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 4576 to 4600 of 4986 results
Sermon
King Duncan
... , talks about the time when his mother was driving him and his sisters to school and they were pulled over by a policeman for speeding. After their little visit with the officer, they took off again, and this time his mother was very careful to stay under the speed limit. A few minutes had passed, and they started hearing a strange noise coming from the car. “What’s that noise?” Jonathan’s mother asked. Laughing, he replied, “That’s the sound of slow. We’ve never heard it before!” (3) Some ...
4577. Moving On Up
Mark 9:33-37
Sermon
King Duncan
... Nigeria and Biafra were at war with each other, Pelé needed to go from Nigeria to Biafra so that he could play soccer. So what did these two countries do? They stopped fighting so that Pelé could travel safely between the two countries, and the war stayed stopped until the two opposing armies could escort Pelé safely out of the war zone. (2) On any sports greatness scale PelJ stands pretty tall. In our own nation, there are those who will contend that Michael Jordan was the greatest athlete of all time ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... closer with each year as we accumulate layer upon layer of shared memories. “We all begin our married lives by making a commitment to that when we repeat the vows ‘For better, for worse;’ and ‘till death us do part.’ “Do the couples who stay together possess a special knack for translating their commitment into a code of daily behavior that keeps it strong? “The first thing I discovered was that these couples, no matter what their ages, start out with what some might call an old-fashioned idea ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... By the time he graduated from law school, however, Ralph was deeply in debt. So he took a job with a large firm that specialized in corporate law and did as little pro bono work as possible. The pay was mind boggling, and Ralph convinced himself that he would only stay with the firm for as long as it took him to make enough money to pay off his school bills. He assured his former professor that the yuppie subculture into which he was jumping would not rub off on him. He was certain that who he was had been ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... down one or more things we are grateful for, and read the journal once a week. (1) Dr. Joseph Murphy agrees. In his book The Power of Your Subconscious Mind he describes a man who epitomized this kind of outlook on life. He says: “A number of years ago, I stayed for about a week in a farmer’s house in Connemarra on the west coast of Ireland. He seemed to be always singing and whistling and was full of humor. I asked him the secret of his happiness, and his reply was: ‘It’s a habit of mine to be ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... combine a vision of a prophet out in the wilderness dressed in animal skins, eating locusts and wild honey and calling people to repentance with a vision of our modern day society that doesn’t even acknowledge the concept of sin. “What happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas,” trumpets the television commercial. We’re not even sure what sin is any more. It’s a word that has lost its sting, the punch line of a tired joke. Meanwhile, domestic violence takes the lives of thousands of women each year ...
Sermon
R. Robert Cueni
... explanation or treatment for everything from garden variety rash to disfiguring malady, society acted then as society frequently acts today--with fear, ignorance, and a policy of isolating the afflicted. Leviticus 13 details the rules: lepers must wear torn clothes, stay away from healthy people, and cup a hand over the upper lip and shout, "unclean, unclean" while moving through the city streets. Even with medical, social, and religious advances, certain illnesses can still evoke such fear that cause the ...
Sermon
R. Robert Cueni
... the side yard with friends. Your mother calls you to say that it is time to go to the birthday party of another friend. Now you don't mind going to the birthday party. In fact, you are really looking forward to it. You just want to stay and play with these friends as long as possible." In the twenty years since his death, Jane has treasured that and other memories of her friendship with Harold. He was a transformational mentor. She still reviews the lessons he taught about the practice of ministry and she ...
Sermon
R. Robert Cueni
... stench of Zacchaeus' life, looked up, and recognized him from the derogatory cartoon drawings on public buildings around Jericho. However it happened, Jesus knows this is the tax collector. Luke says our Lord calls him out of the tree. "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today" (v. 5). The tax collector leaps out of the tree and, with a big smile on his face, comes running up to Jesus. The crowd begins to grumble and complain about Jesus' plan to be a house guest at the home of ...
Sermon
R. Robert Cueni
... , we can get a lot of miles out that car. There is, however, a limit. Nuland goes on to assert that rather than a curse, the inevitability of death is a blessing. "Far from irreplaceable," he writes, "we should be replaced. Fantasies of staying the hand of mortality are incompatible with the best interest of our species and the continuity of humankind's progress. More directly, they are incompatible with the best interests of our very own children."[2] The poet, Lord Alfred Tennyson concurs with the ...
Sermon
R. Robert Cueni
... gold. The sheer abundance of gold eggs made it possible for the families who were close friends of the Giant to possess an egg for which they had no other use than to keep it as a prized possession. Of course, the economic conditions of most families stayed about the same. All their needs were met, while their wants increased and their sense of entitlement rose as bitter bile in the back of their throats. No longer did the people rejoice and give thanks when the goose laid a golden egg. It happened too ...
Sermon
Maurice A. Fetty
... by John is paraclete, which comes from a word meaning "to call alongside." A paraclete is one we call alongside us, to be with us, to be our advocate when we seem powerless to advocate for ourselves. One of my church members told of an extended stay in a hospital. She was lamenting the rather poor service and considerable inattention to detail. Thankfully, she was able to afford a private duty nurse to be her advocate. Otherwise, many of her needs would have been neglected. Most all of us feel we need an ...
