Sermon Illustration

FATHERS like Abraham: “ He will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord ” ( Gen. 18:19 ). MOTHERS like Hannah: “ As long as he  (her son)  liveth he shall be lent to the L ORD ” ( 1 Sam. 1:28 ).

It is a simple command: “Practice hospitality.” The great English Bible translator William Tyndale said that Christians should have a “harborous” disposition, a willingness to share house and heart with others.

I’ve taught the Book of Revelation many times in my decades of ministry, but never as realistically as the last time around. We were in the famous “thousand year” verses in  chapter 20 . About 9 o’clock that Tuesday night, I was reading to my adult students the account of Satan’s rampage when he and his cohorts are unchained at the end of the thousand years.

“Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ”  ( 1 Cor. 3:11 ). Do you like brick streets? If you live in Liberal, Kansas, or my home town in Oklahoma, I hope the answer is yes, but it may not be.

Are you one of those who believes that “pain is gain?” At Massachusetts General Hospital, in October, 1846, Dr. William Morton employed ether for a surgical amputation and the science of anesthesiology officially began. Painless surgery quickly became the norm that it is today.

Have you been described as a person of many words? On October 14, 1912, the life of outspoken and energetic presidential candidate, Theodore Roosevelt was saved by his many words.

Christ had to prepare the disciples for parting with Him. He did this by the promise of reunion. It will not be in a strange land, but in His Father’s house. There will be ample room—“many mansions.”

God seeks to mold us by circumstances, and you must believe that God has put you down just where you are because your present position is the very best place in the universe to make you what He wants you to become.

A man who is attempting to live a Christian life on one side, and a worldly life on the other, is like a sick man who has made up his mind that what the doctor says is all folly, and that, since he does not like the medicine and regimen, he will do that which is most agreeable to him.

It was at one time not unusual to consider that Luther, as a reformer, was born into life, so to speak, in connection with that outrageous business, the sale of indulgences through Germany, by the command of Leo X, with a view ostensibly to obtain money for the completion of St. Peter’s in Rome.

Some boys were playing ball in a shady street. Among their number was a little fellow, seemingly about twelve years old—a pale, sickly looking child, supported on two crutches, and who evidently found much difficulty in walking even with such assistance.

It has been said of the Duke of Wellington, that once, when he remained to take the sacrament at his parish church, a very poor old man went up the opposite aisle, and, reaching the communion table, knelt down close by the side of the Duke.

Lord Bacon says, in his essays on the “Different Characters of the Christian”: “A Christian is one that believes things his reason cannot comprehend and hopes for things which neither he nor any man alive ever saw; he believes three to be one, and one to be three; a father not to be older than his son, and a son to be equal with his father.

The happiest and most useful Christians are those whose outflow is spontaneous and commensurate with their intake, whose giving in substance and service is proportionate to their receiving.

A river is measured by the water it brings to the sea, a fountain by its overflow, a Christian by his helpfulness to others. —Isaac Edwardson

I know only one infallible way of preventing the common from becoming commonplace, of preventing the small from becoming trivial, of preventing the familiar from becoming contemptible, and it is to link it all to Jesus Christ, and to say, “For Thy sake, and unto Thee, I do this.” Then, not only will the rough places become plain, and the crooked things straight, and not only will the mountain be brought low, but the valleys of the commonplace be exalted. —Alexander Maclaren

The death of Sir Henry Bessemer called attention to the business career of a man who succeeded in making an immense fortune, and yet did it in a way to bless everybody else in the civilized world.

There is a very fine illustration of the power of military discipline to strengthen a man’s nerve and sense of honor in time of deadly peril. This particular story relates to the conduct of those who survived the explosion of the battleship  Maine .

“Woe unto you … ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity”  ( Matt. 23:27 ,  28 ) Some time after World War II you could walk along the much bombed Queen Victoria Street in London and come upon a lovely Georgian doorway which had been left standing. The walls had been blasted or knocked down and carted away as rubble.

“The Lord looketh down from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men … he fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all their works”  ( Ps. 33:13 ,  15 ). Every diamond does not shine alike; neither does every Christian’s testimony receive the same evaluation by men.

