To a child thrust into a strange world, a good teacher is the best thing that can possibly happen. A teacher is Courage with Kleenex in its pocket. Sympathy struggling with a snowsuit, and Patience…
Sermon Illustrations
In Robert Bolt’s play, “A Man for All Seasons,” Sir Thomas More urges a restless underling to become a fine teacher. “And if I was, who would know it?” asks the ambitious young man. Sir…
Comedian Yakov Smirnoff writes: “Coming from the Soviet Union, I was not prepared for the incredible variety of products available in American grocery stores. While on my first shopping trip, I saw powdered milk —…
While attending a major concert or stage performance, most of us take for granted the challenging and dangerous “behind the scenes” work performed by the stage “riggers.” These men and women walk the four-inch rafter…
Comedian David Letterman once offered this tip to anyone planning a visit to “The Big Apple.” He advised, “If you’re planning to travel to New York City, do yourself a favor — this is a…
Consider the Pilgrim fathers and mothers when they celebrated the first American “Thanksgiving.” Thanksgiving? How could they give thanks? They had suffered terribly on their long freedom journey which began in the English countryside and…
As we gather together to count the Lord’s blessings on this 370th celebration of Thanksgiving, we should be thankful, despite the sea of troubles across the globe, and economic and social problems at home .…
If one should give me a dish of sand, and tell me that there were particles of iron in it, I might look with my eyes for them, and search for them with my clumsy…
Thornton Wilder’s play, “Our Town,” is about the people of Grover’s Corners, a very rural, very quiet, very simple place. One of the people is “Emily” who, as you may recall dies in childbirth. In…
“O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever.” (Psalms 136:1). Consider the Pilgrim Fathers and Mothers when they celebrated the first American “Thanksgiving.” Thanksgiving? How could they…
In Raleigh, North Carolina there is a popular preacher who understands the value of expressing thanks to God. And he loves to sing. The problem is, he has a terrible singing voice. He never seems…
From the popular “New Collection of Children’s Letters to God” are two expressions of thanks. Dear God: Thank you for the baby brother, but what I prayed for was a puppy. Signed,Joyce Dear God: If…
There is an amusing story of three learned theologians who were brilliant, but terribly proud. The three died at the same time, so the story goes, and were standing together at the gate of heaven…
The following is a true story. A woman reported that when she started eating breakfast regularly at an old-fashioned diner in Pittsfield, Mass, she noticed that there was a nail stuck into the wall behind…
A French Army General was well known for his impatience. One morning under the bright North African sun, he told the orderly landscaping his compound that, by noon, he wanted a certain plant moved from…
“A day is a miniature eternity,” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. Each new day is a whole world within itself. It can make a world of difference in the life God has given each of us.…
You’re in the yard on a beautiful sunlit day pulling dandelions, and suddenly you drop to your knees and see the beauty of the yellow and the intricacy of the design and even the strange…
I remember a friend, a wonderful, wise old man, who was one of the happiest personalities I knew anywhere. His life had not been an easy one, and he had known many real hardships and…
“They are not afraid of evil tidings; their hearts are firm, secure in the Lord” (Psalms 112:7) Rembrandt did a painting which portrays the Biblical story of the storm on the Sea of Galilee. Perhaps…
There is a story about the mid-Victorian era Bishop Samuel Wilberforce who experienced a religious conversion late in life. He said that one night, some years before his conversion, he was thinking of the wickedness…
