THE ACTIVE AND THE PASSIVE I recently used a story I found in Sunday Sermons that illustrates two kinds of persons -- the active and the passive. Those who grab hold of life and those…
Sermon Illustrations
DON'T JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS Mike Wallens of the Diocese of Chicago, Illinois sent in this piece, entitled The Lost Horse by Liu An. r60611 A man who lived on the northern frontier of China was…
GOD'S EMMISARY Dr. Jery Lee Anderson of W. Collingswood, New Jersey sent in the following story as told by Dr. James Chalmers, missionary to the cannibals in the South Sea Islands. It can be found…
WHICH IS MORE IMPORTANT? Joe Schmitt, of St. Paul, Minnesota, sent in this story about putting complete trust in someone based on their vision, not ours. Early one morning a father was awakened by the…
COSTLY SERVICE To be a servant of Christ is not easy. A model of servanthood can be found in the example of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was a German minister born in 1906. He became a…
PERSPECTIVE ABOUT THE OTHER FELLOW AND YOU Have you ever noticed: When the other fellow acts that way, he is ugly; when you do, it's nerves. When others are set in their ways, they're obstinate;…
THE TESTIMONY DID NOT DIE In Loving God, Charles Colson tells of a quiet act of forgiveness that began a chain of events that still survives. Deep in one of Siberia's prison camps, a Jew…
REFORMATION SUNDAY -- COURAGE TO TAKE A STAND William H. Leroy, DCE at the First Baptist Church of Pueblo, Colorado sent in a story that could be used in a Reformation Day sermon, especially if…
GIFTS Historians tell us that James Madison was a little wisp of a man. He was scarcely 5'6" and weighed only slightly over 100 pounds. As a child, he was sickly; and as a young…
PAINFUL DECISIONS Right next to our cabin near Austin there was an oak tree that my son, Albert Jr., who had died in his twenties, had insisted on saving when the house was built a…
GREATNESS My friend Jack Lee of Arcadia, California sent in this item from The Little Gazette: We who sit in history's bleachers are inclined to confuse fame with greatness. We seem willing to let the…
HEROES OR CELEBRITIES I heard this one told by Pastor Dean Miller of the Palm Desert Community Church in Palm Desert, California. He was contrasting the difference between authentic heroes and those instant celebrities that…
HE WHO LOSES HIS LIFE FINDS IT On one occasion Sadhu Sundar Singh and a companion were travelling through a pass high in the Himalayan mountains. At one point they came across a body lying…
THE WHOLE DUTY Some years ago there was a shipwreck off the coast of the Pacific Northwest. A crowd of fishermen in a nearby village gathered to watch the ship as it was smashed on…
FOLLOWING ORDERS There is an ancient story of a sentry standing day after day at his post with no apparent reason for his being there. One day, a passerby asked him why he was standing…
ENDURANCE/SELF-DENIAL Although we do not possess the original manuscripts of the New Testament, we do have over 99.9% of the original text, and this is because of the faithful work of manuscript copyists over the…
THE ONE THAT WON HER HEART Randy Spencer of Falls Creek, Pennsylvania sent in the following observations: r15840 My daughter, like the typical American girl, has had her share of dolls and stuffed animals. Today,…
HUMILITY I asked God for strength, that I might achieve -- I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey. I asked for help, that I might do greater things -- I was…
WHAT YOU NEED TO HAVE COURAGE There is an apocryphal account of two skeletons in the corner of a closet who were grumbling about the heat, the dust, and the boredom. "What are we staying…
A WORD FOR HUMILITY Muhammad Ali was in his prime, and he was about to take off on an airplane flight and the stewardess reminded him to fasten his seat belt. He came back brashly,…