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek”  ( Rom. 1:16 ). Revival meetings were being held in a certain town, and as is often the case, opposition made itself felt.

“And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples”  ( Matt. 9:10 ). D. L. Moody tells the following interesting ways in which believers in London brought their friends under the sound of the Gospel.

A poor widow, who was a washerwoman, partly depended for support upon the produce of her garden. In it was a peach tree, the fruit of which was coveted by some boys of the village. Accordingly, one night they entered the garden to rob the tree.

In the early days of emigration to the West a traveler once came, for the first time in his life, to the banks of the mighty Mississippi. There was no bridge. He must cross. It was early winter, and the surface of the mighty river was sheeted with ice. He knew nothing of its thickness, however, and feared to trust himself to it.

Professor Hugh Black, in “Christ’s Service of Love,” says: “A young Jewish woman who is now a Christian asked a lady who had instructed her in the Gospel to read history with her, ‘Because,’ said she, ‘I have been reading the Gospels and I am puzzled. I want to know when Christians began to be so different from Christ.’”

Years ago a woman, with her little baby, was riding in a stagecoach in western Montana. The weather was bitter cold, and, in spite of all the driver could do to protect her, he saw that the mother was becoming unconscious from the cold.

Dr. James Hamilton once related an anecdote which illustrates a vital question in the Christian life. A writer recounts it as follows: “A gallant mounted police officer was pursued by an overwhelming force, and his followers were urging him to greater speed, when he discovered that his saddle-girth was becoming loose.

“Irenaeus,” in one of his graceful sketches in the New York  Observer , gives a striking account of the conversion of the artist who painted one of the beautiful national pictures that adorns the rotunda of the Capitol at Washington. When he selected his theme he was an utter unbeliever in Christianity.

There was a boy at Norfolk Island who had been brought from one of the rougher and wilder islands, and was consequently rebellious and difficult to manage. One day Mr. Selwyn spoke to him about something he had refused to do, and the boy, flying into a passion, struck him in the face.

A writer in the  Sunday School Times  tells how, during a season of revival, a friend was praying one evening for a certain unconverted neighbor. After this manner he prayed: “O Lord, touch him with Thy finger, Lord!”

There is a great rage nowadays for large congregations and for prominent work; but do not forget individual souls. Roland Hill used to say that if he had a number of bottles before him, and he were to dash water over them, a drop might go into this one and a drop into that; but he said, “If I take one bottle and pour water into it, I fill it up to the brim.” And so it is with individual souls. There is a personality in the application which cannot be estimated if we are speaking face to face in an honest, manly way. Is not this the best way to do Christian work?

Bishop Frodsham relates: “Sir William MacGregor, whose unflagging zeal for humanity in many parts of the globe has done so much for the cause of Christianity, once discussed with me the relatively rapid progress of Islamic belief in West Africa, as compared with that of Christianity. ‘It’s just this,’ he said, ‘every Muslim regards himself as a missionary; the majority of Christians think it is another man’s work.’”

An incident is related which occurred during Charles Finney’s meetings in New York City, and which will illustrate the value of a little tact in the great struggle for souls. The big cutlery firm of Sheffield, England, had a branch house in New York.

Her mother and daddy disowned her. She did all she could do. When Elizabeth Barrett married the famous poet Robert Browning, her parents were so upset they disowned her. She and her husband settled far from home in Florence, Italy.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, in one of her poems, has pictured with rare beauty the effect of Christ’s death upon two seraphim who lingered a little behind the hosts of heaven who had gathered that day round the cross.

I love to sit beside the sea And think of Jesus of Galilee. How on a pillow in a boat He slept, And how the waves the boat overswept. His, “ Peace, be still ,” brought the calm, Soothing the storm like a balm.

My, how I love them, these sons God gave me, But there’s a great problem, My likeness I see. I hear their groanings, I hear their plea, And I know the reason, They’re the likeness of me.

I had an opportunity to work in a bakery while going to high school. I remember one particular day when the telephone rang and one of the ladies went to answer it. She put down the phone like it was hot and yelled, “He’s coming!”

Another illustration from J. R. Miller: “We need Christ just as much in our bright, prosperous, exalted hours as in the days of darkness, adversity, and depression. We are quite in danger of thinking that religion is only for sickrooms and funerals, and for times of great sorrow and trial—a lamp to shine at night, a staff to help when the road is rough, a friendly hand to hold us up when we are stumbling.