4588. The Wrong Gift
Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)
Sermon
Wayne Brouwer
... if God is going to do something nice for the human race, the least he could do is bring a gift to people who deserved it. Yet here the familiar nativity story takes us where we truly do not want to be. When we ?nd out about the shepherds, we stay away from them, like the lost and the last and the least in all our societies. How could God do such a thing? First God gives a gift we don't need, and then God sends it to the wrong address, as if these losers know what to do with ...
Sermon
Maurice A. Fetty
... and five to nine welded into an inseparable lifestyle. The separation of home and workplace came largely with the Industrial Revolution. Men, women, and children worked in the sweat shops. But when men began to make enough money, children, and then women, stayed home. Consequently, "the notion of the middle-class home, in which the woman's role is primarily that of a support to her husband and children, is a relatively recent phenomenon," says Anita Shreve in her book Remaking Motherhood (p. 14). Shreve ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... largest cities in the world. We go downtown. It’s rush hour, and there are thousands of busy people in the streets. What is our first impression likely to be? We will probably just see a great mass of faces that all look alike to us. If we were to stay a while in one of those great cities and came to know and love certain people there, and understood their culture, they would no longer all look the same to us. We would see them as individuals. God knows every single person in the world by name. He knows ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... his earthly ministry. He was about thirty years of age. What had he been doing before then? He was probably working in Joseph’s carpenter shop. He probably took it over at Joseph’s death. All we know about his early years, except for that time when he stayed behind in Jerusalem when Mary and Joseph made their annual pilgrimage to the Holy City, was that he was obedient to his parents and that he “grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52). But now, at his baptism, he has ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... trestle was built across a large canyon in the West. Wanting to test this important bridge, the builder loaded a train with enough extra cars and equipment to double its normal payload. The train was then driven to the middle of the bridge where it stayed an entire day. One worker asked, “Are you trying to break this bridge?” “No,” the builder replied, “I’m trying to prove that the bridge won’t break.” You may wonder why God would create a world where temptation is even possible. It may be ...
4593. Adopted Love
Illustration
Michael P. Green
A new mother stayed with her parents for several days after the birth of her first child. One afternoon she remarked to her mother that it was surprising the baby had dark hair, since both her husband and she were fair. The grandmother said, “Well, your daddy has black hair.” To which the daughter ...
4594. A Vital Interest
Illustration
Michael P. Green
A U.S. Army officer told of the contrast in his pupils during two different eras of teaching at the artillery training school at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. In 1958–60 the attitude was so lax that the instructors had a problem getting the men to stay awake to listen. During the 1965–67 classes, however, the men, hearing the same basic lectures, were alert and took copious notes. The reason: these men knew that in less than six weeks they would be facing the enemy in Vietnam. One reason that Bible study seems ...
4595. Conditioned For The Journey
Illustration
Michael P. Green
... said the man, “I’m a strong swimmer, and when I read what was happening in the Atlantic, I began hardening myself by spending time every day in a tub of ice water. At first I could sit only a few minutes, but this morning, I stayed in that tub nearly two hours.” Naturally, Duveen laughed. It sounded preposterous. But his expert sailed, and the Lusitania was torpedoed. The young man was rescued after nearly five hours in the chilly ocean, still in excellent condition. Just as this young man did, so ...
4596. Expecting Less, Getting More
Illustration
Michael P. Green
A thriving divorce lawyer found himself on the brink of divorce, even though he strongly believed in family life. As he began to ponder why his marriage was falling apart, he asked a friend the following question: “Max, how did you stay married for thirty-five years?” Max, being older, had a rather illuminating answer: “I guess in our generation we didn’t expect as much from each other—and we ended up getting more.”
4597. The Well Filled Bow Low
Illustration
Michael P. Green
The story is told of two brothers who grew up on a farm. One went away to college, earned a law degree, and became a partner in a prominent law firm in the state capital. The other brother stayed on the family farm. One day the lawyer came and visited his brother, the farmer. He asked, “Why don’t you go out and make a name for yourself and hold your head up high in the world like me?” The brother pointed and said, “See that field of wheat ...
4598. Triumph of Laws
Rom 8:2
Illustration
Michael P. Green
A law is a set pattern of how things happen; it is a rule. The law of gravity deems that a heavy slab of concrete will remain where it is placed. Thus sidewalks stay in place. But we all have seen a sidewalk that is heaved up and twisted because once a small acorn fell between the slabs of the sidewalk and now has grown into a massive oak tree whose roots are powerful enough to move great weights. That is what is meant ...
4599. Don't Be A Fat Goose
Illustration
Michael P. Green
... flying south for the winter, when one of the geese looked down and noticed a group of domestic geese by a pond on a farm. He saw that they had plenty of grain to eat, so he went down to join them. The food was so good, he decided to stay with the domestic geese until spring, when his own flock would fly north again. When spring came, he heard his old flock going by and flew up to join them. The goose had grown fat, however, and flying was difficult, so he decided to spend one more season on the ...
4600. Miracle of Jairus’ Daughter
Mark 5:21-43
Illustration
Michael P. Green
Ray Stedman has told the story of a time when he and his wife were driving through Oregon with his little daughter, Susan. She had developed a fever the night before, when they were staying in a motel, but it didn’t seem serious. As they drove along, all of a sudden the little girl went into convulsions. Her eyes turned up, her body began to jerk, and she obviously was in great danger. Stedman’s heart clutched. He stopped the car, grabbed Susan, and ...
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