... what is happening. Jesus says, “Unless I wash you, you have no share in me.” Wow. It could not be much more clear. Unless we accept the ministry of Jesus as a servant ministry we have no real part in it. Unless we ourselves become servants, debasing ourselves in service of others, we really do not participate in the ministry of Jesus. Unless we pour ourselves out for others as Jesus did for us, we are missing the mark. How difficult that must have been for Peter to fathom. How difficult, one is led ...
... servant!" How could our Sovereign Lord become a servant for us; why would he? John the Baptist said of Jesus, "I am not good enough to even untie his sandals." We should be bowing before him; acknowledging his greatness and glory, and yet, with gracious self-debasement the Infinite becomes an infant, the King of Heaven becomes a babe in Bethlehem's barn. His first home was heaven, his next was a stable. His first address was "The Holy City," he grew up in Nazareth, a little obscure village. He who had been ...
... an excellent pattern for the solving of differences in any convention or meeting of the church. And, we might add, they are the basic ingredients in the solving of family disputes or hassles between friends. The acceptance of Christ as Lord, debating issues, not debasing people, listening, and being open to the guidance of the Holy Spirit through patience and persistence - these ingredients are the way to unity and solidarity for all, who would claim to be a part of the Body of Christ. A legend tells us of ...
... of that island, we had lived with death - the sight of it, the sound of it, the scream of it, the stench of it. Death! For nearly a month, we had witnessed death in its most violent, its most sudden, its most futile, its most bloody, its most debasing ways. For days, we had collected bodies, we had burned bodies, we had carried bodies, we had buried bodies. And so we gathered for our Easter Service. It wasn’t in any lovely lily-bedecked sanctuary such as this. It was a smelly mess hall below decks aboard ...
... of their personalities. Our vision is dominated by the fact that all persons are made in the image of God, and are designed to be our sisters and brothers. Perhaps in the past we may have regarded Democrats or Republicans as people of debased motives, flawed attitude: dangerous goals. But guess what happens when Jesus captures our hearts. We find ourselves loving Republicans and Democrats when we disagree with them. Sounds almost un-American, doesn’t it? In the past we may have regarded homosexual persons ...
... being a part of the design of the Creator. We Christians believe that human sexuality is a gift of God for the expression of love and the generation of life. As with every good gift, it can be subject to abuses which cause suffering and debasement. We see exploitation of our sexuality on every side: prostitution, media advertising, pornography, child abuse, filthy jokes, and language. These are all distortions of God’s good gift. In our homes and in our churches with our children, we need to help sort out ...
... whereby man and God come together. But it is only the injured party that can forgive and restore a situation, isn’t it? If I injure you in any way I simply cannot restore the situation. I might buy you presents - smother you with flattery - utterly debase myself in your presence - but the situation is not restored until you make the movement. For if I actually succeed in buying my way back into the old relationship it really isn’t the old relationship at all. Something is forever missing. Only you can ...
... that they did was only the parrot-like echo of Christ’s real enemies, the priests, and the Scribes, and the Pharisees. This was the epitome of evil - evil done for a supposedly religious motive. Sometimes it’s difficult to remember how unabashedly debased and barbaric men can become. They witness a scene that should bring forth all of the sympathy and tenderness that a human heart might evoke, and there is nothing except this devilish demonstration of animal cruelty. We can remember that some years ...
... hymn of thanksgiving - he tells the world all he thought and did. Monica, his mother, continued to pray for her wayward son, and the great Ambrose gave direction from the lofty pulpit in Milan. It was traumatic wrestling, wrestling with his guilt-ridden, debased being. Finally, in September of A.D. 386, in a garden in Milan - where he was public orator - Augustine experienced a personal Gethsemane, "tearing his hair, clutching his knees, wringing his hands," asking why God would not hear and come to him. "I ...
... all. He read his Bible. The bishop then took up his pen and began a work which would require twenty years to complete. Let Rome fall, he insisted; she has lived out her service to history and humanity. Once so proud and beautiful, Rome had become debased, licentious. Those false Roman deities, worshiped with obscene rites, should have been discarded centuries ago. It was time for Rome to go, to make room for a fresh new city - the City of God. This literary masterpiece, City of God, stands as a classic in ...
... and He has changed my life." This reformed highwayman was just one of many persons through the centuries who were headed down the wrong road until Jesus stepped into the scene. (3) Here is the answer to all discouragement, all disillusionment, all debasement. Let Jesus step into the scene. Clarence Darrow, the great criminal lawyer of another day, had among his friends a young minister. This seems strange, because, as you remember, Darrow was usually thought of as an atheist, infidel, agnostic or what have ...
... thing is that many of us take pride in being streaky. We refuse to see how much better life could be if we could declare here and now, "I am a child of the King. I am joined with Christ. Christ sets me free from feeling that I have to debase myself in any way." No more pain. Christ can set us free from slavery to sin. CHRIST CAN ALSO SET US FREE FROM MEANINGLESSNESS AND DESPAIR. Jesus is saying to us that when we know the truth about who we are ” sons and daughters of the Divine ” than we no ...