In Holman Hunt’s great picture, called “The Light of the World,” we see One with a patient, gentle face, standing at a door which is ivy-covered, as if long closed. He is girt with the priestly breastplate. He bears in His hand the lamp of truth. He stands and knocks.

Philippians 4:6 How many need a cure for care! The burdened man of business, the anxious parent, the struggling toiler, the perplexed man of affairs—all need some counselor that can be trusted, and some helper that can be relied upon. God is the One to whom to go “in everything.”

The great devotional writer J. R. Miller has this to say about serving God to the best of our abilities: “Our Lord calls His people always to be helpers in blessing this world. We cannot do much. The best we can bring is a little of the common water of earth; but if we bring that to Him, He can change it into the rich wine of heaven, which will bless weary and fainting ones.

Here is another fine illustration by Phillips Brooks: “The Savior Himself, surely He is never so dear, never wins so utter and so tender a love, as when we see what it has cost Him to save us…. Not merely has he conquered completely and conquered in suffering; He has conquered  alone. 

The following illustration is by Phillips Brooks: “In all of Christ’s associations the same inevitable mingling of the sad and glad appears. There was a little family at Bethany in which He often made His home, and the last time He left the hospitable door He carried out with him two memories—the memory of how the eyes of Mary had looked up into His face, eager with the desire to understand all His sacred truth, and the memory of how the same eyes had streamed with tears beside her brother’s tomb. The same voices of the populace at Jerusalem which cried, ‘Hosanna!’ cried, ‘Crucify him!’ before the week was done.

Are you weary, dear friend, in the struggle with the world without and sin within? Here is One who can refresh you. Have you come to Christ? If so, you will be cared for in all the future in the degree in which you are learning of Him.

A. T. Pierson has this to say about communion with God: “A word is the manifestation of a thought. If I wish to communicate a thought to you, that thought takes shape in words. You cannot see my thought, but what is there comes through the channels of speech, and so travels through your ear to your mind, and becomes part of your thought. Now Christ became the Word to take the thought out of the mind and heart of God, and translate that thought so that we could understand it, so that what was before invisible and inaudible and beyond the reach of our senses comes into our minds and hearts as something that was in God’s mind and heart, but now is in ours. Beautiful indeed is this as an expression of what Christ is to us. You want to know God; well, then, study Christ, and you will know all about Him. ‘He that hath seen me hath seen the Father’ ( John 14:9 ), said Jesus.

Both in belief and in duty this is the work of the Holy Spirit—to make belief profound by showing us the hearts of the things that we believe in, and to make duty delightful by setting us to doing it for Christ.

A street preacher in London was preaching to a crowd that had gathered around him. It was at the time of the Shamrock races, and everyone was talking of the event. A ruffian on the edge of the crowd thought he would have a little fun, so he called three times, “Mr. Preacher! What do you know about the Shamrock?”

“How do you know that Christ is risen?” Someone asked an old fisherman whose faith in Jesus seemed very simple and sure. “Do you see those cottages near that high cliff?” he replied, pointing to the shore.

At the close of a battle a young man was found dying on the battlefield. A soldier stopped to render him assistance, and as his comrade moistened his lips and made his head rest easier the dying man said, “My father is a man of large wealth in Detroit, and if I have strength I will write him a note and he will repay you for this kindness.”

“The Lord shall fight for you”  ( Ex. 14:14 ). The Turks, having tortured and slain the parents of a little Armenian girl before her eyes, turned to the child and said, “Will you renounce your faith in Jesus, and live?” She replied, “I will not.”

A sculptor wrought a beautiful statue, and a man who saw it said, “I do not understand your statue. You can care, I know, but your statue is all out of proportion. Can’t you see it?”

Many years ago Lough Fook, a Chinese Christian, moved with compassion for the workers in the South American mines, sold himself into slavery for a term of five years and was transported to Demerara that he might carry the gospel to his countrymen there.

In the great iron foundries in making Bessemer steel, the process of purification is watched through a spectroscope, in which the changing colors of the flames show exactly when the metal is perfectly ready for its uses.

