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 26 to 50 of 606 results
26. The Ultimate Christmas Gift
Psalm 85:1-13, Ephesians 2:11-22
Sermon
Erskine White
... the things that make for peace" still a mystery to us? "Do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God" (Micah 6:8). Do not "oppress the poor" (Amos 4:1) or "answer roughly the entreaties of the needy," (Proverbs 18:23) and do not let some acquire so much of God’s earth for themselves that others are left without (cf. Isaiah 5:8), for this brings not peace and prosperity, but resentment and rebellion. Jesus put it in words so simple they have never been tried! Let people and nations make friends of ...
Sermon
Brett Blair
... his curiosity, and he finally blurted out, "Father, what are you doing?" "I'm trying to make a mirror," said the head priest. "But that's impossible!" said the young monk. "You can't make a mirror from brick." "True," replied the head priest. "Just as it is impossible to acquire grace by a chant." Another young man by the name of Martin Luther was just as confused as our rich young ruler. He had no peace in his life. He was a monk who wanted to please God but he felt like an awful sinner. On a trip to Rome ...
Sermon
David E. Leininger
... are OK. Of course, you are not OK if Mammon becomes pre-eminent over God. The Bible says, "the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil."(7) Lying, cheating, stealing, killing...the list could go on and on (and we love our lists)...all to acquire money, possessions, things. But the worst evil of all is when they become the objects of our real worship. One of the saddest stories in the New Testament is that one which recounts the meeting between Jesus and the rich young ruler.(8) The young man came to ...
Sermon
Mark Clark
... evil spirit who wishes to carry away her offspring. He will then not think it worthwhile to steal her child. (2) People in business know the power of a name. When George Tate acquired a little-known software called Vulcan, his advertising consultant suggested that Tate consider another name for his newly acquired product ” dBase II. Although there was no dBase I preceding it, the name implied an upgrade and improvements. The new name also sounded technical and descriptive and helped the product become an ...
Sermon
King Duncan
Once there was a man who acquired a claim to a gold field in California. The claim was in a lonely spot in the mountains. When the man started to ... merely toyed with the fascinating idea of writing. I cared like blazes! It is this caring like the blazes that counts.” Few things in life of real value are acquired without momentous effort and consecrated determination. Dr. Kenneth Taylor understood that. It was Dr. Taylor’s dream to convert the New Testament into a format that nearly everyone could read ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... a phrase for it, don't we? Keeping up with the Jones. There are many faulty misconceptions that people who play this game are under, of course. Time will permit us to mention only a couple. THE FIRST MISCONCEPTION IS THAT HAPPINESS ON ANY SCALE IS SOMETHING YOU CAN ACQUIRE. If I could just have a nicer car, or a nicer house, or a European vacation like the Joneses have, then I would be happy. That is an illusion. If you doubt that, you need only consider the story of Maya Angelou's Aunt Tee, a woman who ...
Sermon
Maxie Dunnam
... job or profession -- sometimes we even include going to the right church. Isn't that the appeal of the whole advertising industry? The ad world preaches a gospel that life is found by acquiring style. They would make style the religion that satisfies. Notice the sacrifices that people are willing to make in order to acquire style. And have you ever thought that that really is the test of religion -- in fact that determines what your religion is -- what you are willing to sacrifice for. That's what Buechner ...
Sermon
Maxie Dunnam
... ailments. Much of this is rooted in fear and anxiety.These facts are even more startling when we realize that a baby is born with only two normal fears: the fear of loud noises and the fear of falling. All other anxieties are acquired, and most of us have acquired a goodly number. (Myron Taylor, "Facing the Anxieties of Life", Pulpit Digest, November, 1970, p.44) Have you heard the story of the woman who shook her husband awake in the middle of the night, and whispered that she'd heard a burglar downstairs ...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
... or sufficient--one spoke of a bed of comfortable width, although not yet of a comfortable bed. This continues to be the meaning of the expression 'a comfortable income'-ample but not luxurious. Succeeding generations expanded this idea of convenience, and eventually comfortable acquired its sense of physical well-being and enjoyment, but not until the eighteenth century, long after Durer's death, Sir Walter Scott was one of the first novelists to use it this new way when he wrote, 'Let it freeze without, we ...
