Synonyms: renounce, relinquish, dispense with, forswear, disclaim, disown, disavow, discard, wash one's hands of, give up, stop, cease, drop, forgo, desist from, have done with, abjure, abstain from, discontinue, break off, refrain from, set/lay aside, desert, leave, leave high and dry, turn one's back on, cast aside, break (up) with, vacate, quit, evacuate, withdraw from, surrender, cede, yield, indulge in, give way to, give oneself up to, yield to, lose oneself to/in, uninhibitedness, recklessness, lack of restraint, lack of inhibition, unruliness, wildness, impulsiveness, impetuosity, immoderation, wantonness
Antonyms: keep, claim, continue, stick by, self-control, power through, achieve, defend, bear, hope, acquire, quick visit, adopt, continue along, adhere, remain, pursue, support, take up, keep up, reuse, advocate, stay, persevere, cherish, keep going, carry on
Showing 2926 to 2950 of 4490 results
2926. One For All
John 10:1-21
Sermon
King Duncan
Sometimes in our complex relations with Middle East countries, we are confronted with instances of barbaric forms of justice. We hear of people getting hands cut off for stealing, a princess stoned to death for adultery and so on. We need to remind ourselves that Christian history has also been full of barbaric acts. Humane treatment of wrongdoers and enlightened applications of justice are modern developments. The morality of rehabilitation as opposed to retaliation is still not fully evolved. Consider, ...
Sermon
King Duncan
According to II Timothy 3:16, all scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. Paul might have added, "and for jimmying locks on jail cells." That's what happened in Dorchester County, Maryland according to a recent news story. Two inmates in the Dorchester county jail discovered that a stiff cover on a Bible left in their cell was just the tool they needed for prying back the defective lock on their jail cell door. That door led ...
Sermon
King Duncan
Jesus continually shocks us. No wonder the people of his own day crucified him. He wouldn't be too popular in our community. At least not among the better people in town. It is almost as if he preferred to associate with the disreputable, the rejects, the rubble of humanity. "Two men went up to pray," he said on one occasion, "a Pharisee and a tax collector." Now the audience was suppose to hiss and boo when the tax collector's title was given. The IRS is not too popular with us, but at least most of the ...
Sermon
King Duncan
"My most vivid childhood memory of Christmas," writes columnist Dave Barry, "that does not involve opening presents, putting batteries in presents, playing with presents, and destroying presents before sundown, is the annual Nativity Pageant at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Armonk, New York." Mrs. Elson was the director, and she would tell the children what role they would play, based on their artistic abilities. For example, if you were short you would get a role as an angel, which involved being part ...
Sermon
King Duncan
Father's Day "Can we go, Dad? Can we go?" Young Richard was excited about a Cub Scout camp-out that required the attendance of his father. Richard, Sr. thought about all the times his son had asked on other occasions, "Are you working tonight, Dad?" "Far too often," his father reflected, "I offered some lame excuse instead of pitching ball or shooting baskets or just sitting and talking." He promised himself that the next time he would agree to do whatever his son asked him to do. "You bet we'll go!" he ...
Sermon
King Duncan
Frank S. Mead once wrote a story titled, "The V.I.P." In his story the small town of Mayfair is excited over the anticipated arrival of a rich and important stranger, Henry Bascom, who is coming to spend Christmas in their town. The whole town turns out to meet him at the airport, but he's nowhere to be found. Meanwhile, a quiet man slips by the people at the airport and heads into town. This quiet man does not appear to be a man of means. He is ignored and mistreated by the insensitive people of Mayfair. ...
Sermon
King Duncan
We all know that appearances matter. When officials at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachussets, wanted to advertise their college to high school students a couple years back, they found that they had a problem. It had been a snowless winter in Williamstown. However, the officials felt that snow would make their college look more inviting to prospective students. Hence, they imported 60 tons of manufactured snow and posed student models beside the "snowdrifts." A defensive director of admissions ...