“For he is like a refiner’s fire. And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver”  ( Mal. 3:2 ,  3 ). A Lady in Dublin became interested in the meaning of this text and called upon a silversmith and asked him to explain the process of refining, which he did.

A dissipated Russian officer having become hopelessly involved in debt, sat down in desperation and wrote out a list of his indebtedness. Summing up the whole, he wrote in despair at the bottom, “ Who can pay such a debt as this? ”

Marjo sat on the upper stair listening. Every time a fresh wail reached her ears she groaned softly in loving sympathy. She had her little scalloped handkerchief squeezed together in one hand, and it was quite damp.

Elsie Lyle took a journey by rail. As the train was starting her pastor said to her: “I am glad you have a holiday, and traveling will give you a good opportunity to shine for Jesus.” She wondered how in a railway-carriage she could do anything for Jesus. In front of her was a poor woman with three ragged, untidy children.

In the life of Dr. Moody Stewart the story is told that, when a boy, he was greatly surprised one day to find all the sheep in the field standing close in a circle with their faces outward. Two foxes had run off with two lambs and the sheep at once drove the lambs together and formed a circle around them for their defense.

Christ came that men might have more abundant life than they had ever known before. No man has ever known from any other source a life so sweet and rich and full as that which comes to him whose life is “hid with Christ in God” and who sups daily with Jesus at the head of the table of his heart.

A man once stopped a preacher in a street of London, and said, “I once heard you preach in Paris, and you said something which has, through God, been the means of my conversion.”

A gentleman who was being urged to accept Christ, said to the preacher, “There are some things in the Bible that seem to me to be highly contradictory. Christ must have overestimated himself.

The president of one of the largest banks of New York City said that after he had served for several years as an office boy in the bank, the then president called him into his office one day and said, “I want you to come into my office and be with me.”

It is told of a Roman youth who, notwithstanding a mother’s unwearied prayers, had lived a life of self-seeking and sinful indulgence. Then one day, as he sat in the garden, in the cloudless beauty of an autumn day, a great struggle took place in his mind.

Two travelers, who fancied they were abundantly able to take care of themselves, entered a railway carriage when the train was being made up and found comfortable seats. They had dropped into conversation when a porter looked in and told them to go to another coach.

Here is yet another illustration by Spurgeon: “When bullocks are yoked, there are generally two. I have watched them in Northern Italy, and noticed that when two are yoked together, and they are perfectly agreed, the yoke is always easy to both of them.

It is saying a great thing to affirm that “there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother” ( Prov. 18:24 ); for the love of brotherhood has produced most valiant deeds. We have read stories of what brotherhood could do, which, we think could hardly be excelled in the annals of friendship.

“I am lost,” said Mr. Whitefield’s brother to the Countess of Huntington. “I am delighted to hear it,” said the Countess. “Oh,” cried he, “what a dreadful thing to say!” “Nay,” said she, “‘for the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost’ ( Matt. 18:11 ;  Luke 19:10 ); therefore, I know he is come to save  you .” O sinner, it would be unreasonable to despair.

Still another illustration by Spurgeon: “Never was there a poorer man than Christ; he was the prince of poverty….  Christ  stood in the lowest vale of poverty.

Spurgeon also wrote: “If I possess a love-token that some dear one has given me, I may rightly desire to have it with me. Nobody can have such a right to your wedding ring, good sister, as you have yourself; and are not Christ’s saints, as it were, a signet upon his finger, a token which his Father gave him of his good pleasure in him?

Another illustration from the pen of Spurgeon: “ ‘The sheep follow him, for they know his voice; and a stranger will they not follow, for they know not the voice of strangers’ ( John 10:5 ). I remember hearing a brother tell how he disproved the notion that sheep only know the shepherd by his dress.

There was a certain king whose son was sent upon an errand to a far country, and when he came into that country, although he was the lawful prince of it, he found that the citizens would not acknowledge him.

There are two kinds of magnets, steel magnets and soft iron magnets. The steel magnet receives its magnetism from the load stone, and has it permanently; it can get along very well alone in a small way; it can pick up needles and do many other little things to amuse children.

