Someone has likened people who remain insensitive to the needs of others — unloving people — to two shipwrecked men sitting together at one end of a lifeboat, doing nothing. They watch intently as the…
Sermon Illustrations
“As God’s Chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience” (Colossians 3:12). Famed newspaper columnist Bob Considine has written a story of a woman whose extraordinary love for other…
A daughter, home for the holidays, was sitting in on her mother’s bridge game. In between bidding, the players were discussing the AIDS epidemic. One of them suggested the disease was God’s way of punishing…
In March of 1981, President Reagan was shot by John Hinckley, Jr., and was hospitalized for several weeks. Although Reagan was the nation’s chief executive, his hospitalization had little impact on the nation’s affairs. While…
There’s not as much status being a member of the Communist Party in Russia as there used to be. A reporter on C-SPAN (the Cable Satellite Public Affairs Network) related this story recently: “To encourage…
During the early days of the “Cold War,” there was a story about Josef Stalin in which the Soviet Dictator is flying from Leningrad to Moscow. The plane passes over a particularly desolate area and…
“A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver” (Proverbs 25:11). A man returned to his home and played his telephone-answering machine to discover that his message to callers had…
The county hospital telephone operator received a call from a woman inquiring about the condition of a patient named Brinkman. She explained that she needed to know precisely how the patient was progressing. “I want…
In the novel, “Dearly Beloved,” by Ann Morrow Lindbergh, there is a moving passage in which Deborah, the mother, is adjusting the wedding veil for Sally, her daughter. They have lived in the same house…
A bank robber who operated along the Texas border around the turn of the century was so successful in his forays that the Texas Rangers put a whole extra posse along the Rio Grande to…
This was told as a true story by the lady involved, who came from a small Texas town. It seems she had read a lot about crime in New York, and was scared to death…
A man and his wife were upset by their daughter’s limited vocabulary. Every other word out of her mouth was either”awesome” or “gross,” depending on whether she liked or disliked something. Finally the father said,…
Stan Rolfsrud once candidly told readers why his column in the Carver County, Minn., Herald was missing. Under the usual heading was this statement: “Stan Rolfsrud has nothing to say this week.” Associated Press
In a museum in Florence, Italy, there is a painting by Raphael called “The Madonna of the Barrel.” The story is told that Raphael was walking one day through the market place of Florence when…
Several years ago, at a high school commencement exercise in Washington, D.C., one of the senior girls delivered a closing prayer which she had written. The young woman began to read her prayer at that…
On a sunny Sunday morning, two men were out on the lake in a rowboat, fishing. The fish weren’t biting. Finally, one of the fishermen, a bit discouraged, said, “Well, it is Sunday, and I…
On the Saturday religion page of a local newspaper, there appeared a pastor’s announcement of a special Church service to be held the following Wednesday. When Wednesday came, the only person to appear for the…
“Dad, did you go to church every Sunday when you were a little boy?” a young lad asked his father. “Yes, son, I went regularly,” the father replied. “Well,” said the boy, “I’ll bet it…
A couple was leaving Church after Sunday services. “Did you see that designer suit on the woman in front of us?” the wife asked. “And the hat on that woman across the aisle? And the…
A certain pastor was the victim of a prolonged illness. During his absence, the parish secretary regularly posted an update of the pastor’s condition on the Church’s sidewalk bulletin board. “Pastor critical” was the first…