Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: touch, feel, sense of touch, tactile sense, tactility, contact, using one's hands, sensation, sense, suspicion, sneaking suspicion, notion, inkling, hunch, fancy, apprehension, presentiment, premonition, foreboding, love, care, affection, fondness, tenderness, warmth, warmness, emotion, sentiment, emotional state, compassion, sympathy, empathy, fellow feeling, understanding, concern, solicitude, solicitousness, tender-heartedness, brotherly love, sensibilities, sensitivities, self-esteem, ego, pride, opinion, belief, view, impression, intuition, instinct, estimation, guess, theory, hypothesis, thought, way of thinking, point of view, atmosphere, ambience, aura, air, mood, climate, character, overtone, undertone, tenor, spirit, quality, flavour, colour, aptitude, knack, flair, bent, talent, gift, skill, art, trick, faculty, ability, propensity, inclination, sensitive, warm, warm-hearted, tender, tender-hearted, caring, soft-hearted, sympathetic, compassionate, empathetic, responsive, receptive, intuitive, thoughtful

Antonyms: bad feeling, acrimony, animosity, animus, antagonism, antipathy, aversion, bitterness, detestation, disgust, dislike, disrelish, enmity, friction, grievances, grudges, hatred, hostility, loathing, malevolence, malice

Showing 2276 to 2300 of 2669 results

2276. Job's Second Reply to Bildad

Job 19:1-29

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

... the righteous—Job can no more surrender his trust in a God of love and mercy than can his friends. While Job’s experience forces him to make room in his worldview for the innocent suffering of the righteous, he remains grounded in the belief that the God he worships is a God of truth and a lover of righteousness. 19:21–22 Job seeks his friends’ compassion (have pity . . . have pity). The Hebrew makes clear the tension between friendship and compassion when Job ironically says, literally: “Be ...

2277. Job's Third Reply to Bildad

Job 26:1--31:40

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

... of his ridicule, Job feigns amazement at the profundity of his friend’s words. They must be the result of some sort of inspiration from outside Bildad’s own understanding! The Hebrew translated “whose spirit,” is, more correctly, “breath”—indicating a belief in a direct form of inspiration. Job, in his sarcasm, is actually denying Bildad’s understanding and ridiculing the thought that his insights might be inspired. Later, however, Elihu will return to this theme in his rebuke of Job. In 32 ...

2278. Blessed Are Those Who Meditate on the Lord’s Instruction

Psalm 1:1-6

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles

... categories of “sinners,” the same group but viewed religiously, and of “mockers,” the same group but focusing on their speech. Paralleling the activity of “walking” are the polar postures of “standing” and “sitting.” Paralleling the “counsel” or beliefs of the wicked are their “way” or behavior and their “seat” or company. The positive portrayal of the blessed defines that person by what “turns him on” (his delight) and by what preoccupies him (he meditates day and night ...

2279. Security in the Midst of Attack

Psalm 3:1-8

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles

... will not deliver him,” he should now prove them wrong. 3:3–6 These verses are a confession of trust, testifying of Yahweh’s protection through several images. Characteristic of the psalms of the individual, which call upon “my God” (v. 7), is the belief that Yahweh is a responsive deity: he answers when I cry aloud (see the Introduction). His protection of the defenseless is portrayed by the expression, I lie down and sleep . . . , because the LORD sustains me. God lifts up my head, in an intimate ...

2280. Mercy for the Languishing

Psalm 6:1-10

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles

... the absence of any confession of sin in Psalm 6 all the more striking. It does not draw an inevitable connection between sin and sickness; it simply prays, Be merciful to me, LORD. If we take the psalm as it stands, we cannot impose on it a belief that all human conditions—whether for good or ill—have a moral cause. Some passages in the OT, in fact, indicate that God’s discipline of his people stems not from specific human sins but from divine love, and should thus be welcomed (Hb. ysr, “discipline ...

2281. Confessing Loyalty to the Lord of the Land and His Benefits

Psalm 16:1-11

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles

... also reaffirms loyalty to Yahweh, I have set the LORD always before me (cf. Exod. 20:3). As a result, I will not be shaken. Fundamental to the psalms of the individual, both prayers and thanksgivings, is the issue of life and death and the belief that “my God” will preserve his worshiper from premature death (see Broyles, Conflict of Faith and Experience, pp. 117–22). Thus, my tongue rejoices . . . because you will not abandon me to the grave and you have made known to me the path of life. (The ...

2282. Living Praise Versus Deathly Silence

Psalm 30:1-12

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles

... depths, directs the worshiper to repay Yahweh “in kind.” As Yahweh has raised him up, so the speaker wishes to do toward Yahweh. My enemies are not presented as a direct cause of the distress; rather they would gloat after the fact. The belief that God answers when called upon (v. 2) is the fundamental tradition of the prayer psalms of the individual (see the Introduction). This psalm celebrates its vindication. 30:4–5 “Thanksgiving,” according to the Psalms, is clearly not to be a private affair ...

