Category Archives: Teaching Illustrations

Youth Illustrations: Ken’s favorite Quotes, Anecdotes, Real-Life Events, Modern Parables, Sermon Illustrations, Jokes, Humor and other stories to add a little punch to your Bible Studies, Sermons, Youth Ministry talks and Children’s sermons.

Teaching Illustrations

Like the Baobab Tree

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baobab-treeWe don’t always get what we want in life. We sometimes wish we were taller, smarter, more beautiful, healthier, richer, or thinner. Things might not go the way we planned – we could be cut down in our jobs, blown over by situations, our lives turned upside-down.

Like the Baobab tree…

One of the most amazing and stunning trees that grow on earth is the Baobab tree. Native to mainland Africa, the island of Madagascar, and Australia, these striking trees can have a trunk diameter of between 7 and 11 meters and grow 5 to 30 meters in height. Some people call the Baobab the ‘upside-down tree’ as the branches of some Baobabs resemble roots.

Legends describe the Baobab as among the first trees to appear on the land. When it saw the height of the palm tree, it cried out to the gods to be taller; when it saw the red flowers of the flame tree, it was envious for flower blossoms; when it saw the fig tree with its delicious fruit, it too prayed for fruit as well. The gods became angry with the tree, pulled it up by its roots, then replanted it upside down to keep it quiet.

The Baobab looks like this for a reason. In the wet months water is stored in its thick, fire-resistant trunk – up to 120,000 litres – for the nine dry months ahead. Some trees are believed to be thousands of years old.

Besides being traditionally tapped for its water; every other part is used. The bark is used for cloth, rope, dye, used to treat fever and protect against malaria. The leaves are used in soup and medicines. The fruit is nutritious to eat and high in vitamin C and calcium and eaten to protect against illness. Sometimes people even live inside of the huge trunks.

Many references mention the exceptional resilience of this tree, noting that even after the entire tree is cut down or blown over in storms, it simply resprouts from the root and continues to grow.

Take It to the Next Level

James 1:2-4 says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

We often wonder why we have to face trials. If God was really good, why not spare us the pain and agony of having to go through difficult and sometimes traumatic experiences? We are often misguided to think that the victorious Christian life will be hassle-free and once we accept Christ as our Lord and live according to his ways, nothing bad will happen to us.

What we don’t realize is that abundant life God promises comes through maturity. If we never grow to full maturity, how can we expect to enjoy God’s plan and purposes for us? And how do we become mature? Through trials.

It is in trials that we develop our trust and faith in God. The strength to persevere. It is because God is good that he, like a loving parent, nurtures us. We learn to walk by stumbling, falling over, getting up and trying again. If God came by to pick us up every time we fell, we’d never learn to walk!

So the next time you face a harsh environment, a bully, get ridiculed for what you believe in, if your family isn’t perfect (and whose is anyway), if When nothing seems to go our way, look up to the Baobab tree.

The life experiences we gain from struggling in the harsh environments we grow up in prepares us for spiritual maturity when the time is ripe. Not just for ourselves, but for the friends and loved ones that surround us.

While it’s not the prettiest on the outside, it’s magnificence comes from what it has on the inside. It is a life-giving tree, supporting people with the water it has stored, a source of nourishment and healing.

If your life is “upside-down,” it’s time to make it “tree-mendous”!

What Faith Can Do – Kutlass

Verse 1:
Everybody falls sometimes
Gotta find the strength to rise
From the ashes and make a new beginning
Anyone can feel the ache
You think its more than you can take
But you are stronger, stronger than you know
Don’t you give up now
The sun will soon be shining
You gotta face the clouds
To find the silver lining

Chorus:
I’ve seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn’t ever end
Even when the sky is falling
And I’ve seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That’s what faith can do

Verse 2:
It doesn’t matter what you’ve heard
Impossible is not a word
It’s just a reason for someone not to try
Everybody’s scared to death
When they decide to take that step
Out on the water
It’ll be alright
Life is so much more
Than what your eyes are seeing
You will find your way
If you keep believing

Bridge:
Overcome the odds
You don’t have a chance
(That’s what faith can do)
When the world says you can’t
It’ll tell you that you can!

Teaching Illustrations

God’s Embroidery – What’s your Perspective?

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Many times our lives seem like a mess and it’s often our mothers who come to our rescue. We don’t always see the wisdom in the things they tell us to do and sometimes we think that we’re smarter than they are. But we often forget that many times, they see life through the lens of their rich life experiences. Often, it is only later, when we look back, that we appreciate their wisdom and guidance. What is true of mothers, is even more true of God.

