Hope

Passages

Every passage tagged with this emotion in the Vela corpus. Search the body text, narrow by source or register, click through to a book’s profile to see how the passage sits with the rest of the work.

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• From Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family (1901)

  He could hardly bring his glass of grog to his mouth at night without spilling half, the devil made his arm tremble so much. There was no use cursing ... The will no longer triumphed ... Still! He had a life behind him, a not entirely poor life. With alert eyes he had seen the world. Revolutions and wars had passed, and their surges had also gone through his heart... so to speak. Ha, dammit, those were different times when he was sitting at the side of the senator's father during that historic city council meeting, had defied the onslaught of the angry mob alongside Consul Johann Buddenbrook! The most terrible of horrors... No, his life hadn't been poor, even internally not that much. Damn it, he had felt powers, and as with power, so is the ideal – says Feuerbach. And even now, even now... his soul was not impoverished, his heart was young at heart, it had never stopped, would never stop being capable of grandiose experiences, enclosing his ideals warmly and faithfully... He would take her to his grave , certainly! But were ideals there to be attained and realized? no way! You don't covet the stars, but hope... oh, hope, not fulfilment, hope was the best thing in life. Damn it, he had felt powers, and as with power, so is the ideal – says Feuerbach. And even now, even now... his soul was not impoverished, his heart had remained young, it had never stopped, would never stop being capable of grandiose experiences, enclosing his ideals warmly and faithfully... He would take her to his grave , certainly! But were ideals there to be attained and realized? no way! You don't covet the stars, but hope... oh, hope, not fulfilment, hope was the best thing in life. Damn it, he had felt powers, and as with power, so is the ideal – says Feuerbach. And even now, even now... his soul was not impoverished, his heart was young at heart, it had never stopped, would never stop being capable of grandiose experiences, enclosing his ideals warmly and faithfully... He would take her to his grave , certainly! But were ideals there to be attained and realized? no way! You don't covet the stars, but hope... oh, hope, not fulfilment, hope was the best thing in life. to enclose his ideals warmly and faithfully... He would take them to his grave, certainly! But were ideals there to be attained and realized? no way! You don't covet the stars, but hope... oh, hope, not fulfilment, hope was the best thing in life. to enclose his ideals warmly and faithfully... He would take them to his grave, certainly! But were ideals there to be attained and realized? no way! You don't covet the stars, but hope... oh, hope, not fulfilment, hope was the best thing in life.L'esperancetoute trompeuse qu'elle est, sert au moins à nous mener à la fin de la vie par un chemin agréable.

• From Blue Like Jazz (2003)

  I loved my mom, Don, and I still do. But I hate that her mind has been taken. I hate that I can’t have normal interaction with her.” When Penny was eleven her parents divorced, and after the breakup she moved west with her father, spending a year sailing around the Pacific on her father’s sailboat before eventually settling in a tiny mountain town in eastern Washington. During those first three weeks in France, it was comforting for Penny that Nadine cared so much about her past and her story. This helped Penny listen to Nadine’s story, and one night while walking on a beach in the south of France, Nadine explained to Penny why she was a Christian. She said that she believed Christ was a revolutionary, a humanitarian of sorts, sent from God to a world that had broken itself. Penny was frustrated that Nadine was a Christian. She couldn’t believe that a girl this kind and accepting could subscribe to the same religion that generated the Crusades, funded the Republicans, or fathered religious television. But over the year at Sarah Lawrence, Nadine’s flavor of Christianity became increasingly intriguing to Penny. Penny began to wonder if Christianity, were it a person, might in fact like her. She began to wonder if she and Christianity might get along, if they might have things in common. The first time Penny told me the story of how she became a Christian we were walking through Laurelhurst Park, the beautiful park down the street from my house where lesbians go to walk their dogs. “Nadine and I would sit for hours in her room,” she began. “Mostly we would talk about boys or school, but always, by the end of it, we talked about God. The thing I loved about Nadine was that I never felt like she was selling anything. She would talk about God as if she knew Him, as if she had talked to Him on the phone that day. She was never ashamed, which is the thing with some Christians I had encountered. They felt like they had to sell God, as if He were soap or a vacuum cleaner, and it’s like they really weren’t listening to me; they didn’t care, they just wanted me to buy their product. I came to realize that I had judged all Christians on the personalities of a few. That was frightening for me, too, because it had been so easy just to dismiss Christians as nuts, but here was Nadine. I didn’t have a category for her. To Nadine, God was a being with which she interacted, and even more, Don, Nadine believed that God liked her. I thought that was beautiful. And more than that, her faith was a spiritual thing that produced a humanitarianism that was convicting. I was really freaked out, because I wanted to be good, but I wasn’t good, I was selfish, and Nadine, well, she was pretty good. I mean she wasn’t selfish.

