EVERY PART MATTERS The poet and musician Sidney Lanier was a flutist of extraordinary skill and played in the Symphony Orchestra of Baltimore. One day as the orchestra was rehearsing and the symphony was building…
Sermon Illustrations
SUFFERING, USE IT Lord Kelvin was on one occasion lecturing his students and an experiment failed to "come off" as planned. Kelvin said, "Gentlemen, when you are face to face with a difficulty, you are…
THE ADVANTAGE OF MATURING Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman, in his late 50's, has no apprehension about old age. "It's like climbing a mountain," he says. "You climb from ledge to ledge. The higher you…
HOW NOT TO GROW OLD -- DOUGLAS MacARTHUR Youth is not entirely a time of life -- it is a state of mind. It is not wholly a matter of ripe cheeks, red lips and…
GOOD COMMUNICATION REQUIRES CAREFUL LISTENING The children begged for a hamster, and after the usual fervent vows that they alone would care for it, they got one. They named the hamster Danny. Two months later,…
YOU THINK THINGS ARE BAD AT YOUR CHURCH? When Jesus started His church, the Pastor (Jesus himself) was being executed. The chairman of the board (Peter) was out cursing and swearing that he had never…
A SUCCESSFUL MAN The priceless words of Rabbi Milton Steinberg keep echoing in my ears: "Judaism supplies us with a supreme criterion for judging ourselves and others. He is a failure as a human being,…
STYLISH SAINTS Once a man attended a fair and saw another man leading a fine, well-groomed horse. He inquired, "Is that a saddle horse?" The man replied, "No, sir. This horse will buck off a…
A LESSON IN LOVE As a group of college students toured the slums of a city, one of the girls, seeing a little girl playing in the dirt, asked a guide, "Why doesn't her mother…
SOME THINGS DON'T TAKE TOO LONG The young town smart aleck walked into the village blacksmith show shortly after the blacksmith had thrown a horseshoe on the ground too cool. Seeing it there, the young…
A MINDSET FOR GOD Take a look around where you're sitting and find five things that have blue in them. Go ahead and do it. With a 'blue' mindset, you'll find that blue jumps out…
PROVE IT A man approached a fruit stand where an Italian woman was busily reading a book. He asked her what she was reading with such interest. She said, "The Word of God." He said,…
LISTEN TO THE STILL, SMALL VOICE One hour into an eight-hour auto trip we stopped for fuel. I checked the oil; we needed a quart. As I was reaching onto the convenience store shelf for…
OLD AGE is the most unexpected of all things that can happen to man. Leon Trotsky, as quoted in Funny, Funny World
AGING BUT ALWAYS GROWING Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was one of the great poets of the 19th century with works such as "Evangeline" and "The Song of Hiawatha." In the midst of his successes, though, were…
TEST THE STATISTICS Research indicates that seventy to ninety percent of new church members start coming because a friend, a relative or an acquaintance invited them! Another statistic shows that persons who become active members…
STEWARDSHIP AS WISE INVESTMENT A man gave several thousand dollars to help build a church. Then came the 1929 crash. He lost everything. Someone said to him, "If you had that money you gave to…
FAITH, THE INNER EYE While sightseeing the western states on a bus tour a cynical old man criticized the beauty of every natural monument -- the Grand Canyon, the Painted Desert, the Petrified Forest, etc.…
LIGHT There is a parable that talks about a cave which lived under the ground, as caves have the habit of doing. It had spent its life in darkness. It heard a voice calling to…
ATTITUDE FOR CHARISMA Why some have charisma with audiences, which cellist and conductor Mstislay Rostropovich certainly has, is difficult to explain. His attitude toward performing may contain a clue: "If you are playing for 18,000…
