Illustrations

1. Specify that your drive-through order is “to go.”

2. Speak only in a “robot” voice.

3. Start each meal by conspicuously licking all your food, and announce that this is so no one will “swipe your grub.”

4. Name your dog “Dog.”

5. Forget the punchline to a long joke, but assure the listener it was a “real hoot.”

6. Follow a few paces behind someone, spraying everything they touch with Lysol.

7. Practice making fax and modem noises.

8. Finish all your sentences with the words, “In accordance with the prophesy.”

Married couples spend an average of 27.5 minutes per week talking to each other, according to Ray Bridwhistell, speech communication expert. However, they spend 46 hours per week watching TV.

Source: Family Life Today, June, 1989

Submitted by the homiletics class of West Coast Baptist College

John Wesley was robbed as he was returning from a service one night.

As the bandit was leaving, Wesley called out, “Stop! I have something more to give you.” The surprised robber paused. “My friend,” said Wesley, “you may live to regret this sort of life. If you ever do, here’s something to remember: the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin!“ The thief hurried away, and Wesley prayed that his words would bear fruit.

In late September 1864 Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest was leading his troops north from Decatur, Alabama, toward Nashville. But to make it to Nashville, Forrest would have to defeat the Union army at Athens, Alabama. When the Union commander, Colonel Wallace Campbell, refused to surrender, Forrest asked for a personal meeting, and took Campbell on an inspection of his troops. But each time they left a detachment, the Confederate soldiers simply packed up and moved to another position, artillery and all.

Several years after helping inventing radar, Sir Robert Watson Watt was caught in a radar trap and arrested for speeding. He wrote this poem:

Pity Sir Robert Watson Watt,
Strange target of his radar plot,
And this, with others I could mention,
A victim of his own invention.

Source: 750 Engaging Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers, and Writers, Craig Brian Larson

Submitted by the homiletics class of West Coast Baptist College

The process of sanctification can be compared to an iceberg, which is almost 90% under water. As the sun shines on the iceberg, the exposed part melts, moving the lower part upward.

In the same way, we are usually aware of only a small part of our sinfulness and need, which is all we can deal with at any one time. However, as the light of God’s work in our lives changes us in the areas we know about, we become aware of new areas needing the work of God.

Many years ago a young man went to China as a missionary with an income of $2,500 annually. A company decided that they wanted this young man to work for them and offered him a position with a $5,000 salary. He declined the offer, and it was raised to $7,000 and then to $10,000, but he still declined.

The company asked him if the salary was his sticking point and he answered, “Oh, the salary is big enough, but the job isn’t.”

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

Submitted by the homiletics class of West Coast Baptist College

Mr. Kimball, a Sunday school teacher, in 1858 led a Boston shoe clerk to give his life to Christ. The clerk, Dwight L. Moody, became an evangelist and in England in 1879 awakened evangelistic zeal in the heart of Frederick B. Meyer, pastor of a small church. F.B. Meyer preaching on an American college campus, brought to Christ a student named J. Wilbur Chapman. Chapman, engaged in YMCA work, employed a former baseball player Billy Sunday, to do evangelistic work. And the list goes on.

“I would recommend you either believe God up to the hilt, or else not to believe at all. Believe this Book of God, every letter of it, or else reject it. There is no logical standing place between the two. Be satisfied with nothing less than a faith that swims in the deeps of divine revelation; a faith that paddles about the edge of the water is poor faith at best. It is little better than a dry-land faith, and is not good for much.”—C. H. Spurgeon

Submitted by the homiletics class of West Coast Baptist College

Henry Martyn, a Cambridge University student, was honored at only 20 years of age for his achievements in mathematics. In fact, he was given the highest recognition possible in that field. And yet he felt an emptiness inside. He said that instead of finding fulfillment in his achievements, he had, “Only grasped a shadow.”