Remember, God respecteth not the arithmetic of our prayers, how many they are; nor the rhetoric of our prayers, how long they are; nor the music of our prayers, how methodical they are; but the divinity of our prayers, how heart-sprung they are. Not gifts, but graces, prevail in prayer.
Trapp – Quoted from http://www.net153.com email list
Category Archives: Sermon Illustrations
Never Mind Jesus
Much of our prayer life is like that of the little boy who found himself losing his balance in a tree that he had climbed. He cried, “Help me Jesus;” but when his pant leg became caught on a branch, He said, “Never mind Jesus. My jeans caught me.”
Quoted from net153.com email list
What Troubles God?
Some people think God does not like to be troubled with our constant asking. The way to trouble God is not to ask at all.
Dwight L. Moody Quoted from the Sermon Fodder Email list
Spare Tyre Prayer?
“Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire ? ”
Corrie Ten Boom – Quoted from the Sermon Fodder email list
I AM An Only Child
I AM AN ONLY CHILD AND A LONELY ONE AT THAT,
I SIT IN DOORS AND GET REAL BORED,
I HATE IT AND THATS A FACT,
MY MUMMYS ALWAYS BUSY AND HAS NO TIME FOR ME,
SHE’S ALWAYS CLEANING UP OUR HOUSE,
AND COMPLAINS ITS AFTER ME.
I WOULD REALLY LOVE A GARDEN
OR A BIG HOUSE TO RUN AROUND,
BUT INSTEAD WEVE GOT A LITTLE BOX
AND MUMMY CALLS IT HOME.
SOME PEOPLE SAY ITS CRUEL TO TRAP BIRDS IN A CAGE
SOME PEOPLE SAY ITS CRUEL TO LOCK ANIMALS AWAY
WELL IM A HUMAN WITH RIGHTS OR SO THEY SAY?
BUT I AM TRAPPED IN A TINY FLAT
WHERE’S THE JUSTICE IN POLITICS TODAY.
THERES A PLACE WHERE MUMMY TAKES ME,
TWO DAYS A WEEK, WHERE THERE’S LOTS OF TOYS
AND CHILDREN WITH BICCY’S AND A NICE COOL DRINK,
I LIKE THESE PEOPLE HERE, THEY’RE REALLY KIND TO ME.
THEY TREAT ME LIKE A PERSON
AND HAVE LOTS OF TIME FOR ME.
I WISH I COULD LIVE HERE!!
A JAMES STREET PROJECT PARENT….
From my STETS weekend on ministry in the inner city.
God Help The Outcasts
Esmeralda’s prayer in song from the Disney film The Hunchback of Notre Dame
I don’t know if You can hear me Or if You’re even there I don’t know if You would listen To a gypsy’s prayer Yes, I know I’m just an outcast I shouldn’t speak to you Still I see Your face and wonder Were You once an outcast too? God help the outcasts Hungry from birth Show them the mercy They don’t find on earth The lost and forgotten They look to you still God help the outcasts Or nobody will I ask for weath, i ask for fame I ask for glory to shine on my name I ask for love, i can posess I ask for god and his angels to bless me.. I ask for nothing I can get by But I know so many Less lucky than I Please help my people The poor and downtrod I thought we all were all were The children of god God help the outcasts, Children of God
Biblical plagues and parting of Red Sea ’caused by volcano’
Fresh evidence that the Biblical plagues and the parting of the Red Sea were natural events rather than myths or miracles is to be presented in a new BBC documentary.
Moses, which will be broadcast next month, will suggest that much of the Bible story can be explained by a single natural disaster, a huge volcanic eruption on the Greek island of Santorini in the 16th century BC.
Using computer-generated imagery pioneered in Walking With Dinosaurs, the programme tells the story of how Moses led the Hebrews out of Egypt after a series of plagues had devastated the country. But it also uses new scientific research to argue that many of the events surrounding the exodus could have been triggered by the eruption, which would have been a thousand times more powerful than a nuclear bomb.
Dr Daniel Stanley, an oceanographer who has found volcanic shards in Egypt that he believes are linked to the explosion, tells the programme: “I think it would have been a frightening experience. It would have been heard. The blast ash would have been felt.”
