Synonyms: replica, copy, representation, mock-up, dummy, imitation, double, duplicate, lookalike, reproduction, prototype, stereotype, archetype, type, version, style, ideal, paragon, perfect example, specimen, perfect specimen, fashion model, supermodel, mannequin, sitter, poser, subject, artist's model, photographic model, design, mark, configuration, variety, kind, sort, original, original design, exclusive, toy, miniature, facsimile, prototypical, prototypal, archetypal, illustrative, perfect, exemplary, classic, flawless, faultless, consummate, impeccable
Antonyms: deficient, imperfect
Showing 526 to 550 of 655 results
Sermon
Thomas Long
"I’m sorry, nothing can be done." There are probably no more terrible words than these. They mark the end of labor, the end of possibility, the end of hope. The family holds vigil in the surgical waiting room. The dated magazines on the table have been read and re-read. The wall clock moves in slow motion, and the family waits. A dark spot on an X-ray demanded attention. "We just don’t know," the surgeon had said. "We’ll have to go in and check." Now he appears, a loosened surgical mask around his neck, ...
Sermon
O. Garfield Beckstrand, II
In a book titled, Life Looks Up, Charles Templeton said the history of this world has been changed by events which took place in two small upper rooms. These rooms are separated not only by thousands of miles, but by nearly thousands of years. Yet the events which took place within those walls have changed the course of human history more than any other events mankind has ever known. The first "upper room" is a drab flat over a dingy laundry in a poor district in London. Through the dirty, curtainless ...
Sermon
In Robert Frost’s The Masque of Reason God tells the "Easy Answers Committee" that it is mistaken. This sermon does the same. Its probing, illuminating force conforms to the terrain of human experience. It conforms to the terrain of God’s experience in Emmanuel - God with us. Rich textual reference, literary allusions, carefully chosen language, experience common to all keep the listeners listening, the readers reading. An atheist is expected to ask the "Why?" of things. It’s part of the practicing atheist ...
529. The Reality of the Resurrection - Sermon Starter
Luke 24:36-49
Illustration
Brett Blair
100 years ago few people thought it possible that man could fly. No one except the two sons of Rev. Milton Wright who at 10:35 on the morning of Dec. 17 1903 made their first successful flight of 175 feet in a airplane driven by a four cylinder combustion engine. Today we fly much more sophisticated crafts around the moons of Jupiter. It was very hard to believe 100 years ago today but the evidence of that first flight is all around us today. 200 years ago the borders of the United States stretched from ...
Sermon
Brett Blair
Seven days changed the world. These seven days have been the topic of a million of publications, countless debates, and thousands of films. These seven days have inspired the greatest painters, the most skilled architects, and the most gifted musicians. To try and calculate the cultural impact of these seven days is impossible. But harder still would be an attempt to account for the lives of men and women who have been transformed by them. And yet these seven days as they played out in Jerusalem were of ...
Sermon
King Duncan
He was one of the greatest soldiers of his time. He lived at a time when his country needed great soldiers! Yet his past so discouraged him that he almost never became the leader that his country needed. Hiram was born to a father who was harsh and cold and would always see him as a failure. His mother was not a source of emotional comfort to him either; he never once saw her moved enough to shed a tear. Hiram was always small for his age. He grew up ashamed he was not the kind of leader his father ...
532. I Was There
Isaiah 43:14-28
Sermon
Gary Whitbeck
If I told you my name you wouldn't know me. There's not enough room in historical documents to record everything and everybody. History merely tries to capture the important events that chronicle our progression as a people. Individuals who are on the scene are rarely known (much like the background characters who fill in your movies). However, I have been allowed, by the grace of the Almighty, to come to you during this special season of the year, to remind you of THE MOST IMPORTANT EVENT IN HUMAN HISTORY ...
533. Freedom Song
Galatians 6:1-10
Sermon
King Duncan
Not long ago, a group of youngsters was questioned at random on what they liked about the United States. Here is a sample of the answers: Jackie, age 9 "We've got more stuff and things in America than anywhere in the world. We have pizza as well and it don't grow any other place on earth except maybe Italy." Heather, age 5 "America is the best because people in other countries are smaller and they get trodden on easy." Elliott, age 9 "Everybody wants to live in America because we own the moon. The ...
