Dictionary: Face
Synonyms: countenance, physiognomy, profile, features, expression, facial expression, look, appearance, air, manner, bearing, guise, cast, aspect, impression, grimace, scowl, wry face, wince, frown, glower, smirk, pout, moue, side, flank, vertical, surface, plane, facet, wall, elevation, dial, display, (outward) appearance, nature, image, front, show, act, false front, facade, exterior, mask, masquerade, pretence, charade, pose, illusion, smokescreen, veneer, camouflage, respect, honour, esteem, regard, admiration, approbation, acclaim, approval, favour, appreciation, popularity, estimation, veneration, awe, reverence, deference, recognition, prestige, standing, status, dignity, glory, kudos, cachet, effrontery, audacity, nerve, gall, brazenness, brashness, shamelessness, look out on, front on to, look towards, be facing, have/afford/command a view of, look over/across, open out over, look on to, overlook, give on to, give over, be opposite (to), accept, come to accept, become reconciled to, reconcile oneself to, reach an acceptance (of), get used to, become accustomed to, adjust to, accommodate oneself to, acclimatize oneself to, be confronted by, be faced with, encounter, experience, come into contact with, run into, come across, meet, come up against, be forced to contend with, beset, worry, distress, cause trouble to, trouble, bother, confront, burden, brave, face up to, meet head-on, dare, defy, oppose, resist, withstand, cover, clad, skin, overlay, dress, pave, put a facing on, laminate, inlay, plate, coat, line
Antonyms: dodge, fear, back, give way, back down, dodge, avoid, throw in the towel, withdraw, cave in, retreat, succumb to, lay down one's arms, throw in the sponge, defer, submit, escape, bashfulness, shun, evade, elude
Showing 401 to 425 of 515 results
Teach the Text
Daniel J. Estes
... an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” (act 5, scene 5). Film: The Truman Show. In this movie (1998), the lead character, played by Jim Carrey, lives within a world with limits that he cannot perceive until the end. Even though he has the illusion of freedom, actually he is living in a world where events are written and directed by others. This parallels how Job feels in 14:5 about the limits imposed on his life. Geography: The parched lake beds left behind in Death Valley in California and ...
Teach the Text
C. Hassell Bullock
... as we try to picture the action in our mind’s eye. The question that the form critics put forward, and quite validly, is, What was taking place behind the words of the psalm, a scene for which the words of the psalm are either a description or an illusion? Since one liturgy, to continue the analogy, has just ended (Psalm 20), the strains of that service are still in our memories when we begin to hear similarities as we listen to Psalm 21. The Lord is directly addressed at the beginning and end of Psalm 21 ...
Teach the Text
C. Hassell Bullock
... Psalm 40:8, “I desire to do your will, my God; your law is within my heart.” The hymn “Take My Life and Let It Be” could be fitting in conjunction with this psalm and prayer. Turn your heart to God. Props: Show an optical illusion that contains two different images combined into one, such as the old lady and the young woman or the two faces in profile that form a candlestick. What makes these images fascinating is that some people will immediately see one subject while others will quickly recognize ...
Teach the Text
C. Hassell Bullock
... s judgment of our lives in this world, not in the world to come.7All human beings are a “breath,” and when taken together and weighed on the scales, they still add up to nothing. The NJPS translates: “Men are mere breath; mortals, illusion; placed on a scale all together, they weigh even less than a breath.” 62:10  Do not trust in extortion or put vain hopes in stolen goods. “Extortion” refers to property obtained unlawfully. This may be a warning against depending on any property, especially ...
405. Moab Revolts
2 Kings 3:1-27
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
... the time for offering the sacrifice,” a description similar to the reference to Elijah’s actions at Mount Carmel back in 1 Kings 18:36. The water brings life for the three kings (Israel, Judah, and Edom), but brings death for Edom, as an optical illusion fools them into thinking the kings have slaughtered each other. The victory is tarnished, however, by an utterly baffling turn of events (3:26–27). While it comes as no shock that the king of Moab engages in child sacrifice after his last stand proves ...
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
... , marked by victory over enemies, with national glory reminiscent of the era of David and Solomon. God’s judgment was thought to be limited to Israel’s enemies and could not conceivably affect his covenant people. Amos had to dispel that illusion. He characterized the day as a time of judgment marked by adversities, anguish, and despair, a judgment from which no one could escape. Zephaniah further develops the poetic imagery into an apocalyptic vision of the dreaded day when Yahweh comes to war ...
