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 2126 to 2150 of 2331 results
Sermon
King Duncan
... writes, “‘My messy house’ says it all, with more honesty than most adults could have mustered. The boy made a metaphor for himself that admitted the depth of his rage and also gave him a way out. If that boy had been a novice in a fourth century monastic desert, his elders might have told him that he was well on the way toward repentance, not such a monster after all, but only human. If the house is messy, they might have said, why not clean it up, why not make it into a place where God might wish ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... .” His wife’s friend is a very creative person, Hughes says, and did a wonderful job of decorating the place, and they settled in. “Only one thing was wrong,” says Hughes, “the family who moved in next door. They turned the front yard into a desert, broke the windows out of their house, were always using foul language, urinated in the front yard, and generally caused havoc in the neighborhood. The final straw was when one of the boys climbed into our friends’ yard and threw a whole can of orange ...
Sermon
Don Tuttle
... east side of the Sea of Galilee. For experienced fisherman like Peter, Andrew, James and John that eight mile trip would be no big deal, even at night, but the Sea of Galilee can be tricky. To the north is Mount Hermon and to the east is more or less desert. And when the cold air from Mount Hermon and the hot air from the east collide over the sea the storms can be quite severe. And that’s what happens that night. The wind begins to blow, or, more accurately, it begins to swirl like a tornado around them ...
Sermon
John Jamison
... crowd, walked into the water, and stood next to John. At first, John wanted Jesus to baptize him, but finally, he went ahead and baptized Jesus. There was a dove, and a voice saying that Jesus was God’s Son, then Jesus left to go into the desert for forty days and didn’t do much more until he heard that John had died.” It actually does sound fairly straightforward, doesn’t it? But the problem with stopping here is that it really makes the entire story look “simple,” and “easy,” and almost ...
Sermon
John Jamison
After Jesus was baptized by John, he went to spend time in the desert lands east of the Jordan River, to begin preparing for the work he was going to do. While he was there in the wilderness, he got word that John had been arrested and killed. It was then that he decided it was time to come back to Galilee and get ...
2131. The Week
Mark 14:1-15:47
Sermon
John Jamison
... or so ago that he would never betray Jesus and would stay with him forever. Yet as soon as Jesus stopped the scuffle, what happened next? After all of that talk an hour or so ago about never betraying him, Mark simply tells us “all of them deserted him and fled” (Mark 14:50). (fade out, pause, then up) Palm Sunday is a day we traditionally celebrate what we refer to as the “triumphal entry” of Jesus into Jerusalem. We wave palm branches and sing songs of peace and joy, thinking about all that Jesus ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... trains on Sunday. So, after he finished up his business late on a Saturday night, he had to stay over in St. Louis until the following Monday morning. On Sunday morning, he left the hotel looking for a place to worship. The streets were quite deserted, but finally he saw a policeman and asked him for directions to the nearest church. The stranger thanked the policeman for the information and was about to walk off when he turned and asked the policeman: “Why did you recommend that particular church? There ...
Sermon
Ron Lavin
... even knowing Jesus outside the high priest's home. He knew that where there is no repentance for sin, there is no new life. Peter could preach about sin and forgiveness because he knew the experience firsthand. So did the other apostles who had deserted Jesus in his hour of need. Peter understood the need for people being convicted of their sinfulness and the need for repentance. Thousands were turned around that day. They were turned back to God. Convinced of righteousness? Yes, they were. Peter's sermon ...
2134. Close Calls
Mark 4:35-41
Sermon
Ron Lavin
... and the meaning of the questions Jesus asked. "Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?" Who wouldn't be afraid in a storm like that? Who wouldn't fear for their lives? Who wouldn't scream at the heavens for help and receiving none, feel deserted? What do you mean, Jesus, by your question about faith? We have faith, but this is a life-threatening emergency. We haven't lost faith, we are just scared to death. What do these questions of our Lord mean? Of course, there is the basic meaning. To have ...
Sermon
Ron Lavin
... filled with stress. And by the way, I guess you never really said those things I said at the beginning. I just heard what I wanted to hear." "Amanda, just remember, God loves you more than you can imagine. He wants the best for you and he won't ever desert you. It isn't easy to be a Christian today because we live in a culture that opposes much of what Christians teach, but I believe in you and God believes in you. You have great potential to be a fine disciple of the Lord. We just have to get ...
Sermon
Rick McCracken-Bennett
... twelve nearest and dearest disciples. Bread, bread, and bread... it was all he seemed to be talking about. It was enough to make a person hungry. They all knew stories about how God provided for his people who had escaped slavery in Egypt and were in the desert making their way to a land that God promised them. They knew about God giving them bread from heaven. Manna, they called it. Which, by the way, was their word for "what is it?" For those wanderers didn't know what that white, crumbly stuff was that ...