Computer simulations by Mike Rampino, a climate modeller from New York University, show that the resulting ash cloud could have plunged the area into darkness, as well as generating lightning and hail, two of the 10 plagues.
The cloud could have also reduced the rainfall, causing a drought. If the Nile had then been poisoned by the effects of the eruption, pollution could have turned it red, as happened in a recent environmental disaster in America.
The same pollution could have driven millions of frogs on to the land, the second plague. On land the frogs would die, removing the only obstacle to an explosion of flies and lice – the third and fourth plagues.
The flies could have transmitted fatal diseases to cattle (the fifth plague) and boils and blisters to humans (the sixth plague).
The hour-long documentary argues that even the story of the parting of the Red Sea, which allowed Moses to lead the Hebrews to safety while the pursuing Egyptian army was drowned, may have its origins in the eruption.
It repeats the theory that “Red Sea” is a mistranslation of the Sea of Reeds, a much shallower swamp.
Computer simulations show that the Santorini eruption could have triggered a 600ft-high tidal wave, travelling at about 400 miles an hour, which would have been 6ft high and a hundred miles long when it reached the Egyptian delta.
Such an event would have been remembered for generations, and may have provided the inspiration for the story.
Jean-Claude Bragard, the director, said: “Sifting through the latest historical research and utilising new archaeological tools, we have been able to find a surprising amount of circumstantial evidence for the Biblical tales.”
By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent
(The Daily Telegraph 11/11/2002)
The Least Likely Winner
Steven Bradbury, age 28, of Australia hasn’t always been known for his prowess on ice. In fact, you might say he is an accident waiting for a televised event to happen.
In 1994, Bradbury cut his leg in a World Cup skating competition and almost bled to death, losing four liters of blood and receiving 111 stitches. Just a year and a half ago, he crashed headfirst into the boards while training and broke his neck. He chose to defy doctors, who told him that if he skated again he risked permanent paralysis. He staged a comeback in time for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City.
Steven Bradbury was, in many commentators’ opinions, the least likely skater to win a medal–any medal–at the games. And yet he won gold.
Bradbury’s victory is remarkable not only because he had encountered so many setbacks and defeats, but because he won it after the other four skaters in the event fell down just before the finish.
You could almost see Bradbury thinking, “I’m still standing up. I’m crossing the finish line. I just won the race!”
He skated from last to first in a split second.
Adapted from Reuters.com (2-17-02) and the “Sydney Morning Herald;” submitted by Clark Cothern, Tecumseh, Michigan
Frogs in Cream
Two frogs fell into a deep cream bowl.
One was an optimistic soul.
But the other took the gloomy view.
“We’ll drown,” he lamented without much ado,
and with a last despairing cry,
he flung up his legs and said “Goodbye.”
Quote the other frog with a steadfast grin,
“I can’t get out but I won’t give in,
I’ll just swim around till my strength is spent,
then I’ll die the more content.”
Bravely he swam to work his scheme,
and his struggles began to churn the cream.
The more he swam, his legs a flutter,
the more the cream turned into butter.
On top of the butter at last he stopped,
and out of the bowl he gaily hopped.
Or another version:
Two frogs fell in a can of cream
Or so I heard it told
The sides of the can were shiny and steep
The cream was deep and cold.
O what’s the use, croaked frog number one
Too straight; no help’s around
Goodbye my friends, goodbye fair world!
And weeping still, he drowned.
But number two, of sterner stuff,
Dog-paddled in surprise.
And while he wiped his creamy face,
And dried his creamy eyes,
I swimm a while, at least, he said
Or so, I’ve heard, he said
It really won’t help the world
If one more frog were dead
An hour or two he kicked and swam
Not once he stopped to mutter.
But he kicked and kicked and swam
and kicked and hopped out via butter
The Crow and the Pitcher, Aesop’s Fables
A Crow, half-dead with thirst, came upon a Pitcher which had once been full of water; but when the Crow put its beak into the mouth of the Pitcher he found that only very little water was left in it, and that he could not reach far enough down to get at it.
He tried, and he tried, but at last had to give up in despair.
Then a thought came to him, and he took a pebble and dropped it into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped it into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher. At last, at last, he saw the water mount up near him, and after casting in a few more pebbles he was able to quench his thirst and save his life.
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