:1-6, Romans 1:18-32

In 1889, the French novelist Paul Bourget penned The Disciple , where he depicted the life of a renowned philosopher and psychologist, whose existence was marked by a seemingly monotonous routine...

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

Y

Genesis

Exodus

Leviticus

Numbers

Deuteronomy

Joshua

Judges

Ruth

1 Samuel

2 Samuel

1 Kings

2 Kings

2 Chronicles

Ezra

Nehemiah

Esther

Job

Psalm

Proverbs

Ecclesiastes

Song of Solomon

Isaiah

Jeremiah

Lamentations

Ezekiel

Daniel

Hosea

Joel

Amos

Jonah

Micah

Habakkuk

Zephaniah

Zechariah

Matthew

Mark

Luke

John