Relationships and Community on Moral Courage

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Waking People up to Christ

Author

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 55:8-9, Jonah 4:1-11, Numbers 22:21-34, Matthew 9:10-13, Mark 2:23-28, Psalm 19:12-14

It takes a great deal of freedom and love to be therapeutic with a group. Many years ago when Emil Brunner, the great Swiss theologian, was lecturing in this country, it was reported that when he prea...

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When we allow darkness to overcome the

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Scripture

John 1:5, Ephesians 5:18, Isaiah 55:2, Luke 12:15, Ezekiel 36:26

When we allow darkness to overcome the light, forgive us, Lord. When we reduce Christmas to plastic and tinsel, have mercy on us, Father. When hardness of heart keeps us from seeing and hearing an...

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Author

Charles Wesley

Keywords

Mercy

Scripture

Psalm 86:5, Isaiah 55:7, Lamentations 3:22-23, Ephesians 2:4-5, 1 Timothy 1:15-16, Micah 7:18

Depth of mercy! Can there be Mercy still reserved for me?

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Repentance: A Mental Revolution

Author

Lesslie Newbigin

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 55:6-9 , Jonah 3:1-10, 2 Chronicles 7:14, Mark 1:14-15, Romans 12:2, Psalm 51:10-12

Lesslie Newbigin, the great missiologist and missionary, shares a powerful analogy of repentance from his days serving as a missionary in India. I remember once visiting a village in the Madras di...

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Taking the Measure

Author

Jen Wilkin

Keywords

Scripture

1 Samuel 16:7, 1 Kings 18:33-35, Isaiah 55:8-9, Matthew 7:1-2, Psalm 139:1-3, Luke 6:38

One of my favorite movies is Hoosiers (1986). It tells the story of a small-town basketball team from Hickory, Indiana, that finds greatness under the leadership of their coach, Norman Dale. The...

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Adapted from Isaiah 55:6-7

Author

Bud Thoreen

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 55:6-7

Leader: Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. People: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Leader: Let him return to the Lord, and he ...

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Author

Thomas Watson

Keywords

Mercy

Scripture

Psalm 86:15, Nehemiah 9:17, Micah 7:18-19, Isaiah 55:7, Exodus 34:6-7

God is more willing to pardon than to punish. Mercy does more multiply in Him than sin in us. Mercy is His nature.

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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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LORD, too often we live for ourselves

Author

Austin D. Hill

Keywords

Scripture

Philippians 2:13, Micah 6:8, Ephesians 4:22-24, Isaiah 55:7, Psalm 51:10-12, Matthew 6:33, Romans 12:2

LORD, too often we live for ourselves instead of how You have called us. Please forgive us for the times when we don’t strive to bring about Your kingdom here and now. Forgive us for the lack of imagi...

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Author

Oscar A. Romero

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 2:10, Romans 8:24-25, 2 Corinthians 4:18, Isaiah 55:8-9, Hebrews 11:33

It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view. The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision. . . . We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiah...

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Isaiah 55:6-9, "Seek the Lord while he may be

Author

Dustin Ray

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 55:6-9

Leader: Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on h...

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Rejecting Grace

Author

Brett McCracken

Keywords

Scripture

Jonah 4:2, Luke 23:39-43, Matthew 20:1-16, Luke 15:11-32, Isaiah 55:8-9

There’s a gut–wrenching scene in the Korean film Secret Sunshine that captures the scandal of grace better than any film I’ve ever seen. The scene takes place in a prison, as protagonist Shin-ae (Jeon...

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The Power of Invitations

Author

Adele Ahlberg Calhoun

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 12:1-3, Exodus 3:10-12, Isaiah 55:1-3 , Luke 14:16-24, Matthew 11:28-30 , Psalm 23:5

Invitations are powerful. Like tides, they ebb and flow, shaping the contours of our existence. Some invitations we desperately want but never get—“Will you marry me?” or “Would you consider a promoti...

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Listening to God and Others

Author

Adam S. McHugh

Keywords

Scripture

Deuteronomy 6:4-5, Isaiah 55:3, Matthew 11:15, Luke 8:8, James 1:19-20, Psalm 46:10

The very first word of the Rule of St. Benedict, that famous text that has guided the life of monastic communities since the sixth century, is listen . I want for us to put listening back where i...

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Settling Accounts

Author

William E. Brown

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 55:8-9, Matthew 6:33-34, Proverbs 3:5-6, Psalm 37:25-26, Ecclesiastes 3:1, Galatians 6:9

The story is told of a farmer in a Midwestern state who had a strong disdain for “religious” things. As he plowed his field on Sunday morning, he would shake his fist at the church people who passed b...

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Writing out our Faith

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

2 Timothy 3:16-17, Romans 15:4, Isaiah 55:11, Hebrews 4:12-13, 2 Peter 1:19-21, Matthew 4:4, Matthew 24:35

We all desire to learn from our role models, but some take this ambition to the next level. The writer Hunter S. Thompson was so obsessed with the writings of F. Scott Fitzgerald, and specifically his...

