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Showing 426 to 450 of 517 results

426. Denunciation of the Intruding Teachers

Judges 1:1-36

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... ) and who left judgment to God (“The Lord rebuke you!”), these others, lacking the propriety of Michael, are like animals in that they do not understand what they slander. They are also like animals in that they follow their instincts, not realizing that these impulses will in the end destroy them. The reference to the Testament of Moses, then, gives way to the second group of three: Cain, Balaam, and Korah (v. 11). This woe oracle sounds like it was pulled out of Old Testament prophecy. While the first ...

427. Do You Have Your Key Ready?

John 20:1-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... Jesus who had made a new woman of Mary Magdalene. Tradition has painted her to be a woman of the streets. Whether this is so is a matter of speculation. What is not a matter of speculation, however, was Mary’s devotion to this humble Jewish rabbi. Impulsively she reached for him. Jesus stopped her, however, with the explanation that he had not yet ascended to the Father. Mary Magdalene will have to be content to hold him in her heart. That is exactly what she did. Later she would testify to his disciples ...

428. The Life You've Always Wanted

Acts 5:27-32

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... C. Cooper, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success (Atlanta: Discover Life Ministries, 2000), p. 19. Exact author and source of poem unknown. 3. Ibid., pp. 5-7. 4. J. Wallace Hamilton, Ride the Wild Horses: The Christian Use of Our Un- tamed Impulses (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1952), pp. 50-51. 5. William L. Self, Defining Moments (Lima, Ohio: CSS Publishing Company, 1999), p. 119. 6. Charles Wesley, “Jesus, Lover of My Soul,” The United Methodist Hymnal: Book of United Methodist ...

429. Elephants in the Room: Addiction

Romans 7:15-22

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” (Romans 7:15, 18-19) This passage is one of the most controversial writings in the New Testament. We don’t know if Paul was addict, but he is admitting to feeling powerless over his impulses. Those who do not like Paul’s honesty have tried to explain this passage away by saying, “Well, Paul wrote this before he became a Christian.” Wrong. Just a casual study of this passage shows us that Paul is speaking the hard truth about living the Christian ...

430. The Cost of Discipleship

Matthew 17:1-9

Sermon

James L. Killen

... was praying the disciples saw Jesus transﬁgured so that he was aglow with some unnatural light. They saw him talking with Moses and Elijah, the characters from the Hebrew Scriptures who represented the law and the prophets. Peter, true to his impulsive nature, spoke up and said something entirely inappropriate. Then a bright cloud, the kind of thing which from early Old Testament days had represented the presence of God, overshadowed them, and a voice came from the cloud and spoke to them. Bible scholars ...

431. The Beatitudes

Matthew 5:1-12

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

... the hypocrite needs to “purify [the] heart” (4:8). If the eye is not sound, the entire body will be in darkness (Matt. 6:23). Ulterior motives divide the heart. Jewish writers understood this inclination to moral schizophrenia as resulting from an evil yēṣer or impulse. What God required of those who would ascend the hill of the Lord was “clean hands and a pure heart” (Ps. 24:3–4). The reward for complete and inward integrity is to see God. John writes that “no one has ever seen God” (1:18 ...

432. Peace and Joy

Romans 5:1-11

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... faith is insightful: “And by the word stand, [Paul] means, that faith is not a changeable persuasion, only for one day; but that it is immutable, and that it sinks deep into the heart, so that it endures through life. It is then not he, who by a sudden impulse is led to believe, that has faith, and is to be reckoned among the faithful; but he who constantly, and, so to speak, with a firm and fixed foot, abides in that station appointed to him by God, as to cleave always to Christ” (Romans, p. 189). 5:3 ...

433. Struggling with Sin

Romans 7:7-25

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... . The first nine commandments forbid actions, but the tenth forbids desires. Not all desires are forbidden, of course, for the Bible knows many good desires. The desire prohibited by the tenth commandment is that of the “flesh,” the yēṣer hāra’, or “evil impulse,” as the rabbis called it. It is possible, of course, for a person to refrain from doing any number of forbidden actions. But this is not to say that one did not desire to do them. The tenth commandment penetrates behind evil deeds to ...

