Illustrations

Two deputies in Plain City, Utah pursued a seven-year old boy who was driving a Dodge Intrepid on Sunday, July 26, 2009. Preston Scarbrough reached a speed of forty miles per hour before finally pulling into his family’s driveway and running inside the house. He told his dad he got in the car and drove away because he did not want to go to church.

Source: FoxNews.com, Published July 31, 2009

During Mahatma Gandhi’s student days he read the Gospels and thought that maybe he had found the cure to the caste system of India. He decided to go to church and ask the minister how to become a Christian. However, when he entered the building the usher refused to give him a seat, and suggested that he should worship with his own people.

Gandhi left the church and never returned. He said to himself, “If Christians have caste differences also, I might as well remain a Hindu.”

Source: The Speaker's Quote Book, Roy B. Zuck

1. Every time I went, they asked me for money.
2. The people sitting in my row didn’t seem very friendly.
3. The seats were very hard.
4. The coach never came to visit me.
5. The referees made a decision I didn’t agree with.
6. I was sitting with hypocrites—they only came to see what others were wearing!
7. Some games went into overtime and I was late getting home.
8. The band played some songs I had never heard before.
9. The games are scheduled on my only day to sleep in and run errands.

“A wife or husband may remain faithful and may give evidence of careful attention in matters pertaining to each other, and yet there may be a decline in first love. Similarly, a church member may be very regular in his attendance at the services, but no amount of activity, however intense, can compensate for a lack of love.”—Lehman Strauss

Roger Babson, an American historian, was visiting the president of Argentina about one hundred years ago when the president said to him: “You are a student of history, Will you please tell me why it is that South America, with her unlimited resources, and having been settled earlier than North America, has nevertheless made much slower progress in civilization and material prosperity?”

Mr. Babson threw the question back upon the president by saying, “Mr. President, you evidently have studied this question yourself, and I would be interested to know your answer to it.

During Sunday school, the teacher asked her class of first-graders if anyone could describe a Christian. A little boy quickly raised his hand and stated, “Christians are nice people who never complain, argue, or talk back.” He then added, “My Daddy is a good Christian, but my Mommy isn’t.”

Source: Unknown

“A young man whose father is a carpenter grows up working in his father’s shop. He has no formal education. He owns no property of any kind. One day he puts down his tools and walks out of his father’s shop. He starts preaching on street corners and in the nearby countryside. Walking from place to place preaching all the while even though he is in no way an ordained minister he never gets farther than an area perhaps 100 miles wide at the most.

A Sunday school teacher was endeavoring to impress upon a class of boys the importance of living the Christian life. “Why do people call me a Christian?” the man asked.

After a moment’s pause, one youngster said, “Maybe it’s because they don’t know you.”

Source: Unknown

Some people don’t want to accept their need for change. The story is told about a doctor who told a man to give up red meat, so he stopped putting ketchup on his hamburgers.

Source: Unknown

The one major and compelling reason why missionaries must continue to be sent is because it is God’s will. It is His method of bringing the Gospel of Jesus to the world.

Sometimes two objections are raised about this. First, some people say: Why not just send money to support missionaries from the Third World? They are a lot cheaper and usually more effective.