• From Love & Sex: A Christian Guide to Healthy Intimacy (2018)

  “Now, before we move on, I want to encourage you with something. As you are beginning to trust others by sharing your story, I want you to know God is working in your life and on your behalf. He gives His promise to us that He started a good work with us, and He won’t quit until He is done. I want to read you a verse from Philippians 1:6. It says, ‘There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears.’” Olivia looked around at the women. “How does it feel to know God is on your side?” One by one, the women responded by nodding and giving soft replies of relief. Vanessa was still rigidly sitting, engulfed in a cloud of discernible pain. Olivia made eye contact with her and asked, “Vanessa, is there anything you would like to say or is there anything stirring inside of you that you would like to share with the group?” “I told you, I don’t want to talk about it! Besides, I am fine,” Vanessa retorted. Olivia knew all too well that “fine” was code for there is so much inside of me, I don’t know where to begin. And that “fine” is a form of resistance, resistance to give language to reality. “What was so hurtful, Vanessa, that you won’t talk about it?” Olivia asked, following her resistance. “I don’t want to go there,” Vanessa answered. “You aren’t ready to go there,” Olivia replied. “No,” everyone could feel her heels digging in. “Okay, let us know when you are ready. We are here to listen to whatever it is you won’t talk about and to care for your heart when you are ready.” Olivia knew to back off. “What are boundaries?” Betty asked “What makes you ask, Betty?” Olivia queried. “I don’t think I have any,” Betty answered. “Yeah, me neither,” Holly interjected. Olivia replied, “Dr. Townsend says it like this. Imagine you have a neighbor who never waters his lawn. Whenever you turn on your sprinkler system, your water only falls on his lawn. Your grass is turning brown and dying, but your neighbors grass looks great. If you would define the property lines a little better, if you would fix the sprinkler system so the water fell on your lawn, and if he didn’t water his lawn, he would have to live with the dirt. He might not like that after a while. As it stands now, he is irresponsible and happy, and you are responsible and miserable. A boundary clarification would do the trick. You need some fences to keep his problems out of your yard and in his, where they belong.” Holly chimed in, “Well, isn’t that a bit cold? You know, to just stop helping?” “Has helping—helped?” Olivia asked.

• From Love & Sex: A Christian Guide to Healthy Intimacy (2018)

  “We are learning by doing and practicing. So let’s take a break and get back into our groups. We are going to process how to be a loving, compassionate, and kind community to one another. Let’s talk about our trust issues and how trust was shaped and formed in our lives, and then let’s tune in to what we are experiencing. Notice when your breathing changes, name your emotions, and ask for what you need. The questions for this group time are on the screen. Listen and learn from each other. But before you break, let me pray for you. “Jesus, You are the healer of our lives, our hearts, brains, and emotions. We invite You into the process time and pray You would help us connect the data with our emotions. Help us connect the right side of our beautiful brain with the left. You are a good Father who longs to gather up His children and hold them near, as You rewire our broken places. Amen.” MOVING FORWARD 1.​What was growing up like in your family? 2.​How did your parents build trust with you? 3.​Give three words describing your relationship with your mom, three for your dad. Share the descriptions with your group. For example: Mom was warm and present, or maybe cold and angry. Dad was fun and kind, or violent and critical. 4.​How was that for you to share part of your story with the group? 5.​Locate and name an emotion you are experiencing right now. Example: scared, sad, angry, disgusted, annoyed, frustrated, lost, or compassion, wonder, hope, empathy . . . 6.​Invite the presence of Jesus into these memories and into your story. TEN Cultivating Happiness “There are three elements we want to cultivate to create I healthy relationships and healthy sexual relating. What are these three elements? They are: intimacy, attachment, and passion. 1. “Intimacy—learning to be intimate with another person means we practice opening up and letting them in. It means we are willing to tolerate the risk of being known and knowing the other. It means we practice vulnerability and honesty, which builds trust in the relationship. We can accept and grieve the negative realities of loving another person. We understand we are not with a perfect person. They have strengths and weaknesses; they have flaws and areas in need of growth—just like we do. “As intimacy grows, so does security. A relationship cannot move to attachment without intimacy, which is the capacity to let another person see and know you, and to have the relational intelligence to want to know the other. If I won’t let you in to know me, you have nothing to attach to, and if you won’t let me in, I can’t attach to you.

• From Blue Like Jazz (2003)

  I don’t know why he did it. He didn’t become a Christian till he was in college, so maybe he didn’t know he wasn’t supposed to say cusswords and be a pastor. I think some of my friends believed that it was the goal of the devil to get people to say cusswords, so they thought Mark was possessed or something, and they told me I should not really get into anything he was a part of. Because of the cusswords. But like I said, I was dying inside, and even though Mark said cusswords, he was telling a lot of people about Jesus, and he was being socially active, and he seemed to love a lot of people the church was neglecting, like liberals and fruit nuts. About the time I was praying that God would help me find a church, I got a call from Mark the Cussing Pastor, and he said he had a close friend who was moving to Portland to start a church and that I should join him. Rick and I got together over coffee, and I thought he was hilarious. He was big, a football player out of Chico State. At the time we both chewed tobacco, so we had that in common. He could do a great Tony Soprano voice, sort of a Mafia thing. He would do this routine where he pretended to be a Mafia boss who was planting a church. He said a few cusswords but not as bad as Mark. Rick said there were a few people meeting at his house to talk about what it might look like to start a church in Portland, and he invited me to come. I could feel that God was answering my prayer so I went. There were only about eight of us, mostly kids, mostly teens just out of high school. I felt like I was at a youth group, honestly. I didn’t think the thing was going to fly. Rick’s wife made us coffee, and we sat around his living room, and Rick read us some statistics about how very many churches have moved out of the cities and into the suburbs and said how he wanted us to plant in the city. Rick really wanted to redeem the image of the church to people who had false conceptions about it. Pretty soon there were twenty or so of us, so we got this little chapel at a college near downtown and started having church. It felt funny at church, you know, because there were only twenty of us and it was mostly just kids, but I still believed this was how God was going to answer my prayer. We didn’t grow much, to be honest. We stayed at about thirty or so, all Christians who had moved to Imago from other churches.

