Showing 1 to 25 of 50 results
1. A Blessing or A Curse?
Matthew 18:21-35
Illustration
Mickey Anders
There's a story of two shopkeepers who owned stores across the street from one another and who hated one another. One night the angel of the Lord came to the first shopkeeper and said: The Lord has sent me to you with the promise to grant one wish no matter how extravagant. There is only one catch: Whatever you receive, your rival shopkeeper will receive two-fold. The shopkeeper thought for a mome...
2. A Brain, A Heart, A Home, The Nerve
Mark 12:28-34
Illustration
Mickey Anders
One of the disadvantages of growing up in a very religious home like I did was that you never knew the end of Sunday night TV movies. When the annual showing of The Wizard Oz came on television every year, I sat through the tornado, saw the house that smashed the wicked witch of the East, and heard the munchkins sing about the yellow brick road. But then just as it got to the exciting parts, my pa...
3. A Natural Born Pessimist
John 20:19-23
Illustration
Mickey Anders
Joe Gordon says a pessimist is someone "who can look at the land of milk and honey and see only calories and cholesterol." It was difficult for Thomas to follow Jesus for he was a natural born pessimist. Thomas was absolutely certain that disaster awaited them, but in an act of tremendous faith and loyalty he was ready to go with Jesus. Just because he was pessimistic, that was no reason to stop ...
4. A Revolution in Seven Verses
Luke 13:10-17
Illustration
Mickey Anders
Walter Wink, in his book Engaging the Powers, suggests that Jesus' action represented a revolution happening in seven short verses. In this short story, Jesus tries to wake people up to the kind of life God wants for them. He often talks about the Kingdom of God where people have equal worth and all of life has dignity. But in the latter part of his ministry, he begins to act this out. In the mids...
5. A Seeking Doubt
John 20:19-23
Illustration
Mickey Anders
Someone described Thomas' doubt as a "seeking doubt, a doubt that wants not to continue to doubt but to come to believe." Thomas makes it clear to us that there is more than one kind of doubt. There is the kind of doubt that does not want to believe, that reaches for arguments in order to deny the affirmations of the faith. But there is also that "seeking doubt." This is a person who earnestly wa...
6. Absolute Truth
John 10:22-42
Illustration
Mickey Anders
In religious circles today, there is a broad discussion about the nature of truth. I have been involved in some of those discussions and listened in on others on Internet discussion groups. Most of them turn into a highly philosophical debate over questions such as these:  "Is the Truth objective or subjective?" or "Is the Truth absolute or relative?" Whether we think philosophically or not, the ...
7. Affluenza
Luke 12:32-40
Illustration
Mickey Anders
Years ago someone invented a wonderful word that graphically portrays the sickness that so often comes from material abundance - affluenza. We have all heard of influenza, but have you heard of affluenza? The definitions of "affluenza" include these: 1. The bloated, sluggish and unfilled feeling that results from efforts to keep up with the Joneses. 2. An epidemic of stress, overwork, waste and ...
8. Bigger Is Not Always Better
Mark 8:31-38
Illustration
Mickey Anders
The American businessman was at the pier of a small, coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them. The Mexican replied only a little while. The American then asked why didn't he stay out longer and catch mo...
9. Born of the Spirit
John 3:14-21
Illustration
Mickey Anders
Windborne! That's a far better moniker for Christians than that mistaken term "born again." That's a phrase we picked up from Nicodemus' misunderstanding of entering a second time into the mother's womb rather than Jesus' terminology "born from above" or "born of the Spirit." "No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and wind - Spirit - pneumatos." Windborne speaks of being...
10. Built around the Cross
Mark 8:31-38
Illustration
Mickey Anders
There's a great story about the artist Rodin, who one day saw a huge, carved crucifix beside a road. He immediately loved the artwork and insisted on having it for himself. He purchased the cross and arranged to have it carted back to his house. But, unfortunately, it was too big for the building. So, of all things, he knocked out the walls, raised the roof, and rebuilt his home around the cross (...
11. Clothing and Spiritual Change
Matthew 22:1-14
Illustration
Mickey Anders
Clothing is a common New Testament metaphor for spiritual change. Paul wrote in Romans, "Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature" (Rom 13:14). And in First Corinthians, "The perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. (1 Corinthians 15:53). In Colossians, we read, "Therefore, as...
12. Damaged Goods
Luke 7:36-50
Illustration
Mickey Anders
Bass Mitchell, my preacher friend from West Virginia, tells about the damaged goods bin at the grocery store where he worked in his first job. He says: "I started out as a bag boy but soon was promoted - given my own aisle to stock. Trucks brought in hundreds of boxes of food every week and we had to unpack them and put the stock on the shelves. Almost every week, however, we would open a box and ...
13. Dedicated to God
Luke 1:39-45
Illustration
Mickey Anders
In his book Reaching for the Invisible God, Philip Yancey tells about a surgeon friend of his who performs delicate surgery to rebuild the human hand after a severe injury. Whenever he gets a call that there has been an accident, the doctor knows that he will be staring into a microscope and doing delicate surgery for six hours. And this can happen at all hours of the day or night. On one occasio...
