Sermon Illustrations

A mother asked her small son what he would like for his birthday. "I'd like a little brother," a boy said. "Oh my, that's such a big wish," said the mother. "Why do you want a little brother"? "Well," said the boy, "there's only so much I can blame on my dog." (from Pastor Tim's CleanLaugh L

"The philosophy of education in one generation is the philosophy of government in the next." (Abraham Lincoln)  

Don Aycock tells the story of Menelik II, who was the Emperor of Ethiopia from 1889 until 1913: "News of a successful new means of dispatching criminals reached him. The news was about a device known as an electric chair. The Emperor eagerly ordered one for his country. Unfortunately, no one bothere

Former heavyweight boxer James (Quick) Tillis is a cowboy from Oklahoma who fought out of Chicago in the early 1980s. He still remembers his first day in the Windy City after his arrival from Tulsa. "I got off the bus with two cardboard suitcases under my arms in downtown Chicago and stopped in fron

In the Oct. 21 issue of The Wall Street Journal, Alan Murray talks about a recent report of the President's Council on Bioethics. The report makes it clear that technological innovations present significant ethical challenges to our society. For example, says Murray, "a combination of anxious paren

F.B. Meyer once said: "I used to think that God's gifts were on shelves one above the other; and that the taller we grew in Christian character the easier we could reach them. I now find that God's gifts are on shelves one beneath the other. It is not a question of growing taller but of stooping low

A Matter of Fact I have never known a generous person to complain about how much money it takes to run a church. Poor givers gripe about how much it takes; generous givers express concern that they don't do more. I have never known a family who tithed for any length of time who quit. I have never k

Corrie Ten Boom once observed, "You just collect roses, the praise and compliments, during the day; you hold them, put them together in a bouquet, then at the end of the day, you get on your knees and say, 'Here, Father, these were yours all along. I just held them for you." (Stand Firm, Feb. 2004

More than 25 religious and scientific leaders have signed a new "manifesto on biotechnology" that calls for the banning of all human cloning and legislation that will prevent discrimination based on genetic information, according to a Religion News Service story. "We are thankful for the hope that

The word Easter goes back to Eastre, which was the Teutonic spring goddess for whom sacrifices were offered in April. This provoked the faithful to make sure the date of Easter Day could be moved. They didn't want it to coincide with pagan holidays. So the dating of Easter Day was fixed by the Counc