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
... During the fourth watch of the night (3:00–6:00 a.m.), Jesus walks to the disciples on the water. The Greek cannot mean to walk “beside” the water, or anything other than walking on the open water. Readers are assured it is not an optical illusion, for the disciples “all saw him” (6:50). The baffling reference to “passing by them” (6:48) appears to signal a self-revelation of God, recalling God “passing by” on the water (Job 9:8; NIV “treads on the waves of the sea”), or “passing by ...
408. Peace and Joy
Romans 5:1-11
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
... God’s love is a gift of the Holy Spirit, who is the effective presence of God in the hearts of believers, a gift which demonstrates that they will be spared on the day of judgment, guaranteeing that their hope will not turn out to be an illusion. God granted his saving love at a time when the believers were helpless and ungodly sinners. The effective demonstration of God’s love was in the past, when the miracle happened that Jesus Christ died for people who were neither righteous nor good but enemies (5 ...
Sermon
Charley Reeb
... question. People all over the world pray this question: Why do bad things happen to good people? The brokenness of life shatters many people’s ideas about how the world is supposed to operate. We don’t live life very long before many of our illusions are shattered. I recall a cartoon that appeared in The Atlanta Constitution after a man named Mark Barton walked into an Atlanta business office and shot and killed several people. In the cartoon, a small boy is sitting next to his mother, and a newspaper ...
Sermon
Charley Reeb
... people around you. The experience becomes an escape. “In the second stage, the monster takes over your life, so that having the experience is what you now live for, and your personality may change. You may become defensive or irritable as you try to create the illusion of being in charge when really your life is spinning out of control. “In the third stage, you need more and more of the experience because your body has developed a growing tolerance. It takes more and more and more to hit the high, and ...
Sermon
Charley Reeb
... the real sacrifice of parenthood is required. They get up in the middle of the night with a crying baby. They lose sleep. Their children develop minds of their own, talk back, and rebel. Their children stay out all night and worry mom and dad sick. Shallow illusions die and real love is born. All the important things in life cost us. We should not be surprised to find that when the most important person who ever lived spoke about the most important thing we could ever do, he said that sacrifice is required ...
Sermon
Tom Garrison
... when crises descend and suddenly the world is literally "turned upside down." My point is that some needed growth can take place in a situation such as this, for the truth is, none of us can be "strong" all the time. The notion of total self-reliance is an illusion, because all human beings are creatures by nature, which means we depend or "hang," as the root of that term implies, on forces other than ourselves. I heard once of the self-made man who said that if he had it to do all over again, he would call ...
Understanding Series
James R. Edwards
... of a righteousness apart from the grace of God. 2:17–20 Paul now mentions Jews for the first time in his case against humanity, although he doubtlessly had them in mind since 2:1ff. If Jews could still maintain their confidence after 2:1ff., all illusion is now dispelled as Paul calls them from their seats in the courtroom, nay, from the jury itself, and summons them to the defendant’s chair. The diatribe style is again resumed (vv. 17–20), but even in verses 21ff. the style continues to be accusatory ...
Understanding Series
James R. Edwards
... being a Jew. If circumcision is of value only if practiced (2:25; 1 Cor. 7:19), and if true Jewishness is internal and not external (2:28–29), then Jews are evidently no different from other people, and their supposed advantage is but a pure illusion. But that is a mistaken conclusion. With regard to salvation there is, to be sure, no advantage, for Paul will shortly conclude that on the basis of a moral righteousness “Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin” (3:9), and that “all have sinned and ...
415. Peace and Joy
Romans 5:1-11
Understanding Series
James R. Edwards
... in Greek fashion the prospect of what might happen but the prospect of what is already guaranteed” (Romans, p. 134). Hope is also tempered by the fires of adversity, but again only through faith. Apart from faith, hope is the opiate of a false and bitter illusion. But apart from love, hope has no basis. God has poured out his love into our hearts, says Paul (v. 5). The original Greek reads “in our hearts” (not into our hearts), implying that the Holy Spirit is already active in the hearts of believers ...
Understanding Series
James R. Edwards
... before Moses who did not sin, which, of course, would contradict Paul’s trump argument that all humanity stands under sin (3:9, 23; 5:12). Despite what some commentators suppose, it is unlikely that this verse refers to infants who died before the (illusive) age of accountability. The key to its meaning rather seems to be the phrase, “those who had not sinned in the likeness of Adam’s transgression,” i.e., those who had not consciously disobeyed a divine commandment as Adam did. The NIV renders the ...
