ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL -- PATRIOT We can demonstrate our love of country in many ways. When Bell prepared for his gravestone's epitaph he had it read: Alexander Graham Bell Inventor-Teacher Born Edinburgh March 3, 1847…
Sermon Illustrations
AMERICA -- THE HYMN One bleak day in February, 1832, a young theological student sat in his room at Andover Seminary. Samuel Francis Smith was going over a sheaf of German songs for children, given…
LISTENERS Good listeners are not only popular everywhere, but after a while they know something.
PRAYER People approach prayer in many different ways. In Life With Father, Clarence Day describes his father's approach: "Father expected a good deal of God. He didn't actually accuse God of inefficiency, but when he…
PERSISTANCE AND PRESENCE In the first part of this century, Sir Ernest Shakleford began his voyage to the Antarctic. It was his dream to cross the 2100 miles of wasteland by dogsled. He didn't make…
THE POWER OF THE SPOKEN WORD Jay Adams was speaking in Brazil to missionaries. One of the missionaries wanted to help Jay see the impact of illiteracy since Brazil has a high illiteracy rate. He…
THE SEED IS PLANTED IN A CHILD In reading The Cotton Patch Evidence, a biography of Clarence Jordan, author of the Cotton Patch versions of the New Testament, and founder of Koinonia Farm, I was…
MEDICAL/PASTORAL INTERFACE A recent article in ML Journal by Thomas K. McElhinney started out this way: The hospital patient turned toward his visitor and stammered in a barely audible voice, "Pastor, I know that I'm…
MISTAKES When you get discouraged because you've blown it -- console yourself with these who have gone before: The Michigan banker who advised Henry Ford's lawyer not to invest in the new motor car company,…
DOING WHAT SOME CALL IMPOSSIBLE A parable from the world of mountain climbing concerns one of the world's greatest -- Reinhold Messner from Northern Italy. In our world there are 14 peaks above 26,000 feet.…
SEEING What do you see? How do you see? A visitor to New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art paused before a recently acquired masterpiece and said with disdain, "I don't see anything in that."…
A DIFFERENT APPROACH TO FUND RAISING Here's another story from the Clarence Jordan biography that you can relate to the story of the Rich Young Ruler. It seems that a lady arrived at Koinonia Farm,…
TRY AGAIN A hobo knocked on the door of an English inn called "George And The Dragon." A woman opened the door. He asked, "Could I have a bit to eat?" The woman screamed at…
WHO AM I? I had a strange sense of deja vu as I reread the Time cover story about actor Peter Sellers (Mar 3, 1980). Appearing on The Muppet Show, he was told by Kermit…
COMMUNICATION As seven-year-old Sally stood in front of her parents who were lined up before a cash register in a supermarket, a midget-sized adult person crossed nearby. She overheard her mother tell her father in…
HEARING MAY NOT BE THE PROBLEM Jed Harris, the stubborn producer of Our Town and other plays, became convinced he was losing his hearing. He went to a specialist who gave him a thorough checkup.…
ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING Two shoe salesmen went to Africa to open up new territories. Three days after their arrival, the first salesman sent a cablegram: "Returning on next plane. Can't sell shoes here. Everybody goes…
COMMUNICATION A grandmother was constantly trying to improve her little granddaughter's vocabulary. She taught her some new words to use and occasionally gave her advice on words not to use. On one occasion, grandmother said,…
HIS LAST CHANCE There once was a man who was so despondent, his spirit so torn up by care and worry, that he decided to end it all. He started to walk across the city…
PRAYER IN CONGRESS When Edward Everett Hale was Chaplain of the Senate, someone asked him, "Do you pray for the senators, Dr. Hale?" He replied, "No, I look at the senators and pray for the…
