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 2451 to 2475 of 3852 results
Sermon
Mark Ellingsen
... who has made you that way. It is kind of hard to be unconcerned about society and the things of the world when you know who you are. People created in the image of God are not loners. They are people passionate about social relations as God originally created them. There is another aspect to the nature of the Triune God that is relevant here. Yes, God is three, and is always socializing. But do not forget that he is also one. His communal character is also concerned to bring about unity. Well, evangelism is ...
Sermon
Mark Ellingsen
... of The Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke" (1555), in Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XVI.I, trans. William Pringle (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 2005), p. 370. 13. For such an analysis of American social dynamics, see my Blessed Are the Cynical: How Original Sin Can Make America a Better Place (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Brazos Press, 2003), esp. pp. 22-23, 114-115; Richard Sennett, The Corrosion of Character (New York and London: W. W. Norton & Co., 1998), pp. 55-63, 101-102; Robert D. Putnam, Bowling ...
Sermon
Mark Ellingsen
... is a side of you and me that finds this rhetoric attractive. We want a role in our salvation. We want to have a say in our purpose. We want to prove ourselves. But that is really the pride and selfishness that are the essence of original sin. We really know better. You have known all along what Jesus, Matthew, and I have been saying today, that we can only live the Christian life, only live out our purpose, after hearing and believing that we matter to God. The great, ancient African theologian, Augustine ...
2454. Political Pardon
Matthew 18:21-35
Sermon
Wayne Brouwer
... to Peter that there are others looking on as they practice their piety. It is a group of otherwise undescribed folks who notice how the forgiven debtor treats the man who owes him a little. These people also report the man's actions to the king who had originally laid aside the huge obligation that could never have been paid. In telling this part of the story, Jesus reminds his disciples and us that the goal of any spiritual formation in our lives is not merely to make us feel good, or to give us a sense ...
Sermon
Wayne Brouwer
... that brought the nations to seek its unusual character. For the psalmist to decry that he "dwells in Meshech" meant that somewhere along the line he sold out, that he left home, that he boarded the wrong ship and followed a faulty flag. He was the original prodigal son, living in a land where the slur of his dialect brought only stares of alienation. Whether for wealth or adventure, he had stepped down the wrong path long ago, trading his homeland and its covenant with God for a puppet show hitched to ...
Sermon
Chris Ewing
... August 27, 2006 (http://www.mcall.com/travel/all-freedomcruiseaug27,0,1579907.story). 2. Ibid. 3. Joyce M. Hawkins, Editor, Oxford Reference Dictionary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), p. 319. Punctuation slightly altered for pulpit use. Italic in original. 4. Friberg Greek Lexicon, electronic edition included with BibleWorks 6.0.012d, defining eleuqerov. 5. E. A. Judge and K. A. Kitchen, "Slave, Slavery," in Douglas et al, editors, New Bible Dictionary, 2nd edition (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House ...
Sermon
Tony Everett
... , the glass didn't just shatter, the turkey landed in the pilot's seat. These engineers complained angrily that they had been deliberately given the wrong formula, and demanded an explanation. "Send us your formula and testing methods!" demanded the original chief engineer. After reading through the failed method, the chief engineer responded with this brief reply: "First thaw the turkey!" Friends in Jesus Christ, God has already thawed us frozen turkeys. Because of God's forever love, the exiles could ...
2458. Losers, Weepers
Isaiah 49:8-16a
Sermon
Tony Everett
... the paper around, so that the top and bottom edges of your "L" are reversed. You are now looking at an upside-down "L." Extend the vertical line of the "L" an inch or two upward, past the horizontal line. Finally, extend the horizontal line of the original "L" an inch or two beyond the vertical line. Do you see what happened to your first "L" for loser? The image is now a cross ... God's forever promise of forgiveness, mercy, and steadfast love. In Christ, God has turned losers into victors. In Christ, God ...
