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 451 to 475 of 2665 results
Sermon
R. Robert Cueni
... particularly important. The fastest growing religious group in the country must be 'not affiliated with any church.' "So much has changed in the church, changed in the country, and changed in the world," my colleague concluded. "I feel as though I have been dropped into a strange land where very little is familiar. Where is it headed?" he asked. Some of what this retired colleague says can be attributed, of course, to simple longing for "the good old days." Some can be dismissed as hyperbole. The accuracy ...
452. The Happy Hypocrite
Matthew 6:1-4, 5-6, 16-18
Sermon
King Duncan
... Nobody likes a person who preaches one thing and practices something else. Don’t you agree? The story’s told about a man who dropped by the city newspaper of Harlingen, Texas one day and said that he was from Cleveland, Ohio. His name was Donald Richards. He was ... to work as well as play . . . My life has been one long, happy holiday . . . Full of work and full of play . . . I dropped the worry on the way . . . And God was good to me everyday.” Was he a hypocrite? It depends who you ask. Biographer Ron ...
453. The Shipwreck
Acts 27:27-44
Understanding Series
David J. Williams
... how big the ship’s boat might have been—had no heart to wait until morning. With them it was “every man for himself,” and pretending that more anchors from the bow would help steady the ship and that they must lay them out at cable’s length rather than drop them out, they had the boat in the water ready to make their escape. What they were intending in the dark of night on an unknown shore seems to have been the height of folly, and perhaps that is all that can be said of it. One would think that ...
Understanding Series
Leslie C. Allen
... with foreign wives was probably included in the Ezra memoirs. The requirements of verse 19 applied not only to the priestly group but also to the rest; there was no reason to single out one group. References to these requirements must have been dropped in other sections for stylistic reasons to avoid repetition. There were offending members from the four priestly clans mentioned in the oldest provincial list in Nehemiah 7:39–42 (= Ezra 2:36–39), including the high priestly clan, here traced through the ...
Teach the Text
Joe M. Sprinkle
... witnesses was to push the condemned person off a precipice twice the height of a human being—perhaps off the second story of a building or into a pit. Then a second witness was to drop a stone on the condemned person’s chest. If the person was still alive, the others present continued to drop stones until death occurred. One case of modern-day stoning was when Somalia’s al-Qaeda-inspired group stoned a man to death in June 2011 after accusing him of committing rape. Sharma’arke Abdullahi Mohamoud ...
Teach the Text
C. Hassell Bullock
... KJV translates it “shall follow me,” but it means “follow me” in pursuit. And that puts a different hue on the landscape. We may stress the shift in the metaphor. Something has distracted the sheep, and the Shepherd, personified by “goodness and love,” has dropped behind them, and they pursue us “all the days” of our life. A Scottish preacher said, “The Lord is my Shepherd, aye, and he has two fine collie dogs, goodness and mercy. They will see us safely home.”15 Isaiah uses this kind of ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... protect the floor, she very carefully placed around the edges of the floor a strip of Scotch tape--the kind with adhesive on both sides. It was her plan to place a drop cloth over the floor and secure it with the tape. Having succeeded in placing the tape around the entire surface, she went back inside the house to get a drop cloth. Returning to the porch sometime later, she found that all of her carefully placed tape was gone. She was completely mystified. Where could it be? Who would possibly have taken ...
458. Abimelek
Judges 9:1-57
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
... suggests that it must have been aligned with Shechem in some way. As the townsfolk there have also locked themselves in a tower, Abimelek decides to use the same strategy he did before by setting the tower on fire. But as he approaches the entrance, a woman drops an upper millstone from above and hits Abimelek on the head, seriously wounding him. To avoid the shame of being killed by a woman, Abimelek asks his armor bearer to kill him. Thus even in the manner of his death, there is poetic justice. For he ...
