All posts by SandyM

God Is Love

God, God's Love, Love

Charles Spurgeon once went down to visit a friend in the country. His friend had built a new barn, and above it he had placea a weather-vane bearing the text, “God Is Love”. “Do you mean”, asked spurgeon, “that God’s love is as changeable as the wind?” “No”, said his friend, “I mean that God is love, whichever way the wind blows!”
1500 Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching – Pub Marshall Pickering

The Reality Of God

God

If the reality of God were small enough to be grasped, it would not be great enough to be adored.
1500 Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching – Pub Marshall Pickering

The Elephant

God, Truth

There was once a blind man who wanted to know what an elephant was. So people brought one for him to touch. The man put out his hand and felt the trunk and said it was like a tree. His companions were also blind and wanted to find out about this creature. One grasped the ear and said it was like a fan. Another took hold of the tail and said it was like a rope. So each one believed he had the answer but none of them had grasped the whole truth.
Hinduism – By S.C. Mercier

John Wesley’s Giving

Giving, Money

Take John Wesley for example. He was one of the great evangelists of the 18th Century, born in 1703. In 1731 he began to limit his expenses so that he would have more money to give to the poor. In the first year his income was 30 pounds and he found he could live on 28 and so gave away two. In the second year his income doubled but he held his expenses even, and so he had 32 pounds to give away (a comfortable year’s income). In the third year his income jumped to 90 pounds and gave away 62 pounds. In his long life Wesley’s income advanced to as high as 1,400 pounds in a year. But he rarely let his expenses rise above 30 pounds. He said that he seldom had more than 100 pounds in his possession at a time.

This so baffled the English Tax Commissioners that they investigated him in 1776 insisting that for a man of his income he must have silver dishes that he was not paying excise tax on. He wrote them, “I have two silver spoons at London and two at Bristol. This is all the plate I have at present, and I shall not buy any more while so many round me want bread.”

When he died in 1791 at the age of 87 the only money mentioned in his will was the coins to be found in his pockets and dresser. Most of the 30,000 pounds he had earned in his life had been given away. He wrote,

I cannot help leaving my books behind me whenever God calls me hence; but in every other respect, my own hands will be my executors.

In other words, I will put a control on my spending myself, and I will go beyond the tithe for the sake of Christ and his kingdom. (Quotes from Mission Frontiers, Sept./Oct., 1994, No. 9-10, pp. 23-24)

Quoted from: www.soundofgrace.com/piper95/09-10-95.htm

Ten Percent Meets All The Needs

Giving, Money, Poverty, Tithing

A husband and wife team of researchers, the founders of Empty Tomb, Inc., in Champaign, Illinois, have tracked American and American Christian expenditures as well as global needs. John and Sylvia Ronsvalle have estimated that $70-$80 billion a year could meet the most essential human needs around the world. “Projects for clean water and sanitation, prenatal and infant/maternal care, basic education, immunizations, and long-term development efforts are among the activities that could help overcome the poverty conditions that now kill and maim so many children and adults.”

The Ronsvalles go on to write, “That figure of $70-$80 billion may sound like anything but good news. God may be generous, you may agree, but has he been that generous? Consider this: If church members in the United States would increase their giving to 10 percent of their income, there could be an additional $86 billion available for overseas missions.”

Craig L. Blomberg, Preaching the Parables (Baker Academic, 2004) p. 51. Updated statistics from www.emptytomb.com

Long Walk

Christmas, Generosity, Giving

In a remote village in Central America the word got out among the peoples of the region that one of the American missionaries that had served this country for many years was about to return to the US to live out the remaining years of her life.
The nationals desired to honor her for her years of service with a public time of appreciation. News of the event went to all parts of the country in which the people knew the missionary. One very old and very poor man walked to the ceremony over mountainous terrain for 4 days to bring his gift to the missionary.
The gift consisted of 2 coconuts, but it was all the man had. The missionary recognized the man as coming from the remote village in the mountains.
“Brother, I cannot believe that you would walk so far to present me with this gift,” said the missionary to the man.
His response: “Long walk part of gift.”
From the Sermon Fodder Email list

Ten Pounds

Giving, Guilt, Sin

The minister arose to address his congregation. “There is a certain man among us today who is flirting with another man’s wife. Unless he puts ten pounds in the collection box, his name will be read from the pulpit.”

When the collection plate came in, there were 19 ten pound notes, and a five pound note with this note attached: “Other five on payday.”

Quoted and adapted from the SermonFodder email list

The Strong Man

Giving, Money

The strong man at the circus was demonstrating his strength by taking a green stick and squeezing the sap out of it. When he had squeezed out several drops, he asked if anyone from the audience would like to try, and a frail-looking little lady came forward, took the stick in both hands, and squeezed. To the amazement of the strong man, a stream of sap ran down over her knuckles.
“Who are you, anyhow, lady? he asked?
“Oh, I’m just the treasurer at the Baptist church, she replied.
Quoted from net153.com email list

Hit Him Again Lord!