Sermon
King Duncan
A story appeared in the newspapers on January second of this year. It was about a seventy-one-year old man in Evansville, Indiana who had his life saved in a most unusual way. A truck smashed into his house. It was 2:35 a.m. when a driver lost control of his truck on wet pavement, struck the curb and sailed on to the porch of Lee Roy Book's house. Later, a utility crew sought to restore electricity to Book's home and to check for gas leaks. They discovered that Book's chimney and pipes were plugged with ...
2934. Special Delivery
Matthew 1:18-25
Sermon
Wayne Brouwer
I read recently of a congregation where they did the usual Christmas pageant. The children from Sunday School played the parts. And they were all dressing for their roles: Mary and Joseph in bathrobes . . . the Shepherds carrying canes from their grandpas and Angels under tinsel halos and white sheets . . . One mother was trying to get an angel costume onto her squirming son, and his sister stood by to watch. "Boy!" she said. "Talk about miscasting!" What are angels like? Have you ever seen one? Angels ...
Sermon
King Duncan
Dr. Robert Schuller, who is known for his emphasis on positive thinking or possibility thinking as he calls it, tells about a man he once met on a flight to Los Angeles. The man was a mathematician named George Dantzig. Schuller made the observation to Dantzig that this was the first time it had occurred to him that there was a field of endeavor to which positive thinking didn't apply. Mathematical problems have only one right answer, so they can't be affected in any way by how a person thinks. Dantzig ...
2936. The Forgiven
Hebrews 10:1-18
Sermon
King Duncan
Sometimes it's called sweet revenge. This report is from London. Janine Brooks was a dental student when a man ran into her car and drove away. That was ten years ago. Her damaged car resulted in a considerable financial burden on her student income but the motorist neither apologized nor ever paid for the damage he had done. Now it is 10 years later. Janine Brooks, the former student, is a dentist, and guess who comes to her office needing a tooth to be pulled. He did not recognize her; she did recognize ...
Sermon
King Duncan
In August 1989 then President George Bush took his family to their summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine, for a nineteen-day summer vacation. No sooner had he arrived than he hopped into his twenty-eight-foot fishing boat, FIDELITY, confident he'd catch some bluefish as he had so many other times before. He didn't mind that a flotilla of press boats was following him to record every moment of his expected angling successes. However, Bush didn't catch a fish that day . . . or the next day . . . or the next ...
Sermon
King Duncan
In his book, JUST AS LONG AS I'M RIDING UP FRONT, Ray McIver tells of belonging to the Kiwanis club in the 1950s in the small town of San Marcos, Texas. The Kiwanians were a lively group, says McIver, all except for Roger Shelton. Roger came to meetings late, sat by himself, and rarely said a word. The Kiwanians would usually have entertainment of some kind before they got down to club business. At one particular meeting, the entertainment consisted of a barbershop quartet composed of local college ...
Sermon
King Duncan
Bob Wallace was always a loving child. Once, when Bob was ten, he used one finger to laboriously type this message for his mother, Joanne: "Thankyou Mother. Thankyou Mother For Loving Me; Thankyou Mother For Caring for Me; Thankyou Mother For Your Care & Kindness, Even When You [Are Busy]; I Love You!" Needless to stay, Joanne still has that beautiful compliment tucked away in her memory book. After he was about fourteen, Bob stopped telling Joanne he loved her. Instead he would say, "Oh, Mom, you sure ...
Sermon
King Duncan
Permit me to do a little prying. It's for your own benefit. How many of you have made a will? You don't have to raise your hands, but it could be an important question for many of us. Many family squabbles have erupted over the lack of a wellthought out will. There is a book titled THE 400WORD WILL. It contains some interesting wills from Japan. Listen to a few of these. I quote: "After you finish a simple funeral," wrote Mitsuyo Honda, 43, housewife, "I would like you to grab a handful of ashes and get on ...
2941. Sin Or Synergy?
Matthew 11:25-30
Children's Sermon
King Duncan
Object: A picture of a horse or a toy horse Good morning, boys and girls. Have you ever stood around so long that your legs got tired? Maybe you were waiting in line somewhere, and it seemed like you were standing there forever, and you thought your legs were going to break, they were so tired. That's no fun, is it? But did you know that horses can stand for hours and hours at a time without getting tired? Horses even sleep standing up, and their legs never get too tired. Isn't that amazing? You see, ...
