THE PARABLE OF THE THREE SISTERS Once there were three sisters: Mary, Martha, and Salome; they lived in the town of Bethsaida on the Sea of Galilee. One day Jesus passed through with a crowd…
Sermon Illustrations
FOR THE TIMELY Time. We save it. We prioritize it. We loose it. We abuse it. Everyone has the same allotment of 24 hours of the time per day. How should we see time? There…
FOR PARENTS I have heard from parents how their children "are driving them crazy." Wouldn't it be nice if there was a fool-proof formula for raising children? The National Institute of Mental Health asked the…
MAYBE I SHOULD PRACTICE NOW When I am an old woman I shall wear purple With a red hat which doesn't go and doesn't suit me, And I shall spend my pension on brandy and…
SHORTAGES IN HEAVEN A couple were on the way to their wedding and were killed in an automobile accident. They went to the Gate of Heaven and were met by St. Peter. They asked, "St.…
WE'VE ALWAYS DONE IT THAT WAY Sometimes the naive question, "Why do we do this?" may be the necessary catalyst for change in routines that have been carried out in the same way for years.…
THE OFFICIAL RULES FOR PASTORS Everyone's heard of Murphy's Law ("If anything can go wrong, it will"), Parkinson's Law ("Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion"), and the Peter Principle…
DU PONT'S LAWS RELATING TO PASTORAL SKIN If you're concerned about being criticized, you're in the wrong job. Whatever you do, somebody out there will be telling you that you are (a) wrong, (b) insensitive,…
THE OTTER'S CHILDREN "There is no way to peace," a wise man once said, "peace is the way." This Jewish folk tale reminds us that if peace is to be experienced, some one must stop…
THE INEVITABLE WAR It was in Virginia, in the House of Burgesses, that the fiery country lawyer Patrick Henry spoke of the coming fight for independence: There is no retreat but in submission and slavery!…
BIBLE John Wanamaker started working at the age of eleven as a laborer in his father's brickyard. In later years he became a wealthy merchant! "I have made purchases costing millions of dollars," he testified,…
HOPE Lewis, in Christian Behavior, said, "Hope is one of the theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not, as some modern people think, a form of escapism…
THOSE GREATER MOUNTS These small and perishable bodies we now have were given to us as ponies are given to schoolboys. We must learn to manage: not that we may some day be free of…
THE MIRACLE OF THE VIRGIN BIRTH The grounds for belief and disbelief are the same today as they were two thousand or ten thousand -- years ago. If Joseph had lacked faith to trust God…
INDIVIDUALITY Be sure that the ins and outs of your individuality are no mystery to Him; and one day they will no longer be a mystery to you. The mould in which a key is…
THE TERM IS OVER In the seventh of his famous Chronicles of Narnia, a book entitled The Last Battle, C. S. Lewis has Aslan, the great "Christ figure" speak these words of certainty concerning eternal…
SCATTERED JOY AT PLEASANT INNS ALONG THE WAY The settled happiness and security which we all desire, God withholds from us by the very nature of the world; but joy, pleasure and merriment, He has…
THE VALUE OF A GLIMPSE A glimpse is not a vision. But to a man on a mountain road by night, a glimpse of the next three feet of road may matter more than a…
POTENT PRESENCE A number of the lectionary passages deal with the potent presence of the Lord (Jeremiah 20:10-13; Matthew10:26-33; 37-24; 11.25-30). This potency of the Lord's presence is pictured in C.S. Lewis's Narnian Chronicles in…
PRAYER It is no use to ask God with factitious earnestness for A when our whole mind is in reality filled with B. We must lay before him what is in us, not what ought…