Did you ever stop to ask what a yoke is really for? Is it to be a burden to the animal which wears it? It is just the opposite. It is to make its burden light. Attached to the oxen in any other way than by a yoke, the plows would be intolerable.

To the laws of God and nature, our Savior added the testimony of His own example. Surely no man ever lived a busier life. He crowded His ministry into three and a half years, yet He always took time to rest.

The love of Christ hath a height without a top, a depth without a bottom, a length without an end and a breadth without a limit.

Jesus chose this method of extending the knowledge of Himself throughout the world; He taught His truth to a few men, and then He said, “Now go and tell that truth to other men.”

One of the things that differentiates Christianity from all other religions is that it offers more. Alchemy, the practice that supposedly transforms all the baser metals into gold—at least, it would if we could discover it—the only real alchemy is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

No great leader ever left his followers less equipped to carry on his work than Jesus did. He left them with no written manual, no prestige, no money, no army, no organization. He left them His memory and His spirit, and trusted them to win the kingdom of God. Such a trust in the people is the world’s hope.

While there was pending a bill which had been introduced into Congress to preserve as a military park the splendid and picturesque Palisades of the Hudson, the work of their destruction went forward with great rapidity.

A New York merchant who is very wealthy is afflicted with blindness, caused by the atrophy of the optic nerve. He so greatly desires to recover his sight that he has offered a reward of a million dollars to anyone that will restore him the use of his eyes. A very poor young man, who is afflicted in the same way, has been hired by this wealthy merchant to permit the experiments which are suggested to him to be tried on his eyes.

If I were to attempt to prove the divinity of Christ, instead of beginning with mystery or miracle or the theory of the atonement, I should simply tell you the story of His life and how He lived and what He said and did and how He died, and then I would ask you to explain it by any other theory than that He is divine.

Tradition tells us that a century after the first Christmas a missionary stood on the banks of the Arno, telling the story of the Christ Child. That night a Roman prince returned to his stone mansion, to feast.

Suppose there is a person who does not exactly know his age, and he wants to find the register of his birth, and he has tried and cannot find it. Now, what is the inference that he draws from his not being able to tell the day of his birth?

Sometimes there were more kings than one at Sparta, who governed by joint authority. A king was occasionally sent to some neighboring state in character of a Spartan ambassador. Did he, when so sent, cease to be a king of Sparta, because he was also an ambassador?

I remember hearing some years ago of an incident which occurred near Inverness. A beautiful yacht had been sailing in the Moray Firth. The owners of it—two young men—landed at Inverness, purposing to take a walking tour through the Highlands.

The story has come down to us from the early centuries that when the storm of persecution broke over the Christian church in Rome, the little company of the believers besought Peter to seek refuge in flight. His sense, both of loyalty and of honor, rose up to protest.

Many years ago there was a little church on a lonely hillside which had no lamps, and yet on darkest nights they held divine services. Each worshiper, coming a great distance from village or moorland home, brought with him a taper and lit it from the one supplied and carried by the minister of the little church.

When Jesus makes our souls alive, then the one thing we have to do is to try to be like Jesus. A little girl went to a writing school. When she saw the copy set before her, she said: “I can never write like that.” But she took up her pen and put it timidly on the paper. “I can but try,” she said.

Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, being killed in the battle of Lutzen, left only a daughter, Christina, six years of age. A general assembly, consisting of deputations from the nobles, the clergy, the burghers and the peasants of Sweden, was summoned to meet at Stockholm. Silence being proclaimed, the Chancellor rose.

A railway gatekeeper, who one cold night required every passenger to show his ticket before passing through to the train, and was rewarded with considerable grumbling and protesting, was told: “You are a very unpopular man tonight.”

A Scottish missionary, home on furlough from her work in India, told this story. She had been teaching a group of children one day, telling them the story of Jesus, bringing out bit by bit incidents showing His character. As she was talking, one child, listening intently, grew excited, and then more excited. At last she was unable to restrain herself and blurted out: “I know him; he lives near us.” Was there ever such praise of a human?

An artist wanted a man for a model who would represent the prodigal. One day he met a wretched beggar, and he thought: “That man would represent the prodigal.” He found the beggar ready to sit for his painting if he would pay him. The man appeared on the day appointed, but the artist did not recognize him.

