DEAR GOD Why can't you ever keep it from raining on Saturday all the time? Rose
Sermon Illustrations
THE PREACHER'S PRAYER The old Nazarene evangelist Bud Robinson is reported to have prayed the following prayer each day: "O Lord, give me a backbone as big as a saw log and ribs like the…
CANDID PRAYER There was a farmer who had three sons: Jim, John, and Sam. No one in the family ever attended church or had time for God. The pastor and the others in the church…
PRAYERS WITH MORE POWER A young minister, learning that a lady from Boston who was visiting in town had been taken ill, stopped in to cheer her up. "I'd like to say a brief prayer…
BREAKAWAY Richard Armstrong and Edward Watkin tell the story of a biologist's experiment with "processional caterpillars." On the rim of a clay pot that held a plant, he lined them up so that the leader…
DIVINE INTERCESSION An elderly gentleman passed his grand-daughter's room one night and overheard her repeating the alphabet in an oddly reverent way. He asked her, "What on earth are you up to?" She explained, "I'm…
FORM AND SUBSTANCE A devout Christian who had a cat used to spend several minutes each day at prayer and meditation in his bedroom. He read a portion of scripture and a devotional book, followed…
THE CHURCH I think that I shall never see A church that's all it ought to be. A church whose members never stray Beyond the straight and narrow way; A church that has no empty…
PRAYER REMINDER George Reindrop, in his book No Common Task, tells how a nurse once taught a man to pray, and in doing so changed his whole life from being a dull, disgruntled and dispirited…
WORRY Years ago, in the pioneer days of aviation, a pilot was making a flight around the world. After he had been gone for some two hours from his last landing field, he heard a…
WHAT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE? Two pastors' wives sat mending their husbands' pants. One of them said to the other, "My poor John, he is so discouraged in his church work. He said just the other…
DISCERNMENT Developing a habitual way of listening to God. Alive Now, Nov/Dec, 1987
JUMPING THE GUN When my brother was very young (about 5 years old) he wanted to answer the telephone, so he watched and listened very carefully. One day he got to the phone first. He…
PRAYER God of transforming love, we confess that we are a people quick to judge. We create boundaries which separate us from others and from you. We divide others into categories of good and bad,…
LINCOLN'S PROCLAMATION Abraham Lincoln wrote an address to the nation during the Civil War that was at least as important as the Gettysburg Address. It was his proclamation for a national fast-day, by which he…
PRAYER WHEN IT SEEMS TOO LATE Lord, I'm drowning in a sea of perplexity, Waves of confusion crash over me. I'm too weak to shout for help. Either quiet the waves or lift me above…
RENEWAL To keep God at the center of one's life requires frequent renewal of power through prayer. But such renewal is not measured by the amount of time it takes, rather by the degree to…
EXPECTING THE WORST Helen Hayes, the actress, tells the following story in her autobiography. It was Thanksgiving day, and she was cooking her first turkey dinner for her family. Before serving it she announced to…
GIVE ME THE EYES OF FAITH Manley Beasley tells the story of a friend who had a rescue mission. He prayed, "God, I need two hundred dollars. Oh, God, I need two hundred dollars." One…
ANSWERED PRAYER This is about a man named Ioan Teodosiu who was arrested at his work place in Cluj- Napoca, Romania, in December, 1981 . . . the day after he had been interviewed by…
