THE SHEPHERD SPEAKS Out of the midnight sky a great dawn broke, And a voice singing flooded us with song. In David's city was He born, it sang, A Saviour, Christ the Lord. Then while…
Sermon Illustrations
SEEKING THE WATER OF LIFE Drought drove us onward though we did not know. Beyond wide rivers cool among their palms. Past young white-water streams where willows grow To screen their rapid innocence from jaded…
DRESS REHEARSAL I wonder if the Magi ever guessed How hard it is to simulate a jewel; Or whether Gabriel ever gave a thought To how a human haberdasher deals With wings when getting Christmas…
SILENT NIGHT A member recently passed along to me a powerful book, entitled Life And Death In Shanghai, by Nien Cheng (Grove Press, New York, 1986). It is the amazing, personal story of a Chinese…
WISE MEN VENTURE FORTH I imagine the wise men were asked, "Well, why do you want to take this foolish and dangerous trip? Why are you going to all this trouble?" "Why," the wise men…
THE LOVE OF GOD There is an ocean -- cold water without motion. In this ocean, however, is the Gulf Stream, hot water flowing from he equator toward the Pole. Inquire of all scientists how…
PERSPECTIVE Some businessmen are saying this Christmas could be the best one ever. I always thought that the first one was. Art Fettig, Quotable Quotations, ed. Lloyd Cory
ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY This is the month, and this the happy morn, Wherein the Son of Heaven's eternal King, Of wedded maid and virgin mother born, Our great redemption from above did…
BEFORE THE PALING OF THE STARS Before the paling of the stars, Before the winter morn, Before the earliest cockcrow, Jesus Christ was born: Born in a stable, Cradled in a manger, In the world…
YOU SHOP YOUR WAY, I'LL SHOP MINE The busy Christmas shopping season was in full swing. A little boy was standing in the middle of the aisle of one of the large department stores and…
HIS COMING He comes to us as one unknown, without a name, as of old by the lakeside he came to those men who knew Him not. He speaks to us the same word, "Follow…
GOD SHINING THROUGH As a countenance is made beautiful by the soul's shining through it, so the world is beautiful by the shining through it of God. Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi
TWO LONELY PEOPLE We hurried on, our heads bent against the wind, to the cluster of lights ahead that was 149th Street and Westchester Avenue, and those lights seemed to me the brightest lights I…
REVELATION ON CHRISTMAS EVE One Christmas Eve, Ira D. Sankey was traveling by steamboat up the Delaware River. Asked to sing, Mr. Sankey sang the "Shepherd Song." After the song was ended, a man with…
A CHILD LEARNS ABOUT LOVE In her autobiography, The Story of My Life, Helen Keller tells how as a deaf and blind child she learned from Anne Sullivan the meaning of love. "I remember the…
CHRIST IN THE UNIVERSE With this ambiguous earth His dealings have been told us. These abide: The signal to a maid, the human birth, The lesson, and the young Man crucified. But not a star…
THE OXEN Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock. "Now they are all on their knees," An elder said as we sat in a flock By the embers in hearthside ease. We pictured the meek…
A BED IN MY HEART Ah, dearest Jesus, holy Child, Make Thee a bed, soft, undefiled, Within my heart, that it may be A quiet chamber kept for Thee. My heart for very joy doth…
CHRISTMAS EVE COMMUNION Having given up Our small remnants Of pain, We gather In the deep And unfamiliar light Of love. It fills Our open hands As we move to Brave longings For peace. We…
RENEWAL High on the vast shore of the year a shell lies stranded; parched, brittle, dulled with drought, more lonely than sand, more useless than driftwood. The fickle tides have teased and forsaken it, continuously…