McCheyne, the Scottish preacher, once said to some friends, “Do you think Christ will come tonight?’ One after another they said, “I think not.” When all had given this answer, he solemnly repeated this text: “The Son of Man cometh at an hour when ye think not.”

Though Dean Farrar was the privileged friend of Queen Victoria, he seldom referred to this distinction. But he did so on the occasion of the first anniversary of the accession of Edward VI to the throne of England, during the service in Canterbury Cathedral, when he related that Queen Victoria, after hearing one of her chaplains preach at Windsor on the second advent of Christ, spoke to the dean about it and said: “Oh, how I wish that the Lord would come during my lifetime.”

During the dark days of the struggle for Italian liberty the people generally looked upon Garibaldi as their invincible deliverer. Prisoners, hurried away to loathsome dungeons, would be cheered as they passed along the streets by friends whispering in their ears, “Courage, Garibaldi is coming!”

Several years ago, in one of our Western cities, the church was preparing to entertain a conference of Christian workers. Among those who were expected, was a man whose reputation was almost worldwide. Because of his saintliness, and because of his splendid powers of mind, even the great had delighted to do him honor.

The late Stowell Scott, known in literary circles as Henry Seton Merriman, had a father who severely repressed his son’s literary aspirations, compelling the young man to publish his earlier efforts under the pseudonym which afterwards became so famous.

The habit of acting from the highest considerations is that which makes a man noble. The recognition of nobility may be conferred upon men, but not nobility itself. The king lays a sword on a man’s shoulder and calls him a knight; but he was a knight before he was knighted, or he would not have received the title.

When tender grasses start in the spring on the meadows along the Connecticut, the farmers rejoice. But the snows melt, the rains pour, the burdened river cannot carry all its treasure, and it overflows its banks, and submerges the fields.

It is with a man as it is with corn. You may take away the stalk, but that is not the corn; you may strip all the husks, one after another, and yet the corn has lost nothing. The kernel remains, and that is the corn. The stalk and husks are good to protect the corn, and carry the sap to it while it is growing; but when it is grown they are of no use to it. And a man has lost nothing when his surroundings are taken away.

What becomes of those who reach high on the plane of morality, but do not touch the yet higher plane of spirituality? You might just as well ask me what becomes of a marksman who almost hits the mark, but does not hit it.

What a silent but awful work is character building! We understand now why “there was neither hammer, nor ax, nor any tool of iron heard in the house while the temple was in building” ( 1 Kings. 6:7 ).

An Arabian princess was once presented by her teacher with an ivory casket, not to be opened until a year had passed. The time, impatiently waited for, came at last, and with trembling haste she unlocked the treasure; and behold—on the satin linings lay a shroud of rust; the form of something beautiful, but the beauty gone. 

“Thy speech betrayeth thee.” Speech is the index of the soul. Utterance is the open door through which the character is known. Words are the fruit of the lips, and by their fruits we know them.

We are predestined to have Christ formed in us. That is the gospel; that is the sovereign grace of God. God’s saints fully understand why God does brings chastisement in their lives; it is to crucify the old man of sin in order that Christ may be formed in them, the hope of glory.

Is Jesus God? The Historical Dispute Is Jesus God? The answer to this question is the only real dispute surrounding the historical Jesus.

Is the Bible True? - Archaeology Is the Bible true? Not only does the Bible miraculously foretell the future, it also recounts the distant past with great accuracy. 

Is the Bible true? Certainly the Bible is a remarkable book -- unquestionably the world's all-time bestseller with countless millions of copies in print.

According to the accounts of the Bible, no one has ever looked on God’s face, for God Himself says “But, you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live” (Exodus 33:20). It is not only for the sinful man that He says this but also for the believers in Jesus Christ. 

The question of whether or not God exists has far reaching implications. If such a creator exists, new questions arise such as, ‘why did He create us?’ Because the discussion of these implications is entrenched in questionable ideology to most, the initial premise of God’s existence is dismissed out of hand. 

Does God Exist - The Big Questions Does God exist? An answer to this fundamental question is a prerequisite for answering the other big questions of life: Where did we come from? Why are we here? Do we serve a purpose? Do we have any intrinsic value? What happens after we die? The question of the existence of God is fundamental. 

