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
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Sermon
Charles R. Leary
... God’s house now. We are honored guests where God invites us to absorb as much of his likeness as we are capable. Eucharist is a personal encounter, a one-on-one meeting with Jesus Christ. When our companions see us, they may think we are perfect specimens of health and beauty. But no one knows what pain, what struggle, what emptiness, what need for approval, yes, what guilt, we carry behind that good appearance. Right here in these moments we are as near as this life will allow us to being completely free ...
2. Portraying Jesus
Illustration
Phillip Yancey
... . One tradition dating back to the second century suggested Jesus was a hunchback. In the Middle Ages, Christians widely believed that Jesus had suffered from leprosy. Most Christians today would find such notions repulsive and perhaps heretical. Was he not a perfect specimen of humanity? Yet in all the Bible there is only one physical description of sorts, a prophecy written hundreds of years before Christ’s birth. Here is Isaiah’s portrayal, in the midst of a passage that the New Testament applies ...
Sermon
John Smylie
When we think of the Lord Jesus, we tend to think of what he has done for us. We think of how he has liberated human beings from the bondage of sin and death through his own death and resurrection. Sometimes we may forget that our Lord is the Lord of all creation. His sacrifice once, for all, had an impact on a religious system where sacrifice no longer became necessary. The following story is told from the perspective of one of the animals whose life Jesus saved. Snap! Crack! Snap! "Ouch," I cried. You ...
Sermon
King Duncan
"Behold, the potter was working at the wheel And the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter. So he made it over reworking it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make it." (Jeremiah 18:3,4 Amplified Bible) It was a classic episode of "I Love Lucy." Lucy had taken a job at a candy factory and she was being trained on the first day of her new job. It was Lucy's duty to stand at a conveyor belt with pieces of candy continuously passing in front of her. She ...
5. Acres of Diamonds
1 Timothy 6:10
Sermon
Russell Conwell
I am astonished that so many people should care to hear this story over again. Indeed, this lecture has become a study in psychology; it often breaks all rules of oratory, departs from the precepts of rhetoric, and yet remains the most popular of any lecture I have delivered in the fifty-seven years of my public life. I have sometimes studied for a year upon a lecture and made careful research, and then presented the lecture just once -- never delivered it again. I put too much work on it. But this had no ...
Sermon
Carl Jech
But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. (John 14:26) If you have visited the Kremlin in Moscow, one of the things that probably sticks in your memory is the tomb of Lenin. I have heard visitors comment that the emphasis on tombs and monuments in the Soviet Union almost makes it seem as if the Soviet people worship cemeteries. In contrast to being entombed and put on display like a ...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
[An inventory of things accumulating in one of your closets or a drawer stuffed with all sorts of interesting items . . . these visuals would greatly enhance your preaching of this sermon.] Grace to you and peace, sisters and brothers. From the one who is . . . the one who was . . . and the one who is to come. Good morning, saints. [Wait for a good morning.] Good morning, sinners. [Wait for a LOUDER good morning.] We're all here. And all we are is here. And I'm delighted YOU'RE here. Icons are not having ...
Sermon
King Duncan
A Jewish comedian tells about two men of his faith who met on the street. "Abe, why are you looking so sad?" asks Isaac. Abe answers: "It's my son. I sent him off to college, and now he has come back home all full of Gentile ideas. Where did I go wrong?" Isaac says: "FUNNY YOU SHOULD MENTION IT! My son, too, has come home from college, with his head all messed up, filled with Gentile ideas. There is but one course open to us. We will ask the Rabbi." So they go to the Synagogue and obtain an audience with ...
Drama
Matthew Powell
Cast Edgar 1 Edgar 2 Bartimaeus Tintoes Helene Essay Reader 1 Essay Reader 2 Essay Reader 3 (Edgar 1 sits facing the audience and addresses the audience only. Edgar 2 stands next to him, but speaks to himself and the other characters in the play. Helene and Essay Readers 1-3 sit at center and stand when they "enter") Edgar 1: I rubbed my eyes and looked at the letter a second time. Yes, I was not asleep; the thing had happened. There was my cup of coffee and the half-eaten donut just as I had left them ...
Sermon
Carlyle Fielding Stewart
There is something strange and paradoxical about the faith of Christians, and many people struggle to understand how we can celebrate the life of someone who died on a cross; someone who didn't fit the conventional criteria of success; someone who brought good and joy to the world, yet was executed by the very people to whom he brought goodness. How could God take someone who was penniless and make us wealthy; someone who was homeless and provide us with a many-roomed mansion in our Father's house? What a ...
11. I Love You, Too
1 John 4:7-21
Sermon
Nancy Kraft
When someone says, "I love you," the natural reply is, "I love you, too." If you're in a loving relationship with someone, you expect those words in response. Our passage from 1 John today tells us that this is the kind of relationship God has with us. It's not just about saying the words, though. We heard John telling us last week: "Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action" (1 John 3:18). This week he says it like this: "We love because God first loved us" (1 John 4:19 ...
12. Do You Have It?
Ephesians 4:17--5:21
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
Lent is one of the primary seasons of the Christian calendar. But this year that phrase "primary season" has a different meaning. Lent may be a primary season of prayer and fasting, repentance and introspection in a theological context. But in 2008 this is "primary season," which means something very different in a political context. No matter how apolitical you may be, it has been impossible to avoid the 2008 "primary season." The pious pronouncements of the endless parade of political pundits can become ...
Sermon
King Duncan
“Shoot Me First.” That’s what a courageous 13-year-old Amish girl said to the crazed man who broke into her school on Monday, October 2, 2006. “Shoot Me First.” He did shoot her, killing her along with five of her schoolmates, aged seven to thirteen. Then he killed himself. The shooter, Charles Carl Roberts, a 32-year-old milkman entered the humble one-room schoolhouse with the intent of killing as many students as possible. But one student, Marian Fisher, the oldest of the five Amish girls shot dead that ...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
How many of you have had the experience of being stripped naked before a room full of strangers? Anyone here this morning ever been strip-searched? You have if you’re a frequent flier. You have if you’ve recently flown through any of the sixty-plus airports that now use “full body scans” as part of their security procedures. Just as the “shoe bomber” made it a requirement for all of us to pad around barefoot on grungy airport floors, the “underwear bomber” has led to the use of these virtual strip-down ...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
Some of us are born with green thumbs — able to water and plant barren landscapes into lush gardens. Some of us are born with gangrene thumbs — unable even to grow a “Chia Pet.” Some people are born with the ability to take things apart and put things back together. They are handy-dandy, fixer-uppers from the get go. But in the most shallow part of the wading area of that “fixer-upper” gene pool, there are those of us who should never be allowed to handle hammers, screwdrivers, or saws. There are those ( ...
Sermon
Derl G. Keefer
The story is told of young boy in a church Christmas program who had one line to remember. His role was that of the Angel of the Lord and his one line consisted of: “Behold, I bring you good tidings.” He wasn’t clear about the word “tidings” so he asked his mother what it meant. She defined it as “news.” Sunday morning the play was going smoothly and all was well. He was sent onto the stage as the Angel of the Lord announcing to the shepherds about God’s message. When he got on stage and looked out at the ...
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