Giving, Money

The congregation knew the roof was leaking and needed replacement, but they kept putting it off. Finally some areas of the ceiling in the sanctuary began to sag. They called a congregational meeting to address the problem, and the richest member of the congregation rose to say that he would pledge $1000 toward fixing the roof. Just then a small piece of the ceiling fell and hit him on the head. Somebody in the back of the church said, “Hit him again, Lord!”
From the Eculaugh website

What To Pray For?

Giving, Tithing

Sometimes when we pray, as the Bible says, “We don’t know what to pray for.” That leads to some interesting dilemmas. That was the case for one pastor.

“I want to tithe,” a man told his pastor, “I want to give 10 percent of my income to my church. When my income was $50 a week, I gave $5 to the church every week. When I was successful in business and my weekly income rose to $500 a week, I gave $50 to my church every week. But now my income has gone to $5,000 a week, and I just can’t bring myself to give $500 to the church every week.”

The pastor said, “Why don’t we pray over this?” The pastor began to pray, “Dear God, please make this man’s weekly income $500 a week so that he can tithe again…”

Rev. John L. Mand, “Holy Humor” by way of wit and wisdom quoted from SermonFodder email list

What Is Your Colt?

Gifts & Talents

Bill Wilson pastors an inner city church in New York City. His mission field is a very violent place. He himself has been stabbed twice as he ministered to the people of the community surrounding the church. Once a Puerto Rican woman became involved in the church and was led to Christ. After her conversion she came to Pastor Wilson and said, “I want to do something to help with the church’s ministry.” He asked her what her talents were and she could think of nothing—she couldn’t even speak English—but she did love children. So he put her on one of the church’s buses that went into neighborhoods and transported kids to church. Every week she performed her duties. She would find the worst-looking kid on the bus, put him on her lap and whisper over and over the only words she had learned in English: “I love you. Jesus loves you.”
After several months, she became attached to one little boy in particular. The boy didn’t speak. He came to Sunday School every week with his sister and sat on the woman’s lap, but he never made a sound. Each week she would tell him all the way to Sunday School and all the way home, “I love you and Jesus loves you.”
One day, to her amazement, the little boy turned around and stammered, “I—I—I love you too!” Then he put his arms around her and gave her a big hug. That was 2:30 on a Sunday afternoon. At 6:30 that night he was found dead. His own mother had beaten him to death and thrown his body in the trash…….”I love you and Jesus loves you.” ….Those were some of the last words this little boy heard in his short life—from the lips of a Puerto Rican woman who could barely speak English. This woman gave her one talent to God and because of that a little boy who never heard the word “love” in his own home, experienced and responded to the love of Christ…..
What can you give? What is your “colt”. You and I each have something in our lives, which, if given back to God, could, like the colt, move Jesus and His message further down the road.
Mark Adams, “The Roads He Walked – Palm Avenue”

Funerals And Septic Tanks!

Funerals, Preaching

As a young minister, I was asked by a funeral director to hold a graveside service for a derelict man with no family or friends who had died while travelling through the area. The funeral was to be held way back in the country. This man would be the first to be laid to rest at this cemetery.

As I was not familiar with the backwoods area, I became lost. Being the typical man, I didn’t stop for directions. But, I finally arrived an hour late. I saw the crew and backhoe, but the hearse was nowhere in sight. The workmen were eating lunch.

I apologized to the workers for my tardiness (who looked puzzled). I stepped to the side of the open grave to find the vault lid already in place. I assured the workers I would not hold them long, but this was the proper thing to do. As the workers gathered around, still eating their lunch, I poured out my heart and soul. As I preached the workers began to say “Amen, Praise the Lord, and Glory (they must have been Baptist). I preached and I preached like I’d never preached before. I began from Genesis all the way through to Revelation. I preached for two hours and 45 minutes. It was a long and lengthy service. I closed in prayer and it was finished.

As I was walking to my car, I felt that I had done my duty and would leave with a renewed sense of purpose and dedication, in spite of tardiness. As I was opening the door and taking off my coat, I overheard one of the workers saying to another. “I’ve been putting in septic tanks for 20 years and I ain’t never seen anything like this before.”

CDs at Funerals

Funerals

At our local crematorium families are given the chance to chose the music CD they would like to enter the service to. One family asked to enter to Elvis Presley’s hit, “Love me Tender.”

Well the day of the funeral arrived and the music was started ready for the family to walk in to the service.

Unfortunately the wrong track number was entered into the CD player, and the family found themselves walking in to, “Return to Sender.”

From www.sermonfodder.com