UNITY/DISUNITY The following is one of those "generic" stories in which you can fill in your own denominational bias, depending on the circumstances: It seems six men were marooned on a desert island. Two were…
Sermon Illustrations
MISSED OPPORTUNITY DUE TO NARROW VISION Last month I mentioned a little publication called Funny, Funny World, published in Beverly Hills, CA. Another story I pulled from this little publication tells about a fellow who…
A FRIEND -- CONFIDENTIALITY Cheri, a first- grader, was having trouble adjusting to school. I called her into my office for a chat, confident that my many years of training as a guidance counselor had…
FINDING YOUR WAY A man and his wife were returning to their seats in a theater after the intermission. "Did I step on your toes as I went out?" He asked the man at the…
HAPPINESS Helen Keller was deaf and blind from an incurable childhood disease. Anne Sullivan taught her to read through her senses of touch, smell, and taste. At the end of her autobiography Helen Keller says:…
I NEEDED TO FORGIVE This past summer the Columbus Dispatch carried a story about a couple from Hopkinsville, Kentucky whose son was killed by a drunk driver: For more than two years, Frank and Elizabeth…
HE MOVED NEXT DOOR Several years ago my wife and I decided to try camping. On our way home from the American Baptist camp in the upper peninsula of Michigan we unpacked our limited camping…
THE MATH THAT COUNTS On the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of their graduation some college alumni were gathered for a class reunion. They were scattered about in little groups reminiscing about college days. In…
SOMEONE WITH SKIN There was a small voice that penetrated the stillness of the night. It came from the bedroom across the hall. "Daddy, I'm scared!" Out of your groggy, fuzzy state, you respond with,…
COMMUNICATION SNAFU William Yates, pastor of the Baptist Church in Pfafftown, North Carolina sent in the following true story from his own boyhood. In the small town we lived in the volunteer fire department's telephone…
AMAZING POSSIBILITIES WITH IMAGINATION Lucy is seated comfortably in her bean bag chair watching television. She asks Charlie Brown: "How about getting me a dish of ice cream? Mint! Make sure it's mint!" Charlie Brown…
FRIENDSHIP "The main business of friendship is to sustain and make bearable each other's burdens. We may do more of that as friends than we do anything else. Getting through the tough times, offering encouragement…
THE BRIDGE BUILDER An old man, going a lone highway, Came in the evening cold and gray, To a chasm vast and deep and wide, Through which was flowing a sullen tide. The old man…
ACCEPTANCE In 1873, a Belgian Catholic priest named Joseph Damien De Veuster was sent to minister to lepers on the Hawaiian Island of Molokai. When he arrived he immediately began to meet each one of…
TRAVEL LIGHT For nearly an hour the woman and I dueled over a place in the line inching toward the check-in counter at the Denver airport. I nudged my suitcase ahead with my foot, while…
YES, IT'S HARD TO TRULY FORGIVE A man lay on his death bed, harassed by fear because he had harbored hatred against another. He sent for the individual with whom he had a disagreement years…
THE MARK OF FORGIVENESS In my second year of seminary I worked as a dorm supervisor for the New Jersey School for the Deaf. On Sunday a worship service was held for the children remaining…
CHOICES: TWO WAYS OF RESPONDING Two paraplegics were in the news recently. One was Kenneth Wright, a high school football star and later, an avid wrestler, boxer, hunter and skin diver. A broken neck sustained…
LIMITED FORGIVENESS I was assisting another pastor in a revival meeting when we visited a man who had been active in the church, but, due to a dispute with a fellow member, he had quit…
WISE MAN & FOOL The story is told of a rich man in Springfield, Illinois, who insisted that a certain poor man owed him $2.50. When the claim was denied, the rich man decided to…