Sermon
Schuyler Rhodes
... an alarm. We are not being awakened, however, merely to take care of business as usual. We are not being jolted from our quiescent snoozing just for the fun of it. We are being called out because the "day of the Lord" is upon us. For the original readers of this text, this was a call for a whole nation to awaken from the slumber of its sinfulness and to enter into repentance. A call to everyone, even the writer. The old, the children, even those still breast-feeding are called. Even newlyweds are called ...
2460. Being a Blessing
Genesis 12:1-4a
Sermon
Schuyler Rhodes
... he calls him away from everything he knows into a new land. It is a blessing that is both approval and promise, and something further. The blessing of God on Abram doesn't just stop with Abram. This blessing has consequence. It has reach. It extends beyond the original declaration. This blessing has purpose. God says, "... I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing" (Genesis 12:2). God's purpose, then, in making a great nation out of Abram's lineage, and in making Abram's name ...
Sermon
Stan Purdum
... , an important seed — the fruit of which was almost lost at one point in the church's history. That seed was in this statement by Peter: "Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Acts 2:21). Actually, Peter wasn't being original with that statement. He was quoting Joel 2:32, but that ancient prophet was talking about the salvation of the people of Israel on the great day of the Lord, whereas Peter was applying the text to the current circumstances of his audience. He was talking ...
2462. To Say Elohim
Genesis 1:1-2:4a
Sermon
Stan Purdum
... to you that there is more than enough faith expressed in that single verse to set you on the road to finding the meaning of your life. But let me back up a bit. We don't have the advantage of being able to read this verse in its original language — Hebrew — but if we did, we'd discover that the word translated "God" in this verse is Elohim. That word appears over 2,550 times in the Old Testament, and the English translations of the Bible invariably render it simply as "God." (There are many other names ...
Sermon
Stan Purdum
... of short-range thinking, and even worse, it had long-range consequences; it set the stage for the later bitterness between the brothers. One indicator that Esau was thinking only of his present moment is captured in the Hebrew language in which this story was originally written. Our NRSV translation has Esau saying to Jacob, "Let me eat some of that red stuff," but rabbi and author, Burton Visotzky, says that a better translation of what the hungry Esau said is "Gimme some of that red stuff." In fact, Rabbi ...
Sermon
David J. Kalas
... and his appearance gave rise to his name, "Esau," which meant "hairy." At first blush, the name seems disappointing. In the preceding stories from Genesis, we have been introduced to marvelous and meaningful names. The baby Noah was named with profound expectation. Abraham's original name, Abram, was noble, and his new name from God was full of promise. Isaac's name was marked by good humor and joy. But "Esau"? How unimaginative. How ignoble. And yet, Esau's name was a sight better than his younger brother ...
Sermon
David J. Kalas
... -favored status. They objected to the special treatment he received, and they found intolerable the precociousness with which he spoke and conducted himself. Indeed, Joseph's brother so resented him that they sought to get rid of him. Permanently. Their original plan was simply to murder him. It was unapologetic, unsophisticated, and cold-blooded. But after the one brother with a conscience intervened, they adopted Plan B: Throw Joseph into a pit in the middle of nowhere, where presumably he would starve ...
Sermon
David J. Kalas
... both foe or traitor She ever shall prevail.1 When the Sanhedrin was weighing their options against the early followers of Christ, old Gamaliel cautioned them: "I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone; because if this plan or this undertaking is of human origin, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them — in that case you may even be found fighting against God!" (Acts 5:38-39). The pharaoh did not have Gamaliel's wisdom whispered in his ear. And so, as he ...
2467. Eat and Run
Exodus 12:1-14
Sermon
David J. Kalas
... your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance." And we are reminded likewise of the ordinance of Christ at the Last Supper: "Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me" (1 Corinthians 11:25). Meanwhile, the symbolism of the original Passover event plainly reminds us of our salvation. The central role of a male lamb without blemish and the idea of being saved by "the blood of the Lamb" is part of our gospel vocabulary as Christians. Even in New Testament times, the earliest ...