2283. A Prayer for the Sick

Psalm 38:1-22

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles

... heart,” vv. 7, 8) but also social alienation (“My friends and companions avoid me because of my wounds,” v. 11), personal guilt (“My guilt has overwhelmed me,” v. 4), and God’s displeasure (“because of your wrath,” v. 3). Moreover, in this psalm the belief in personal sin and God’s punishing wrath is not merely presumed by cultural convention; the reciter must own his own failure before God. Yet it is to this God the psalmic liturgy directs the sick. While it is a liturgy in the sense that ...

2284. Ask, Seek, Knock

Matthew 7:7-12

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

... your children with what is best for them. How much more will God, the heavenly Father, who is perfect in righteousness and love? Schweizer writes that “human maliciousness is here simply presupposed” and that this runs counter to the “widespread romantic belief that man is innately good and need only be left to himself with as few restrictions as possible for everything to improve” (pp. 173–74). Jesus is not making a theological statement about absolute human goodness but is drawing a comparison ...

2285. Our Mighty Fortress

Psalm 46:1-11

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles

... from exile (47:1–12). The security of the city of God is due not to its inherent or mythical strength but solely to its chief resident: God is within her. Similarly, the claim, God will help her at break of day, does not imply a belief in something magical about morning. Rather, the moment when light dispels darkness was symbolic of salvation, newness, and hope (30:5; 90:14; 130:6). Verse 6 closely parallels verses 2–3. As “the earth give[s] way,” so here the earth melts. As “the mountains ...

2286. When I Am Afraid, I Trust in God

Psalm 56:1-13

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles

... that the confessed trust and the rejection of fear have not been without emotional cost: “You have recorded my wanderings; put my tears in your bottle (or perhaps, “in your presence”); are they not in your book?” Evidenced here is the belief that God does not stand aloof during distress—perhaps contrary to appearances—but takes personal note of his people’s emotional suffering (metaphorically at least). 56:9–13 Now after the second expressions of lament and petition (vv. 5–8), the psalm ...

2287. God's Chosen Servant

Matthew 12:15-21

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

... who fell before him confessing that he was the Son of God (Mark 3:11–12; cf. Luke 4:41). This, along with other observations, led Wilhelm Wrede around the turn of the century to develop a critical view known as the “messianic secret.” He held that belief in Jesus as Messiah came as a result of the church’s post-Easter faith. The church then put out the story that Jesus had secretly told his disciples of his messiahship and charged them not to let it be known. Thus the “messianic secret” is an ...

2288. Nations to Praise the Lord for His Faithfulness

Psalm 117:1-2

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles

... nations and all you peoples. In attempting to trace the source of this universalism we need not appeal to supposed recent military victories of Israel, to prophetic innovations (e.g., Isa. 40–66), or to developments in eschatological (i.e., end-time) beliefs. In the hymns that share this feature, for example the psalms of Yahweh’s kingship and Psalms 68:32; 100:1; 113:3, the universal summons stems from their distinctive theological position that Yahweh, as universal King and Creator, merits universal ...

2289. The Lord on High Preserves the Lowly in the Midst of Trouble

Psalm 138:1-8

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles

... ; 40:1–11; also Jer. 23:18; Job 15:8). At this location, the worshiper engages in ritual prostration (I bow down, cf. 5:7). As with the thanksgiving psalms, the essential basis for thanksgiving is the testimony that God answers when called (v. 3). This belief reflects the fundamental tradition of the prayer psalms of the individual (see the Introduction). 138:4–6 This form of hymnic praise (cf. 47:9; 96:3–4, 7–8; 148:11) echoes the speaker’s own opening proclamation of praise: May all the kings of ...

2290. Surrendering to God’s Inescapable, All-Searching Presence

Psalm 139:1-24

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles

... wonderful” (“made,” which the translators simply added, is difficult to justify). We should probably follow the ancient versions and read, “You are awesomely wonderful.” 139:15 The depths of the earth is probably not a metaphysical statement lit. describing a (mythical) belief about the formation of the soul there, but a metaphorical statement lit. drawing the analogy between a dark, hidden place and the mother’s womb (v. 13). 139:18 When I awake (derived from Hb. qyṣ) is awkward at this point ...

2291. Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream

Daniel 2:1-23

Understanding Series

William Nelson

... VAT 7525 in the Berlin Museum, cited in Oppenheim, Interpretation of Dreams, p. 232). Maybe the king is especially troubled, then, because he cannot remember the dream and consequently fears divine wrath. Further support for this comes from an ancient belief that an untold and uninterpreted dream is dangerous to the dreamer. If the king remembered it, he would be motivated to verbalize it, because telling a dream was thought to have a cleansing, healing effect that would remove its negative consequences ...