Sermon
King Duncan
(Thanksgiving) The juxtaposition is startling--the Thanksgiving feast we have just enjoyed and our text for the day: " . . . I was hungry and you fed me; I was thirsty and you gave me water; I was a stranger and you invited me into your homes; naked and you clothed me, sick and in prison and you visited me." (Mt. 25: 35-36 The Living Bible). And yet what better day is there than this one--between the celebration of Thanksgiving, the one day when gluttony is transformed from a sin to a sacrament and Advent ...
Sermon
Donald B. Strobe
As the salesman came to the front door, he turned to the little boy sitting on the steps and asked, “Is your mother home?” The boy said “Yes,” and the salesman began to ring the doorbell. After several rings and no response, he turned to the boy and said, “I thought you said that your mother was home.” To which the boy replied, “She is, but this isn’t my house.” Sometimes we get the wrong answers because we don’t ask the right questions. In Mark 10, we read: “And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ...
Sermon
Eric Ritz
Today I want to share some thoughts and reflections from what historically has been designated as the second word of the Seven Last Words of Jesus Christ from the cross on Calvary. I believe that this is the last known conversation to take place between Jesus Christ and a human being before he died. Today we will think for a few moments about the two other crosses that flanked our Savior''s cross: one cross on the left, and another on the right. Both of which held people who had been called thieves or ...
Drama
Angela Akers
Characters: Therapist Receptionist Creme Wafer (have the character wear a large sign that reads “Creme Wafer” with a picture of a Creme Wafer on it) Doughnut (have the character wear a large sign that reads “Doughnut” with a picture of a doughnut on it) Setting: A therapist’s office. Have a couch for the therapy client and a desk for the therapist. On the therapist’s desk is telephone and a large sign that reads “Cookie Therapist.” Nearby have a small desk with telephone for the receptionist. (Scene opens ...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
If you've ever had the need to enter one of those mega-mart toy stores, you've seen it: The PINK aisle. It's that Day-Glo, cotton-candy, Pepto-Bismol color that sets the Barbie aisle apart from everything else in the store (everything else on earth, actually!). Even if you never have to walk down that aisle you can't really avoid it - its oozing pinkish aura pollutes the light at either end of the aisle, and the ceiling above it fluoresces with a pink haze that can be seen clear down where the bicycles and ...
Sermon
Elizabeth Achtemeier
Sometime between 500 and 350 B.C., post-exilic Israel experienced a devastating locust plague, followed by a drought. That experience is described in Joel chapter 1. And certainly the people suffered under the dreadful effects of those disasters. But the message of the prophet Joel — prompted not by the natural disasters, but given him as a revelation from the Lord — is that the Israelites face a still more terrible disaster if they do not repent and return to their God. “The day of the Lord is coming, it ...
540. The Life Is in the Seed
Matthew 13:1-23
Illustration
Leonard Sweet
Doug Murren, in Churches That Heal (1999), retells that old Native American tale of an opossum watching a seed grow. One day an opossum visited his good friend, a raccoon, at his home near the river. The opossum marveled at his friend's lush garden and asked if he could grow one like it. The raccoon assured the opossum he could do so, although he cautioned him, "It is hard work." The opossum eagerly vowed to do the hard work necessary, then asked for and received some seeds. He rushed home with his ...
541. The Harder They Fall
1 Samuel 17:1-58, Psalm 146:1-10
Bulletin Aid
Frank Ramirez
Call To Worship Look out! Another impossible is falling. Hey, watch it! You're standing in the shadow and the shadow's getting bigger by the second. Here it comes! The proud mocked the Lord, and the Lord is answering. Give in to God or get out of the way! Collect (Unison) Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul! I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God all my life long. Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals, in whom there is no help. When their breath departs, they ...