Does God Exist – A Scientific Inquiry Does God Exist? The other day I was asked to prove the existence of God. It was a one-on-one conversation with a skeptical friend, who somehow thrust the burden of proof on me. 

Realizing how to become a Christian is the most important discovery of your life! Becoming a Christian is more than joining a church or saying a prayer. It is a personal relationship that will last for eternity. Do you know what will happen to you the moment you die? Where will you find yourself? Where is your destination?

I would like to share my story with you hoping that somehow it will be a blessing to your life. As a child I went through several experiences that influenced my direction. 

I dread to think where I would be today if God had not saved me. My drug and alcohol abuse started when I was 14. First, I was experimenting with tobacco and Marijuana, and quickly began using harder drugs. 

When I was a child I went through a lot. I suffered a lot of emotional trauma. By the time I was a teenager I felt like I had been a victim and I did what I thought was fighting back. What I didn’t realize then that the things I was doing were only furthering my trauma, and eventually would ruin my life!

It all started with a knock at the door. My mom and dad met in 1981, dated and lived together for seven tumultuous years before they decided to marry. My mom and DJ dad lived a very crazy life that consisted of disco dancing parties, and drugs. My dad finally asked my mom to marry him on their seventh year of their relationship, and my sister, Adrianne, was five years of age. Although my mom wanted a quick wedding at the courthouse, my dad ended up turning it into a crazy Mexican wedding. They were married at a Catholic church by a Hispanic priest. My mom and dad did not understand a word he said, but my mom was happy knowing that they were going to be right in the eyes of God. They were finally married.

The Son's of God mentioned in the Bible is a phrase with different meanings and beliefs of just who they really were. One usage of the phrase occurs in Genesis 6:1-4. Certain "sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose" (v. 2). The offspring of these unions are described as "giants," "mighty men," and "men of renown" (v. 4). Now, the question centers on the true identity of these "sons of God". Who were these men mentioned in this passage of Scripture? There are presently two basic possible answers to this question. The phrase could be talking about nonhuman beings such as those mentioned in Job (1:6; 2:1). The other possible explanation could be that the phrase may be an unusual way of referring to human beings.

Many Christians are taught that God requires them to tithe. They believe God wants ten percent of their (gross) income. Does the Bible actually say Christians must tithe? The simple answer is no. Tithing was not part of the Christian faith. This is why the Bible makes no mention of early Christians tithing.

Today’s power verse can be found in verse two of Proverbs 11: [When] pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly [is] wisdom. Let’s define a prideful person. A prideful person is someone who believes their worth is more than those around them. This person also expects others to treat him/her with that presumption of how much s/he is presumably worth. And when they aren’t treated as highly as they presume they should be, they generally act in ways that are rather, let’s say, ugly. And as the old saying goes, God doesn’t like ugly! Acts of pride are those that are contradictory to what God is the right way.

by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson Jesse e-mailed me: "I would like a simple and direct answer to the question: 'What is the Gospel?' Many of our pastors talk about it in their sermons only vaguely."

Recent surveys say 88% of Americans believe adultery is wrong. Yet 77% of marriages involve at least one adultery. As sad as this dichotomy is, it gets worse. 96% of those surveyed profess a belief in God. 70% are active church members, and 77% of those believe they are going to heaven. How can this be? How can people who believe in God, who know adultery is wrong, still believe they are going to spend eternity with their Savior regardless of their disobedient behavior?

By: Len Stubbs Faithfulness in prayer requires our constant diligence. The Bible calls us to be steadfastly attentive in prayer. When we pray without ceasing and give complete care and attention to prayer, we are following the will of God. We are pleasing our Father.

By John Piper It is amazing how much hope you can find when you look hard for it, and hope is a desperately needed power in our lives. It is the river of joy that flows back to us from the final triumph of God, and "the joy of the Lord is our strength" ( Nehemiah 8:10 ). We simply cannot live without hope—let alone flourish in the cause of God.

By Karen Wolff I'm not one of those motivational writers who can lift you up so high you have to look down to see heaven. No, I'm more the practical one. You know, the one who has scars from all the battles, yet has lived to tell about them.