2292. The Death of Jesus

Matthew 27:45-56

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

... denied to Jesus this “one reported expression of human kindness in the last hours of [his] life” (Filson, p. 297), John 19:30 indicates that Jesus did at least taste the wine. Those who understood Jesus to be calling for Elijah were obviously aware of the Jewish belief that Elijah (who did not die but was taken to heaven alive; 2 Kings 2:11) would come to help the righteous in times of great distress (Str.-B., vol. 2, pp. 769–71). The death of Jesus is reported with stark simplicity: when Jesus had ...

2293. Daniel in the Den of Lions

Daniel 6:1-28

Understanding Series

William Nelson

... ” (3:17). However, such a strong confession of faith does not seem to fit the context, for the king is nervous before (6:14) and after (6:18–20) he gives the order. If it is to be read in the more emphatic and positive manner, it probably reflects the belief of the author more than the king in the story. After Daniel is cast into the pit with the lions, a stone is placed over its mouth. Then it is sealed with the signet rings of the king and his nobles (6:17). The rings are probably pressed onto a ...

2294. Daniel’s Prayer

Daniel 9:1-19

Understanding Series

William Nelson

... , one might counter that this charge is unwarranted, because Daniel did not imagine that he needed a new interpretation. He already thought he understood the meaning of the seventy years (9:2). Instead of looking for a new revelation, he was acting on his belief that repentance and confession would bring about the deliverance of his people. This was the common understanding of the exiles in Babylon; if the author of Daniel was from the second century, in taking on the guise of a sixth-century Daniel he was ...

2295. The Calling of the First Disciples

Mark 1:14-20

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... in the passage before us. Here Jesus is said to proclaim that the kingdom of God has drawn near and that the day of fulfillment (the time) has come. This conviction that God’s chosen time had come is similar to the Baptist’s sense of urgency and his belief that he was called to prepare Israel for the day of God’s salvation (1:4–8), but Jesus’ words reflect the conviction that the day of God’s rule has come even nearer than John knew. In Mark, Jesus’ message is called the good news of God, but ...

2296. Jesus Clears the Temple

Mark 11:12-19

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... 23) and that the church, which was his “body” in a spiritual sense (e.g., 1 Cor. 12:27), became the new temple by union with the risen Christ. In short, Mark’s readers may have seen Jesus’ attack on the Jerusalem temple as prefiguring the Christian belief that the sanctity and significance of that temple has passed to Jesus and the church. The trial account in 14:53–64 includes the charge that Jesus threatened to destroy the temple and raise up a new one “not made by men” in three days (14:57 ...

2297. The Parable of the Tenants

Mark 12:1-12

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... the Markan emphasis upon Jesus’ true status (cf. 1:1, 11; 9:7) as the Son of God. Further, the sending of the son is described as the final overture of the owner (v. 6, one left to send, last of all), and this reflects the Christian belief that Jesus is the last and most important messenger from God (see note). In the original situation of Jesus’ ministry, the full significance of the image of the son would not have been felt, but Mark’s readers could not have avoided reading the term in the context ...

2298. Paying Taxes to Caesar

Mark 12:13-17

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... Romans to govern Palestine successfully. Other Jews chafed under the Roman yoke, not only because of the common feelings of national pride or because of the heavy taxation required to operate the Roman imperial system, but also because of deeply held religious beliefs. These Jews regarded the Romans as idolatrous and wicked and their rule as an offense against God, the only rightful ruler of Israel. For these Jews there was perhaps no aspect of Roman rule more objectionable than the annual tribute or tax ...

2299. Jesus and John the Baptist

Luke 7:18-35

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

... , pp. 158–59). Additional Notes 7:18–19 According to Josephus (Antiquities 18.119), John was imprisoned (see Matt. 11:2) in the fortress of Machaerus, east of the Dead Sea; see Lachs, p. 189. 7:22 Jesus’ reply to the Baptist reflects the belief that people would experience healing in the messianic age (Midrash Tanhuma B, tractate Mezora 7: “all who suffer affliction will be cured in the world-to-come”); see Lachs, p. 190. 7:29 This verse, particularly the second part, is difficult to translate and ...

2300. The Parable of the Great Banquet

Luke 14:15-24

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

... and warnings; and (4) it particularizes the general, that is, it applies Deuteronomy’s nationally directed promises and warnings to individuals. This distortion and its attendant faulty assumptions Jesus has challenged. And nowhere is Jesus’ challenge to these popular beliefs more dramatic and forceful. In the Parable of the Great Banquet those who end up enjoying the feast are the very persons not expected to participate. The parable thus refers to the great eschatological banquet when the righteous ...

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