35. Advent 2
Matthew 3:1-12, Romans 14:1--15:13, Isaiah 11:1-16, Psalm 72:1-20
Sermon Aid
Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe
... not in doubt about whether Jesus, as our messiah, is able to mediate divine blessing and well-being to the social order. Consequently as a prayer for the messianic king, Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19 loses much of its force for Christians. But it acquires urgency as a prayer for the messianic community in the present time. Given the reliability of our messiah, do we embody the divine qualities of righteousness and justice within the community of faith? And do we mediate divine blessing and well-being to the larger ...
Sermon
James Merritt
... Eastern Seaboard to the riot-torn suburbs of Los Angeles, there is one unmistakable lesson in American history: a community that allows a large number of young men to grow up in broken families, dominated by women, never acquiring any stable relationship to male authority, never acquiring any set of rational expectations about the future that community asks for and gets chaos. Crime, violence, unrest, unrestrained lashing out at the whole social structure that is not only to be expected, it is very near ...
37. Sadness in the Heart of God
Matthew 20:1-16
Illustration
John Claypool
... descendants." With that, he and his wife made love, and because of his experience with the cattle, he was not too surprised shortly thereafter to learn that she was expecting. The next months were passed in unbroken joy. The farmer was busy assimilating his newly acquired affluence and looking forward to the great grace of becoming a parent. On the night his first child was born, he was absolutely overjoyed. The next day was the Sabbath. He went to the synagogue, and at the time of the prayers of the people ...
Sermon
James Merritt
... life-threatening illness such as AIDS. I will never forget a few years ago, sitting in the bedroom of a young man with AIDS. He had come to our church and we had baptized him. He had given his heart to the Lord, but because of his lifestyle he had acquired this terrible disease. He had found the love of God. He was full of the grace of God, but he had to suffer the physical consequences for his sin. I know this sounds harsh, but there has to be consequences to sin for two reasons. First of all, sin has ...
Sermon
James Merritt
... " used even one time, you will see plenty of examples of it. Someone has defined coveting as "the uncontrolled desire to acquire." We are paying a high price, both socially and economically, for that desire. More and more young families are two income ... are displeased with what He has given you. What we all need to learn to do is this – We need to learn to admire without having to acquire. We don't have to own everything to enjoy it. If the only things we ever enjoy are the things we own we are going to ...
Sermon
Richard Gribble
... good example. Graduation is a commission. Graduates finish one aspect of life, but they begin a whole new adventure. That is why such events are called commencements. Graduates must take the skills that have been honed and tested and the new ones that have been recently acquired and use them in their new work, in order to one day make a positive contribution to human society. Jake Laboon heard God's call in his life, first to naval service, later to the priesthood, and still later to a new commission to the ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... feels obligated to talk about money. There are some principles in the story of the rich fool, however, that are critical to our lives. Like most of the stories that Jesus told, the emphasis here is on practical application. The rich fool had devoted his life to acquiring goods. Now it was time for him to die. What would happen to the goods? Would they go on the auction block? Would they go to ungrateful relatives? What was the point of his life? He thought his wealth had bought security but it could not ...
Understanding Series
David J. Williams
... gained the upper hand and ruled over the more numerous tribes of the Phrygians and Cappadocians. Their chief cities were Tavium, Pessinus, and Ancyra (Ankara). During the Roman civil wars of the first century B.C., the Galatian prince Amyntas acquired a large domain that, by favor of Augustus, he was allowed to retain. This “kingdom of Galatia” comprised, besides Galatia proper, parts of Phrygia, Lycaonia, Isauria, Pisidia, Pamphylia, and western Cilicia. In 25 B.C., Amyntas’ kingdom passed into the ...
Understanding Series
James K. Bruckner
... richest Hebrew word in this culminating praise is translated in the phrase, “the people you bought” (qanah). The Hebrew means “acquired by some effort.” It can mean “created” or “gave birth to,” both requiring strenuous effort by the Creator or begetter (see also ... Exod. 4:22; Num. 11:2). It can also mean “acquired through cost” (such as the loss of life in Egypt) or through labor (as in the Lord’s many interventions). All ...
