Sermon Illustrations

The motto of the Boy Scouts is "Be Prepared." To fulfill that motto they learn how to build a fire, pitch a tent, tie a knot, and follow a trail. "Be Prepared" could also be the motto of the Christian.

AT&T fired President John Walter after nine months, saying he lacked "intellectual leadership." He received a $26 million severance package. Perhaps it's not Walter who's lacking intelligence

Recently Bill Keane's comic strip, The Family Circus, showed a little girl kneeling on her bed and telling her Mother, "I couldn't remember The Lord's Prayer so I said the Pledge of Allegiance."

Soon after Augustine's conversion, he was walking down the street and passed by a prostitute whom he had known most intimately. She called but he would not answer. He kept right on walking.

Joe McKeever tells about his son Neil, who was on an outing with his three children. The day before, he had suggested they pray for good weather.

In a recent column, Chuck Colson talked about the prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq and how it could have happened: "As I've tried to figure out how this travesty occurred, I've considered my own experiences in the Marine Corp. Had I been in charge of the brig in a time of war and the intelligence officers ordered me to "soften these guys up for interrogation," I would have made them sleep with their lights on all night;

Among Rembrandt's many self-portraits is the remarkable one in the painting Elevation of the Cross. The artist has included himself among the soldiers, struggling to raise the cross, weighted with the body of Jesus.

A tourist walks into a curio shop in San Francisco. Looking around at the exotica, he notices a very lifelike, life-sized bronze statue of a rat. It has no price tag, but is so striking he decides he must have it. He took it to the owner: "How much for the bronze rat?" "Twelve dollars for the rat, one hundred dollars for the story," said the owner.

A little girl was visiting her grandmother one beautiful spring morning. They walked out into grandmother's flower garden. As grandmother was inspecting the progress of her flowers the little girl decided to try to open a rosebud with her own two hands. But no luck!

Years ago, a young mother was making her way across the hills of South Wales, carrying her tiny baby in her arms when she was overtaken by a blinding blizzard. She never reached her destination; and when the blizzard had subsided, searchers found her body beneath a mound of snow.