Sermon
Charley Reeb
... the Sea of Galilee. They apparently were very successful in their profession because Mark points out that James and John had hired servants. They were successful enough to pay workers to help them. Life was good! They were growing a company. Yet Jesus came along and said, “Drop your nets. You were made for more than this. There is a bigger enterprise to be part of than fishing for fish. I am going to make you a fisher of people. Follow me and you will be part of the divine enterprise which is bigger than ...
Sermon
Charley Reeb
... were on vacation in Sweden. One day they went to a children’s zoo. They had a great time, but while my friend was in the zoo he witnessed something very strange. He watched as little kids with pacifiers in their mouths dropped their pacifiers into this big pit. One by one they would come and drop their binkies, and then they would start crying and reach back for them. My friend was more than curious, so he walked up to the pit and saw hundreds of pacifiers on the ground. He was baffled, so he asked an ...
Understanding Series
Craig A. Evans
... to Jesus; in Matt. 3:14–15 the Baptist expresses his wish to be baptized by Jesus; in John 1:29–34 the Baptist hails Jesus as the “Lamb of God” upon whom he saw the Spirit descend; and in Luke 3:21 the Baptist is dropped from the scene altogether; we are not told that he baptized Jesus. Indeed, according to v. 20 John has already been imprisoned, and therefore probably did not baptize Jesus. This same concern over the implications of Jesus’ baptism shows up in later Christian gospels. For example ...
462. The Second Census
Numbers 26:1-65
Understanding Series
W.H. Bellinger, Jr.
... in Genesis 46:8–27. The order of the tribes is the same as in Numbers 1, with the exception of the reversal of Ephraim and Manasseh. Manasseh grows in size and the text gives more detail (vv. 29–34) about this tribe. Simeon suffers a dramatic drop in numbers, probably as a result of judgment from the incident in Numbers 25. Even so, the total of the new generation has decreased by less than 2,000 from the exodus generation. Given the difficulty of the journey described in Numbers, that total in itself ...
Understanding Series
William Nelson
... increased territory northward toward Scythia and westward toward Greece. It is odd that the ram does not charge toward the east, because Persia did conquer in the direction of India (Esth. 1:1). It is possible, however, that “east” was in the original text and dropped out by haplography (see the Additional Note on 8:4). In any case, “the ram” was a formidable force in its day: no animal could stand against him, and none could rescue from his power (8:4). The picture of this ram butting other animals ...
Understanding Series
Craig A. Evans
... ears are heavy … their eyes they have closed …”); and (3) the word “for” has been added signifying that the prediction of v. 9 will come true because of the dull and insensitive nature of the people. Matthew replaces Mark’s “in order that” with “because,” drops Mark’s “lest” clause in Matt. 13:13, and quotes the LXX (instead of the Hebrew) of the OT in order to show that Jesus spoke parables because people would not listen. The idea in Matthew, just as it is in the LXX of Isa. 6:9 ...
