THEORIES ABOUT GOD'S EXISTENCE Imagine a family of mice who lived all their lives in a large piano. To them in their piano-world came the music of the instrument, filling all the dark spaces with…
Sermon Illustrations
AFTER EASTER Philip Clinton pastor of the Janesville United Methodist Church of Janesville, Iowa, sent in the following story -- which I plan to use sometime after Easter, maybe just before Pentecost. He heard it…
LAW AND GRACE There is a strong tendency among Christians to work hard in the flesh in order to please God. However, Scripture warns against legalism: "For as many are of the works of the…
HOME OR HOUSE A reporter came to a fire one day where a house was steadily burning down to the ground. He noticed standing by that there was a little lad with his mom and…
CAN WE DECEIVE GOD? When our son was a youngster in grade school, his route home from school each day took him by an irrigation canal. He had been instructed repeatedly not to play around…
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE LITTLE 'EXTRAS' We had just moved into a new apartment and were besieged by salesmen for everything from laundry sevice to life insurance. One busy day a dairyman came to the…
THE COST A woman was calling on a friend whose children were brought in. The caller said, evidently with no thought of the meaning of her words: "Oh, I'd give my life to have two…
THE SACRIFICING MOTHER The story is told of a hen-house that caught fire during the night. The farmer came out to fight the fire, and when he finally got it extinguished -- he found the…
I WILL HOLD YOU CLOSE I heard this story when I was attending a Pastor's conference in Missouri a number of years ago. It was told by one of the other pastors as a true…
SHOWING LOVE BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE Joyce Landorf, in her book, Tough and Tender, relates the following story. A man I've known for some years never opened the car door for his wife or any…
CREATION OF MOTHERS TOOK OVERTIME When the Good Lord was creating mothers, He was into His sixth day of "overtime" when the angel appeared and said, "You're doing a lot of fiddling around on this…
SKILLS NEEDED FOR PROPHETIC INTERPRETATION When I read the way some people are able to get esoteric insights out of obscure Old Testament prophecies, it reminds me of a story I read some years ago…
TOUGH INITIATION It seems that two Texans were trying to impress each other with the size of their ranches. One asked the other, "What's the name of your ranch?" He replied, "The Rocking R, ABC,…
LIFE IN DEATH VALLEY "Two hundred miles northeast of Los Angeles is a baked-out gorge called Death Valley--the lowest place in the United States, dropping 276 feet below sea level. It is also the hottest…
A POINT OF CONTACT Bob Weber, Past President of Kiwanis International, told this story. He had spoken to a club in a small town and was spending the night with a farmer on the outskirts…
SCARRED HANDS A small orphaned boy lived with his grandmother. One night their house caught fire. The grandmother, trying to rescue the little boy asleep upstairs, perished in the smoke and flames. A crowd gathered…
WAIT THREE DAYS On that beautiful Easter Monday morning I noticed the old flower lady sitting in her usual place inside a small archway. At her feet corsages and boutonnieres were parading on top of…
EASTER AFFIRMATION About 1930, the Bolshevik, Bukharin, journeyed from Moscow to Kiev. His mission was to address a huge assembly. His subject, atheism. For a solid hour he aimed his heavy artillery at Christianity, hurling…
A VOICE TO SHOUT On the Easter just before he died, D. William Sangster painfully printed a short note to his daughter. A deeply spiritual Methodist, he had been spearheading a renewal movement in the…
SERVANTHOOD The following is taken from Elisabeth Elliot's book The Mark Of A Man. In the chapter entitled "A Take-charge Man Is A Servant," she relates a story her late husband Addison Leitch used to…
