EARTH SOURCE The universe is different. Who created it? Why are we here upon this puny mud heap spinning in infinite space? I have not the slightest idea, and I am quite convinced that no…
Sermon Illustrations
OFFERING FOR THE HEATHEN A young deacon with few manners was passing the collection plate one Sunday. After passing the plate by a rich lady he noticed that she did not put anything in. So…
REASONS FOR MOTIVATION Dr. Frederik Herzberg, writing in the Harvard Business Review, lists six factors that must be present to keep people highly motivated about sustaining responsibility: 1. Achievement 2. Recognition 3. The task itself…
PREACHERS & PASTORS As Bishop Phillips Brooks said, "The preacher needs to be pastor, that he may preach to real men. The pastor must be preacher, that he may keep the dignity of his work…
WALKING THE EARTH Now that man can fly through the air like a bird...and swim in the sea like a fish, wouldn't it be wonderful if he could just walk the earth like a man?…
TWO NATURES Two natures beat within my breast. One is foul, the other blest. The one I love, the one I hate. The one I feed will dominate.
BUNNY BREAD My folks still talk about the summer when I was ten or eleven, and my mom's Uncle Joe and Aunt Ethel invited her whole family to visit their farm in Kentucky. My mother's…
THREE MORE CRITICS "If I had three more like you," a rabbi tells one of his opponents on the synagogue's board of directors, "! would be a happy man." "What are you talking about, Rabbi?"…
WHO GOES FIRST? This happened recently when Patrick was four years old and his brother, Luke, was five, and already a half year in kindergarten had made Luke wiser. Luke and Patrick were fighting over…
THINK OF ME If you love me, do not cry. If you but knew the unfathomable mystery of the heaven where I find myself... If you could see and feel what I feel and see…
A PSALM OF LIFE by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow What the young man's heart said to the psalmist: Tell me not, in mournful numbers, "Life is but an empty dream!" For the soul is dead that…
FIRST TIME AGAIN Kellogg's found that the sales of their staple cereal, Corn Flakes, were falling below all of the high tech competition cereals. Convinced of the value of Corn Flakes, they instituted an advertising…
WE BOTH HAVE TO SHARE Sunday after Church we had a pot luck dinner and fund raiser for our youth. During that dinner I had a sacramental moment with five year old Greg Partridge. I…
COOPERATION EXPECTED In 1953, two men, Sir Edmund Hillary, a beekeeper by trade; and also an explorer from New Zealand and his guide, a man named Norgay, who was from Nepal, were the first humans…
PEOPLE OF GOD While at a minister's meeting our subcommittee was meeting in one of this growing church's Sunday School rooms. As we were discussing problems facing the church and the ministry, I looked over…
EXCUSES DON'T FLY A psychologist I became acquainted with told me he was a helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War. The aviation company to which he was assigned was commanded by a strict officer. The…
RESUMES FOR CHRISTIANS A good friend of mine is a carpenter. One day, as I was preparing a resume, it occurred to me that he never has to fill out a resume; he simply shows…
REPETITIVE HISTORY History repeats itself, which is good because most people don't listen the first time.
EASIER PLACE TO LOOK There is an old story about a drunk who is trying to find his car keys under a streetlight. "Where did you lose your keys?" asks a sympathetic passerby. "Back in…
FINDING SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL Alice Freeman Palmer, once president of Wellesley, spent some time in her youth teaching a Sunday School class of young girls recruited from a city slum. One Sunday the idea came to…
