LIFT UP YOUR HEAD When my son was a toddler, washing his hair was always a problem. He would sit in the bathtub while I put shampoo on his hair. Then, when I poured on…
Sermon Illustrations
BECOMING POSSIBLE The teacher asked her class what each wanted to become when they grew up "President," "a fireman," "a teacher." One by one they answered until it became Billy's time. The teacher asked, "Billy,…
THE DIFFICULTY IN COMMINCATING ABOUT LOVE Lucy says to Charlie Brown: "You know what I don't undertand? I don't understand love!" He says, "Who does?" She says, "Explain love to me, Charlie Brown." He says,…
COMMUNICATIONS FEEDBACK William Barclay, world-famed Scottish bible scholar who died in February of 1978, claimed that his unique ability to communicate the Gospel was due to an old Scot lady who lived alone in an…
COMMUNICATING LOVE Ole and Olga lived on a farm in Iowa. Olga was living on a starvation diet of affection. Ole never gave her any signs of love, and Olga's need to be appreciated went…
FACE THE FACTS BOLDLY An Englishman went abroad leaving his much loved dog and servant home. While away, the man received a cablegram from the servant with the message, "Your dog died." The man was…
EMERGENCY NUMBER As my boss prepared to go on vacation in another state, I kiddingly asked him to leave a telephone number where we could reach him at least once a day. After he left,…
COMMUNICATION FLOW -- WHICH DIRECTION? I recently have been reading Henry Trewhitt's McNamara: His Ordeal In The Pentagon (Harper and Row, 1971 pp. 12, 13). In it I found this story which illustrates the problem…
MIXED MESSAGE A Philadelphia legal firm sent flowers to an associate in Baltimore upon the opening of its new offices. Through some mixup the ribbon which bedecked the floral piece read "Deepest Sympathy." When the…
A GLORIOUS SEND-OFF A boy was playing with his pet turtle when all at once the turtle turned blue, fell over on his back and lay motionless. Upset, the boy ran in to tell his…
HAPPY ENDING Young Jonathan, who had been promised a new puppy for his tenth birthday, had a tough time choosing between a dozen likely candidates at the neighborhood pet shop. Finally he decided upon one…
THEN THEY WILL UNDERSTAND Down below the surface of a quiet pond lived a little colony of water bugs. They were a happy colony, living far away from the sun. For many months they were…
EPITAPH I am told that an Indiana cemetery has a tombstone (over 100 years old) which bears the following epitaph: "Pause Stranger, when you pass me by, As you are now, so once was I.…
NOT LOST A little girl whose baby brother had just died asked her mother where the baby had gone. "To be with Jesus," replied the mother. A few days later, talking with a friend, the…
ANOTHER WORLD "If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." C. S. Lewis.
REVEALED BY DEATH ALONE A pastor received a call from a new father. He wanted the pastor to be present when he told the new mother she had given birth to a beautiful baby --…
THE LARGER PERSPECTIVE Easter is God's everlasting "Yes" to humanity's troubled question: "If a man dies, shall he live again?" Not too long ago, James Gordon Gilkey, one of the Christian leaders in Portland, Oregon,…
DIDN'T YOU KNOW I WOULD COME? Rufus Jones lost a son of eleven years who was all the world to him. He wrote many years later about the experience, concluding with this luminous parable of…
THE SPIRIT OF GIVING During the Christmas season, 1981, a story appeared in the Los Angeles Times which shows the real holiday spirit of giving. Craig Bartlett of White Bear Lake, Minnesota was in desperate…
WILL YOU MISS CHRISTMAS? George Mason's life centered in his business. He lived alone, and on this Christmas refused all invitations. On Christmas Eve, after his employees had left, he went into the office vault…
