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10,045 illustrations — Lessons from history, biography, and world events
Joseph Exell, resident in Jerusalem during the 1880s, discovered the answer through direct observation of Palestine's seasonal rhythms.
SermonWise.ai generates complete sermon outlines for any passage across 17 theological traditions.
Peter's response cuts to the heart of a peculiar modern delusion: "Thy money perish with thee." Simon believed, as many in our commercial age believe, that wealth can purchase anything—even the gifts of Elohim.
This is not arbitrary cruelty but the operation of a law that has governed history from its beginning.
Diligence stands opposed not merely to laziness, but equally to rashness—that premature and inconsiderate haste which ruins many endeavors.
Exell's Victorian commentary unpacks the deceptive nature of rebellion: "Treason and rebellion are such horrid and loathsome crimes that if they should appear in their native visage and genuine deformity they could never form a party." Instead, they insinuate themselves...
These common sayings often accomplish what statute books cannot: they stir the soul to its depths and regulate life and manners with remarkable power.
Love is no sentimental weakness; it is the ardent, sagacious, far-sighted virtue that Scripture commends.
Paul addresses the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians 8:2, warning those who placed high estimate upon philosophical comprehension of religious truth: "If any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know." Pride injures...
Exell's Victorian analysis unfolds the nature of Messiah's government in three essential movements.
When Paul recounts his visit to Jerusalem in Galatians 1:19, he distinguishes James from the other apostles, yet acknowledges his singular influence.
So too, a godly man will not gain—nor desire to gain—so much as a shoe-string through profaning the Sabbath with merchants, through fraud or deceit, through oppression or extortion, through usury (the devil's brokery), or through any unlawful or indirect...
Joseph Parker, D.D., asks: Is there not stirring in the human heart the recognition that *I was meant to be a king*?
This truth presents two terrible events in human history.
The prophet identifies three critical elements of state stability: the good counsel of wise senators, a strong disciplined army, and adequate finances.
The way of genuine beneficence unfolds in three movements: first, we give bountifully, not grudgingly.
If only we possessed unbounded wealth, we imagine, how generously we would serve mankind.
Every person becomes his brother's keeper within this divine arrangement.
Barnes and William Ellery Channing, articulates the multifaceted obligations each demands.
First, consider who bestows it: Yahweh Himself, the Giver of all good gifts.
We must not only get, but keep, this precious treasure, retaining it in our hearts, showing it forth in all our behaviour, and refusing to part with it on any account.
The Old Testament tabernacles, though elaborate and divinely ordained, were temporal structures taken down and rebuilt.
First, the public conscience is gratified by the prosperity of the righteous.
Yet some members deliberately fracture this sanctuary through ill-nature, impulsiveness, falsehood, and selfishness.
The psalmist had known confinement—threading narrow mountain paths, hiding in cavern cracks and corners while fleeing Saul's persecution.