Illustrations

Carl Geary died a month ago from a heart attack as he campaigned for the small country town. Despite his sudden death he still polled over three times as many votes as his rival in the election in Tracy City, Tennessee.

His widow, Susan Geary, was not surprised by the election results.

“The day he passed away, people were calling with condolences and saying, ‘We’re still voting for him,’” she said.

Geary was known for telling the truth and served on the city council. He received 285 votes to his rival’s 85.

Clara was in the midst of one of the worst days of her life: The washing machine broke down, the telephone kept ringing, her head ached, and the mail carrier brought a bill she had no money to pay.

Almost to the breaking point, she lifted her one-year-old into his highchair, leaned her head against the tray, and began to cry. Without a word, her son took his pacifier out of his mouth and stuck it in hers.

Tom Brady, quarterback who led the New England Patriots to victory in three Super Bowls, told 60 Minutes, “Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there’s something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, ‘Hey man, this is what is.’ I reached my goal, my dream, my life. Me, I think, it’s got to be more than this. I mean this isn’t, this can’t be what it’s all cracked up to be.”

“What’s the answer,” asked interviewer Steve Kroft.

“I wish I knew,” Brady replied. “I wish I knew.”

Colonel George Washington Goethals was responsible for the completion of the Panama Canal. The climate and geography of the region were two large obstacles to completing the canal. But his biggest challenge was the growing criticism back home  by those who said he would never finish the project. At one point a colleague asked him if he was going to reply to his critics.

“In time,” answered Goethals.

“When?”

“When the canal is finished.”

Fortune magazine reported that the nation’s top twenty-five philanthropists gave away more than $1.5 billion in 1996. The most generous was George Soros, president of Soros Fund Management, who donated $350 million.

Of the top twenty-five philanthropists, only four inherited fortunes. Most attributed their generosity in part to religious backgrounds. And most were donors even before they became wealthy.

Three recruiters were to address high school seniors. Each recruiter represented a branch of the military (the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps) and was to have fifteen minutes. The Army and Navy recruiters got carried away, so when it came time for the Marine to speak, he had just two minutes. He walked up and stood utterly silent for a full sixty seconds, half of his time. Then he said, “I doubt whether there are two or three of you in this room who would even stand a chance in the Marine Corps.

A man took his little boy to a mountain spring for the first time. When they jumped in the little boy began to shiver with cold and cried, “Oy, Papa, Oy!” His father led him out, rubbed him down with a towel and dressed him. “Ahh, Papa, ahh!” purred the little fellow, tingling with pleasant warmth.

The father asked, “Do you know the difference between a cold bath and sin? When you jump into a cold spring you first yell ‘oy!’ and then you say ‘ahh!’ But when you commit a sin you first say ‘ahh!’ and then you yell ‘oy!’”

A miller and his son were driving their donkey to a neighboring fair to sell him. They had not gone far when they met a group of women collected round a well, talking and laughing. “Look there,” cried one of them, “did you ever see such fellows, to be trudging along the road on foot when they might ride?” The old man hearing this, quickly made his son mount the Donkey, and continued to walk along merrily by his side.

A lion was awakened from sleep by a mouse running over his face. Rising up angrily, he caught the mouse and was about to kill him, when the mouse said, “If you spare my life, I will repay your kindness someday." The lion laughed and let him go. It happened shortly after this that the lion was caught by some hunters, who bound him with strong ropes. The mouse, recognizing the lion’s roar, came, gnawed through the rope, and set him free. The mouse then exclaimed: “You did not think that I would ever be able to help you.

The Saint Petersburg Times told about a thief who grabbed some sausages in a meat market. To his surprise, they were part of a fifteen foot long string. The police found him tangled up in the stolen sausages.

Many people think they can enjoy a little sin, but they end up so deeply entwined in it they cannot get free without the power of God.

Source: Illustrations for Biblical Preaching, Michael P. Green

Submitted by the homiletics class of West Coast Baptist College