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 1451 to 1475 of 3099 results
Sermon
Angela Akers
... grin, the patient responded, "Don't be ridiculous, the attack only lasted six hours!" (1) None of us likes to hear the word "repent," do we? At best, it sounds old-fashioned and alarmist. At worst, it hits too close to home. If there were ever a subject from which we'd like to distance ourselves, it would be this concept of repentance. A Sunday School teacher once asked a class what was meant by the word "repentance." A little boy put up his hand and said, "It is being sorry for your sins." A little ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... rabbi dead. Annas sends Jesus to Caiaphas, his son-in-law and the new high priest. Caiaphas tries to get at Jesus' hidden agenda, but finally gives up. Next, the Jews take Jesus to the palace of Pilate, the Roman governor. Pilate's total disregard for his Jewish subjects has gotten him in trouble many times. He knows the Jews dislike him. If he doesn't rule in their favor, then they will report him to Caesar, and he will most likely lose his cushy job. In spite of this, Pilate tries repeatedly to wash his ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... . Of course, some of our fears are our own creation. There are some very real fears in this world. Terrorism is a good example. However, there are many fears that exist only in our minds. There's a book by Drs. Burka and Yuen on the subject of procrastination. The title is Procrastination: Why You DO It, What to Do about It. Many of us could probably profit from reading this book--if we could ever get around to it. (Just kidding.) In their studies of confirmed procrastinators, the authors of this book ...
1454. Tongue-tied By Three Zeros
2 Corinthians 13:11-14
Sermon
Siegfried S. Johnson
... . I've heard that more pastors call in sick on Trinity Sunday than any other Sunday. I suppose pastors don't relish attempts at explaining the unexplainable. Our illustrations seem somehow to hobble timidly into a corner spouting a thousand apologies for even bringing the subject up. You've heard some of the illustrations I've heard (and used) to explain the Trinity. When I stood back to look at them, they sound as inadequate as "The Double Oh's" or "The Zilches " or "The Aughty Aught Aughts." There's St ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... months later, he did some radical thinking, abandoned his agnosticism and became a Catholic. Fulton Sheen had the advantage of a spellbinding presence. One Sunday the network announcer, at the close of Sheen's broadcast, solemnly informed the radio audience that the subject of Sheen's next show would be, "Thou hast cast bread upon the waters." Then the radio announcer gave the network sign off, "You are listening," he said, "to the National Breadcasting Company." (6) Most of us are not as spellbinding as ...
Sermon
Frank Lyman
... all sorts of good and evil in the name of Jesus, and what ought to shake us up is that we tend to mold Jesus into our image, instead of molding ourselves into his! Honestly, how many of us open our Bibles, see what Jesus might say on a particular subject, and then, if what Jesus says isn't in harmony with what we currently believe, do a complete U-turn? It is much more likely that we will interpret Scripture according to our own desires. People are all over the map when it comes to Jesus. That's why we ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... said, "If you are told you will never see spring again, and you live to see spring, spring takes on a whole new life." (5) Nothing focuses our priorities quite like the knowledge of our own mortality. Advent is not a season for focusing on a morbid subject like death. But it is a season for looking beyond the present moment to the eternal, and then evaluating our life in the perspective of eternity. So the question for this Second Sunday in Advent is, what do you want to do with your life? For the Christian ...
1458. How A Christian Grieves
1 Thessalonians 4:1-12
Sermon
King Duncan
... in the same manner. And here is where St. Paul’s attitude is so much healthier than our own. We all crave instructions on how to live better, but rarely do we give much thought to the question of how to die better. In fact, we would rather avoid the subject altogether. In the book, Children’s Letters to God, a little boy wrote, “Dear God, What is it like when a person dies? Nobody will tell me. I just want to know, I don’t want to do it. Your friend, Mike.” (3) Mike is wiser that most of us ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... researchers an idea. The next day, they randomly put coins in the coin return slot, so that some of the people who used the phone actually did discover money. The researchers then hired a young woman to walk by the phone at the exact moment that the subjects were hanging it up. When the young woman walked by with her arms full of books, she pretended to stumble and drop them on the ground. Astonishingly, the researchers observed that the people who found money in the coin return were four times as likely to ...
1460. Worthy Is The Lamb
Revelation 5:1-14
Sermon
King Duncan
... may sound a little narrow-minded to some of you--the idea that Jesus is the primary means by which we touch God. Years ago an article in Christianity Today by Tim Stafford told about a pastor and friend of his who has a fascinating way of approaching the subject of truth. This particular pastor starts each confirmation class with a jar full of beans. He asks his students to guess how many beans are in the jar, and he writes down their guesses on a big pad of paper. Then he helps them make a list of their ...
1461. It's Not About Us
Revelation 22:1-6
Sermon
King Duncan
... , and Jesus suffered beatings and crucifixion, then he certainly understood Henry's pain. Henry's next thought overwhelmed him: "Why would anyone deliberately withstand pain?" The only logical answer could be love. Jesus must have loved us with an incredible love to subject himself to that kind of pain. The next time John Parsons visited, Henry listened to the Bible passages he read. And the next time he underwent a scrubbing, Henry focused on the verse from Philippians, "I can do all things through Christ ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... we're honest about it, that's how we feel about God. We probably have as many questions as answers. What does it mean, God in three persons? When Jesus ascended, where did he go? Where exactly is heaven? Questions. Anyone who puts his or her mind to the subject of faith has them. Now consider our lesson for today from John's Gospel. Jesus is speaking to his disciples when he says to them: "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now . . ." That is an interesting insight, don't you ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... are many vocations. There was an article in the Smithsonian magazine about a man who is an expert on skunks. That's what I said. Jerry Dragoo, assistant professor of biology at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, is an expert on the subject of skunks. He has even started a society called the Dragoo Institute for the Betterment of Skunks and Skunk Reputations (although he may just be kidding about that). Unlike almost every other mammal, Jerry does not run in the opposite direction when an angry ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... tithes. But hopefully we are moving in that direction. It's a question of priorities. It's a question of loyalty. This is such an outrageous teaching--that we are to hate our families. I wonder--in light of our present world--what would Jesus say to us on this subject if he were here in the flesh today? He might say that it is not love for him that is causing us to hate our families today, but love for the world. There was a story recently in Time magazine titled, "Does Kindergarten Need Cops?" It told of a ...
