Life on Planet Earth on Freedom From Sin

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Almighty and merciful God, the fountain

Author

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 51:2-3, Romans 6:22, Acts 3:19, Isaiah 1:18, Philippians 1:6, Galatians 5:22-23

Almighty and merciful God, the fountain of all goodness, who knows the thoughts of our hearts: We confess that we have sinned against you. Wash us, we implore you, from the stains of our past sins...

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Let us remember that Christ forgives

Author

C. Hassell Bullock

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 15:11-32, Ephesians 2:8-9, Luke 19:1-10, 2 Corinthians 5:17, John 8:1-11, Psalm 103:12

Let us remember that Christ forgives our sins because he bore them at Calvary, not because we deserve Christ’s pardon; and though our sins stubbornly cling to us, our Savior’s love releases us from th...

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Distancing Ourselves with our Simplistic Plotines

Author

Shannon K. Evans

Keywords

If my testimony of the gospel revolves around a plotline of, “I used to struggle with this, but God gave me the victory and now I’m free/healed/saved/fill in the blank,” I have immediately distanced m...

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Accepting Guilt and Sinfulness, A Psychologist’s Perspective

Author

Hobart Mowrer

Keywords

Scripture

Colossians 1:13-14, Romans 5:1, Isaiah 1:18, Micah 7:18-19, Proverbs 28:13

Hobart Mowrer was Research Professor of Psychology at the University of Illinois. Mowrer critiqued Freudian psychology and its assertion that guilt was merely a pathology to be dispensed with. In this...

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Creator Spirit, by whose aid The

Author

John Dryden

Keywords

Scripture

Titus 3:5-6, Ezekiel 37:1-14, 2 Corinthians 3:17-18, Romans 8:11, Psalm 104:30, Genesis 1:1-2

Creator Spirit, by whose aid The world's foundations first were laid, Come, visit every pious mind; Come, pour thy joys on humankind; From sin and sorrow set us free, And make thy temples worthy t...

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The Christian Self-Actualization Plan

Author

Ashley Hales

Keywords

Scripture

Galatians 5:13-14, Matthew 16:24-25, Romans 12:4-5, Philippians 2:3-4, Ephesians 2:8-10

In her excellent book on following Jesus in the suburbs, Ashley Hales describes one of the ways in which our discipleship has been influenced by modern secular trends such as the desire for self-actua...

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A Neglected Garden & The Right to Choose your Religion

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

The British poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge was once engaged in a conversation with a man who believed children should never receive any kind of religious education or instruction, not until they were ol...

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Being Formed in Christ’s Image

Author

Robert Mulholland Jr.

Keywords

In their excellent book Invitation to a Journey, M. Robert Mulholland and Ruth Haley Barton describe the Biblical understanding of the process of spiritual formation over and against the “self-help” p...

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Mandela's Choice to Be Free

Author

Justice Malala

Keywords

Scripture

Philippians 3:13-14, Isaiah 43:18-19, Proverbs 19:11, Romans 12:17-21, Luke 6:27-28, Colossians 3:13, Ephesians 4:31-32

After meeting Nelson Mandela, President Bill Clinton asked him how he felt as he left the prison: “Tell me the truth: when you were walking down the road that last time didn’t you hate them?” Mandela ...

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Carrying a Human-Sized Weight Around

Author

Vance Pitman

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 32:3-5, Psalm 38:4, Proverbs 5:22, Matthew 11:28-30, Hebrews 12:1

In May 2018, in a Connecticut hospital, a group of twelve surgeons worked for five hours to remove a tumor from the abdomen of a thirty-eight-year-old woman. That may seem like a lot of doctors and a ...

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Until the Snake Has No Head

Author

Ann Voskamp

Keywords

My grandad told me a story once and that story became a light. A light that unlocks the dark and releases you into the land of a thousand suns. Apparently, so the story went, there had been a tropical...

liturgy

Father—you know us like no-one else;

Author

Richard Herman

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 8:38-39, Acts 16:25-34, Ruth 1:16, Luke 10:25-37, Matthew 9:20-22

Father—you know us like no-one else; and ...You love us like no-one else. Thank You for your manifold gifts. For the gift of life—we thank You. For the gift of each new day—we thank You. For the gift ...

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Lord of families, tribes, peoples,

Author

Richard Herman

Keywords

Scripture

Galatians 5:1

Lord of families, tribes, peoples, nations and all the world: it’s for freedom You’ve set us free from sin, guilt, and judgment; free to do what is right and just, what is compassionate, gracious and ...

Quote

Author

James Denney

Keywords

Scripture

Hebrews 7:26-27, 2 Corinthians 5:21, 1 Peter 2:22-24, Matthew 4:1-11, John 18:33-38, Hebrews 10:14

This separateness from sinners is not a little, but a stupendous thing; it is the presupposition of redemption; it is that very virtue in Christ without which he would not be qualified to be a Saviour...