434. Personal Greetings

Romans 16:1-27

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... (1 Cor. 1:10–17; 3:4–9), and probably from non-Jewish elements. In verse 18 he says that such people serve their own appetites and deceive the minds of naive people … by smooth talk and flattery. Mention of appetites, suggesting unbridled impulses, recalls the whole concept of “flesh” in Paul, more specifically in fact the libertine and permissive factions which wracked the church at Corinth (2 Cor. 10–13). There thus appear to be dangers from the right (legalism) and dangers from the left ...

435. Marriage

1 Corinthians 7:1-40

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

... of marriage in the eschatological context in which he understood Christian congregates to live. (See D. E. Garland, “The Christian’s Posture Toward Marriage and Celibacy:1 Corinthians 7,” RevExp 80 [1983], pp. 351–62; V. L. Wimbush, “The Ascetic Impulse in Ancient Christianity,” ThTo 50 [1993], pp. 417–28; J. M. Gundry-Volf, “Celibate Pneumatics and Social Power: On the Motivations for Sexual Asceticism in Corinth,” USQR 48 [1994], pp. 105–26.) Paul came closer to a positive theology of ...

436. The Beast out of the Sea

Revelation 13:1b-10

Understanding Series

Robert W. Wall

... 2:3), is a third parody of the Holy Spirit (Beasley-Murray, Revelation, pp. 207–8). They form and empower another congregation of “believers” that practices evil and worships the unholy trinity. The Christian’s struggle against the anti-Christian impulses of the surrounding world order is not merely an internal and intellectual one; it is also a sociopolitical struggle between two communities that have been shaped and empowered either by malevolent powers for evil or by benevolent powers for good ...

437. The Rider on the White Horse

Revelation 19:11-21

Understanding Series

Robert W. Wall

... ) realities of life. In its most perverted forms, the church views its worship of God as a private affair; in its public life, the community of believers conforms to the secular norms and materialistic values of the surrounding society. The prophetic impulse of the Lord Jesus and earliest Christianity are thus silenced altogether. The unbelieving nations, who can see no real difference between the cultural myths and the church’s gospel, remain ignorant of God’s horrible judgment or of the prospect of ...

438. Amnon and Tamar

2 Samuel 13:1-22

Understanding Series

Mary J. Evans

... s ability to create loyalty in his followers but not the nature that could leave the past behind and be passionately involved only in the present. Absalom’s revenge was even more well-planned than Amnon’s campaign to take Tamar. It was not an impulsive outburst but a premeditated execution. Amnon, well aware of Absalom’s hatred, took steps to avoid him, but a special party with the king’s sanction, even given against his better judgment (v. 26), was difficult to avoid. At the party Amnon, on Absalom ...

439. Peters Confession to Christ

Matthew 16:13-20

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

... Old Testament congregation of the elect (qāhāl). It consists of those who, like Peter (who was the first), acknowledge Jesus to be the Christ. Cullmann rejects all Protestant attempts to evade the Roman Catholic exegesis that Jesus is here appointing the impulsive and enthusiastic disciple Peter to be the foundation of his ecclesia (TDNT, vol. 6, p. 108). Yet the argument that had that been Jesus’ intention it would have been simple to say, “And upon you I will build my church,” is highly persuasive ...

440. Surrendering to God’s Inescapable, All-Searching Presence

Psalm 139:1-24

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles

... on God’s omniscience (vv. 1–6), omnipresence (vv. 7–12), and omnipotence (vv. 13–15). But the sudden shift from sublime wonder at God’s determined interest in the speaker to a denunciation of “the wicked” (vv. 19–22) sounds like an impulsive change of subject. Why are the wicked brought up in a psalm that to this point has made pleasant reading? Some commentators believe that interpretation of the psalm must begin with these verses. Its occasion would thus lie in the speaker’s conflict ...

441. Jesus Clears the Temple

Mark 11:12-19

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... it means that it will produce no fruit. The note in verse 13 that it was not the season for figs means that Jesus cannot have expected really to find any ripe figs with which to satisfy his hunger, and that his word in verse 14 is not an impulsive act of pique. Rather, the tree’s leaves promise fruit, but the absence of green fruit means that the tree’s appearance is deceptive. It is this that Jesus uses as a symbol for the temple: it has the appearance of dedication to God, but in substance falls short ...

