Excellence

P. H. Welshimer, a great preacher of a previous generation, used to advise his fellow preachers, "If you have to be a second-rater, then be a first-rate second-rater." That's not bad advice for all of us. A famous conductor was once asked what was the most difficult instrument in the orche

Evangelism

A little girl answered the phone in her house and a salesman said, "Little girl, may I speak to your mother?" The little girl replied, "She's busy right now." The salesman said, "Oh, OK, how about your father?" The little girl replied that he was busy too,

Deeds

In one of former President Jimmy Carter's best-selling books, Living Faith, Carter talks about how faith affects every aspect of his life. He originally wanted to call that book, Faith Is a Verb, but his publishers instead opted for the title, Living Faith. Both titles make sense because a liv

Death

One of society's most celebrated writers was O. Henry. Readers enjoyed how he always had a little twist to his stories and how he was always interested in the lives of common people and their struggles. When William Sydney Porter (O. Henry's real name) passed away, his last words to

Commitment

Years ago, Bob Dylan wrote a great truth in one of his songs. He said: "You may be an ambassador to England of France; You may like to gamble, you might like to dance; You may be the heavy-weight champion of the world; You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls; But you're go

Sin

Ambrose Bierce once wrote, "An abstainer is a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure." Surely this is the logic of a world that imagines God as a cosmic kill joy. God wants us to have noble pleasures.

Prayer, Sin

A little boy was overheard praying, "Lord, if you can't make me a better boy, don't worry about it. I'm having a real good time like I am."Is this the unspoken prayer of many to whom we preach?

Parenting, Poor Example

In happened in Reno. A police officer saw a car weaving on the highway, driving slowly and stopping for no apparent reason. When the officer pulled the vehicle over he saw that the driver was a seven-year-old child. The father was drunk in the passenger seat. The father said that he was teaching the

Missions

Once there was a man who sat down to read a stack of papers waiting for his perusal.One of the pieces of mail was a newsletter entitled, "The Report of the Paris Missionary Society."In the humble newsletter was an article describing needs in the Congo. This man who was multi-talented - w