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Our Preoccupations

Author

Henri J. M. Nouwen

Keywords

More enslaving than our occupations, however, are our preoccupations. To be pre-occupied means to fill our time and place long before we are there. This is worrying in the more specific sense of the w...

liturgy

God–Father, Son and Holy Spirit; Lord

God–Father, Son and Holy Spirit; Lord of all our yesterdays, todays and tomorrows: thank you that we don’t need to be afraid of what’s coming because you’re already there ahead of us. Nothing takes yo...

Quote

Author

Don Draper

Keywords

Don Draper: This is the greatest advertising opportunity since the invention of cereal. We have six identical companies making six identical products. We can say anything we want. How do you make your...

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There’s No Time for That

Author

Gary Thomas

Keywords

I don’t know how much the following episode was dramatized for a Hollywood script, but in the movie Gettysburg, General Lee is portrayed as being furious with General J. E. B. Stuart, who took his cav...

liturgy

If we say we have no sin, we deceive

Keywords

Scripture

1 John 1:8-9, Hebrews 10:22, Romans 3:23-24, Isaiah 1:18, Psalm 51:1-2

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." In ...

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God’s Abundant Provision in Genesis 2

Author

Mark D. Roberts

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 2:16-17, Genesis 2:null

There is a tendency among readers and scholars of Genesis 2:16-17 to focus on the prohibition of verse 17: “but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat.” …I want to pause to cons...

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God’s Abundant Provision in Genesis 2

Author

Mark D. Roberts

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 2:16-17, Proverbs 3:10, Genesis 1:29, Psalm 23:1-2, Psalm 34:10, Philippians 4:19, James 1:17

There is a tendency among readers and scholars of Genesis 2:16-17 to focus on the prohibition of verse 17: “but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat.” …I want to pause to cons...

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Spare: Privilege and Pain

Author

Colleen Strachan

Keywords

What do the royals and a Rorschach test have in common? Both provoke reactions that tell us more about the attitudes and beliefs of the beholder than about the object of their gaze. This is not to say...

liturgy

Inspired by John 8 and Romans 5

Author

Jacob Traeger

Keywords

Scripture

John 8:12, Romans 5:null

Lord God, we know that you are life, the life which is the light of the world But sometimes we allow the darkness to close in We find ourselves driven apart from you We confess that we do not ...

liturgy

Inspired by Psalm 51:9-12

Author

Scott B. Bullock

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 51:9-12

The Lord has hidden his face from our sin. He has blotted out all of our iniquity. In Christ and his cross, he has created within us a clean heart and renewed a right spirit within us. So that, we are...

liturgy

I tell you this: "To those who have

Author

Jacob Traeger

Keywords

Scripture

John 1:12, Romans 5:8-10

I tell you this: "To those who have received Christ and believed in his name, God has given the right to be called children of God." And "God shows his love for us in that while we were...

liturgy

Father: You shape and form us so each

Author

Richard Herman

Keywords

Scripture

1 Peter 1:3, Luke 24:1-12, Mark 16:1-8, Matthew 28:1-10, John 11:25-26, John 20:1-18, 1 Corinthians 15:3-8

Father: You shape and form us so each is unique yet all are in Your image, when You breathe into us the breath of life. We praise You! Jesus, God the Son–Resurrection and Life: You chose to die and ri...

liturgy

Heavenly Father, we confess that our

Author

Allen Thompson

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 41:10, 2 Timothy 1:7, Matthew 28:20, Philippians 4:6-7, Exodus 3:, Exodus 4:, Exodus 14:

Heavenly Father, we confess that our sinfulness gives us fear and keeps us from pursuing your will. We live with ideas of safety and failure that do not make room for your call to set our lives aside ...

liturgy

Dear Christ, hasten to me. Release me

Author

Aelred of Rievaulx

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 46:1, Philippians 4:19, James 4:8, Hebrews 4:16, Matthew 11:28-30, Psalm 34:18, 1 John 1:9

Dear Christ, hasten to me. Release me from my sins. Free my arms from the chains of evil, that I may embrace you. Lift the scales of ignorance from my eyes, that I may see you. Why do you delay? What ...

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Transgressing Boundaries After the Fall

Author

Ashley Hales

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 3:1-24, Romans 5:12, 1 Timothy 2:12-21

After the fall of our first parents, boundaries were something to push past, to transgress. It’s worth pausing to note how we use the word transgression for “sin.” With its Latin roots, “across” and “...

liturgy

Inspired by Deuteronomy 29

Author

Dustin Ray

Keywords

Scripture

Deuteronomy 29:null

Pastor: God our Redeemer, you have saved your people through Jesus Christ, your Son. You have delivered your people out of slavery to sin and have freed us into new life. Yet, we still wander through ...

life on planet earth on Freedom from Sin

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