2137. You Are What You Eat
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Sermon
Rick McCracken-Bennett
... ... enough said. A friend confided in me the other day that he lost his job due to corporate downsizing. He had gone through a long period of unemployment before landing this one and I thought he would be devastated to realize that he might have to walk through that desert again. While he was sad and a little scared he didn't seem as crushed as I had expected. I learned why a couple of days later when I spoke with his wife. She said that the core values of the company were the very antithesis of the values ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... as we sometimes are, we hold on ever firmer to the promises of God. We know God will not forsake us even if He does not work on our time schedule. Author Tim Kimmel tells about tiny cemetery that sits outside of Phoenix, Arizona blown by hot desert winds and rarely visited. Amidst the Bermuda grass and west of a pond lies a modest grave marker: PUNKIN--In loving memory--Jennifer Marie Strader--August 11, 1975--December 13, 1984. Young Jennifer’s life was snatched away from her on a tragic drive home from ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... look of determination on Ricky’s face as well as the astonished looks on the faces of the spectators. They say a buzz grew through the crowd as the spectators wondered whether Ricky would finish. They describe the loneliness of running by flashlight on the deserted roads of Kona on the Big Island of beautiful Hawaii as Ricky started the final leg of the race well after the leaders had already finished the entire race. And they describe the roar of approval as the crowd greeted Ricky at the finish line ...
Sermon
Robert Noblett
... when you sit eyeball to eyeball with another person especially one who is cantankerous, obnoxious, difficult, unlovely, and seemingly unlovable it is anything but an easy task. There will be more than a few times when we say with Jeremiah: "O that I had in the desert a traveler's lodging place, that I might leave my people and go away from them!" (Jeremiah 9:2). Frederick Buechner has observed: "In the Christian sense, love is not primarily an emotion, but an act of will."1 What is this saying to us about ...
Sermon
Susan R. Andrews
... the earth? You know the headlines as well as I do. After thousands of Iraqi and American lives were destroyed, Iraq is again doing a death dance inside a tinder box of suspicion and hatred. Generations continue to disappear in the violent and arid deserts of Africa. Here in the metropolitan New York area, despite the breathtaking rise of wealth, there has also been a 6% increase in those needing soup kitchens and food pantries. Millions of people continue to die from the devastation of AIDS — and most of ...
Sermon
Susan R. Andrews
... what we do so that God will have space and a place to make us into new people — so that God can complete the baptismal blessing of our lives. Somehow when I think of Advent, of repentance, of preparation, I don’t have visions of arid deserts and wild prophets. I think instead of the wide open fields of North Dakota and Minnesota — with acres of sunflowers turning their faces toward the sun. The beauty of these flowers is in their responsive turn. Their health and wholeness comes from their openness to ...
Sermon
Susan R. Andrews
... ago, I’ve decided that in some situations, my anger is okay. As the Bible so vividly shows, anger is a normal and necessary human emotion and very often, anger can be a catalyst for transformation, for creativity, and for new life. The early desert fathers and mothers borrowed a metaphor from Plato and used it to describe the Christian life. They suggested that the human personality is like a chariot pulled by two horses, and driven by a charioteer. The two horses are anger and desire, and the charioteer ...
Sermon
Susan R. Andrews
... where the glaring sun and parched earth destroy any inkling of life close by. This morning, when Jeremiah compares a shrub in the uninhabited salt land with a tree planted by water he is literally giving us a choice between life and death. Do we trust the dazzling desert of the world’s ways or do we trust the rich soil of God, constantly being fed by streams of living water? The choice is ours, but the consequences are clear. Rooted only in the ways of the world, we will quickly shrivel up and die. But ...
Sermon
R. Robert Cueni
... Mardi Gras or Rio Carnival. I am considering putting them on my bucket list. Unfortunately, that will have to wait for another year. The parties ended yesterday. The Irish poet, Thomas Moore captures the feeling. I feel like one Who treads alone Some banquet-hall deserted, Whose lights are fled, Whose garlands dead, And all but he departed.[1] Today begins Lent. We set aside the colorful bead necklaces of Mardi Gras and receive the ashen mark of the cross. We replace the samba rhythms of Rio and the jazz ...
2146. Young in the Mind
Illustration
Editor James S. Hewett
People grow old only by deserting their ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up interest wrinkles the soul. You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as yourself—confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair. In the central ...
2147. The Attitude of Youth
Illustration
Editor James S. Hewett
... is not a time of life, it is a state of mind, a product of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions, a predominance of courage over timidity, an appetite for adventure. Nobody grows old by living a number of years. People grow old when they desert their ideals. Years wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, self-doubt, fear, and anxiety—these are the culprits that bow the head and break the spirit. Whether seventeen or seventy, there exists in the heart of every person who ...
2148. So, Do Something About It
Lk 1:39-56
Illustration
Editor James S. Hewett
... one of the most remarkable collection of hymns the world has ever known. His name was Isaac Watts. In a few weeks we will be singing one of his most famous hymns, "Joy to the World!" Isaac Watts discovered joy in his life because he knew that God would never desert him. He was able to live his life with all sorts of health problems feeling close to God and Jesus. He had joy deep in his heart.
2149. Goals Require Preliminary Steps
Illustration
Editor James S. Hewett
... he wanted to be when he grew up, and he answered, "A returned missionary." The boy looked ahead not to the years of graduate study, not to the years of separation from home and loved ones, not to the months and years in steaming jungles or parched deserts—but to the final state of recognition and acclaim. It's hard to skip the preliminaries and still reach a final goal. The musician's finger exercises, the Olympic athlete’s daily push-ups, and the Christian's daily stint in the prayer closet can't be ...
2150. Full Life
Illustration
W. Beran Wolfe
If you observe a really happy man you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his son, growing double dahlias in his garden, or looking for dinosaur eggs in the Gobi desert. He will not be searching for happiness as if it were a collar button that has rolled under the radiator. He will not be striving for it as a goal in itself. He will have become aware that he is happy in the course of living life twenty-four crowded hours of the day.
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