Illustrations Archives

• Too Much Information  (February 19, 2008)
  With today?s constant media barrage of bad news, people feel bad enough already and don?t want anything that makes them feel worse, says anthropologist-turned-brand-strategist Cheryl Swanson. With all the info coming at us 24/7, ?We are processing information at 400 times the rate of our Renaissance ancestors.? This is a new human task that we haven?t had time to adapt to yet ? physically or mentally. That?s why we're getting tech-related health problems, like carpal tunnel, and maybe even mental and neurological problems like attention-deficit disorder. Naturally our attention is fraying ? we are whipsawed by stimuli!
• Christmas: Incarnation  (February 15, 2008)
  Kierkegaard told a parable about a prince who fell in love with a peasant maid. He had noticed her passing by on the street and was instantly infatuated. He knew that if he went to her as the prince and told of his love, she would certainly accept. That would be the loyal thing to do. But he wanted her to have a genuine...
• Sacrificial Love  (February 14, 2008)
  After the U.S.S. Pueblo was captured in 1968 by the North Koreans, the 82 surviving crew members were thrown into brutal captivity. In one particular instance 13 of the men were required to sit in a rigid manner around a table for hours at a time.
• Love is Love's Food  (February 7, 2008)
  Love is love's food. There is a power in Christ's love which conquers, captivates, and overpowers the man, so that he cannot but love Christ in return.
• Children  (January 17, 2008)
  My daughter Katelynn has always been as sharp as a whip. She loves to learn. At church, people used to get kicks out of her understanding of theological issues. When she was six she came to me and saw that I was reading the Greek New Testament and asked if she could learn.
• Worship  (January 1, 2008)
  John Wade used to tell the story of a man who lost his sense of being close to God. He made a pilgrimage to Mt Sinai and stood on the mountainside, while asking God to send him a sign. He was waiting for something spectacular like lightning, smoke or a mighty voice. He waited for hours on his knees and nothing happened.
• Television  (January 1, 2008)
  In a recent Middleton?s comic strip, Mr. and Mrs. Middleton are taking a walk. Mrs. Middleton says, ?There?s no two ways about it. TV is nothing but violence and sleaze.?
• Stewardship  (January 1, 2008)
  In 1945 General Douglas MacArthur asked for ten thousand missionaries to carry the Gospel to the Orient. What an opportunity. Yet we refused to accept the challenge. Why? Simply because money was our idol and we refused to tithe our income.
• Promises  (January 1, 2008)
  Carol Burnett tells a story about a time when she was a college actor and a man came up after a performance and asked what she wanted to do with her life. She said that she wanted to go to New York and be in musical theater.
• Prayer  (January 1, 2008)
  County music star Josh Turner tells a story of how he came to meet Johnny Cash. He told USA Weekend that he had been reading about Cash?s illness and wanted to meet him and encourage him. He found out where Cash lived and went to drop in and hoped he would not be seen as a stalker.
• Salvation  (January 1, 2008)
  The Ripley?s Believe It Or Not column tells of a woman in England who received a heart transplant in June of 2007. She decided to go and visit her old heart when it was placed on display in London.
• Pardon  (January 1, 2008)
  There is a story from the history of Kentucky about a man named Sam Holmes who was in jail for the charge of murder. He was visited by a childhood friend named Lucien Young. Young was a man of bravery who had been honored for rescuing people from a wrecked ship. It was because of Young?s pleading that the governor decided to reconsider the case and gave him a signed pardon for his friend.
• Legacy  (January 1, 2008)
  Elias Boudinot was the first president of the American Bible Society and was also the president of the United States Continental Congress in 1783. His gravestone in Burlington, New Jersey, refurbished by modern admirers, says of him, ?His death was the triumph of the Christian faith, the consummation of hope, the dawn and pledge of endless felicity.?
• Legacy  (January 1, 2008)
  Elias Boudinot was the first president of the American Bible Society and was also the president of the United States Continental Congress in 1783. His gravestone in Burlington, New Jersey, refurbished by modern admirers, says of him, ?His death was the triumph of the Christian faith, the consummation of hope, the dawn and pledge of endless felicity.?
• God  (January 1, 2008)
  A missionary came up with a great strategy to share the gospel. He would go to a village, sit with the people around the fire and ask, ?What has your god done for you??
• God  (January 1, 2008)
  A missionary came up with a great strategy to share the gospel. He would go to a village, sit with the people around the fire and ask, ?What has your god done for you??
• Giving  (January 1, 2008)
  Recently the Charlotte Observer carried the story of one church?s unusual beginning for a capital campaign. Instead of taking an offering, Elevation Church gave $40,000 to the congregation to spend on doing good deeds.
• Courage  (January 1, 2008)
  Many perhaps remember several poignant quotes from Dickens? A Tale of Two Cities. We remember the opening words, ?It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
• Corrie ten Boom's Immanuel  (December 19, 2007)
  When Corrie ten Boom was a little girl, her father used to tuck her into bed at night. He talked and prayed with her, then laid his big hand on her little face. Later, when Corrie was imprisoned in a brutal concentration camp, she would ask God to tuck her in and lay His hand on her face. "That would bring me peace, and I would be able to sleep," Corrie wrote in her book, Each New Day.
• Worship During Advent  (December 12, 2007)
  Although most of us are familiar with the story of Christ's birth, realizing the wise men (probably many more than three) are a staple of nativity scenes and stories, many of us don't realize they didn't show up in time to see Jesus, Mary, and Joseph in the stable. Rather, they visited the family in a house. It is unclear exactly how long after the birth they arrived, but they had quite a distance to travel, and Herod had all of the male children under age 2 killed shortly after the family fled