Synonyms: replica, copy, representation, mock-up, dummy, imitation, double, duplicate, lookalike, reproduction, prototype, stereotype, archetype, type, version, style, ideal, paragon, perfect example, specimen, perfect specimen, fashion model, supermodel, mannequin, sitter, poser, subject, artist's model, photographic model, design, mark, configuration, variety, kind, sort, original, original design, exclusive, toy, miniature, facsimile, prototypical, prototypal, archetypal, illustrative, perfect, exemplary, classic, flawless, faultless, consummate, impeccable
Antonyms: deficient, imperfect
Showing 3601 to 3625 of 5000 results
3601. Father's Day: A Tribute
Ephesians 6:1-4
Illustration
Max Lucado
Today is Father's Day. A day of cologne. A day of hugs, new neckties, long-distance phone calls, and Hallmark cards. Today is my first Father's Day without a father. For thirty-one years I had one. I had one of the best. But now he's gone. He's buried under an oak tree in a west Texas cemetery. Even though he's gone, his presence is very near--especially today. It seems strange that he isn't here. I guess that's because he was never gone. He was always close by. Always available. Always present. His words ...
3602. History of Father's Day
Ephesians 6:1-4
Illustration
Fathers Day occurs on the 3rd Sunday in June. The idea for creating a day for children to honor their fathers began in Spokane, Washington. A woman by the name of Sonora Smart Dodd thought of the idea for Father's Day while listening to a Mother's Day sermon in 1909. Having been raised by her father, Henry Jackson Smart, after her mother died, Sonora wanted her father to know how special he was to her. It was her father that made all the parental sacrifices and was, in the eyes of his daughter, a ...
3603. We Thought You Said Daddy!
Ephesians 6:1-4
Illustration
As we celebrate Father's Day today, I would like to share the following story about the effect that one father had on his family. This particular family had three small children who were determined to have a puppy. Mom protested because she knew that somehow or other, she would end up caring for the critter. True to form, the children solemnly promised that they would take care of it. Eventually, she relented and they brought their little puppy home. The children named him Danny and cared for him ...
3604. We All Need Dad
Eph 6:1-4
Illustration
King Duncan
Some years ago, South Africa's game managers had to figure out what to do about the elephant herd at Kruger National Park. The herd was growing well beyond the ability of the park to sustain it. And so they decided to transport some of the herd to a nearby game park. A dozen years later, however, several of the young male elephants (now teenagers) that had been transported to the game park began attacking the park's herd of white rhinos, an endangered species. They used their trunks to throw sticks at the ...
3605. How We View Our Fathers
Ephesians 6:1-4
Illustration
4 years: My daddy can do anything. 7 years: My dad knows a lot, a whole lot. 8 years: My father doesn't quite know everything. 12 years: Oh well, naturally Father doesn't know everything. 14 years: Father? Hopelessly old-fashioned. 21 years: Oh, that man is out-of-date. What did you expect? 25 years: He knows a little bit about it but not much. 30 years: Must find out what Dad thinks about it. 35 years: A little patience, let's get Dad's meaning first. 40 years: What would Dad have thought about it? 50 ...
3606. Kids Are Fun
Ephesians 6:1-4
Illustration
David E. Leininger
Kids are fun. A little girl came home from Sunday School. "What did you learn today?" her father asked. She responded, "All I heard was that the children of Israel did this and the children of Israel did that. Didn't the grown ups do anything?" Another one. The new baby came home from the hospital. The three-year-old met her new brother at the door and tagged along like a shadow as he was carried in and placed in the bassinet. Big sister stood and watched in fascination and noticed that the new arrival was ...
3607. Sermon Opener – “Where Are the Laborers?”
Mt 9:35 - 10:8
Illustration
King Duncan
Carl A. Boyle, a sales representative, was driving home when he saw a group of young children selling Kool-Aid on a corner in his neighborhood. They had posted the typical hand scrawled sign over their stand: "Kool-Aid, 10 cents." Carl was intrigued. He pulled over to the curb. A young man approached and asked if he would like strawberry or grape Kool-Aid. Carl placed his order and handed the boy a quarter. After much deliberation, the children determined he had some change coming and rifled through the ...
