Colossians 3: 12-21

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Illustrated Resources from the Archives

  • Faith in Life

    by Gilbert Bowen
    A man writes of friends who were given the heartbreaking news that their son had what appeared to be an incurable disease. Everyone was torn with pity for them, but they remained remarkably calm and uncomplaining. One night as this man left his friends' house, he tried to express his admiration for their fortitude. The boy's father looked up at the stars and said, "Well, it seems to me that we have three choices. We can curse life and what it does to us at times and look for some way to express our rage. We can grit our teeth and endure. Or we can accept the life given to us with Charlie each day as a gift. The first alternative is useless, the second is exhausting. The third enables us to go on really living."..
  • Sermon Starters (Christmas 1C)(2021)

    by Doug Bratt
    Since I am what my family and friends sometimes call “sartorially challenged,” I periodically seek out fashion advice from sources that consider themselves expert. So I recently consulted Vogue magazine’s September 12, 2021’s “Ultimate Guide to the Fall Fashion Trends.” That advice sounds, well, interesting, but trendy. So Colossians 3’s proclaimers might stick to calling our hearers to the tried and true clothing that never goes out of style: Christ-likeness. It may not be especially trendy in a culture that increasingly seems hostile to holiness. But the Spirit gives it the kind of staying power that, by God’s amazing grace, won’t wear out before Christ comes again.
  • Sermon Starters (Christmas 1C)(2018)

    by Doug Bratt
    In The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Vol. I: Visions of Glory, 1874-1932, William Manchester writes about Londoners’ sense of fashion. He notes that each Victorian group and class of people had its own distinctive attire. “Identifying a stranger’s class has always been a social challenge for Londoners. Today it is a matter of vowels. In [Victorian] days it was far easier, and would usually be accomplished by a glance. “J. M. Bailey, an American visitor to London in the 1870’s, wrote that he could find ‘traces of nobility’ in an aristocrat’s ‘very step and bearing.’ He asked mischievously: ‘Can you conceive of a bowlegged duke? Or is it possible for you to locate a pimple on the nose of a viscount? And no one, however diseased his imagination, ever pictures a baron with an ulcerated leg, or conceived of such a monstrous impossibility as a cross-eyed duchess.’ “This was Yankee wit, but the plain fact was that you could tell. Gentlemen, no less than ladies, could be identified by their clothing...
  • When Third Place Is the Right Place

    by John Pavelko
    Howard Schulz founder and CEO of Starbucks coffeehouses built his franchise on the premise that Americans need a third place for camaraderie and rest. He noticed that on a business trip to Italy that the Italians had adapted a balance to their lives. They worked with an impressive passion but still found time to enjoy their rest and friendships. Schulz believed that the secret to their balanced lives was the 200,000 coffee bars that opened their doors to conversation and coffee. Given Starbuck's success, Schulz has demonstrated the America is indeed in need of a third place. The challenge for the church is: How can we convince people that the church is a much better third place than a coffeehouse...
  • Turtle on the Fence

    Stephen Portner
    Having the humility to realize how we do some wonderful things. From Illustrations for Preaching and Teaching from Leadership Journal, Craig B. Larson, p. 117. (Submitted by Stephen Portner.)
  • Faith on the Catwalk

    by Travis Shafer
    ("On the evening of April 25, 1958, In Ho Oh, a young Korean exchange student in Philadelphia, walked to the corner to post a letter to his family in Pusan. Turning from the mailbox, he stepped into the path of eleven leather-jacketed teens. The boys attacked him with a lead pipe, a pop bottle, and their fists. They wanted, they later said, 65 cents each to get into a dance...")
  • Christian Conferencing: God's Blogs

    by James Standiford
    ("There she sat all alone in the huge house, surrounded by the finest in furnishings. Her husband had run off with a younger woman, his “girlfriend” he called her. Just a few days ago the wife had received a notice to vacate the house. It was only in his name and he and the girlfriend wanted to live there. So the wife sat in the fading light of love and of the late afternoon, in candlelight...")
  • Put on Some Clothes

    Sermon Starter by Leonard Sweet
    ("Everyone knows the Hans Christian Andersen story of The Emperor's New Clothes. A couple of smooth-talking swindlers convince an egotistical king that he has just purchased the most gorgeous, elaborate, royal suit of clothes ever stitched together by human hands. Only those who are 'hopelessly stupid' or 'unfit for their position' can't see the beautiful clothes....")
  • Small and Great

    by Garth Wehrfritz-Hanson
    ("In the British writer-physician A.J. Cronin’s autobiography, he describes being a doctor in the North of England when there was an outbreak of diphtheria. A little boy was brought in hardly able to breathe. As the Irish would say, “he had the dip,” and in those days that often meant the patient would die..." and another illustration)
  • Clothes Make the Christian

    by Carl Wilton
    There’s an odd little short story by the British writer, Max Beerbohm. It’s called “The Happy Hypocrite.” The main character is a notoriously self-centered individual, who’s got the marvelously appropriate name of Lord George Hell.Lord Hell seems, well, hellbound in his desire to live as dissolute and sinful a life as ever he can. As the story opens, he’s a wreck of a man. Anyone who looks upon his face can see the scars and furrows of years of hard living. At mid-life, he’s lost all his youthful vigor. His face is blotchy and bloated from years of overindulgence.But then, the miraculous happens. Lord Hell falls head-over-heels in love with a beautiful young woman. This is no mere physical desire on his part, but a high and holy — and very genuine — affection. There’s something about this virtuous young woman that makes him want to live a righteous life, for a change. Yet, there’s a great sadness in the nobleman’s heart, because he knows that, with his abysmal reputation, his beloved would never have him for a husband.There’s an element of magic to this story. George Hell puts on the mask of a saint, to hide his sinner’s face. It’s such a miraculous mask that, once it’s put on, no one can tell by looking at him that this is not his real face. As far as anyone knows, he is a kind and virtuous man.He courts the young woman and he marries her. They live happily together.That is, until a certain woman shows up from George’s past. For whatever reason, she’s not fooled by the mask. She knows the man underneath it (or thinks she does). One day, in the presence of George’s new wife, she confronts him and cruelly tears off his mask, expecting to reveal the bloated, pockmarked face of an old degenerate.Here’s where the magic comes in. What she reveals is something quite different. Behind the mask of a saint, there is no longer the face of a terrible sinner. George’s own face has become transformed by the power of love. He has become a true saint — and all by wearing that magical mask!...
  • Clothes Make the Christian

    by Carlos Wilton
    ("There is a story called 'The Happy Hypocrite'. The main character is a notoriously self-centered individual, who’s got the marvelously appropriate name of Lord George Hell. Lord Hell seems, well, hellbound in his desire to live as dissolute and sinful a life as ever he can. As the story opens, he’s a wreck of a man. Anyone who looks upon his face can see the scars and furrows of hard living..")

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