• From Blue Like Jazz (2003)

  I know a little of why there is blood in my body, pumping life into my limbs and thought into my brain. I am wanted by God. He is wanting to preserve me, to guide me through the darkness of the shadow of death, up into the highlands of His presence and afterlife. I understand that I am temporary, in this shell of a thing on this dirt of an earth. I am being tempted by Satan, we are all being tempted by Satan, but I am preserved to tell those who do not know about our Savior and our Redeemer. This is why Paul had no questions. This is why he could be beaten one day, imprisoned the next, and released only to be beaten again and never ask God why. He understood the earth was fallen. He understood the rules of Rome could not save mankind, that mankind could not save itself; rather, it must be rescued, and he knew that he was not in the promised land, but still in the desert, and like Joshua and Caleb he was shouting, “Follow me and trust God!” I see it now. I see that God was reaching out to Penny in the dorm room in France, and I see that the racism Laura and I talked about grows from the anarchy seed, the seed of the evil one. I could see Satan lashing out on the earth like a madman, setting tribes against each other in Rwanda, whispering in men’s ears in the Congo so that they rape rather than defend their women. Satan is at work in the cults of the Third World, the economic chaos in Argentina, and the corporate-driven greed of American corporate executives. I lay there under the stars and thought of what a great responsibility it is to be human. I am a human because God made me. I experience suffering and temptation because mankind chose to follow Satan. God is reaching out to me to rescue me. I am learning to trust Him, learning to live by His precepts that I might be preserved. 10 Belief The Birth of Cool MY MOST RECENT FAITH STRUGGLE IS NOT ONE of intellect. I don’t really do that anymore. Sooner or later you just figure out there are some guys who don’t believe in God and they can prove He doesn’t exist, and some other guys who do believe in God and they can prove He does exist, and the argument stopped being about God a long time ago and now it’s about who is smarter, and honestly I don’t care. I don’t believe I will ever walk away from God for intellectual reasons. Who knows anything anyway? If I walk away from Him, and please pray that I never do, I will walk away for social reasons, identity reasons, deep emotional reasons, the same reasons that any of us do anything.

• From Heptaméron (1559)

  " Much I care what name men give me," said Enna- suite ; " only let me have God's pardon and my husband's too, there is no reason why I should wish to die." " If this lady loved her husband as she ought," said Dagoucin, " I am surprised she did not die of grief at looking upon the bones of him whom her crime had brought to death." " Why, Dagoucin," said Simontault, " have you yet to learn that women know neither love nor regret ?" 304 THE HEPTAMERON OF THE \Nmet ^x " Yes," he replied, " for I have never ventured to prove their love for fear of finding it less than I should have wished." " You live, then, on faith and hope," said Normerfide, " as the plover lives on wind. You are easily kept," " I content myself with the love I feel in my own heart," he replied, " and with the hope that there is the same in the hearts of ladies. But if I was quite sure that that love corresponded to my hope, I should feel a pleasure so extreme that I could not sustain it and live." " Keep yourself safe from the plague," said Geburon, " for as for the other malady, I warrant you against it. But let us see to whom Madame Oisille will give her voice." " I give it," she said, " to Simontault, who I know will spare no one." " That is as much as to say that I am rather given to evil speaking," said he. " I shall, nevertheless, let you see that people who have been regarded in that same light have yet spoken the truth. I believe, ladies, you are not so simple as to put faith in everything a person tells you, however sanctified an air he may assume, un- less the proof is clear beyond doubt. Many an abuse is committed under the guise of a miracle. Therefore I intend to relate to you a story not less honourable to a religious prince than shameful to a wicked minister ol the church." Fourth iiay.\ QUEEN OF NAVARRE. 305 NOVEL XXXIII. Incest of a priest, who got his sister with child under the cloak of sanctity, and how it was punished.

• From Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family (1901)

  The rapidity with which he twirled the tip of his mustache between his fingers was a strange contrast to the blurred, fixed, and aimless immobility of his gaze. He paid no attention to his sister's laments or to the speculations she made about the future life of her friend Armgard, nor did he notice that Gerda, without turning her head towards him, looked at her close-set brown eyes, with bluish shadows at the corners , held firmly and peering at him. Second chapter Thomas Buddenbrook was never able to look into the future of little Johann with the look of dull displeasure with which he awaited the rest of his own life. His sense of family, that inherited and cultivated, backwards as well as forwards-looking, reverent interest in the intimate history of his house prevented him, and the affectionate or curious expectation with which his friendship and acquaintance in the town, his sister, and even the Buddenbrook ladies looking at his son on Breite Strasse influenced his thoughts. He told himself with satisfaction that no matter how worn out and hopeless he himself felt for himself, he could, in the face of his small successor's ever-enlivening future dreams of efficiency, practical and uninhibited work, success, acquisition, power, What if, in his old age, from a quiet corner he himself could see the beginning of the old days again, the time of Hanno's great-grandfather? Was this hope so utterly impossible? He had found music to be his enemy; but was it really so serious? Admittedly, that the boy's love of free play without notes testified to a not entirely normal disposition - in regular instruction from Mr. Pfühl he was by no means extremely advanced. Music, there was no question, was his mother's influence, and it is no wonder that this influence was predominant during the early years of his childhood. But the time began when a father is given the opportunity to influence his son in turn, to pull him a little on his side and to neutralize the previous female influences with male counter-impressions. And the senator was determined not to let any such opportunity go to waste. Hanno, now eleven years old, had been transferred to Quarta at Easter, just like his friend, little Count Mölln, with exacting difficulties and two re-examinations in arithmetic and geography. It was clear that he should attend the real classes, because it was a matter of course that he would have to become a businessman and take over the company one day, and to his father's questions as to whether he felt a desire for his future profession, he answered yes ... a simple, shy away from something Yes, without any additions, which the senator tried to make a little livelier and more detailed with further pressing questions - and mostly in vain. If Senator Buddenbrook had had two sons, there is no question that he would have let the younger one finish high school and study.