442. More Than Conquerors

Romans 8:28-39

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... , vol. 3, p. 114). Christ is interceding for us. Paul believed that there were both malevolent and benevolent powers at work in the universe. He begins with death perhaps because he ended with the “sword” in verse 35. Nor can the seductive impulses of life inhibit God’s love. Angels, demons, and powers refer to orders of superhuman beings. Height and depth are astrological terms denoting a star’s closest or farthest point from its zenith, and hence personified sidereal powers. But as the dangers ...

443. Absalom Kills Amnon

2 Samuel 13:23-39

Understanding Series

Mary J. Evans

444. Praise to God for a Living Hope

1 Peter 1:1-12

Understanding Series

Norman Hillyer

Greetings to Readers 1:1 The writer introduces himself in a brief and modest manner. The Gospels all agree on the prominence of Peter, a born leader, impulsive, yet burning with love and enthusiasm. It was to him that Jesus said both the toughest and the choicest things. Whatever Peter’s faults, a cold heart was not one of them. His warm pastoral concern for others glows in his letters. Peter succinctly states his credentials by describing himself ...

445. David's Psalm of Thanks

1 Chronicles 16:7-43

Understanding Series

Louis C. Jonker

... bringing the ark to Jerusalem is a serious matter that may not be approached in a simply human way. The failure indicated in 1 Chronicles 13 contrasts with the successful attempt narrated in 1 Chronicles 15–16. Whereas the first attempt is portrayed as an impulsive move based on human effort, the second attempt forms part of a well-organized cultic event. First Chronicles 14 serves as interlude to prepare the way for 1 Chronicles 15–16. It forms the bridge along which the blessings on the house of Obed ...

446. David's Prayer

1 Chronicles 17:16-27

Understanding Series

Louis C. Jonker

... the next oracle sheds a different light on David’s plans. The oracle lets the reader realize that David’s announcement of his intention to build a permanent abode for “the ark of the covenant of the LORD” has the same inappropriate quality as the impulsive gesture by Uzzah when the ark was carried from Kiriath Jearim. It was not the bringing of the ark to Jerusalem that was denounced when Uzzah was killed by Yahweh, but the improper, exclusively human effort exerted in doing so (see commentary on 1 ...

447. Do You Believe in Miracles?

Mark 7:31-37

Sermon

King Duncan

... that our prayers are unheard and unanswered. Let me give you an example. Some time back, sociologist and pastor Tony Campolo was challenged by a friend to add a ministry of healing to his work. Campolo decided to try it at a service in a church in Oregon. On impulse at the end of the service he announced to any who wanted to remain that they would be having a healing service. He warned them that they should not expect much, but he would be glad to pray with them, and anoint them with some oil that he had ...

448. Of Mice and Men

Hebrews 10:11-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... the truck with the wings of the cultivator up, and now he assumed he had caused the damage. But the weeks that followed were torturous as Mark struggled with his guilty conscience. He repeatedly considered telling the truth, but was afraid. Finally one day he impulsively blurted it out. “Dad, there’s something I need to tell you.” “Yes?” his dad asked. “You know that pickup door?” said Mark. “I was the one who did it.” Mark says his dad looked at him. Mark looked back at him. For the first ...

449. The Train Stops Just in Time

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

... were being repaired, the crew made a more intensive search for the strange flagman. But not until they got to London did they solve the mystery. At the base of the engine's headlamp was a huge moth. The engineer looked at it for a moment, then on impulse wet its wings and pasted it to the glass of the lamp. Climbing back into his cab, he switched on the lamp and saw the "phantom flagman" in the beam. He knew what had happened: the moth had flown into the beam, seconds before the train reached the washed ...

450. The Age of Elizabeth I

Illustration

John Richard Green

... pulpits, but it was impossible for her to silence or rune the great preachers of justice and mercy and truth who spoke from the Book. The whole temper of the nation felt the change. A new conception of life and of man superseded the old. A new moral and religious impulse spread through every class.

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