Understanding Series
Leslie C. Allen
... with foreign wives was probably included in the Ezra memoirs. The requirements of verse 19 applied not only to the priestly group but also to the rest; there was no reason to single out one group. References to these requirements must have been dropped in other sections for stylistic reasons to avoid repetition. There were offending members from the four priestly clans mentioned in the oldest provincial list in Nehemiah 7:39–42 (= Ezra 2:36–39), including the high priestly clan, here traced through the ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... business associates took in the news that his wife was going to have this baby. Every day one or more of them would drop around to his desk to inquire: “How’s the wife doing?” “What does the doc say?” “Any news yet?” “Many more days ... sermon I have ever heard. God used the mouth of an atheist. I’ll never forget it. I couldn’t answer. I went to my room, dropped down on my knees, and said, ‘Lord, I know you’re there. I believe Jesus is your son. I’ve gotten away from that, away from ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... you're forced to.” I won’t ask how late some of you will be up. Some of you will celebrate via your television. I also like what some comedian said about that. He said, “I love it when they drop the ball in Times Square. It's a nice reminder of what I did all year.” Well, I’ve dropped the ball a few times myself this past year. But tomorrow begins a new year, a time for a new beginning. What an appropriate time to be in worship when we can ask God to wipe the slate clean on our ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... envying people who could do things she couldn’t, even such things as kneeling to pray. And then a glorious thought occurred to her. In heaven she will receive a new body including new legs. And the first thing she will do with her new legs is drop to her new glorified knees and worship Jesus. As many of you know, this experience with Christ turned Joni Eareckson Tada into a radiant witness to God’s mercy and grace. Have you encountered the risen Christ in your life experience? Has it caused you to take ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... the mortar, some of his sweat fell into the mix. The homeowner expressed his emotions like this: “I know my walls are blessed with the sweat of President Carter in them.” (8) Sweat dropped from Jesus’ body in the Garden of Gethsemane when he committed himself to the assignment which God gave him, but it was drops of blood that sealed the deal on Golgotha. A Gallup poll reported once that 98% of Americans believe in God. That is incredible. Eighty percent believed that Jesus Christ is the Son of God ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... tree--roots, trunk, bark, branches, and leaves! Just standing under a Manchineel Tree can be a horrifying experience, especially if it’s raining. Many seek shelter under the shady eaves of this tree, only to be drenched in drops of acidic sap dripping from the leaves. When it rains, drops that have made contact with the tree fall on the unsuspecting shade-lover. The result is severe rashes and blistering of the skin. (2) Christopher Columbus encountered this tree and called it the Tree of Death. You don ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... do in modern times. They didn’t work 9 to 5. Most of them worked for themselves, maybe farming a small piece of land, or owning a fishing boat, or sharing a small business with their friends and relations. There was no reason why they couldn’t just drop their work and follow after Jesus if they felt led to do so. So they did follow him. Some sailed across the sea in small boats; others walked round the northern end of the sea. By the thousands they came searching for him and finally they found him. (2 ...
472. A Point of Contact
Illustration
Editor James S. Hewett
... with that puppy, mister?" the boy asked. "Well, Son, that puppy is crippled. We took her to the vet and the doctor took an X-ray. The pup doesn't have a hip joint and that leg will never be right." To the amazement of both men, the boy dropped the bike, reached for his collection bag and took out a fifty-cent piece. "Please, mister," the boy pleaded, "I want to buy that pup. I'll pay you fifty cents every week until the twenty-five dollars is paid. Honest I will, mister." The farmer replied, "But, Son ...
473. The Agony of Fatherhood
Humor Illustration
Editor James S. Hewett
A young father-to-be was pacing back and forth, wringing his hands in the hospital corridor while his wife was in labor. He was tied up in knots of fear and anxiety, and beads of perspiration dropping from his brow revealed the agony of his suffering. Finally, at 4:00 A.M. a nurse popped out of a door and said, "Well, sir, you have a little girl." He dropped his hands, became limp, and said, "Oh, how I thank God it's a girl. She'll never have to go through the awful agony I've had tonight!"
Sermon
King Duncan
... had two artificial legs, both made of tin. Somehow, in battle, he had lost one of his artificial legs. It was a sign of respect for Sir Douglas that the German commander would send to London to replace his missing limb. And so a parachute drop followed shortly. Bader had a new leg. The Germans, though, should have known better. Once back on both tin legs, Bader made four attempts to escape before the Germans began depriving him of his artificial legs at night. Sir Douglas Bader was a determined soldier ...
475. Only a Pebble?
Illustration
Editor James S. Hewett
... water, but his beak wouldn’t quite touch the water. So, what did he do? He started picking up pebbles one at a time and dropping them into the jug. And as more and more pebbles accumulated in the bottom of the jug the water rose in the bottle until ... he desired. That's a parable of the way God has chosen to work out his plan in our world. Each of us dropping in our own little pebble—teaching that Sunday school class, serving on a committee, providing transportation for the youth, visiting our lonely ...
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