• From Love & Sex: A Christian Guide to Healthy Intimacy (2018)

  Olivia smiled. “So let’s talk about what you can expect from me and our group during our times together. Over the course of this year, we will want to address any trauma from your past, such as how attachment went for you as a child, and any tendencies you may have to rescue, fix, control, or take care of others. We will work on you finding your voice and setting healthy boundaries. Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend wrote a classic book several decades ago called Boundaries. It is one of the best books on understanding and learning how to set boundaries in our lives. I love that they teach, ‘Those with good boundaries have more love.’ I’ve experienced that to be so true, and I hope you do as well, as you begin to form new and healthy boundaries. “There will be grief work to do, so we will work on integrating the negative realities of life. For example, your husband may be a wonderful provider, care deeply for his children, love you and love God, and still have a porn addiction or have betrayed you in some way. This is possible because most people cut off the shameful parts of themselves and tuck them away in a hidden compartment. “When we learn how to celebrate the good and grieve the negative, our lives become much more holistic. Negative realities are a fact of life in any and every relationship. Jesus promised we would suffer in this world and experience hard and even bad things. He said bad things happen to good people. You did not deserve the bad things that have happened to you—we live in a fallen and broken world, and evil impacts all of us. This is why we will do grief work, so we can become more integrated and whole.” “I love what God said in Isaiah 61. Let’s take a minute and read this together. Isaiah 61:1–7 reads: The Spirit of God, the Master, is on me because God anointed me. He sent me to preach good news to the poor, heal the heartbroken, Announce freedom to all captives, pardon all prisoners. God sent me to announce the year of his grace—a celebration of God’s destruction of our enemies—and to comfort all who mourn, To care for the needs of all who mourn in Zion, give them bouquets of roses instead of ashes, Messages of joy instead of news of doom, a praising heart instead of a languid spirit. Rename them “Oaks of Righteousness” planted by God to display his glory. They’ll rebuild the old ruins, raise a new city out of the wreckage. They’ll start over on the ruined cities, take the rubble left behind and make it new. You’ll hire outsiders to herd your flocks and foreigners to work your fields, But you’ll have the title “Priests of God,” honored as ministers of our God. You’ll feast on the bounty of nations, you’ll bask in their glory.

• From Saint Thomas Aquinas Collection (22 Books) (2016)

  EUSEBIUS. For it was said, Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance. (Ps. 2:8.) But it was necessary that those who were converted from the Gentiles should be purged from a certain stain and defilement through His virtue, being as it were corrupted by the evil of the worship of devils, and as lately converted from an abominable and unchaste life. And therefore He says that it behoves that first repentance should be preached, but next, remission of sins, to all nations. For to those who first shewed repentance for their sins, by His saving grace He granted pardon of their transgression, for whom also He endured death. THEOPHYLACT. But herein that He says, Repentance and remission of sins, He also makes mention of baptism, in which by the putting off of our past sins there follows pardon of iniquity. But how must we understand baptism to be performed in the name of Christ alone, whereas in another place He commands it to be in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. First indeed we say that it is not meant that baptism is administered in Christ’s name alone, but that a person is baptized with the baptism of Christ, that is, spiritually, not Judaically, nor with the baptism, wherewith John baptized unto repentance only, but unto the participation of the blessed Spirit; as Christ also when baptized in Jordan manifested the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. Moreover you must understand baptism in Christ’s name to be in His death. For as He after death rose again on the third day, so we also are three times dipped in the water, and fitly brought out again, receiving thereby an earnest of the immortality of the Spirit. This name of Christ also contains in itself both the Father as the Anointer, and the Spirit as the Anointing, and the Son as the Anointed, that is, in His human nature. But it was fitting that the race of man should no longer be divided into Jews and Gentiles, and therefore that He might unite all in one, He commanded that their preaching should begin at Jerusalem, but be finished with the Gentiles. Hence it follows, Beginning at Jerusalem. (Rom. 3:2, Rom. 9:4.) BEDE. Not only because to them were entrusted the oracles of God, and theirs is the adoption and the glory, but also that the Gentiles entangled in various errors might by this sign of Divine mercy be chiefly invited to come to hope, seeing that to them even who crucified the Son of God pardon is granted.