Sermon
King Duncan
A few years ago, a pastor named Harry told about an unusual mission from God. He always began his mornings with prayer. One morning during his prayer time, Harry felt that God was leading him to fulfill a very specific mission: to buy twelve barbecued chickens. Harry didn't know what God wanted him to do with the barbecued chickens, so he drove around town praying and asking God to lead him to people who needed food. He sensed God leading him to five different homes in different parts of town. In one home ...
Sermon
King Duncan
Faye Neff, writing in THE CLERGY JOURNAL, tells about a newspaper in Maine that printed an embarrassing mistake. The paper ran a photo of the local board of council members, but someone placed the wrong caption under the picture. Beneath the photo were these words: "Naive and vulnerable, the sheep huddle for security against the uncertainties of the outside world." Can't you just imagine that caption, asks Neff, under a variety of photographs? Under a picture of the president and his advisers? Or perhaps ...
Sermon
King Duncan
For more than twenty years, the television show Saturday Night Live has been known for its irreverent, sometimes outrageous humor. A recurring segment on Saturday Night Live is called "Deep Thoughts by Jack Handley." The deep thoughts consist of nothing more than touchy-feely psychobabble that sounds pretty good, but actually makes no sense. Here is a sample: "To me, it's a good idea," says Jack Handley, "to always carry two sacks of something when you walk around. That way, if anybody says, "˜Hey, can you ...
Sermon
King Duncan
There was a church where the pastor and the minister of music were not getting along. As time went by, this began to spill over into the worship service. The first week the pastor preached on commitment and how we all should dedicate ourselves to the service of God. The music director led the song, "I Shall Not Be Moved." The second week the pastor preached on tithing and how we all should gladly give to the work of the Lord. The director led the song, "Jesus Paid it All." The third week the pastor ...
Sermon
King Duncan
(Father's Day) Comedian Johnny Carson said his son gave him a paper which read, "To the man who has inspired me with his fatherly wisdom." Carson said, "Son I didn't know you felt that way about me." His son said, "I don't, can you fax this to Bill Cosby?" Fathers have a hard times nowadays getting respect. Maybe there's a reason for that. Many Dads in our society disappear. And, sad to say, others stay around who perhaps should disappear. Actress Suzanne Sommers has earned a new reputation in the show biz ...
Sermon
King Duncan
It's a good thing that today's text did not fall earlier in September--say Labor Day weekend. The moral of the story goes against most of the things you and I believe about the relationship between capital and labor. You know the story well. A landowner went out about six in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. He agreed to pay them $20 for the day. That should tell you right off that the workers were not unionized--though some of you can remember when $20 was good pay for a day's work. About ...
Sermon
King Duncan
Some of Jesus' followers were beginning to leave him. His teachings were too difficult for them. So he turned to the 12 and asked, "Will you also go away?" Peter's plaintive reply lives forever, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God." "Lord, to whom shall we go?" We can scarcely imagine anyone other than Peter saying this. It seems unlikely that this would have been the first response from the critical ...
Sermon
King Duncan
When business guru Guy Kawasaki and his wife had their first child, they were determined to be politically and environmentally correct. They were going to use cotton diapers and wash them themselves. Two weeks went by. Doing your own cotton diapers, they discovered, doesn't cut it. They didn't want to wash the diapers with their stuff so they found that either their house stank or they felt guilty for doing lots of small loads. So they went to a cotton diaper service. They discovered this doesn't work well ...
Drama
Angela Akers
SUBJECT: Homeless, True meaning of Christmas CHARACTERS: Detective, Clyde, his partner, Homeless people carrying plates of food (optional)  PROPS: Trenchcoat and hat for Detective, Magnifying glass for Clyde (optional), Plates and food for homeless people (optional)  SETTING: Detective''s office  Detective: "We were hired to do a job, see, but my partner and me weren''t having much luck.  In all my years in this stinkin'' racket, this was the toughest cookie we ever had to crack.  See, a dame walks in, ...
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