God’s Embroidery – An illustration

When I was a little boy, my mother used to embroider a great deal. I would sit at her knee and look up from the floor and ask what she was doing. She informed me that she was embroidering. I told her that it looked like a mess from where I was. As from the underside I watched her work within the boundaries of the little round hoop that she held in her hand, I complained to her that it sure looked messy from where I sat. She would smile at me, look down and gently say, “My son, you go about your playing for a while, and when I am finished with my embroidering, I will put you on my knee and let you see it from my side.”

I would wonder why she was using some dark threads along with the bright ones and why they seemed so jumbled from my view. A few minutes would pass and then I would hear Mother’s voice say, “Son, come and sit on my knee.”

This I did only to be surprised and thrilled to see a beautiful flower or a sunset. I could not believe it, because from underneath it looked so messy.

Then Mother would say to me, “My son, from underneath it did look messy and jumbled, but you did not realize that there was a pre-drawn plan on the top. It was a design. I was only following it. Now look at it from my side and you will see what I was doing.”

Many times through the years I have looked up to my Heavenly Father and said, “Father, what are You doing?” He has answered, “I am embroidering your life.” I say, “But it looks like a mess to me. It seems so jumbled. The threads seem so dark. Why can’t they all be bright?”

The Father seems to tell me, “‘My child, you go about your business of doing My business, and one day I will bring you to Heaven and put you on My knee and you will see the plan from My side.”

Author Unknown

A Learning Activity

  1. Ask the youth to imagine a big clock on the ceiling, the kind with hands on it.
  2. Ask the youth to then imagine the second hand moving around the clock in a clockwise direction.
  3. Ask everyone to reach out their hand and finger and point at the clock, and move their hands in a circle in the same direction the clock hand would be moving. (Demonstrate this for the group to see)
  4. Ask the youth to slowly lower their hand and finger to chest level, all the time still pointing at the celing and rotating their hand in the same direction.
  5. Now ask them to look at their finger and to tell you if their finger is rotating clockwise or counterclockwise?
  6. The answer: counterclockwise!

TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL

 
Make it Spiritual

  • What changed during the activity? – The youth’s finger has NOT changed it’s direction during the activity, but the perspective has changed.
  • Have there been experiences in your life that seemed messy, chaotic, without any apparent plan? Explain.
  • What are some of the lessons your mom has taught you? Did some of them seem to make no sense at the time?
  • Are there some things in the Bible that you once found difficult to undertand?
  • What are some ways that a mom or parents have a different perspective from a child or youth?
  • What lessons from your Mom or from the Bible now make sense because you have a different perspective?
  • What are some ways in which God has a different perspective from us?
  • What do you think some of the famous Bible personalities might say about this lesson? Jonah swallowed by a fish? Joseph sold into slavery? Israelites marching around Jericho and blowing trumpets? The disciples at Christ’s crucifixtion? Paul on the Road to Damascus? Moses in front of the red sea?

Make it Spiritual

  • What are some of the lessons for life we can learn from this story and the activity?

Make it Personal

  • Maybe there are some things in life that you don’t understand now. Maybe there are some things that look messy and without a plan. What is an area of your life where you need to trust in God’s perspective on things?
  • Take a moment this week to thank God for having a plan for your life, and working things out for your good.
  • Take a moment this week to thank your mother for also having a plan to raise you well and to help you to have the best things in life, for having faith in you and putting all those things in place so that one day you might be amazed and delighted at God’s plan for you.

Scriptures

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” – Proverbs 3:5-6

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” – Romans 8:28

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” – Romans 12:2

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; …” – Ecclesiastes 3:1-22

“Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” – Psalm 139:16

“The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” – Proverbs 16:9

“But, as it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him'” – 1 Corinthians 2:9

 


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Teaching Illustrations

Life

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Stay away from Anger.
It hurts only You and nobody else.
If you are right, then there is no need to get angry,
and if you are wrong then you don't have any right to get angry.

Patience with family is love,
Patience with others is respect,
Patience with self is confidence and
Patience with GOD is faith.

Never think hard about the past, it brings tears.
Don't think more about the future, it brings fear.
Live this moment with a Smile, it brings cheer.

Every test in our life makes us bitter or better,
every problem comes to make us or break us,
The choice is ours whether we become victims or victorious.

Search for a beautiful heart not a beautiful face.
Beautiful things are not always good, but good things are always beautiful.