• From Blue Like Jazz (2003)

  “I don’t know,” I confessed. “But after a while they stop sliding, and they get around in a big circle and start making noises. And what they are doing is looking for a mate. It’s crazy. It’s like a penguin nightclub or something—like a disco. They waddle around on the dance floor till they find a mate.” “Then what?” Tony asked, sort of laughing. “Penguin sex,” I said. “Penguin sex?” “Yes. Penguin sex. Right there on television. I felt like I was watching animal porn.” “What was it like?” he asked. “Less than exciting,” I told him. “Sort of a letdown.” “So what does penguins having sex have to do with belief in God?” Tony asked. “Well, I am getting to that. But let me tell you what else they do. First, the females lay eggs. They do that standing up. The eggs fall down between their legs, which are about an inch or something long, and the females rest the eggs on their feet. Then, the males go over to the females and the females give the males the eggs. Then, and this is the cool part, the females leave. They travel for days back to the ocean and jump in and go fishing.” “The females just take off and leave the men with the eggs?” Tony asked. “Yes. The males take care of the eggs. They sit on them. They have this little pocket between their legs where the egg goes. They gather around in an enormous circle to keep each other warm. The penguins on the inside of the circle very slowly move to the outside, and then back to the inside. They do this to take turns on the outside of the circle because it is really cold. They do this for an entire month.” “A month!” “Yes. The males sit out there on the eggs for a month. They don’t even eat. They just watch the eggs. Then the females come back, and right when they do, almost to the day, the eggs are hatched. The females somehow know, even though they have never had babies before, the exact day to go back to the males. And that is how baby penguins are made.” “Very interesting.” Tony clapped for me. “So what is the analogy here?” “I don’t know, really. It’s just that I identified with them. I know it sounds crazy, but as I watched I felt like I was one of those penguins. They have this radar inside them that told them when and where to go and none of it made any sense, but they show up on the very day their babies are being born, and the radar always turns out to be right. I have a radar inside me that says to believe in Jesus. Somehow, penguin radar leads them perfectly well. Maybe it isn’t so foolish that I follow the radar that is inside of me.”

• From Love & Sex: A Christian Guide to Healthy Intimacy (2018)

  Title : Love & Sex: A Christian Guide to Healthy Intimacy Author: Houston, Nancy Praise for LOVE & SEX “So many couples struggle in their sexual lives because they divide sex and love, which never works. True sexual fulfillment only really works in the context of intimacy and love; intimacy and love express themselves in the completeness of sexual fulfillment. Nancy Houston has written an excellent, practical, and very hopeful book on how to reintegrate the division. Love & Sex is highly recommended.” —John Townsend, Ph.D., New York Times bestselling author of Boundaries, founder of the Townsend Institute for Leadership and Counseling, and psychologist “Without question, one of the greatest communicators of our generation on Christian sex and intimacy is Nancy Houston.” —Amy Ford, president of Embrace Grace and author of A Bump in Life “Love & Sex: A Christian Guide to Healthy Intimacy is a must read! Nancy Houston communicates with excellence the meaning of healthy intimacy in a relevant and natural way. You will be drawn into the compelling stories as you discover truth upon truth regarding this hot topic. As fully restored pastors who have overcome the impact addiction to pornography and betrayal has had upon our marriage, we know from our own experience that many people will find hope while reading this incredible book. We believe without a doubt that Nancy’s encouraging and insightful words will help many take that next step in opening up and reaching out with their own struggles and into the ultimate freedom God has in store for them.” —James and Teri Craft, authors, recovery coaches, and co-founders of The Novus Project “In Love & Sex: A Christian Guide to Healthy Intimacy, Nancy Houston uses storytelling in a powerful way to bring insight, healing, and revelation to the deepest and most complex issues of sexuality.” —Jimmy Evans, founder and CEO of Marriage Today “Nancy Houston unlocks all the tough questions on sex for both men and women. There are no barriers she won’t break through. We have literally watched the lights go on in the hearts of both men and women as she unfolds the reasons behind unhealthy behaviors and fears regarding our sexuality. “In a world filled with perversion of truth surrounding this subject, Nancy shines a brilliant light through the darkness. Read this book, then give it to everyone you know! For future generations’ freedom from taboos, for marriages—Love & Sex.” —Paul Cole, president of the Global Fatherhood Initiative, and Judi Cole, a talented artist and founder of the One Heart Brunch “Love & Sex is a book that addresses one of the most important and confused aspects of our humanity. In this book Nancy Houston gives solid, practical, professional, biblical advice and perspective on a subject that affects everyone. A must read for those engaged and a resource for the rest of us working to live out our marriage commitment in loving connection with each other.” —Tom Lane, lead executive senior pastor/Dallas campus pastor at Gateway Church

• From Love & Sex: A Christian Guide to Healthy Intimacy (2018)

