HISTORICAL ALL-STARS An American history instructor asked his class for a list of the eleven greatest Americans. As the student wrote, the professor strolled around the room. Finally, he asked one student if he had…
Sermon Illustrations
CONFIDENCE Larry King told about an interview that a reporter had with the great baseball player Ty Cobb when he was 70. On Ty Cobb's seventieth birthday a reporter interviewed this great hitter. The reporter…
DEVELOPING EXPERIENCE Experience is not what happens to a man. It's what a man does with what happens to him. By British author Aldous Huxley
DAY AT A TIME An old idiom says, "Life is hard by the yard, but by the inch, it's a cinch. Jesus taught us to live one day at a time. We are not to…
HONESTY ABOUT DISHONESTY Politics in the State of Louisiana are always colorful. The former governor of Louisiana has recently retired from politics. Few - even his friends - have considered him an honest man. He…
HOSTILITY AND HEALTH A series of long-term epidemiological studies support the theory that hostility can be lethal. In two studies begun in the 1960s, 155 medical students and 118 law students were given standard personality…
SINNERS INDEED AND IN DEED R. C. Sproul sums it up well: "We are not sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners." We are not theoretical sinners or honorary sinners or vicarious…
GOOD MEN IN A BAD WORLD We are all like David, for in our fallen state we have an infinite capacity for justifying whatever acts we commit. Psychologists call this the "self- serving bias" and…
A THINKING CHANCE To think and not understand is no problem; not to think and have no chance of understanding is a greater one. From Doubt, Os Guinness, pg. 198
IT JUST SLIPPED OUT I vividly remember a whipping I received from another boy when I was in the sixth grade. I thought that I was going to go home to be with the Lord.…
NEVER SURRENDER Knowing what is important and maintaining those values is an essential part of virtue. Before the Dieppe raid of World War II, an English civilian with the code name "Professor Wendell" received an…
THE POWER OF THE SOUL After all, let a man take what pains he may to hush it down, a human soul is an awful ghostly, unquiet possession, for a bad man to have. Who…
NATIVE AMERICAN NAMES A quote by Natty Bumpo about Indian names: "With an Indian it is a matter of conscience; what He calls himself he generally is." From The Last of the Mohicans, by James…
ROTTEN FRUIT FALLS AWAY A gardener was once asked: "Why do so many pears fall off that tree?" "Oh, sir", was his reply, "it is only those that are rotten inside that fall off." From…
DON'T SELL THE NAIL A Haitian pastor once told a parable to illustrate to his congregation the need for total commitment to Christ. He said: A certain man wanted to sell his house for $2,000.…
GENERATIONAL VIRTUES An audience of parents was asked by the speaker for a definition of success. The answer was happiness, feeling of fulfillment, self-satisfaction, identifying and achieving goals. He gave the kids' responses: First was…
AARON BURR'S CHARACTER While visiting the cemetery at Princeton University, I discovered the grave of Aaron Burr. The inscription read, "Colonel in the Continental Army, Vice President of the United States." Near his grave are…
THE BLESSINGS OF GOODNESS Goodness always blesses the agent as well as the object. From Pulpit Commentaries, W. Clarkeson, The Book of Esther, pg. 140
BELOW THE SURFACE Each day the road seems to buckle more and more until it has the properties of an old washboard. Here and there potholes open up where water has seeped in and frozen…
SIGHT OF THE SELFISH: "Selfish men only see themselves" From Bible Digest, pg. 263