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Isaiah 55:6-9

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 55:6-9

Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, to o...

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People are the Key to Organizational Change

Author

Rich Karlgaard and Michael S. Malone

Keywords

Scripture

Hebrews 12:1, James 1:5, Philippians 1:6, 2 Corinthians 4:16, Romans 12:2, Isaiah 55:8-9

Here is the uncomfortable truth: Humans run to a much slower evolutionary clock than our inventions. To use an engineering term, we are the “gating factor” that keeps a process from running faster. It...

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Author

Gayle Somers

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 55:8-9, Ephesians 3:20-21, Romans 5:8, Lamentations 3:22-23, Psalm 103:10-12

All the cards in the deck of revelation about God’s mercy and kindness are stacked in favor of the unthinkable.

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God in the Dock

Author

C. S. Lewis

Keywords

Scripture

Job 40:2, Isaiah 45:9, Daniel 4:35, Isaiah 55:8-9

The ancient man approached God (or even the gods) as the accused person approaches his judge. For the modern man the roles are reversed. He is the judge: God is in the dock. He is quite a kindly judge...

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Author

C. S. Lewis

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 55:7, 1 John 1:9, 1 Corinthians 6:18-20, Romans 6:23, Galatians 6:7-8, Proverbs 14:12

And of some sinful pleasure they say "Let me have but this and I'll take the consequences": little dreaming how damnation will spread back and back into their past and contaminate the pl...

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Author

David Dickson

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 103:11-12, Lamentations 3:22-23, Ephesians 2:4-5, Psalm 36:5-6, Romans 5:20-21, Isaiah 55:7-9, Micah 7:18-19

Our mind cannot find a comparison too large for expressing the superabundant mercy of the Lord toward his people.

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An Atheist Pines for Eternity

Author

Theodore Dalrymple

Keywords

Scripture

Ecclesiastes 3:11, Isaiah 55:1-3, Job 14:13-14, John 4:13-14, Romans 1:20-21, Psalm 42:1-2

In an article entitled, What the New Atheists Don’t See , the British author Theodore Dalrymple shares his honest struggles with atheism. The subtitle of his article is fascinating, “To regret re...

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Author

Frederick Buechner

Keywords

The Kingdom of God

Scripture

Revelation 21:2-4, Isaiah 25:6, Luke 13:18-19, Isaiah 55:1-2, Revelation 19:9

They are prepared for a God who strikes hard bargains but not for a God who gives as much for an hour's work as for a day's. They are prepared for a mustard-seed kingdom of God no bigger than ...

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Gracious God, We build walls to protect

Author

Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 73:25-26, John 15:15, Galatians 2:20, Philippians 3:8-9, Isaiah 55:8-9, Psalm 37:5

Gracious God, We build walls to protect ourselves, but it leads to isolation. We make independence the highest value, instead of complete dependence on You. Forgive us for our inability to surrender e...

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A Savior Who Was a Spitter

Author

Steve Arterburn and Jack Felton

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 2:21–23, Exodus 3:7–10, Isaiah 55:10–11, John 9:1–7 , Acts 10:34–35 , Psalm 19:3–4

Some time ago, I read about the work of a Wycliffe Bible translator in a remote village in Papua New Guinea. When the opening chapters of Genesis were first translated into the native language, the at...

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Author

Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Keywords

Mercy

Scripture

Psalm 103:11, Psalm 36:5, Isaiah 55:9, Ephesians 2:4-5, Romans 5:20

God's mercy is so great that you may sooner drain the sea of its water, or deprive the sun of its light, or make space too narrow, than diminish the great mercy of God.

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The Gift of an Invitation

Author

Ruth Haley Barton

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 55:1–3, Exodus 3:1–12, Proverbs 9:1–6, Matthew 11:28–30, John 1:35–39, Psalm 3:4:8

One of the reasons I love a good invitation is that I get tired of being told what to do. As the very responsible oldest daughter of a pastor and someone who entered vocational ministry at a young age...

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On Changing your Mind

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Proverbs 16:25, Isaiah 55:8-9, Proverbs 28:26, James 4:13-15, 1 Corinthians 8:2, Proverbs 14:12, Luke 7:30

Joseph Lister was a British surgeon and the founder of anti-septic medicine. That may sound incredibly boring, but the effects of his discovery were profound. Prior to Lister, surgeons had virtually n...

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What A Return to God’s Mercy Really Meant

Author

Henri J. M. Nouwen

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 15:20-24, Psalm 51:1-2, Ephesians 2:4-5, Isaiah 55:7, Micah 7:18-19, Romans 5:8

Rembrandt painted the picture of the prodigal son between 1665 and 1667, at the end of his life. As a young painter, he was popular in Amsterdam and successful with commissions to do portraits of all ...

relationships and community on Moral Courage

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