Do you know why God created gaps between fingers?
So that someone who is special to you comes
and fills those gaps by holding your hand forever.
Never forget this advice!

Happiness keeps You Sweet, Trials keep You Strong,
Success keeps You Glowing,
and But Only God keeps You Going!

When you don't
give up, you cannot fail.
Teaching Illustrations

Jim Checkin’ In

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A minister passing through his church in the middle of the day,
Decided to pause by the altar and see who had come to pray.
Just then the back door opened, a man came down the aisle,
The minister frowned as he saw the man hadn’t shaved in awhile.

His shirt was kinda’ shabby and his coat was worn and frayed.
The man knelt, he bowed his head, then rose and walked away.
In the days that followed, each noon time came this chap,
Each time he knelt just for a moment, a lunch pail in his lap.

Well, the minister’s suspicions grew, with robbery a main fear,
He decided to stop the man and ask him, “Watcha’ doin’ here?”

The old man, he worked down the road. Lunch was half an hour.
Lunchtime was his prayer time, for finding strength and power.
“I stay only moments, see, ’cause the factory is so far away;
As I kneel here talking’ to the Lord, this is kinda’ what I say:
“I JUST CAME AGAIN TO TELL YOU, LORD, HOW HAPPY I’VE BEEN,
SINCE WE FOUND EACH OTHER’S FRIENDSHIP AND YOU TOOK AWAY MY SIN.
I DON’T KNOW MUCH OF HOW TO PRAY, BUT I THINK ABOUT YOU EVERYDAY.
SO, JESUS, THIS IS JIM CHECKIN’ IN.”

The minister feeling foolish, told Jim, that was fine.
He told the man he was welcome to come and pray just anytime.
Time to go, Jim smiled, said “Thanks.” He hurried to the door.
The minister knelt at the alter, he’d never done it before.
His cold heart melted, warmed with love, met with Jesus there.
As the tears flowed, in his heart, he repeated old Jim’s prayer:
“I JUST CAME AGAIN TO TELL YOU, LORD, HOW HAPPY I’VE BEEN,
SINCE WE FOUND EACH OTHER’S FRIENDSHIP AND YOU TOOK AWAY MY SIN.
I DON’T KNOW MUCH OF HOW TO PRAY, BUT I THINK ABOUT YOU EVERYDAY.
SO, JESUS, THIS IS ME CHECKIN’ IN.”

Past noon one day, the minister noticed that old Jim hadn’t come.
As more days passed with out Jim, he began to worry some.
At the factory, he asked about him, learning he was ill.
The hospital staff was worried, but he’d given them a thrill.
The week that Jim was with them, brought changes in the ward.
His smiles, a joy contagious. Changed people, his reward.
The head nurse couldn’t understand why Jim was so glad,
When no flowers, calls or cards came, not a visitor he had.

The minister stayed by his bed, he voiced the nurse’s concern:
No friends came to show they cared. He had nowhere to turn.
Looking surprised, old Jim spoke up and with a winsome smile;
“The nurse is wrong, she couldn’t know, that all the while
Everyday at noon He’s here, a dear friend of mine, you see,
He sits right down, takes my hand, leans over and says to me:
“I JUST CAME AGAIN TO TELL YOU, JIM, HOW HAPPY I HAVE BEEN,
SINCE WE FOUND THIS FRIENDSHIP, AND I TOOK AWAY YOUR SIN.
I ALWAYS LOVE TO HEAR YOU PRAY, I THINK ABOUT YOU EACH DAY,
AND SO JIM, THIS IS JESUS CHECKIN’ IN.”

[Circulating on the Internet]