Understanding Series
Michael S. Moore
... is of the essence. Anxious clients are waiting for a decision. To this, the kinsman immediately responds, I will redeem it. 4:5 In stage two, however, Boaz deftly adds, On the day you buy the land from Naomi and from Ruth the Moabitess, you acquire (reading Qere qanitah) the dead man’s widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property. This, finally, is the fine print, the catch shrewdly worded in three preconditions. First, although this is a land transaction, fundamentally it has to do ...
Understanding Series
Leslie C. Allen
... with the surrounding narrative. However, verse 16 supplies a clue that 5:1–13 is still inside the wall-building time frame—the 52 days of 6:15. Nehemiah informs us in passing in 5:16 that he did not exploit an opportunity that presented itself to acquire land, but instead concentrated on the wall project. This information ties the wall theme together with the material in 5:1–13 and takes us into the heart of that passage, to a detail about Nehemiah’s provision of loans in verse 10. So we are assured ...
46. Proverbs of Solomon
Proverbs 11:1-31
Understanding Series
Roland E. Murphy
... (three times). In v. 15b, subject and predicate are juxtaposed participles. 11:16 Evidence for the uncertainty of the text can be seen from the LXX: “A gracious woman acquires honor for her husband, but a woman who hates righteousness is a throne of dishonor. Sluggards end up lacking in wealth, but the courageous acquire riches.” 11:19 The Hb. is difficult: “Thus righteousness (is) to life / but whoever pursues evil (is) to his death.” W. McKane (Proverbs: A New Approach [Philadelphia: Westminster ...
47. Proverbs of Solomon
Proverbs 17:1-28
Understanding Series
Roland E. Murphy
... wrongs the right” (both an abomination). The point is the upholding of justice in judicial cases. 17:16 Synthetic? The saying underscores the hopelessness of the fool, whose wealth cannot acquire wisdom. Besides, according to Job 28:14–19, wisdom is beyond any price. For the one who will listen, there is no charge for acquiring wisdom, according to Sirach 51:25. 17:17 Antithetic? Commentators are divided on the meaning. Does true friendship rate higher than blood relationship (see 18:24; 27:10; cf. 18 ...
48. Warnings and Exhortations for Jerusalem and Judah
Zephaniah 2:4-7, Zephaniah 2:8-11, Zephaniah 2:12, Zephaniah 2:13-15
Understanding Series
John Goldingay
... my people” and “my nation.” They will plunder Moab and Ammon; but what is there to plunder? They will “inherit” these peoples’ land, enter into secure and permanent possession of it (the verb nakhal denotes acquiring such assured possession rather than indicating specifically that one acquires it when someone within the family dies); but what is the use of it? To judge from what follows (v. 10), however, the significance of this is that it all serves to underline hyperbolically the completeness ...
49. Cain and Abel
Genesis 4:1-26
Understanding Series
John E. Hartley
... ”), which sometimes means “give birth, produce” (e.g., Exod. 15:16; Ps. 74:2; 78:54; Prov. 8:22), the child was named Cain (qayin). Eve proclaimed proudly that she had brought forth or acquired (qaniti) a man. She identified the newborn as “a man” rather than as “a son” or “a child.” She made a wordplay based on her having been taken from “a man” (’ish) and thus called “a woman” (’ishah; 2:23); now she, a woman, had borne “a man” (’ish). She ...
50. Worshipping Other Gods
Deuteronomy 13:1-18
Understanding Series
Christopher J. H. Wright
... with a curse, but a shrug, and then have the gall to claim morally higher ground than ancient Israel. Similarly, if we can no longer identify with the scale of priorities and values that undergird Deuteronomy 13, it is manifestly not because we have acquired a greater appreciation of the value of human life, but because we have lost any sense of the awful majesty of God’s reality. The western church, more than it cares to admit, has imbibed that dichotomized, privatized, cultural worldview in which God is ...
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