PRUNING FROM THE PAST Comparisons with the past are risky. Our tendency is to select what we wish to remember and conveniently forget the rest. "Christians in particular are prone to abbreviate the historical record,…
Sermon Illustrations
THOSE PRETTY PICTURES An old woman was living in Scotland in the most abject poverty. She had never had the advantage of education and had never traveled outside the borders of her own little township.…
BIBLE CLOTHES A little boy found an old Family Bible and began to look through it. As he was turning the pages, a pressed tree leaf fell out. "Hey, this must be where Adam and…
ADVICE ON GOD'S WILL Ask most people for advice on knowing God's will for your life, and they will tell you God's will for their life with your name on it. By Gary K. Odle,…
CARELESS CREDIT CARD Cindy Penka of Hauppauge, New York had her credit card stolen. She called her husband Thomas who was ten miles away at work to tell him about her loss. The Associated Press…
NOT-SO- PERFECT WORSHIP While on vacation in a small town in Colorado, we looked up the local United Methodist Church and went to services. The pastor was away at Seminary and had left the church…
WHEN THE SHOE FITS A vivid example comes from the childhood of my wife, Amy, who grew up in the Russian Ukraine during the famine-stricken years of the 1930's. Amy never had a pair of…
MODERN INCARNATION If Jesus Christ were to come today, people would not even crucify him. They would ask him to dinner, and hear what he had to say, and make fun of it. Thomas Carlyle,…
PREPARED FOR THIRST Dig the well before you get thirsty. -- Chinese Proverb
DISCIPLINE & FREEDOM The disciplined person is the person who can do what needs to be done when it needs to be done. the disciplined person is the person who can live in the appropriateness…
THE KEY TO HAPPINESS Hagar the Viking and his not so bright sidekick, Lucky Eddie, are talking. Hagar says, "If there's one thing I've learned over the years it's this: 'The key to happiness lies…
MY DAD DOES NOT BEAT ME! John Gardner, a famous mental health professional, was walking through his clinic one day when he heard three children talking. "My mom yells at me," the first child said.…
A CLEAN CHURCH Have you ever had a difficult time motivating your custodian -- or the members of your church for that matter -- to keep the church clean? It seems that others have had…
SIZE OF THE SOUL by E.V. Millay The world stands out on either side no wider than the heart is wide. Above the world is stretched the sky, no higher than the soul is high.
THE STRENGTH OF THE RABBIT Barbara Hayes in Folk Tales and Fables of the World spins this tale about a tricky rabbit: Once, long ago, there was a very cunning rabbit who enjoyed playing practical…
PREFER DILL PICKLE MILKSHAKES There are some people who would rather drink a dill pickle milkshake than admit they were wrong.
FINAL CALL We should be "Ready at all times!" It's sort of scary to start thinking about the end times. It's sort of scary to think about that day when the gate will be closed…
SHARED WRETCHEDNESS Francis of Assissi once told a companion "a man whose business is to set an example for others should flee palaces and dwell... in the midst of the humble in order to strengthen…
PEOPLE ARE STRANGE If you've ever been the stranger, or the new kid on the block, then you know that it's frightening and unpleasant. And we don't like frightening and unpleasant. Who does? It ties…
EDUCATION IS Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self- confidence. By Robert Frost