  “Yes, that helps a lot,” Kaycie responded. “I feel less pressured about sexually performing and like something is wrong with me if I don’t feel comfortable with oral sex. You are saying it’s okay for James and me to figure out what works for us and what we like and don’t like sexually. And I don’t need to feel any shame for something I don’t like or want to do, right?” “Yes, Kaycie, you two figure out what is right for you,” Olivia reassured. STAYING OPEN Olivia continued, “God is a creative artist and when it comes to human sexuality, I think He wants us to be creative and imaginative. Sex between a husband and wife is completely unique to that couple. Every couple has the right to figure out what they consider pleasurable and take into consideration one another’s personal preferences. No one should force or pressure another person into anything. It’s important we hear one another’s ‘No!’ and respect it. But it’s also important that we stay open. It is normal for humans to desire sex; there’s nothing wrong with that.” Kaycie responded, “So, for James and me sex started out on a drug-induced high. We felt attraction, but that was about it. I wanted his attention and he probably just wanted an orgasm. How do we redeem that beginning?” “Kaycie, everything is redeemable in God’s kingdom. Everything. I think especially sexuality. He gives several examples of some of His most powerful people making a mess of sex and how He redeemed it. “Sarah threw her handmaiden, Hagar, at Abraham, and told him to make a baby with her. He complied. It was a jealous mess to say the least, but God redeemed it and gave them Isaac, when they had zero capacity to conceive a child. “There are other biblical examples of God’s children who made a mess of sex because they hadn’t tied sex to emotional connection. Scripture says Adam knew his wife Eve. This is a term for yada, a Hebrew word meaning to know and to be known. Adam had a knowing relationship with Eve. She was much more than a sexual object to him. Scripture says David lay with Bathsheba. This was strictly a sexual act, motivated by lust. There was zero emotional connection. But God redeemed sex for these biblical examples. “He surely wants to do the same for each of us. God loves to do the impossible for us. He loves to do the improbable and the highly unlikely. It’s never too late and we are never too far gone. There is hope for every one of us, no matter what our sexual history has been or currently is. Nothing is outside His grace and love and redemptive power. Nothing. “Next month I am teaching a weekend seminar on healthy sexuality. I would love for you ladies to attend, and if you would like to, you can invite your husbands and friends. It will be fun,” Olivia reassured them.

• From Saint Thomas Aquinas Collection (22 Books) (2016)

  AUGUSTINE. (Epist. 119, 11) All that is said by the three Evangelists concerning the Advent of our Lord, if diligently compared together and examined, will perchance be found to belong to His daily coming in His body, that is, the Church, except those places where that last coming is so promised, as if it were approaching; for instance in the last part of the discourse according to Matthew, the coming itself is clearly expressed, where it is said, When the Son of Man shall come in his glory. (Matt. 25:31) For what does he refer to in the words, when ye shall see these things come to pass, but those things which He has mentioned above, amongst which it is said, And then ye shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds. The end therefore shall not be then, but then it shall be near at hand. Or are we to say, that not all those things which are mentioned above are to be taken in, but only some of them, that is, leaving out these words, Then shall ye see the Son of man coming; for that shall be the end itself, and not its approach only. But Matthew has declared that it is to be received without exception, saying, When ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. That which is said above must therefore be taken thus; And he shall send his angels, and gather together the elect from the four winds; that is, He shall collect His elect from the four winds of heaven, which He does in the whole of the last hour, coming in His members as in clouds. BEDE. (ubi sup.) This fruitbearing of the fig tree may also be understood to mean the state of the synagogue, which was condemned to everlasting barrenness, because when the Lord came, it had no fruits of righteousness in those who were then unfaithful. (Rom. 11:25) But the Apostle has said, that when the fulness of the Gentiles is come in, all Israel shall be saved. What means this, but that the tree, which has been long barren, shall then yield the fruit, which it had withheld? When this shall happen, doubt not that a summer of true peace is at hand. PSEUDO-JEROME. Or else, the leaves which come forth are words now spoken, the summer at hand is the day of Judgment, in which every tree shall shew what it had within it, deadness for burning, or greenness to be planted with the tree of life. There follows: Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till these things be done. BEDE. (ubi sup.) By generation He either means the whole race of mankind, or specially the Jews.

• From New Testament Words (1964)

  It is used of the eternal habitations into which the Christian shall enter (Luke 16.9; II Cor. 5.1.). The ultimate destiny of the Christian is a life which is none other than the life of God himself. It is used of the eternal redemption and the eternal inheritance into which the Christian enters through Jesus Christ (Heb. 9.15). The safety, the liberty, the release which Christ wrought for men is as lasting as God himself. It is used of the glory into which the faithful Christian will enter (I Peter 5.10; II Cor. 4.17; II Tim. 2.10). There awaits God’s faithful man God’s own glory. So it is used in connexion with the words hope and salvation (Titus 3.7; II Tim. 2.10). There is nothing fleeting, impermanent, destructible about the Christian hope and salvation; even another world could not change or alter them; they are as unchangeable as God himself. It is used of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (II Peter 1.11). Jesus Christ is not surpassable; he is not a stage on the way; his revelation, his value is the revelation and the value of God himself. It is used of the Gospel (Rev. 14.6). The Gospel is not merely one of many revelations; it is not merely a stage on the way of revelation; it is eternity entered into time. But while aiōnios is used to describe the greatest blessings of the Christian life, it is also used to describe the greatest threats of the Christian life. It is used to describe the fire of punishment (Matt. 18.8; 25.41; Jude 7). It is used to describe punishment itself (Matt. 25.46). It is used to describe judgment (Heb. 6.2). It is used to describe destruction (II Thess. 1.9). It is used to describe the sin which finally separates man from God (Mark 3.29). It is in these passages that we need to be specially careful in our interpretation of the word. Simply to take is as meaning lasting for ever is not enough. In all these passages we must remember the essential meaning of aiōnios. Aiōnios is the word of eternity as opposed to and contrasted with time. It is the word of deity as opposed to and contrasted with humanity. It is the word which can only really be applied to God. If we remember that, we are left with one tremendous truth—both the blessings which the faithful shall inherit and the punishment which the unfaithful shall receive are such as befits God to give and to inflict. Beyond that we cannot go.

