A GREAT SOURCE OF STORIES I 've mentioned before that Paul Harvey's The Rest of the Story by Paul Aurandt and his sequel More of Paul Harvey's The Rest of the Story are excellent sources…
Sermon Illustrations
WINNING AND LOSING Our whole Roman world had gone dead in its heart because it feared tragedy, took flight from suffering, and abhorred failure. In fear of tragedy we worshiped power. In fear of suffering,…
GREAT VERSE One of our readers recently commented on the meagre portion of poetry we have recently printed in Parables, Etc. So, here are some majestic lines from John Milton on man's eventual triumph over…
DON'T BE CHEAP WITH THE SEED While in Canada, I visited one believer who operated a large grain farm. His spread included some 2,500 acres. I asked him how he planted the seed. He reached…
OUR READERS WRITE-OF RADICAL GIVIN G. At a church meeting a very wealthy man rose to tell the rest of those present about his Christian faith. "I'm a millionaire," he said, "and I attribute it…
A GRATEFUL TITHER Going was tough. Ted, an unemployed apprentice plumber, scrambled for any work he could find in addition to serving as part-time church custodian. His wife, dedicated to raising their children at home,…
IN THE BAG Years ago, Dr. Henry Jessup, a faithful missionary in Syria, was seeking help for the Syrian Protestant College in Beirut. He was asked to call on a certain woman by a friend…
ADVICE FOR PREACHERS The following was quoted by Martin Marty in his invaluable resource Context: Here's a quickie list of advice for preaching ministers from St. Paul, Minnesota religion reporter Clark Morphew, who has attended…
GIVING OBSERVED Unnoted He sat by the temple gate While the rich and the poor passed by. And he read their hearts as they dropped their gifts 'Neath the gaze of His searching eye. Each…
ANTICIPATING THE WORST When you fear that the worst will happen, your own thoughts may help to bring it about. Someone once wrote, "Fear is the wrong use of imagination. It is anticipating the worst,…
PERSPECTIVE The city man bought a farm and was visited by his new neighbor. He asked him, "Can you tell me where the property line runs between our farms?" The farmer looked him over and…
DESERVING, BUT WITHIN LIMITS Linus and Lucy were talking. Linus: "I've been thinking. Charlie Brown has really been a dedicated baseball manager. He's devoted his whole life to the team. We should give him a…
LIFE -- DIVE RIGHT IN Life's a pretty precious and wonderful thing. You can't sit down and let it lap around you . . . you have to plunge into it; you have to dive…
SWEET REVENGE I love the one sent in by Robert Dalke of Turpin, Oklahoma. He heard it on the local news coming out of Liberal, Kansas. It seems that an elderly lady driving a big,…
SUMMER ETHICAL REQUIREMENTS A young lady was soaking up the sun's rays on a Florida beach, when a little boy in his swimming trunks, carrying a towel, came up to her and asked her, "Do…
ERASING OUR MISTAKES The lady driver was indignant when a man hit her at the intersection. She cried out at him that she had indeed made a left-turn signal. The man who hit her said,…
THE CHILD AS MANIPULATOR When my daughter, Shannon, was five years old, she came into the kitchen just a few minutes before supper asking, "May I have a 'Twinkie" please?" I replied, "No!" Supper will…
REAL VILLAINS In reading Harry Reasoner's reminiscences about the first 25 years of network TV news I came across this piece on "villains" in his describing the reporting of the Little Rock, Arkansas school integration…
BELEIFS MEN LIVE BY Man is not on this earth merely to be happy, nor even to be simply honest. He is there to realize great things for humanity, to attain nobility and to surmount…
MOMENTARY DISCOMFORT SEEN CAUSED BY FEARS There is an old adage: "A brave person dies only once, but a coward dies a thousand times." Most of the time our fears cause us momentary discomfort, but…
