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As you read this I am en route back to the United States after a week in Cambridge, making preparations for the International Congress on Preaching, which will be next April 17-19. Since I've been gone all week, this will be an abbreviated version of PreachingNow. After all, preachers need a regular fix of illustrations! I hope you will think seriously about joining us in Cambridge next April. We have an amazing line-up of speakers from both sides of the Atlantic (and the Pacific, since we also have an Australian on the program). Those who attended the first Congresses in London (1997) and Edinburgh (2002) came back talking about what an incredible experience they had. Travel to the United Kingdom is not as expensive as you might think, especially in April (since it is not peak tourist season). And we will have a range of lodging options for you, from university residence halls to four-star hotels. If you'd like to know more, visit the ICOP website at www.preaching.com/icop or call us at 800-288-9673. Mark
your calendar and plan to join us! Michael
Duduit, Editor
ILLUSTRATION: Servanthood During the American Revolution a man in civilian clothes rode past a group of soldiers repairing a small defensive barrier. Their leader was shouting instructions, but making no attempt to help them. Asked why by the rider, he retorted with great dignity, "Sir, I am a corporal!" The stranger apologized, dismounted, and proceeded to help the exhausted soldiers. The job done, he turned to the corporal and said, "Corporal, next time you have a job like this and not enough men to do it, go to your commander-in-chief, and I will come and help you again." With that George Washington got back on horse and rode off. (eSermons.com newsletter)
ILLUSTRATION: Rejection Rejection can be one of the most painful experiences any of us can have. Ralph Keyes in his book Is There Life after High School? writes that Mia Farrow has never forgotten the time every girl but Mia was asked to dance. Nor did Charles Schulz of "Peanuts" cartoon fame ever forget that the yearbook staff rejected his every cartoon. Movie actress Ali McGraw confesses she doesn't forget the fact that she never had one date in all of high school. Henry Kissinger is best remembered by his classmates as the kid nobody wanted to eat lunch with at school. Rejection can be one of the most traumatic things that can happen to any of us. (Donald Strobe)
ILLUSTRATION: Church conflict In How to Start a Church Fire, Paul Powell writes, "Whenever there is conflict in the church many good people leave or drop out of church altogether. They have enough problems without the church adding to them. They are trying to hold their marriages together, keep their kids off drugs, pay the mortgage, hold onto their jobs. They don't have time for petty religious squabbles. "In the movie Lawrence of Arabia, there is a scene where Thomas Edward Lawrence, the English colonel who helped organize the Arab revolt against Turkey, tells his Arab counterpart, 'If the desert tribes do not unite as a nation they will be forever destined to be a silly and inconsequential people.' We face the same alternatives in our churches."
ILLUSTRATION: Wealth A wealthy American textile buyer told a lengthy but amusing joke at a luncheon in Seoul, Korea. When his translator repeated it in just a few phrases, the audience laughed uproariously and applauded. The rich American asked the translator how he was able to translate the story with so few words. "It was not a problem," the translator said. "I told them, 'Rich American with big checkbook has told a joke. Do what you think is appropriate.'" Why is everyone so fascinated with wealth? We're mesmerized by people who have it and spend large segments of time daydreaming about what we would do if we were as "blessed" as they are. Is wealth always a blessing from God? True, everything comes from Him ultimately. But for every person whose wealth is a blessing, we can probably find one for whom it is a curse. For every person whom God has blessed with riches, we can probably find one who has fought tooth and nail to accumulate them. Wherever you are on the wealth scale, make sure you received it and are spending it as a blessing from God: God's wealth has no sorrow attached to it. Money is neutral. Whether it becomes a blessing or curse is a function of how it is used. (Turning Point Daily Devotional, 9-5-06)
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ILLUSTRATION: Mistakes In his early years, American landscape photographer Ansel Adams studied piano and showed some talent. At one party, however, as Adams played Chopin's F Major Nocturne he recalled that, "In some strange way my right had started off in F-sharp major while my left had behaved well in F-major. I could not bring them together. I went through the entire nocturne with the hands separated by a half-step." The next day a fellow guest gave Adams a no-nonsense review of his performance: "You never missed a wrong note!" (Daily Walk)
Which calories don't count? Cookie pieces contain no fat -- the process of breaking causes fat leakage. Foods that are frozen have no calories because calories are units of heat. Examples are ice cream, frozen pies and popsicles. Foods that have the same color have the same number of calories, e.g. spinach and pistachio ice cream; mushrooms and white chocolate. Note: Chocolate is a universal color and may be substituted for any other food color without increasing caloric content. If you drink a diet soda with a candy bar, the calories in the candy bar are canceled out by the diet soda. In food used for medicinal purposes the calories NEVER count, such as hot chocolate, soup, toast, and Sara Lee Cheesecake. Movie related foods (buttered popcorn, Junior Mints, Raisinettes, Tootsie Rolls, etc.) do not have additional calories because they are not part of one's personal fuel -- they are merely entertainment-related. Things licked off knives and spoons have no calories if you are in the process of preparing something. Examples are peanut butter on a knife when making a sandwich, ice cream on a spoon when making a sundae. When you eat with someone else, calories don't count if you don't eat more than they do.
And finally . . . "We'll always have Paris." As if you'd want it. An Oct. 23 Reuters story notes that about a dozen Japanese tourists a year "need psychological treatment after visiting Paris as the reality of unfriendly locals and scruffy streets clashes with their expectations." So far this year, Japan's Parisian embassy has had to help several visitors, including two women who believed their hotel room was being bugged and there was a plot against them. According to Reuters, "Previous cases include a man convinced he was the French 'Sun King,' Louis XIV, and a woman who believed she was being attacked with microwaves." Bernard Delage of Jeunes Japon, an association that helps Japanese families settle in France, said: "In Japanese shops, the customer is king, whereas here assistants hardly look at them. . . . People using public transport all look stern, and handbag snatchers increase the ill feeling." A Japanese woman told a newspaper: "For us, Paris is a dream city. All the French are beautiful and elegant . . . And then, when they arrive, the Japanese find the French character is the complete opposite of their own." On second thought, forget April in Paris -- come to Cambridge next April!
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PreachingNow
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