Understanding Series
James R. Edwards
... with him) when Christ will be fully revealed. The wonder and reality of Christ’s death and resurrection can be realized only by a faith relationship with him who died and lives, Christ the Lord, the pioneer of salvation. Faith is neither grounded in an illusion nor hitched to the cart of wishful thinking. We know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again. Faith is grounded in the risen Christ who is witnessed to through the apostolic proclamation and who is present in the lives of ...
Understanding Series
James R. Edwards
... : They rejected Christ because when Christ came, God was through with them, and so their call proved to be only temporary. Another interpretation: Israel’s call never was valid, and their claims of a special relationship to God the Creator were self-serving illusions. Yet another: In the end God rejected them because of their rejection of his Son. All are possible, indeed even plausible—and all are wrong. The reason for Israel’s being hardened in its rebellion against God’s Son? Grace! Grace for ...
419. Love
Romans 12:9-21
Understanding Series
James R. Edwards
... as sons [and] the redemption of our bodies” (8:23–25). Not coincidentally, Paul follows being joyful in hope with being patient in affliction (v. 12). Earlier he said that suffering produces perseverance, character, and hope (5:3–4). Afflictions are not illusions as some religions maintain, nor are they necessarily the result of human or even religious failure. If the world hates Christ (Matt. 10:22; John 15:18), then affliction is one of the inevitable consequences for the follower of Christ. James ...
Understanding Series
James R. Edwards
... NIV, glory) at this point, a word that often (e.g., 3:27) denotes arrogant pride against God. The apostle, however, refuses to arrogate glory to himself, but chooses rather to glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God (v. 17). Paul harbors no illusions of himself being the demiurge of salvation. He is simply its “minister” (v. 16) and its steward on Christ’s behalf. He will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through him in leading the Gentiles to obey God. He himself ...
421. Spiritual Gifts
1 Corinthians 12:1-11
Understanding Series
Marion L. Soards
... minimum, the use of charismata emphasizes that whatever spiritual gifts occur in the Corinthian congregation, those gifts are by God’s grace (charis). 12:2 Cf. 10:19–20 to see that Paul is not brushing pagan belief and practice aside as mere illusions. 12:3 The interpretation of Paul’s comment, no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” produces vigorous debate. To capture the sense of the statement in contemporary idiomatic English, one should understand the line to say ...
422. Jesus Is Coming
Revelation 22:7-21
Understanding Series
Robert W. Wall
... Beasley-Murray, Revelation, pp. 348–49). Yet, on the other hand, by setting the petition into the context of Revelation, John gives it meaning that transcends its meaning for Christian liturgy. As Caird puts it, “No one who has read his book can have any illusions about what the prayer is asking. It is a prayer that Christ will come again to win the victory which is both Calvary and Armageddon. It is a prayer that the Christian, confronted by the great ordeal, may ‘endure as one who sees the invisible ...
Understanding Series
Craig C. Broyles
... wicked and, in the second, one is drawn to them. Though they go in opposite directions from their object, they share a fallacious assumption, namely, that the current prosperity of the wicked is indicative of lasting success and stability. This psalm has no illusions about “success”: it is often obtained via wicked schemes (v. 7) and thus cannot serve as an unequivocal sign of God’s blessing. Anger and wrath are the natural reactions to unfair treatment, but they are to be curbed because they lead to ...
Understanding Series
James R. Edwards
... of the Gentiles to God. 15:30–33 After completing the relief offering, Paul hopes at last to be free to pursue his Spanish mission, stopping in Rome en route “in the full measure of the blessing of Christ” (vv. 28–29). Paul was under no illusions about latent hostility awaiting him in Jerusalem. Neither (apparently) was anyone else. He had already escaped one plot on his life there (Acts 9:29–30), and omens of yet another awaited him (Acts 20:22–25; 21:10–11). It is for good reason that ...
425. Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit
John 14:15-31, John 14:1-4, John 14:5-14
Understanding Series
J. Ramsey Michaels
... and that in the Spirit both will be present, and accessible, to the believing disciple. Judah’s question is a natural one, for Jesus’ words seem to resist the claims of sense experience. What the eyes see—Jesus’ departure from the world by death—is an illusion. What is real—the presence of the Spirit, and Jesus’ union with the Father and with his disciples—cannot be seen in the usual (i.e., the world’s) sense of the term. Judah is simply asking why the disciples and the world see things so ...
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