14. Dying Like an Amateur
Mark 8:31--9:1
Illustration
Mickey Anders
In George Seaton's film The Proud and the Profane, the steps of a young nurse are traced to Iwo Jima where her husband had been killed in World War II.  She goes to the cemetery where her husband lies buried and turns to the caretaker, a shell-shocked soldier, who had seen her husband die.  "How did he die?" she asked.  "Like an amateur," he replies.  "They teach you how to hurl a grenade and how ...
15. Endurance
Illustration
Mickey Anders
There was a little country schoolhouse that was heated by an old-fashioned, potbellied coal stove. A little boy named Glenn had the job of coming to school early each day and starting the fire to warm up the building. One morning the teacher arrived only to find the building engulfed in flames. Misatking gasoline for karosene Glenn and his brother Floyd has ignited an inferno. The teacher who just...
16. Even the Great Believers Doubt
John 20:19-23
Illustration
Mickey Anders
Most Christians think the great believers of the faith never doubted. They know about the faith of the famous Christian leaders, but not about their inner struggles. One Christian leader at the turn of the century wrote in his autobiography: "My religious faith remains in possession of the field only after prolonged civil war with my naturally skeptical mind." The Scottish reformer, John Knox, wro...
17. Failure
Mark 6:1-13
Illustration
Mickey Anders
Failure is a word that strikes fear in the heart of everybody. Our society has become so success-oriented that we have very little tolerance for failure.  We glamorize Lebron Jameses of the world, and ridicule misfits and also-rans like you and me. There was one of those reality television shows on with several young people placed in a house together for weeks. One of the girls made the candid re...
18. Faithful Servants
Luke 12:32-40
Illustration
Mickey Anders
Jana Childers, Professor of Homiletics at San Francisco Theological Seminary says, "Faithful servants of the Son of Man are known not only by their freedom from anxiety but also by the length of their sleeves. Faithful servants are ones whose sleeves are always pushed up. They are the kind of people whose powder is always dry, whose bags are always packed, whose pilot light is always lit. Their to...
19. Getting to Bethlehem
Mark 1:1-8
Illustration
Mickey Anders
If you ask a travel agent how to get to Bethlehem you'll be booked on an El Al airlines flight to Tel Aviv, ride on an air conditioned coach up through the hills, probably pass through Jerusalem, and then into the tourist trap called Bethlehem. Ask anyone in the New Testament how you get to the little town of Bethlehem and they'll say, "Go out to the desert, keep going till you get to the River J...
20. God Means Everything
Matthew 5:3
Illustration
Mickey Anders
William Barclay says the verse "blessed are the poor in spirit" means, "Blessed is the man who has realized his own utter helplessness, and who has put his whole trust in God. If a man has realized his own utter helplessness, and has put his whole trust in God, there will enter into his life two things. He will become completely detached from things, for he will know that things have not got it in...
21. God’s Garden
Mark 4:26-34
Illustration
Mickey Anders
Inch by inch, row by row Gonna make this garden grow All it takes is a rake and a hoe And a piece of fertile ground That's the way a wonderful children's song by David Mallet starts.  It's entitled "Garden Song" and continues this way: Inch by inch, row by row Someone bless these seeds I sow Someone warm them from below 'Till the rain comes tumbling down. Grain for grain, sun and rain, Find my ...
22. God's Work of Art
John 9: 1-41
Illustration
Mickey Anders
Well-intentioned people often take on the role of God's defense attorney. Sometimes when bad things happen to us they "defend" God by telling us that the ways of God are mysterious, and we do not understand them. That which seems to be a bad thing - a child who is born blind - is really a beautiful thing. We should give thanks for the blindness or tragedy. It is all God's Will. Perhaps our friend...
23. I Shall Be Ready
Mark 13:34-37
Illustration
Mickey Anders
In the movie Mrs. Brown, Queen Victoria is sunk in a deep depression after the death of her husband Albert when her advisers come up with an idea. They send for her pony to be brought to Balmoral, accompanied by a handsome Scot named John Brown. She is not interested in being cheered up, and is infuriated when she looks out in the royal courtyard to see John Brown standing at attention beside her ...
24. It's a Mystery
John 3:1-17
Illustration
Mickey Anders
You can analyze, even over-analyze sailing, by breaking it down into the scientific principles involved. You can study the Beaufort scale of wind speed, the principle of lift which pulls the boat through the water rather than pushing it, the many kinds and purposes of knots, the charts with all their legends and hieroglyphics, and the intricacies of sail trim. All of those can make you a better sa...
25. Jesus’ Inaugural Adress
Luke 4:14-21
Illustration
Mickey Anders
Every four years the new president of the United States gives his inaugural address. In it, he articulates his program or his plan of action for his term of office. See if you recognize who these inaugural address lines are from, which president said: "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we...
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