• From New Testament Words (1964)

  (vi) Sōtēria always involves ‘grace’. It is founded on grace. By grace we are saved (Eph. 2.5). It was the conviction of the early Church that it was by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that they were saved (Acts 15.11). The sorrow of repentance, the shudder of fear, is met by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the very word is the final proof that sōtēria is a gift which we have not earned and could not earn but which comes to us from the sheer goodness and generosity of God. (vii) Sōtēria involves ‘the message of the cross’ even if that message seems at first hearing foolishness (I Cor. 1.18), and it involves the fact that we must never forget that message, that it must remain printed for ever on our memories (I Cor. 15.2). It involves the sight of the cross and the constant memory of the cross, the realization of the love of God and a life lived in that realization. (viii) The writer to the Hebrews alone has one further thing to say. He would say that sōtēria involves ‘the continued work of Christ’. It is his vision that Christ ever liveth to make intercession for us (Heb. 7.25). With one of the greatest reaches of thought in the NT he still sees Christ pleading for men, carrying on his high priestly work, and still opening the way to God for men, the vision of a Christ who loved us from the first of time and who will love us to the last, and whose continued love is our eternal hope of sōtēria. In many cases in the NT sōtēria occurs as it were without explanation and without qualification. It is used as a word of whose meaning everyone would understand at least something. Such passages are Luke 19.9; Acts 11.14; 16.30; I Cor. 3.15; II Cor. 2.15). But if we are to get the full value and the full meaning out of this word, we must ask the question: What is a man saved from? What is the deliverance which sōtēria promises? Before we begin to examine the NT for this purpose we must note one thing. The verb sōzein means both to save a man in the eternal sense, and to heal a man in the physical sense. Salvation in the NT is ‘total salvation’. It saves a man, body and soul. (i) Sōtēria is salvation from ‘physical illness’ (Matt. 9.21; Luke 8.36, in both of which cases the verb is sōzein). Jesus was concerned with men’s bodies as well as with men’s souls. It is significant that the Church is rediscovering that today. Such salvation may not cure, but it always enables the sufferer to transmute the suffering into glory.

• From New Testament Words (1964)

  1.13; I Thess. 2.14; I Tim. 3.5, 15). The Church belongs to God and comes from God. Had there been no such thing as the love of God there would have been no such thing as a Church; and unless God was a self-communicating God there would be no message and no help in the Church. (iii) Sometimes the Church is described as the Church of Christ, (a) In this connection Christ is the head of the Church (Eph. 5.23, 24). It ought to be according to the mind and thought and will of Christ that the Church lives and moves. (b) The Church is the body of Christ (Col. 1.24). It is through the Church that Jesus Christ acts. It must be hands to work for him, feet to run upon his errands, a voice to speak for him. An Indian described the Church as ‘the Church which carries on the life of Christ’. One last point is to be noted. In NT times the Church had no buildings. Christians met in any house which had a room large enough to accommodate them. These gatherings were called ‘house-churches’ (Rom. 16.5; I Cor. 16.19; Col. 4.15; Philem. 2). Every home ought to be in a real sense a Church. Jesus is Lord of the dinner table as he is Lord of the Communion table. And it will always be true that they pray best together who first pray alone. ELPIS AND ELPIZEIN THE CHRISTIAN HOPE The noun elpis means hope, and the verb elpizein means to hope. These words are not of any particular linguistic interest. Their great interest lies in the fact that if we examine and analyse their use in the NT we can discover the content and the basis of the Christian hope. Elpis, hope, is one of the three great pillars of the Christian faith. It is on hope, along with faith and love, that the whole Christian faith is founded (I Cor. 13.13). Hope is characteristically the Christian virtue and it is something which for the non-Christian is impossible (Eph. 2.12). Only the Christian can be an optimist regarding the world. Only the Christian can hope to cope with life. And only the Christian can regard death with serenity and equanimity. Let us then see in what this Christian hope consists. (i) It is the hope of the resurrection of the dead. That thought runs consistently all through the NT (Acts 23.6; 26.6; I Thess. 4.13; I Peter 1.3; I John 3.3; I Cor. 15.19). The Christian is a man who is on his way, not to death, but to life. For him death is not the abyss of nothingness and annihilation. It is ‘the gate on the skyline’. (ii) It is the hope of the glory of God (Rom.

• From New Testament Words (1964)

  (i) Following Jesus involves counting the cost. In Luke 9.59, 61, Jesus seems actually to discourage people from following him until he has made quite sure that they know what they are doing. Jesus does not want anyone to follow him on false pretences, nor will he accept an emotional and easily-moved offer of an unconsidered service. (ii) Following Jesus involves sacrifice. Repeatedly it is pointed out what people left to follow him (Luke 5.11; Matt. 4.20, 22; 19.27). The real point for us there is that following Jesus is what in modern language is called a whole-time job. But there is this difference for us—that following Jesus involves for us serving him within our work, and not by leaving it. In many cases it would be far easier to leave it; but our duty is to witness for him where he has sent us. (iii) Following Jesus involves a cross (Matt. 16.24; cp. Mark 8.34 and Luke 9.23). The real reason for that is that no man can follow Jesus and ever again do what he likes. To follow Jesus may well mean the sacrifice of the pleasures, habits, aims, ambitions which have woven themselves into our lives. Following Jesus always involves this act of surrender—and surrender is never easy. 2. We must see what following Jesus gives. In this direction there are two great promises from the Fourth Gospel. (i) To follow Jesus means to walk not in the darkness, but in the light (John 8.12). When a man walks by himself he walks in the darkness of uncertainty, and he may well end in the darkness of sin. To walk with Jesus is to be sure of the way, and in his company to be safe. (ii) To follow Jesus is to be certain of ultimately arriving at the glory where he himself is (John 12.26). This is the other side of the warning that to follow Jesus means a sacrifice and a cross. The sacrifice and the cross are not pointless. They are the price of the eternal glory. Jesus never promised an easy way, but he did promise a way in the end of which the hardness of the way would be forgotten. 3. We must see that there are inadequate ways of following Jesus. These ways are not to be condemned. They are infinitely better than nothing, but they are not the best. (i) At the end Peter followed Jesus afar off (Matt. 26.58; cp. Mark 14.54 and Luke 22.54). The real reason was that Peter did not dare to follow any nearer; and the real tragedy is that if Peter had kept close to Jesus, the disaster of his denial might never have happened, for it was when Peter saw Jesus’ face again that he discovered what he had done by his repeated denials. (ii) On the last journey to Jerusalem the disciples followed afraid (Mark 10.32). In a way that was the bravest act of all.

