Contributed by Lonnie Erwin on Oct 17, 2010
Before Andrew Jackson became the seventh president of the United States, he served as a major general in the Tennessee militia. During the War of 1812 his troops reached an all-time low in morale. As a result they began arguing, bickering, and fighting among themselves. It is reported that Old
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Contributed by Lonnie Erwin on Nov 2, 2007
Illustration: Life
Augustus boasted that he found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble. Perhaps we cannot feel that we will leave the world much different than we found it, but each of us has had some influence, affected some life, and in some way can leave the world a better
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Contributed by Lonnie Erwin on Nov 2, 2007
Illustration: Walking the Cliffs
When descending the Grand Canyon, often times a person has to travel on narrow ledges that have only enough room for a mule to get a foothold. The ribbons of rock that run along the edges of these towering cliffs overlook vertical precipices that descend
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Baptist
Contributed by Lonnie Erwin on Nov 2, 2007
Illustration Daring to Act
It is not the critic who counts, not the person who points out where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the person who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes
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Contributed by Lonnie Erwin on Oct 26, 2007
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Illustration: The Colonel Sanders Story
Here’s a man sitting on his porch in Kentucky. He’s only recently retired from the post office, and he’s sitting there when his first Social Security check is delivered. He’s very, very discouraged. He thinks to himself, "Is this what life is going to be
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Contributed by Lonnie Erwin on Oct 26, 2007
based on 1 rating
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Illustration: A young college student in a small town attended college across the street from a vey conservative and traditional church. Bob, was a very different kind of individual. His dress was unorthodox, his tee shirt had holes and he wore blue jeans and he always went bare foot. The
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Contributed by Lonnie Erwin on Oct 26, 2007
Seizing opportunities: -- A lady once writing to a young man in the navy, who was almost a stranger, thought, "Shall I close this as anybody would, or shall I say a word for my Master?" and lifting up her heart for a moment, she wrote, telling him that his constant change of scene and place was an
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Contributed by Lonnie Erwin on Oct 12, 2007
based on 3 ratings
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Illustration::
John Wesley describes his pilgrimage in terms of his preaching rather vividly. It parallels closely his inward growth.
(1) From the year 1725 to 1729 I preached much, but saw no fruit of my labor.
(2) From the year 1729 to 1734, laying a deeper foundation of repentance, I saw
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Contributed by Lonnie Erwin on Oct 12, 2007
A sharp knife for the vine branches. --
I. THE TEXT SUGGESTS SELF-EXAMINATION. It mentions --
1. Two characters who are in some respects exceedingly alike; they are both branches, and are in the vine: and yet for all this, the end of the one shall be to be cast away, while the end of the other
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Baptist
Contributed by Lonnie Erwin on Oct 12, 2007
Illustration: Benjamin Franklin once said :
By their fruits ye shall know them.
-- Matthew 7:20
Well done is better than well said.
-- As quoted in Bob Phillips, Phillips’ Book of Great Thoughts &
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Baptist
Contributed by Lonnie Erwin on Oct 5, 2007
based on 3 ratings
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Illustration: A young camel asked his mother “mother why do we have very large feet with three large toes?’ The mother camel answered “in order to walk on the sands of the desert!” The young camel again asked his mother “mother why do we have very long legs?” again the mother camel replied in
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Baptist
Contributed by Lonnie Erwin on Oct 5, 2007
Illustration: "Objectivity," or the Breath of Hell
A young Englishman ... was in Germany when Nazis degraded the Jews in the streets. At first he was sick at the sight and rushed down a side street. The next time he felt he could look, and stopped for a full minute. The third time he watched.
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Baptist
Contributed by Lonnie Erwin on Oct 5, 2007
Illustration: Influence
One of the strange sights on the Dutch Windward Islands in the Caribbean is the Divi-Divi tree. Because the winds blow almost constantly from the east, all of the branches grow on one side of the tree. You can look at a Divi-Divi tree and always know which is east and
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Baptist
Contributed by Lonnie Erwin on Sep 27, 2007
Self-love under a form of holiness: -- The text may be considered two ways -- relatively or absolutely.
1. Relatively. as it relates to the eighteen sins before mentioned; so this sin is the cloak to hide and cover them all; men will be lovers of themselves, but under a form of godliness. Hence
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Baptist
Contributed by Lonnie Erwin on Sep 27, 2007
Illustration: Blind Mules
A man was driving through a mining region one Sunday when he noticed a large number of mules in an open field. When he inquired about this unusual sight, he was told that the work animals had been brought up from the dark passages below to preserve their eyesight.
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Baptist
Contributed by Lonnie Erwin on Sep 27, 2007
Illustration: Turn Around
Repentance is not basically a religious word. It comes from a culture where people were essentially nomadic and lived in a world with no maps or street signs. It’s easy to get lost walking through the desert. You become aware that the countryside is strange. You
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Baptist
Contributed by Lonnie Erwin on Sep 24, 2007
Illustration: "Christians Aren’t Perfect, Just Forgiven"
Whether seen on bumper stickers, heard during altar calls, developed from a narrow interpretation of Lutheran or fundamentalist theology, or perpetuated in fluffy paperbacks, the reduction of the gospel to cheap forgiveness is ever with
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Baptist
Contributed by Lonnie Erwin on Sep 24, 2007
The people of God:
Individuals, and in a state of distinctness from all the nations amongst which, in their calamitous dispersion, they are scattered; but they have no national existence -- no king, no country, no organization, no government, no political being. Just so the great community of
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Baptist
Contributed by Lonnie Erwin on Sep 24, 2007
Illustrations: Forgiveness Is Strength
Christian forgiveness should not be a refusal of strength, but rather ought to manifest an alternative power; Christian love, whether of neighbors or of enemies, should be a sign not of repressed anger and hatred but of anger and hatred confronted and,
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Denomination:
Baptist