3608. Shake the Dust Off Your Feet
Matthew 9:35-10:8 (9-23)
Illustration
Mark Trotter
My first church had about 180 members in it when I went there. Three years later when I left they had 150 members. I wondered what went wrong. I did everything that I could. I worked as hard as I could. But they just sat there, immovable. I thought, maybe I am in the wrong profession. I went to the superintendent to talk it over with him. He confessed, "We were thinking of closing that church. We just thought we would give you a chance, see what happens." I was sent to close the church. I couldn't even do ...
3609. He Will Never Let Go
Matthew 9:35-10:23
Illustration
King Duncan
There is a beautiful and important scene in the movie Dr. Zhivago. The Comrade General is talking with Tanya. He asks her, How did you come to be lost?" She replies, "Well, I was just lost." He asks again, "No, how did you come to be lost?" Tanya doesn't want to say. She says simply, "I was just lost. My father and I were running through the city and it was on fire. The revolution had come and we were trying to escape and I was lost." The Comrade General asked more emphatically, "How did you come to be ...
3610. Prayer for Empowerment
Illustration
Frank Schaefer
Set our hearts on fire with love for you and compassion for a hurting world, O God, that in its flame we may love you with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul and with all our strength; that we may love our neighbors as ourselves; that in receiving your precious gifts we may be empowered to give of ourselves to our brothers and sisters in need; that we may do your will on earth as it is done in heaven, so that you may be glorified now and forever, the Giver of all good gifts. Amen.
3611. With or Without People?
Mt 10:24-39
Illustration
King Duncan
A second grader once asked his teacher how much the earth weighed. The teacher looked up the answer in an Encyclopedia. "Six thousand million, million tons," she answered. The little boy thought for a minute and then asked, "Is that with or without people?" Viewed from one perspective, it might very well seem that people don't really matter very much. After all, we are but microscopic inhabitants of a tiny planet or biting a relatively obscurestar in a small galaxy among the billions and billions of stars ...
3612. Renouncing Everything
Illustration
Steven P. Loy
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn served in the Russian army during World War II. He was decorated for bravery and rose to the rank of captain. In 1945, while serving on the German front, he was arrested for criticizing Stalin in letters to a friend and was sentenced to eight years in a labor camp. After completing his prison sentence, Solzhenitsyn was exiled to Kazakhstan, but after Stalin's death his position improved, and his citizenship was restored in 1956. His first novels described how grim life could be in ...
3613. Who's In Charge Here?
Matthew 10: 24-39
Illustration
A colleague shared about a church he served in Tennessee where an eccentric and flamboyant elder impressed him with her intense commitment to the faith. She did not have a pietistic bone in her body, but her devotion was nonetheless clear and articulate. One evening at a dinner party in her home we were animatedly discussing some theological idea. In the midst of the give and take her teenage daughter, probably frustrated with all of the high-blown discussion of religion, asked, "Mother, you talk about ...
3614. He Was a Stranger and I Took Him In
Matthew 10:24-39
Illustration
The story is told of a Kansan who owned a general store. He was a well-intending man who made a habit of offering a verse of Scripture whenever anyone purchased something from him. The group of people who sat around the store in this rural area enjoyed the exchanges, because some of the purchases challenged the imagination. One winter day a Texan stopped in, wanting to buy a blanket for his horse. The locals knew that the store stocked two types of blankets. One sold for $60, and the expensive one cost $89 ...
3615. God Is Like a Father
Mt 6:25-34
Illustration
King Duncan
For many of us the injustice of this world, combined with the love of the Father, is the best assurance we have of a world beyond this one. Someday, somehow, somewhere accounts must be settled. In Marjorie Rawling's beautiful novel, The Yearling, set in rural Florida, there is a scene in which friends and family gather around the grave of a little handicapped boy named Fodderwing. There was no minister present so one of the men of the community offered up this simple but moving prayer: "Almighty God, it ...
3616. Never Underestimate the Power of a Cold Cup of Water - Sermon Starter
Matt 10:40-42
Illustration
Brett Blair
Now I would like to stop the world for just one minute and ask you to think back. Think back with me to the first century. Think about those 50 years after Jesus' death and what it must been like for Jesus' disciples. Before the last one died their efforts had brought 500,000 men, women, and children into the ranks of the church. But what they had to suffer in order to accomplish this task is seldom discussed. We like the outcome of their discipleship but we don't want to hear the cost of discipleship. So ...
