ATTENTION GETTERS To obtain maximum attention, it's hard to beat a good, big mistake. David D. Hewitt, Reader's Digest
Sermon Illustrations
WITH FRIENDS LIKE THIS WHO NEEDS ENEMIES? Gerald C. Myers, chairman of the American Motors Corporation told the following story from medieval times in a speech to the Society of American Business and Economic Writers:…
A TRUE FRIEND One of the all-time greats in baseball was Babe Ruth. His bat had the power of a cannon, and his record of 714 home runs remained unbroken until Hank Aaron came along.…
SHRINK RESISTANT A young man was buying a shirt in a department store. The shirt label said, "Shrink Resistant". He asked the clerk what that meant. The clerk said, "The label means that the shirt…
UPON MORE CAREFUL THOUGHT At a Weight Watchers meeting a new member was disappointed because she had lost only a few pounds during her first week. She complained, "A friend of mine, who was also…
LET THEM GO An astronomer at Harvard once was giving a lecture entitled, "The Expanding Universe." In it, he pointed out that there are galaxies greater than our "Milky Way" speeding outward -- moving away…
DEATH In Las Vegas, at the funeral of a notorious gambler, a friend of the deceased was delivering the eulogy. The speaker went on and on with those flowery phrases that try to cover up…
COMMUNICATION A young mother had been too busy to visit her elderly neighbor, who was ill. She said to her small son, "Johnny, run over and see how old Mrs. Smith is." Within a few…
IT IS OK Robert Louis Stevenson delighted in the story of a ship tossed in a storm. The sea was rough and the rocky coast perilous. Danger was real and dread expectancy active among the…
SPEAK UP Roger Ailes is a communication consultant who helps top executives get their message out with more force and conviction. He shares the following story in his book You Are The Message: Bob Hope…
LONELINESS Shakespeare, Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin and Abraham Lincoln never saw a movie, heard a radio or looked at television. They had "loneliness" and knew what to do with it. They were not afraid…
WHY THE BIG SECRET The temptation of Jesus was to equate the satisfaction of the crowd with the fulfillment of his mission. And maybe Mark knows that the Church is going to be faced with…
ANSWERS AND ECHOES A tennis professional was giving a lesson to a new student of the game. After watching the student take several swings at the tennis ball, he began to suggest ways in which…
CLEARER VISION A little boy named Tommy loved to spend time with his grandparents. The grandfather was retired and had time available to be with Tommy. On Tommy's visits they would go to a ball…
COME UNTO ME One of Denmark's leading sculptors had a burning ambition to create the greatest statue of Jesus ever made. He began by shaping a clay model of a triumphant, regal figure. The head…
BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND Here is a neat analogy. Robert Martin Walker of Darien, Connecticut provides it. He reminds us that a year ago the United Methodist Church's Hymnal Revision Committee announced it was dropping…
LIFE IN A HARSH LIGHT In the morning, when I was fighting my way to school against the wind, I couldn't see anything but the road in front of me; but in the late afternoon,…
ABSTRACT ART Abstract art: a product of the untalented sold by the unprincipled to the utterly bewildered. Al Capp
CONSCIENCE is a mother-in-law whose visit never ends. H. L. Mencken
NOT ONE, BUT TWO MIRACLES In October of 1987, in a California hospital, a baby named Paul was born with a defective heart. His parents and doctors knew it was defective by way of pre-natal…