Announcements, Humor, Teaching Illustrations

New Year Resolutions from the Dog

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  • Try to understand that the cat is from Venus, and I am from Mars.
  • I will try to leave the cat alone, once in a while.
  • I will no longer be beholden to the sound of the can opener.
  • Call PETA and tell them what that surgical mask-wearing freak does to us when no one is around.
  • Take time from busy schedule to stop and smell the behinds.
  • To always scoot before licking.
  • Grow opposable thumb; break into pantry; decide for MYSELF how much food is *too* much.
  • January 1st: Kill the sock! Must kill the sock! January 2nd – December 31st: Re-live victory over the sock.
  • I will NOT chase the damned stick unless I see it LEAVE HIS HAND.
  • Next time I fart I will not whimper – so that someone else gets the blame
  • I will worry less about things I can’t eat and play with
  • To smell more things that look interesting
  • To pick more fights with shoes and pillows
  • To take more opportunities to forget what I am doing and nap instead
  • Pay more attention to fallen cactus to avoid owies on the walk.
  • To hog the bed; stretch & spread out; hog the covers.
  • Stretch out on the couch in such a way where there’s no room for peoples or the pets
  • Only reserve kisses for times after making a public display of licking my butt or burping.
  • Counter surf more discreetly.
  • Have my way with the roll of toilet paper. Drag and decorate DIY style throughout the house. Martha Stewart would be proud.
  • Greet strangers with gusto. (Notice ME!)
  • Wag more, bark less.
  • Have a torrid one-night stand with a street mutt.
  • I will stay out of the trash, off the counters, and certainly never eat snacks from my boy’s backpack.
Humor, Teaching Illustrations

Flight Instructions for 2013

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Welcome to Flight #2013, We are prepared for take off into the New Year. Please make sure your Attitude and Blessings are secured and locked in an upright position. All self destructive devices should be turned off at this time. Should we lose Altitude under pressure during the flight, reach up and pull down a Prayer. Prayers will automatically be activated by Faith. Once your Faith is activated you can assist other passengers. There will be NO BAGGAGE allowed on this flight. The captain has cleared us for takeoff. Destination GREATNESS!! Have a Blessed New Year Friends .

Teaching Illustrations

The Pilot

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Just got this from a friend via email and thought I’d share it with you.

A priest was on a long flight home after a Church Conference.

The first warning of approaching problems came when the ‘Fasten Your Seat Belts’ sign flashed on. After a while a calm voice said, “We shall not be serving beverages at this time as we are expecting a little turbulence. Please make sure your seat belt is fastened.”

The priest looked around the aircraft and saw that many of the passengers were becoming apprehensive. Later, the voice on the intercom said, “We are so sorry that we are unable to serve meals at this time… The turbulence is still ahead of us.”

And then the storm broke.

The ominous cracks of thunder could be heard even above the roar of the engines. Lightning lit up the darkening skies, and within moments that great plane was tossed around like a cork in a celestial ocean. One moment it was lifted on terrific currents of air, the next it fell as if about to crash.

As the priest looked around he could see that nearly all the passengers were alarmed – except one little girl!

She sat calmly, feet tucked under her, looking at pictures in a book, oblivious of the turbulence around her. Sometimes she would close her eyes, and then she would go back to her book.

The storm blew over.

When the plane landed and the passengers were disembarking, the priest approached the little girl and asked her why she was not afraid like the other passengers.

The little girl replied, “Cause my Daddy’s the pilot and he’s taking me home.”

There are many storms that buffet us…
Physical, mental, financial, domestic and other storms that can darken our skies and throw us into turmoil.

Like the little girl, let us always remember:
Our Father is the Pilot.
He is in control… He will take us Home… Don’t worry!

Teaching Illustrations

Yes Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus

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Scan of the Newspaper Editorial "Yes, Virginia,There Is A Santa Claus"

DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
Papa says, ‘If you see it in THE SUN it’s so.’
Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

VIRGINIA O’HANLON.
115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

[Source: Written by Francis P. Church, Editor of the NY Sun in 1897 and is supposedly the most reprinted newspaper editorial ever. Image source: Wikipedia]

Take it to the Next Level

 

Yes Virginia there is a God

Millions of little people around the world believe in Santa. Of course, most are children, but it speaks much of childlike faith.  They may be too young to understand the implications of a real life Santa that knows whether what every child in the world wants for Christmas and whether they are deserving or not to receive it, and can deliver all those gifts in a single night. (see Is There a Santa Claus)

As children grow up, they often outgrow Santa.  A rational person could not truly believe in such a man and what he supposedly is able to do.  Unfortunately, the same is often true of the belief in God.  While a literal St. Nick did exist, the claims of who he is and what he does have been exaggerated over the years.  Could the same be true of God?  On what basis do we base our belief in God?

Perhaps the editorial holds an answer to that question.  You find it not in the Sun, but in the SON – the Son of God. Christmas is the celebration of His birth.  And it is not because it is written in a newspaper, but because it is written in the Word of God that we trust that it is true. And, as the editorial states, “The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see.” Some things must be taken in Childlike faith.