• From New Testament Words (1964)

  When a man begins to believe in or to seek to propagate Christianity as he would like it to be instead of as God proclaims it is, he cannot do other than preach ‘another gospel’. It is only after we have listened to God that we can speak to men. The danger is that we tell God instead of listening to God telling us. As we study this word euaggelion and as we trace it through the NT we begin to see that it involves and includes certain things. (i) The euaggelion is ‘the good news of truth’ (Gal. 2.5, 14; Col. 1.5). With the coming of Jesus Christ the time of guesses about God is ended and the time of certainty begun. With his coming the time of groping after the meaning and the method of life is closed and the time of certainty is here. Christianity was never meant to present men with a series of problems but with an armoury of certainties. (ii) The euaggelion is ‘the good news of hope’ (Col. 2.23). The man who tries to live life with only the materials which human effort can bring to it cannot do other than despair of himself and despair of the world. John Buchan defined an atheist as ‘a man with no invisible means of support’. When a man realizes what the good news means he is filled with hope for himself and for the world. (iii) The euaggelion is ‘the good news of peace’ (Eph. 6.15). So long as a man tries to live life alone he is inevitably a split personality. As Studdert- Kennedy said, ‘Part of him comes from heaven, and part of him comes from earth.’ The good news tells us that victory comes from surrender, from the death of self and the rising to life of Christ within us. The good news brings to men the possibility of a fully integrated personality where the old unhappy tensions are ended. (iv) The euaggelion is ‘the good news of God’s promise’ (Eph. 3.6). The characteristic of the pagan gods, and even of God as the OT knew him, was that he was a God of threats. Jesus brought the good news which told not of the God of the threat, but the God of the promise. That by no means removes all obligations from life, for a promise brings its obligation just as much as a threat does, but the obligation becomes the obligation to answer to love and not to cower before vengeance. (v) The euaggelion is ‘the good news of immortality’ (II Tim. 1.10). In face of death the pagan sorrowed and feared as one who had no hope (I Thess. 4.13). One of the saddest of papyrus letters is a letter from a mother to a mother and father whose little child has died. ‘Irene to Taonnophris and Philo, good comfort. I was as sorry and wept over the departed one as I wept for Didymus.

• From New Testament Words (1964)

  It was not that God was estranged from men; it was that men were estranged from God. Through that which Jesus Christ has done men can become friends with God. (iii) God promises men eternal life, life in time and life in eternity (I Tim. 4.8; Titus 1.2; II Tim. 1.1; James 1.12; I John 2.25). Eternal life is not simply life which goes on for ever. It is true that the NT never forgets that God promised men the resurrection from the dead (Acts 26.6). But the essential of eternal life is not simply duration; it is quality. It is told that once a drooping and depressed soldier came to Julius Caesar with a request to be allowed to commit suicide and so to end his life. Caesar looked at the dispirited figure: ‘Man’, he said, ‘were you ever really alive?’ Eternal life is something which can start here and now. Eternal life is the injection into the realm of time of something of the realm of eternity; it is the coming into human life of something of the life of God himself. It is the promise of God that if a man chooses to live life with Jesus Christ, heaven begins on earth. Into man’s trouble and frustration there come the peace and power of God. (iv) God promises the Kingdom to those who love him (James 2.5). It is too often the case that men think of the call of God as a call to a grim life in which all they wish for has to be given up, and all that is stern and hard has to be accepted. It is true that there is submission and discipline in the Christian life; but the end of the submission and the discipline is a kingdom, a royal power in life. (v) God promises men the coming again of his Son (II Peter 3.4, 9). This simply means that God guarantees that there will be a consummation in history. The Stoics, who in NT times were the highest thinkers, conceived of history as circular. They said that, once every so many thousands of years, there was a conflagration which engulfed and destroyed all things, and that then the same old process began all over again. History was a treadmill, not a march to a goal. When we divest the idea of the Second Coming of all the purely Jewish apparatus, and the purely temporary pictures, we are left with the one significant truth that in history there comes the consummation of the triumph of Christ. (vi) God promises rest for his people (Heb. 4.1). Someone recently was asked what he thought was the greatest mark and characteristic of the modern world. His answer was: ‘Tired eyes.’ Life is in any event a struggle; the Christian life takes all a man has to give.