MARVEL We marvel at the silence that divides the living and the dead Yet more apart Are they who all life long live side by side Yet never heart by heart. From The Treasure Chest,…
Sermon Illustrations
SMALL WONDER Two Irishmen who were traveling in the Holy Land came to the Sea of Galilee. They discovered that it would cost them $50 each to cross the lake by boat. They cried out…
ONE FOR THE JUNIOR HIGH DEPARTMENT After finally getting to South America through very strange circumstances Bruce Olson tells this story of one of his particularly hard treks through the jungle in Columbia: Because I…
PERSPECTIVE -- ALL IN YOUR POINT OF VIEW A small boy and his sister, complete with ice cream cones, drifted away from their mother in a large department store. Pretty soon they made a game…
EVERYBODY'S DOING IT We all hear the cry (from our teenagers, if not many others) "But everybody's doing it!" John Calvin called it "The Appeal to 'Custom' Against Truth" in his Prefatory Address to King…
MAKES SENSE The queen is a country woman, allowing for the fact her favorite "country" is that vast acreage surrounding Balmoral, her castle in the highlands of Scotland, and Sandringham, her palace in windswept Norfolk.…
BASICS FOR SELF-ESTEEM Then there was the "Frank and Ernest" cartoon by Bob Thaves which shows the two title characters leaving church wearing less than spectacular clothes, with one saying to the other, "The way…
REACHING ONE'S LIMITS It was recently reported in Herb Caen's column that a guy was walking down a Santa Monica, California street lugging a "ghetto-blaster" radio blaring at top volume, when a feller pointed a…
PRIORITIES Herb Caen also tells one of those "Awwwwww" stories: So here we are at the Concord Jr. Optimist Baseball League game between the Royals and the Tigers (eight-and-nine-yr.-olds) and a Royal batter hits a…
A WORD FOR KINDERGARTEN BASICS Socrates insisted that the unexamined life is not worth living and there's wisdom in that, to be sure. But the examined life isn't always a picnic either. In such times…
EASY WRITER When Our Environment Can Be Saved [by Nelson Rockefeller] was finished, Hugh Morrow took it to Nelson. Rockefeller, then caught up in his re- election campaign, begged off, saying, "Hugh, I just don't…
LIMITED VISION Eight-year-old Frank had looked forward for weeks to this particular Saturday because his father had promised to take him fishing if the weather was suitable. There hadn't been any rain for weeks and…
I HAVE SOMETHING MORE TO GIVE YOU As John Wesley rode across Hounslow Heath late one night, singing a favorite hymn, he was startled by a fierce voice shouting, "Halt," while a firm hand seized…
DECISIONS The story is told of an elderly man who, a number of years ago, had lost his right arm in an accident. At first the trauma of the loss totally destroyed the man's desire…
GOD'S METHOD OF COMMUNICATION As an English medical doctor in Africa for 30 years, Helen Rosavere saw her country develop and face some of the problems that other developing nations in Africa were facing. There…
HYMNS FOR ALL SEASONS The Gardener's Hymn, "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming;" The Skier's Hymn, "'Tis Winter Now, the Fallen Snow;" The Golfer's Hymn, "There Is A Green Hill Far Away;" The Lawyer's Hymn,…
ROCKEFELLER The story is told by the chief accountant for one of the wealthiest men who ever lived -- John D. Rockefeller, Sr. Someone asked the accountant one day, "How much did John D. leave?…
OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF BABES One Sunday on their way home from church, a little girl turned to her mother and said, "Mommy, the preacher's sermon this morning confused me." The mother said, "Oh?…
LET YOUR PASTOR KNOW Mrs. Huff is up the miff tree On a seat fixed good and firm, And she'd like to tell the pastor A few things, and make him squirm! Mrs. Huff was…
DIFFERING PERSPECTIVES While working among Cuban-Americans in Miami, I frequently heard the following story: Shortly after the Communist revolution in Cuba, there were strong persuasive attempts at turning the people away from God. In grade…
