TRICKED The following is from Albert Bailey's tome, The Gospel in Hymns, published in 1950. Several stories about Phillips Brooks, well known author of "O Little Town of Bethlehem," are found there. One April Fool's…
Sermon Illustrations
RECONCILIATION They tell the story of the little girl whose parents had a miserable marriage and had been divorced, having nothing in common save their affection for the child. One day as the girl was…
CHRIST -- DEITY The modern theologians Barth, Bonhoffer, Brunner, Bultmann, and Tillich met the Lord. And the Lord asked these famed dogmatists, "Who do men say that I am?" And they replied, "Some say you…
COMMUNICATION -- GETTING YOUR ATTENTION A local newspaper columnist, or so I heard, wrote about a friend who received one of those mail advertisements from a company offering to do research on one's family heritage…
FADS, POPULAR RELIGIONS This running after every religious fanatic who starts some doctrine of the devil reminds me of the old Arkansas farmer who, when asked what was the matter with his hogs, they were…
MUSIC, CHOIRS The following story was found in an old out of print book entitled English Hymns: There was once a difficulty in Rev. Dr. Samuel West's congregation in the old New England times. The…
POWER LOSS Living just outside of town has its drawbacks. For me it was having to take my garbage to the area dumpster. It was the summer of my first pastorate. I found myself dropping…
ANTICIPATION Four year old Jimmy was thrilled when the family got a piano. And immediately he was up on the piano bench pounding on the keys. After a while he climbed down in frustration. "It's…
SOME BULLETS -- YOU JUST CAN'T DODGE The other day a friend shared this humorous little story with me. I thought it illustrated so well the statement in Numbers 32:23b: "You may be sure that…
INTERDEPENDENCE In the night the restless water of the lake surrendered to relentless cold, and, with autumnal overturn complete, became imprisoned in a glaze of ice -- a prisoner to itself in different form. So…
CONVERSION STORY In May 1855, an eighteen- year-old boy went to the deacons of a church in Boston. He had been raised in a Unitarian church, in almost total ignorance of the gospel, but when…
LOVE OF GOD The following story was found by two of our readers in The Contagious Congregation by George Hunter. It was sent in first by Jay Martin, Pastor of the Baptist Church in Manistique,…
BROKENNESS The following is an Hasidic anecdote taken from Consciousness and Tradition by Jacob Needleman (New York: Crossroad Publishing Co., 1982) p. 156. The rebbe is asked the following question by a pupil, referring to…
GOD'S CHILDREN Our Sunday School Superintendent had two new boys in Sunday School. In order to register them she had to ask their ages and birthdays. The bolder of the two said, "We're both seven.…
THE SEVEN STAGES OF THE MARRIED COLD Here's another good one from Rick Mandl of Eagle Rock, California that he gleaned from the Saturday Evening Post in which are revealed a sequence of actions where…
KILLER This is one I heard many years ago. I have no idea who first told it or where it comes from. I have used it to talk of the hidden power people sometimes exercise,…
LEAP OF FAITH Dr. Arn of the Church Growth Movement was producing a film entitled Circus. One youth of the cast pointed to the high trapeze and said, "Why don't you try it?" The other…
DAVID LIVINGSTONE'S TEXT David Livingstone is in his seventeenth year of work as a missionary in Africa. But never before had he been in such peril. He is surrounded by hostile and infuriated tribes, and…
A REAL CHRISTIAN DESCRIBED A real Christian is an odd number, anyway. He feels supreme love for One whom he has never seen; talks familiarly every day to Someone he cannot see; expects to go…
ETERNITY Eternity is always a difficult thing for one to try and comprehend; just another quick little way to try to measure (our human limitation) our concept of a very, very long time: my daughter…