3617. Good Actions
Matthew 10:40-42
Illustration
King Duncan
Baron de Rothschild was one of the richest men who ever lived. Legend has it that the Baron once posed before an artist as a beggar. While the artist, Ary Scheffer, was painting him, the financier sat before him in rags and tatters holding a tin cup. A friend of the artist entered, and the baron was so well disguised that he was not recognized. Thinking he was really a beggar, the visitor dropped a coin into the cup. Ten years later, the man who gave the coin to Rothschild received a letter containing a ...
3618. Cast-off Items
Matthew 10:40-42
Illustration
King Duncan
John Bowes, chairman of the parent company of Wham-O, the maker of Frisbees, once participated in a charity effort. He sent thousands of the plastic flying discs to an orphanage in Angola, Africa. He thought the children there would enjoy playing with them. Several months later, a representative of Bowes' company visited the orphanage. One of the nuns thanked him for the wonderful "plates" that his company had sent them. She told him the children were eating off the Frisbees, carrying water with them, and ...
3619. Simple Caring
Matthew 10:40-42
Illustration
Gene Blair
For several weeks, Mrs. Sherman's first-grade class had waited for the field trip to the observatory. Notices had been sent home with instructions about the bus, lunch, and times of departure and return. To the students, waiting for the field trip was like waiting for Christmas. Finally, the day arrived. We grabbed our lunches and coats and lined up for the bus. In the back of the room, one boy began to cry because he had forgotten to bring a lunch and would have to stay behind with another teacher. In a ...
3620. The Idiot
Matthew 10:40-42
Illustration
King Duncan
In Dostoevsky's novel The Idiot the central character is Prince Myshkin, who does not fit in to the society around him. His peers are striving for status and power. They judge each other on the basis of money or appearance or family connections. In their world, there is no real friendship or intimacy. People use each other to meet their own needs. And into this world walks Prince Myshkin. He just doesn't get it. He treats everyone, whether poor or rich, with respect and kindness. He has no hidden agenda, ...
3621. The Tool of Discouragement
Matthew 10:1-42
Illustration
Brett Blair
There is an old legend about Satan one day having a yard sale. He thought he'd get rid of some of his old tools that were cluttering up the place. So there was gossip, slander, adultery, lying, greed, power-hunger, and more laid out on the tables. Interested buyers were crowding the tables, curious, handling the goods. One customer, however, strolled way back in the garage and found on a shelf a well-oiled and cared-for tool. Not sure what it was, he brought it out to Satan and inquired if it was for sale ...
3622. Lost Bearings
Mt 10:40-42
Illustration
King Duncan
Christian author Max Lucado visited New York City just a few days after the attacks of September 11, 2001. On a ride around the city, Lucado asked his taxi driver if his life was any different since the attacks. The driver replied, "I keep getting lost." He explained that he had always looked to the World Trade Towers to get his bearings while driving around the city. Now that the giant towers are gone, he said, ". . . I can't get my bearings anymore." Many of us can relate to that man's problem. After a ...
3623. You Are a Son of God
Matthew 10:40-42
Illustration
Joel D. Kline
Do you remember the movie Dead Man Walking? It's the story of one seemingly at the opposite end of the spectrum, a convicted killer on death row, and his relationship with a Catholic sister who serves as his spiritual director. In a scene near the end of the movie, it is the final evening before the scheduled execution, and all appeals have been denied. The man and the spiritual director talk honestly about the horrifying crime he committed, its impact upon the victims' families, and the readiness of the ...
3624. Highlights of the Best
Matthew 10:40-42
Illustration
Billy D. Strayhorn
Hockey great Wayne Gretzky was interviewed before the second game of a particular playoff series. His team hadn't looked very good in the very first game. They lost. He was asked whether his coach had shown the players their mistakes on video. Gretzky said that rather than showing them a video of their mistakes, their coach showed highlights of some of their best games where they performed well. Why reinforce negative images? They needed to see themselves as they could be, not as they had been. That's the ...
3625. A Morning Greeting
Matthew 10:40-42
Illustration
Andrew R. Wolfe
James Snelling, of Richmond, Virginia is 72 years old. Every single morning, unless the weather is very bad, James stands at the corner of Maple Avenue and Bremo Road there in Richmond, and what he does is he simply waves to the passing motorists, waves ‘good morning' to them. He has become a kind of self-appointed ambassador of goodwill on that corner, and every day at 7:15 he's there and he stays until 9:00 A.M. Because he's not as spry as he used to be, he has to often use his cane as he stands there. ...
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