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…
Sermon Illustrations
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