542. Matthew 22:15-22
Matthew 22:15-22
Sweet
Leonard Sweet
When Jesus entered the temple (back in Matthew 21:23), his authority was immediately questioned by the chief priests and elders. Jesus quickly quashed their inquiries, but went on tending to those around him, teaching them through his favorite method — parables. But after unfolding three parables Jesus is again confronted with a question from the religious establishment. This question had been carefully crafted as a "trap" and was loaded with intentional "malice." The unusual group that comes to Jesus in ...
543. Join the Winning Side!
John 6:56-69 
Illustration
John Ortberg
Jim Wallis writes that when the South African government canceled a political rally against apartheid, Desmond Tutu led a worship service in St. George's Cathedral. The walls were lined with soldiers and riot police carrying guns and bayonets, ready to close it down. Bishop Tutu began to speak of the evils of the apartheid system how the rulers and authorities that propped it up were doomed to fall. He pointed a finger at the police who were there to record his words: "You may be powerful, very powerful, ...
Sermon
Maxie Dunnam
I was in Columbus, Ohio not long ago. I had wedged in a day, following a meeting in Kentucky, to visit for the first time since their marriage last summer, my daughter, Kim and her husband, John. We were coming home from dinner out in the evening and John called our attention to a striking sight. On the end wall of a church sanctuary, a giant shadow of Christ was cast. It was a unique and moving sort of thing, created by the lighting of a small statue of Christ in a garden behind the church. I had passed ...
Sermon
J. Howard Olds
The year was 1862. The Civil War was raging. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was grieving the death of his second wife when news came that his son had been gravely wounded in the war. That was when Longfellow sat down and wrote this poem: I heard the bells on Christmas Day, their old familiar carols play And wild and sweet the words repeat, of peace on earth good will to all And in despair I bowed my head, there is no peace on earth I said For hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth good will to all ...
Sermon
J. Howard Olds
The word on our Advent Wreath today is PEACE. About 2,700 years ago, the Hebrew Prophet Isaiah caught a vision of a child to be born who would be called the Prince of Peace. This leader from the lineage of David would rule the world and there would be no limits to the peace he would bring. Cynics among us are saying why cry peace, when there has been no peace in the history of human kind? The militants remind us that even Jesus said, “I came not to bring peace but a sword." Meanwhile, American soldiers and ...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
In every cliffhanger action movie, at some point in the chase scene an enormous chasm suddenly appears before the hero as he flees the bad guys. The only way across is an incredibly narrow, rickety, mostly-rotten bridge. The way forward looks terrible. But the way back is certain death. So, of course, our hero bravely steps or drives forward and steels himself to cross the abyss on the frail and shaky bridge. “Cliffhangers” being appropriately named, the results are pretty predictable. Although the hero ...
548. The Namless Last Student
Illustration
Staff
The setting is Ohio State University about six or seven years ago in a huge lecture hall (approximately 1000 students) for a Calculus final. Apparently this particular calculus teacher wasn't very well liked. He was one of those guys who would stand at the front of the class and yell out how much time was remaining before the end of a test, a real charmer. Since he was so busy gallivanting around the room making sure that nobody cheated and that everyone was aware of how much time they had left before ...
549. Is It True?
1 Corinthians 15:19-26
Sermon
David E. Leininger
The Joyful Noiseletter, that wonderfully hilarious monthly look at all things church-y, some time back noted a pastor who approached an older gentleman in his congregation and addressed him with the traditional Easter greeting, "Christ is risen!" But instead of giving the pastor the traditional response, "He is risen indeed," the man replied, "Yupper-dee-doodle!" Good for him. This is a yupper-dee-doodle day. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! A story has been roaming around about a little boy who was ...
550. Running the Race
Philippians 3:4-11, 2 Timothy 4:7
Sermon
Steven E. Albertin
Every week in our country millions of people go to stadiums and arenas to participate in the thrills and chills of athletic competition. Athletic competition attracts people as participants and spectators for a variety of reasons. Perhaps the most universal reason for the appeal of sports is the similarity between what goes on in the arena of athletic competition and the arena of life. Athletic competition is a microcosm of life, because we all love to compete and win. In our second lesson for today, Saint ...
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