THE CROSS IN THE MANGER If there is no cross in the manger, There is no Christmas. If the Babe doesn't become an Adult, There is no Bethlehem star. If there is no commitment in…
Sermon Illustrations
MODERN CHRISTMAS TREE On January 1st, one man's New Year's resolution was to become a non-conformist. For instance, he resolved never again to take part in the over- commercialization of Christmas. He would become a…
THE CHRISTMAS LIGHT Radiant, the holy, singing light Streams forth to bless on Christmas night With some new pulse of energy. Or is it only that we see With clearer vision at this time When…
WHAT IS CHRISTMAS? Christmas is Music . . . the music of carols ringing out on the still night air, the organ, the chimes, and the voices of a choir singing "Silent Night, Holy Night."…
OPPORTUNITIES - BLOWING THEM Late one Christmas Day a resident of the posh community of Hillsborough, California, accompanied by his wife and children, set out to sing carols for the neighbors. As they were tuning…
THE COMMERCIAL CHRISTMAS It was the first day back to school after Christmas vacation. The teacher was not ready for school and was not overly prepared. She used a good bit of the morning by…
CHRISTMAS A kindergarten Sunday School teacher was working hard to get her class to focus on the story of Jesus' birth, and to stop thinking about Santa Claus. She read the story over and over…
CHRISTMAS GIFT It was Christmas Eve, 1935. The Depression was at its height. A young widow and her six year old son prepared to try to celebrate Christmas. This year there would be no Christmas…
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…
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…
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 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,…
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 --…
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.
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…
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.…
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…
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…
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…
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…
