During the Great Depression there was a man who lost his job, a fortune, his wife and home, but tenaciously held on to his faith - the only thing he had left. One day, he…
Sermon Illustrations
JEALOUSY Pangs of jealousy were in Miss Iceberg's heart when she heard that her former admirer had proposed to Miss Lovewell. She happened to run across her in a bargain basement rush. She could not…
ADVERSITY Stopped by a policeman for driving without a taillight, the driver became quite distressed. "Don't take it so hard," consoled the officer, "it's a minor offense." "That's not the point," replied the troubled driver.…
RISK To laugh is to risk appearing the fool. To weep is to risk appearing sentimental. To reach out for another is to risk involvement. To expose feelings is to risk exposing our true self.…
REJECTION In a bit of whimsy, Neil Postman quotes a letter written by a high school senior who had received a letter of rejection from the college he wanted to attend. "Dear Admissions Officer," the…
REJECT REJECTION Many of those who have risen from failure to real achievement have rejected the rejection of this world. In 1902, the poetry editor of The Atlantic Monthly returned a sheaf of poems to…
OVERCOMING HARDSHIPS Rabbi Earl A. Grollman has a fine book on death and grieving, entitled Talking About Death: A Dialogue Between Parent and Child (Boston: Beacon Press, 1970), in which he tells a famous rabbinic…
MORE IMPORTANT KNOWLEDGE A young man was being interviewed to be a pilot for a steamboat on the Mississippi River. The interviewer, doubtful that the young man could know the dangers of the river, asked…
IRONIC TWIST There is an old story that recalls how Satan once summoned his top demonic aides to plan strategy against the Church of Jesus Christ. Satan stood at the blackboard lecturing and illustrating the…
SAFE IN YOUR FATHER'S ARMS Several years ago my family of four lived on a farm with another family of four. We shared many sermon-illustration-type experiences and there's nothing like farm life, they say, to…
RASPUTIN A little bit of hell spilled over on the world because two people believed in a false prophet. In his brilliant book, Nicholas and Alexandra, Robert K. Massie tells how the Tsar and Empress…
CLEAR MOTIVATION People go to college for a variety of reasons, but Bob Kuechenberg, formerly of the Miami Dolphins, may have given the best reason yet in an interview with Newsweek: My father and uncle…
IF HE JUST UNDERSTOOD Alice Lee Humphres, in her book Angels in Pinafores, tells about her experiences as a first grade teacher. She tells about one little girl who came to school one winter day…
EXERCISING HER OPTIONS Joni Dunn was an intermediate skier in 1972 when she skidded off a Vermont mountain trail. She plunged 100 feet into a deep ravine, fracturing her spine in seven places, and her…
SEARCH ME -- I DARE YOU In the July 19, 1948, edition of Time magazine, under the heading of "National Affairs," under the subheading of "Heros" -- a heroine: A young woman newly awarded the…
NO IRON LUNG The following is from Robert Schuller's book Move Ahead With Possibility Thinking, (pp. 39, 40): A polio victim who required an iron lung to breathe learned to breathe without it -- even…
HANDICAP'S TRIUMPHS John Bartel was a healthy, athletic twenty-year-old young man and gradually taking full charge of the family dairy farm with all its multiple duties. It was a beautiful spring day in the lusciously…
SPORTING OBSTACLES On Nov 8th, 1970, there was a hard fought game between the New Orleans Saints and the Detroit Lions. The game was nip and tuck and it came down to the last final…
IGNORING HANDICAPS In a small town in the Midwest where I spent six years of my early youth, there lived a mentally retarded adult named Myron. It was during depression years and there was no…
WHAT DO YOU WALK ON? When William Pitt was prime minister of Great Britain, he moved about painfully on crutches. A man came to him one day complaining that he had been given an impossible…