... campaign promises, what advertising campaign is the dissemination of accurate information and what advertising is psychological manipulation. Anxiety is the natural result of fearing that my spouse will be faithless, my employees dishonest, my environment poisoned, the money in my pockets debased by inflation, the wheels will fall off of my new car, the washer repairman will not show up on Wednesday morning even though I have stayed home from work in order to let him in, the can opener that I just bought ...
... Christians valued the life of all people, whether male or female, and prohibited the killing of any children." (4) But the revolution is not complete. We still live in a pre-Christian world. There is still too much hatred, too much violence, too much debasement of human dignity. If you are comfortable in Jesus' presence, you simply do not see him as he really is. Chuck Swindoll tells about a commercial venture of one of the largest department stores in our nation. It proved to be disastrously unsuccessful ...
... to remember that our rightful human place is in the family of God. I must tell myself this, for other people, in those instances when I despair for someone's in humanity and degradation. Whatever that human being may seem at this moment to be, no matter how debased or unlovable he may have become, he is still someone whose original family ties are with God. I dare not give up on any human being; because he or she has the potential, by God's action in Jesus Christ, to rejoin the heavenly family. Nor dare I ...
... by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” (53:2b-5) Why did Christ yield himself to experience such debasement? Why was he disfigured? So that you and I might be people with shining faces. People whose love, peace and joy show from our heart into our eyes. Don’t you want a shining face? 1. Michael E. Hodgin, Humorous Illustrations For Public Speaking (Grand ...
... our society--physically, emotionally, socially and spiritually. It has destroyed reputations and destroyed families. Anyone who does not understand that simply has his or her head buried in the sand. And it hurts the heart of God. It hurts God to see men and women debased and distraught because they chose to disregard their faith in this one area of their lives. I realize we have the tendency to blow sexual sins out of proportion in our culture compared to other sins such as avarice and prejudice, but it is ...
... do anything illegal, we are free to do whatever we choose. We do not accept any higher moral authority than the whims of self. That which is right is what each person decides is right. Indeed, we have no need for God. This secular worldview debases our values and stultifies the human spirit. It deludes us into thinking that our technology, knowledge, and wealth can solve all our problems and empower us to the abundance of life. In spite of the allure of its dazzling glitz, this worldview just doesn't bring ...
... excitement, "All I've ever needed and wanted was to read the word of God, and He gave me the Bible in Braille." Southern Baptists, we ought to preach this book, promote this book, and practice this book, and any time this word is diluted, denied, or debased, we ought to defend it with pride. That is a battle worth fighting. IV. There Is a Personal Responsibility We Must Complete Paul says to Timothy in chapter 4, verse 5, "do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry." I want you to see the linkage ...
... in the welter of it all - how to distinguish the valuable cultural extension of Christmas from the pretense, the true branch from the tin." The real "crime of Christmas" is "not that it distracts us from Christ, but that, Christ being inextricably involved in Christmas, it debases him. The Incarnation put the mystery of God's presence into our hands. We are left, then, with the work of culture. We are charged with making a life in which God can be with us. To defend Christmas, we must not only worship; we ...
... -discipline, the Servant receives instruction from the Lord GOD "Morning by morning" (v.4). The Servant's ear is continually cocked and ready for the latest word from the Lord. The abuse heaped upon the Servant embodies three of the most humiliating and debasing forms of punishment that could be meted out. The Servant gives his back: where he can be freely struck without hope of protecting himself. The Servant offers his cheeks: allowing his beard, a badge of maturity and virility, to be plucked out. The ...
... seemingly comprehend less and less. Between Mark 8-10, the gospel writer has Jesus and his disciples play out a similar exchange three separate times. In 8:31; 9:30-32; and 10:33-34, Jesus articulates clear predictions of his approaching rejection, his debasement and death, and his resurrection from the dead. Each of these passion predictions are then followed by some of the most ignorant, wrong-headed comments made anywhere by the disciples. In 8:32-33 Peter rebukes Jesus; in 9:33-34 all the disciples ...
... ” from that corpse. But does anyone doubt that for Paul there were not daily re-enactments of that death and resurrection drama? Every time Paul the Pharisee was denied access to a synagogue. Every time Paul the rabbi was accused of debasing the Torah. Every time Paul the Roman citizen was treated like a common criminal, clapped into jail, refused his rights. Paul the Jew, ostracized, rejected, cursed, vilified, beaten, humiliated, abandoned by his own people, by people who had their own history ...
... nowhere such an outright condemnation of the temple as such. M. Simon has suggested that to Stephen the temple meant from the beginning “a falling away from the authentic tradition of Israel” as God had inspired and directed it, so that Israel’s was “a debased and corrupt form of religion” (p. 45), especially now that One greater than the temple had come (Matt. 12:6). Not only was the temple unnecessary, but it had become another instance of the people’s perversity. The two themes of Stephen’s ...
... 23:26), was granted this status. Evidently, he was a Greek, but following custom, he had adopted the praenomen and nomen (Claudius) of his benefactor, retaining his own name, Lysias, as his cognomen (see note on 13:9). His sarcastic comment about the prisoner “debasing the currency” produced something of a put-down in reply. Whereas the prefect had purchased the privilege, Paul had been born to it. We know nothing of the circumstances in which Paul’s father (or earlier) had come by his status, but as ...