Scripture references from the Bible

“Then Jesus told him, ‘Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.'” – John 20:29

“However, as it is written: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him'” – 1 Corinthians 2:9

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” – 2 Timothy 3:16-17

‘Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.'” – John 18:37

‘He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.’ – Matthew 18:2-3

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Teaching Illustrations

The Tablecloth

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He remembers it well…

On Tuesday, the 21st of December that year, the pastor went over to his church. His heart sank when he saw that the roof had leaked, causing a large area of plaster about 20 feet by 8 feet to fall off the front wall of the sanctuary just behind the pulpit, beginning about head high.

The pastor cleaned up the mess on the floor,and not knowing what else to do but postpone the Christmas Eve service, headed home. On the way he noticed that a local business was having a flea market type sale for charity so he stopped in. One of the items was a beautiful, handmade, ivory colored, crocheted tablecloth with exquisite work, fine colors and a Cross embroidered right in the center. It was just the right size to cover up the hole in the front wall. He bought it and headed back to the church.

By this time it had started to snow. An older woman running from the opposite direction was trying to catch the bus. She missed it. The pastor invited her to wait in the warm church for the next bus 45 minutes later. She sat in a pew and paid no attention to the pastor while he got a ladder, hangers, etc., to put up the tablecloth as a wall tapestry. The pastor could hardly believe how beautiful it looked and it covered up the entire problem area. Then he noticed the woman walking down the center aisle. Her face was like a sheet.

“Pastor,” she asked, “where did you get that tablecloth” The pastor explained. The woman asked him to check the lower right corner to see if the initials, EBG were crocheted into it there. They were… These were the initials of the woman, and she had made this tablecloth 35 years before, in Austria. The woman could hardly believe it as the pastor told how he had just gotten the Tablecloth.

The woman explained that before the war she and her husband were well-to-do people in Austria. When the Nazis came, she was force to leave. Her husband was going to follow her the next week. She was captured, sent to prison and never saw her husband or her home again.

The pastor wanted to give her the tablecloth; but she made the pastor keep it for the church. The pastor insisted on driving her home, that was the least he could do. She lived on the other side of Staten Island and was only in Brooklyn for the day for a house cleaning job.

What a wonderful service they had on Christmas Eve. The church was almost full. The music and the spirit were great. At the end of the service, the pastor and his wife greeted everyone at the door and many said that they would return. One older man, whom the pastor recognized from the neighborhood,continued to sit in one of the pews and stare, and the pastor wondered why he wasn’t leaving.

The man asked him where he got the tablecloth on the front wall because it was identical to one that his wife had made years ago when they lived in Austria before the war and how could there be two tablecloths so much alike. He told the pastor how the Nazis came, how he forced his wife to flee for her safety, and he was supposed to follow her, but he was arrested and put in a prison. He never saw his wife or his home again all the 35 years in between.

The pastor asked him if he would allow him to take him for a little ride.They drove to Staten Island and to the same house where the pastor had taken the woman three days earlier. He helped the man climb the three flights of stairs to the woman’s apartment, knocked on the door and he saw the greatest Christmas reunion he could ever imagine.

Supposedly a True Story.

[Source Unknown]

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Teaching Illustrations

The Lighthouse Keeper

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Once upon a time, not too long ago, in a place not too far away, there was a lighthouse keeper. This lighthouse keeper was a very kind man, liked by all the people. In his lighthouse he kept large reserves of fuel to keep the light shining, warning ships of impeding danger, and directing them to safety. The lighthouse was located next to a road that connected several cities, but some distance away from where most of the people lived.

One year, there was something exciting go on in one of these cities that attracted people from all around. The event was in all the newspapers and everyone wanted to get involved. You couldn’t hardly talk to a person without it coming up in the conversation. Even the lighthouse keeper wanted to get involved so he sat up a small gas station with his fuel reserves to accommodate the people involved in the events.

Many times he donated his fuel to such a worthy and exciting cause. He was able to help dozens of people. Eventually however, he ran out of fuel and it would be several days before his delivery truck would arrive. During this time a violent storm came upon the shores in which he had to burn the lights in the lighthouse not only during the night, but also during the day. The lighthouse ran out of fuel and the keeper had no reserves to fall back upon. As a result, the light went out and a ship with hundreds of people ran upon the rocks, killing almost all aboard. The keeper failed his primary task of saving lives of those aboard the ship because he used his resources to help those in non-life threatening situations.

As you can probably guess, the lighthouse represents the church and the event represents a social or moral issue. Our goal as a church does not exclude these, but we must never take away from our primary purpose of making disciples of all the nations! Often these issues are just symptoms of the real problem–lack of a relationship with Jesus Christ. Let’s make sure we treat the problem!


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