Sermon
David J. Kalas
... toward the promised land. They would go by way of Mount Sinai, where they would receive God's law. If the people had charted their own course, their logical choice would have been to travel the shortest distance between the two points of their origin and their destination. Leaving Egypt in the west, they would have traveled due east across the northern edge of the Sinai Peninsula, and straight into the land of Canaan, which God had promised to their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But the people were ...
Sermon
John N. Brittain
... . Instead of waiting for permission and the proper moment to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they impatiently bit into the forbidden fruit. Sin, death, and the curse came crashing down. For Tertullian, impatience is bound up in original sin, and can be traced to every other sin that we commit. Tertullian was not alone. Cyprian, Augustine, Gregory the Great, Calvin, the Puritans, the Anglican Divines, you name it, all were adamant about the importance of patience. It's no wonder that ...
Sermon
John N. Brittain
... : He lured the child-eating monster out of hiding, took his trusty machete (pronounced "match-it" in Belize), and quite graphically chopped the miserable creature to bits. Our college group was stunned. My early-childhood-professor wife would remind us all that the original Grimm Brothers' tales had a good bit of violence and that we have become too comfortable with the sweetened up Disney and Golden Book variety of children's stories. But I have to confess that this traditional tale was not what I would ...
Sermon
John N. Brittain
... and reminds us that the unfathomable graciousness of God's act in Jesus Christ cannot be limited by time or space. Perhaps it is an indication of the complexity of the content of our lesson that verses 3-14 are one long sentence in the original manuscripts; translators (and for that matter editors of modern Greek New Testaments) have added punctuation to help us. Paul (or the later disciple of his who penned this letter) has so much to say about God, the relationship of the various members of the Trinity ...
2472. Showing Up
Ephesians 3:1-12
Sermon
John N. Brittain
... 's "showing up," that is. Epiphany is one of the oldest festivals in the Christian church and was first celebrated in the Eastern church to commemorate the coming of Christ to the world. The word "epiphany" means "appearing" or "manifestation" in Greek. The day originally celebrated a threefold "appearing" of Christ: The "appearing" of Jesus as a baby at his birth, the manifestation of his divinity at his baptism in the Jordan by John when the voice from heaven proclaimed him to be God's Son, and his first ...
2473. The Way Things Are
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
Sermon
John N. Brittain
... start out with this quote from Isaiah 29 about God destroying the wisdom of the wise and the discernment or intelligence of others. So clearly there is an important teaching here. We do need to put it in context. According to Acts, Paul had originally arrived in Corinth after his visit to Athens. In Corinth, he would have encountered the same fascination with public speaking that is described in Acts 17:21: "Now all the Athenians and the foreigners living there would spend their time in nothing but telling ...
2474. By Whose Standards?
1 Corinthians 4:1-5
Sermon
John N. Brittain
... than it does us. I once heard a preacher described as being "long on Greek and short on common-sense," so I always try to avoid superfluous allusions to the biblical languages since we have such an abundance of wonderful translations. (You know, in the original Greek, the term used here means "ordinary." Isn't that why all the translations say, "ordinary"?) But in this case, a little word study has its place. When we see the word "servant" in the New Testament it most often translates the Greek term doulos ...
2475. Dust and Ashes Wednesday
2 Corinthians 5:11 – 6:13
Sermon
David O. Bales
... horrified with the beatings, the whippings, and the humiliation Jesus suffered. It's not pretty. It's real. No matter what skeptics in the ancient or modern world might say, Christianity isn't a religion anyone would make up. Considering what Christianity originally meant (not the Christian faith's styrofoam substitute in America, promising that faith will make everyone healthy, wealthy, and wise), Christianity is about Jesus' dying a painful death for us and our life changed into his pattern, who'd make up ...
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