COMMUNICATION Students of a suburban Sunday School class were given pencils and paper one Sunday and asked to write down what they liked best about Sunday School. One little boy, who also happened to be…
Sermon Illustrations
COMMUNICATIONS: BE CAREFUL HOW YOU PUT IT The following have actually been found in church bulletins: "This being Easter Sunday, we will ask Mrs. Smith to come forward and lay an egg on the altar."…
APRIL Harvard philosophy professor George Santayana was giving a lecture one day when he paused to look at the brilliant yellow forsythia blooming outside the window. Many long seconds passed. Then he said: "Gentlemen, I…
CATCH THE LITTLE FOXES A farmer's boy decided to get married. His father said to him, "John, when you get married, your liberty is gone." The boy said he did not believe it. The father…
DISPROPORTIONATE In a recent issue of Mission Frontiers, I read an article by John Holzmann, in which he quotes from the Jul/Aug 1984 issue of World Christian magazine (p. 18): There are more missionaries for…
AUTUMN In a special issue of Ideals called Touched By The Seasons: Poetic Reflections From Ideals. I like autumn best of all, because its leaves are a little yellow, its tone mellower, its colors richer,…
PREDISPOSED TO PANIC The following story was
PAID IN LIKE CURRENCY According to Garrick Utley on a recent news report from Russia the joke going the rounds of the factory workers is: "They pretend to pay us. We pretend to work."
GLORY OF GOD The preacher must present the glory of God as clearly and compellingly as human language will permit. Otherwise both preacher and people will be reduced to dreaming little dreams and attempting for…
A WORD FROM HOME Many years ago in England a circus elephant named Bozo was very popular with the public. Children especially loved to crowd around his cage and throw him peanuts. Then one day…
THE MISERIES OF THE FORGETFUL MIDDLE YEARS One story I've received in a variety of forms lately is this one that was sent in by Rev. Donald E. Worch of Valparaiso, Indiana. Dear Cousin: Just…
AGING Another version of the same idea is contained in these terse lines
THE PRODIGAL Next time you're preaching on the Prodigal Son you might note that that Buddhists have a similar (but different) story which stresses the earning of righteousness in contrast with the free grace in…
EVER DRAW A BLANK? I suppose one of the recurring fears of anyone who has to speak in public is the phenomenon of going blank at the critical moment. I'm sure we've all done it…
HOSPITALITY TIPS Someone once asked Perle Mesta, the great Washington hostess, the secret of her success in getting so many rich and famous people to attend her parties. She said it was all in the…
HELPFUL ADJUSTMENT A child's father kept bringing home office work just about every night. Finally his first grader son asked why. Daddy explained that he had so much work he couldn't finish it all during…
MAMMA -- AND COURTSHIP One of my most fruitful sources of illustrative material on family life is the comic strip Mamma by Mel Lazarus. Mamma is always trying to straighten out her three grown children.…
CHEERFULNESS Cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, filling it with a steady and perpetual serenity. An inward cheerfulness is an implicit praise and thanksgiving to Providence under all dispensations. It is…
WHICH AM I? I watched them tearing a building down . . . A gang of men in a busy town, With ho-heave and lusty yell They swung a beam and a side wall fell;…
ONE UP A salesman with a reputation for one- upsmanship -- always having a snappy retort, never at a loss for words -- was transferred from New York to their West Coast office. His new…