Sermon
Siegfried S. Johnson
... , "God with us, " Emmanuel. Quite a name. Quite a sermon in that name. (1) Reader's Digest, date unknown. (2) A. Kirk Grayson, "Tiglath-Pileser," in The Anchor Bible Dictionary. (3) Henri Cazelles, "Syro-Ephraimite War," in The Anchor Bible Dictionary. (4) An excellent sermonic treatment of this subject may be found in "The Verse That Got the RSV in Trouble," by Dr. Donald B. Strobe, preached at First United Methodist Church, Ann Arbor, Michigan on June 23, 1985. (5) Reader's Digest, October 1994, p. 90.
Sermon
King Duncan
... if there is something in your life that is a barrier to God's presence. When the woman at the well of Sychar told Jesus that she wanted that living water, Jesus put her on the spot. "Go, call your husband, and come here." That was particularly touchy subject. "I have no husband," she replied. Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, "˜I have no husband,' for you have had five husbands, and he whom you now have is not your husband; this you said truly." Jesus appreciated her honesty, because he knew she ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... book Beyond Belief tells a story about Groucho Marx and the Friars Club, which was an exclusive organization for actors and people in show business. Groucho was a member and was attending the annual banquet to hear a famous speaker deliver an address on the subject of "The Show Must Go On!" This old cliche was repeated until Groucho could no longer stand it. He stood up and shouted, "Why?" This flustered the speaker to the extent that he couldn't continue, because he had never really wondered why. A second ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... . Although the soldiers' technique might not suffer, the exercise is certainly lacking in power. So it is that you and I are powerless to live the Christian life without being connected to Christ. If Christian faith is simply a formality for you, an exercise you subject yourself to because it is expected of you--after all, it's good for the children--if you are simply going through the motions of being Christ's person, that is very sad. No wonder you feel that something is missing from your life. For ...
1469. Love And Submission
Ephesians 5:22-33
Sermon
King Duncan
... St. Paul wrote concerning submission: "Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is head of the church; and he is the savior of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives to their husbands in everything." (Ephesians 5: 22-24). For some women, these are fighting words. The idea of submission is enough to get the chin and fists up, along with the attitude! Submit? Never! They may remember Dad sitting ...
1470. Shepherding And Parenting
Psalm 23:1-6, 1 Peter 2:13-25
Sermon
King Duncan
... that indicate that teenagers as a whole feel closer to their parents than teenagers in earlier surveys? Most of us are doing pretty well. Except in one area. That area is the teaching of Christian ideals and values. It used to be that sex was a taboo subject in most homes. I suspect today that it is religion. If our young people are confused about right and wrong, if they are not sure about what is real and what is phony, if they feel an emptiness inside where they should be experiencing God and his ...
1471. The Competitor
Genesis 25:19-34
Sermon
King Duncan
... to the majors from a Yankee farm team. "How much do you know about psychology?" McCarthy asked. The coach said he had studied it in college. "So you think you're good," said McCarthy. The coach replied: "I don't know how good I am, but it's a subject I've studied." "All right," McCarthy said, "I'll give you a test." McCarthy said that a few years before he'd had a problem and had gone to Frankie Crosetti, his shortstop. "Frank," McCarthy said, "I'm not satisfied with the way Lou Gehrig is playing first base ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... will of God." There it is. That is what many of us are hungering for. We want what is good and acceptable and excellent. But how do we obtain such excellence? FIRST, LIVING A LIFE OF EXCELLENCE REQUIRES DISCIPLINE--A COMMITTED DISCIPLINE SIMILAR TO WHAT ATHLETES SUBJECT THEMSELVES TO. The grand old preacher and teacher Halford Luccock objected to church members who were content to say, "I'm an average Christian." His thinking was that if you put your head into a hot oven and your feet into a block of ice ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... , and classes. And no one embodies the question of why bad things happen to good people more than does Job. Now I realize than not everyone wants to deal with heavy questions about why there is suffering in the world. Even thinking about the subject adds to our stress. In the old cartoon series, Calvin and Hobbes are standing outside, awestruck, staring at the stars. Calvin responds as many youngsters might. He says, "The universe just goes out forever and ever!" To which Hobbes (his stuffed tiger-friend ...
1474. I Say, Rejoice!
Philippians 4:2-9
Sermon
King Duncan
“From silly devotions and sour faced saints,” prayed St. Teresa, “good Lord deliver us.” Let’s make a deal: I will try not to make this sermon a “silly devotion” if you will not look at me with a sour face. Our subject today is joy. I thought we might begin with a little church humor: A pastor caught three small children stealing oranges from his tree. “Do you know what the Bible says about thieves?” he asked. “Yes sir!” one answered. “Today you will be with me in paradise!” A ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... s a good question. Let’s get together over lunch and talk about it this week.” The gentleman agreed; a time and place were set. Later that week the two of them did get together for lunch. After they had ordered, the pastor brought up the subject. “You know, your question was a good one.” The pastor said the question forced him to do some thinking. “The Bible is full of references to pledging,” he told the reluctant church member. But the member remained unconvinced. “Come on now, Pastor,” he ...
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