What Do Americans Consider Immoral?

The Pew Research Center recently posted their results of a poll related to what Americans consider immoral. You can access the poll here. There might be some good sermon illustration material here.

Ninety Apologetics Illustrations

See the categorized list here.

The Purpose of Illustrations

In preparation for a class on preaching that I am teaching, I came across this helpful discussion of the purposes of sermon illustrations although, I think some of the points could be combined.

1. Inform and instruct
2. Explain and clarify
3. Can help the preacher connect and identify and identify with his people
4. An aid to memorization and recall
5. Helps to capture and retain attention
6. Motivate, persuade, and convince
7. Allow for mental relaxation
8. Help people see the immediate relevance of the biblical text for their lives
9. Personalize and particularize the general/universal truths revealed in the Bible
10. Make biblical truth believable
11. Create interest
12. Explain biblical doctrine and personal duty in an understandable and compelling way.

Daniel Akin, Bill Curtis, and Stephen Rummage, Engaging Exposition (Nashville B&H Academic, 2011), 199-200 (with some modification).

Questioning Your Illustrations

The temptation of a nice illustration is using it without giving thought to whether it really works best with the message at hand. So, I appreciate Peter Mead's six questions to ask here.

Proverbs on Ants

The Book of Proverbs refers to ants twice (6:6-11; 30:24-28). I especially like the line in in 6:6 that states, "go to the ant, you sluggard." Recently, on my Facebook page where groups that I might be interested in are listed, a group called, "A group where we all pretend to be ants in an ant colony" appeared. I am not making this up. And I am not sure what algorithm thought I might be a good fit for this group. In any case, rather than pretending to be ants, let us heed the inspired Sage and learn from the ants. In this downtime related to COVID-19, let us continue to be diligent in doing all that we can do and are called to do to the glory of God. 

Books, Bed Bugs, a Library, and the Old Testament

If you are reading the title above and wondering how all of this fits together you need to read this article about a local library is banning borrowing privileges of those who return books with pests and somehow framing at the Old Testament’s leprosy policy.” There should be a good illustration of bad Bible interpretation or sermon illustration to be found here.

Willie Nelson and Job 19:17

The line "bad breath is better than no breath at all" from Willie Nelson's 2018 song "Bad Breath" reminded me of this verse from Job. 
 
"My breath is offensive to my wife,
    And I am loathsome to my own brothers." (19:17, NASB)

Translations and Treaties

Here is an interesting article highlighting the problems inherent in translation, in this case, treaties between two nations. But this text does illustrate some of the challenges also inherent in Bible translation.

Making Sermon Illustrations Memorable

Scott Maze in this article at Preaching.com makes the following three suggestions (do read the article for the explanation). 

1. Recognize the purpose of your illustration.
2. Remember to vary the form of your illustration.
3. Weigh the balance of your message in terms of exposition, application, and illustration.

Proverbs and Books

The Chronicle of Higher Education has an interesting article here about a scholar who specialized in studying proverbs and his accumulation of books on the topic. While the article does not directly relate to the Bible's wisdom literature, the story does highlight the universal nature of proverbial literature and has illustrative value.

The Book of James

Preaching Source has recently posted a series of blog posts on the book of James.

• Mark Taylor discusses the themes in James here.
• Kie Bowman discusses the genre of James here.
• Matt Emerson discusses how to find pericopes in James here.
• Craig Etheredge discusses the context of James here. 
• Jason Kees discusses important words in James here. 
• Scott Pace discusses some potential "potholes" in explaining the text of James here.
• David Goza discusses ways to illustrate James here.

Using Personal Illustrations

Ian Paul has some pretty good advice here on using personal illustrations in preaching.

A Quadrans of Claudius and the Bible

Recently I was looking at a quadrans of Claudius (AD 41–54) and on this particular coin there is an image of a hand holding a pair of scales (see picture below). Since coins were one way for leaders to project a particular image, I was interested in the significance of the image. My initial two guesses were that it was an economical symbol or a judicial symbol. But, significant help is provided by paying attention to the Latin inscription containing three letters, PNR between the scale’s pans. The meaning of the letters is understood in at least two ways, Pondus Nummi Restitutum, meaning, “the weight of the coinage restored” or Ponderum Norma Restituta, meaning, “the standard of the weights restored.”[1] “This interesting obverse likely commemorates a weight improvement for certain denominations.”[2] So apparently the scales are about the assurance that the coins weigh as they should.

I see at least two illustrative uses of this coin in biblical teaching and preaching. It could be used to provide an image of what at least some handheld scales looked like in the first century for a passage like Revelation 6:5. Also, both the image and the inscription could be used illustrate biblical passages relating to dishonest scales (e.g., Ezek 45:10; Hos 12:7; Amos 8:5; Mic 6:11). 

(1) http://www.forumancientcoins.com/catalog/zoompg.asp?param=16458q00.jpg&idd=63789&fld=http://www.forumancientcoins.com/Coins
(2) Ibid.

Libraries and Life

Susan Orlean has an interesting essay in The New Yorker about libraries and life here. Near the end of the essay, a reference is made to Amadou Hampâté Bâ who "once said that, in Africa, when an old person dies, it is like a library has been burned." Orlean's reflections on libraries and life brought two passages from Ecclesiastes to mind: 1:11 and 12:12.

"Placebo Buttons"

This is an interesting article on "placebo buttons" and how they give people the illusion of control. Surely, there is a sermon illustration or two here.

Abbott and Costello Do 2 Kings 17:4

With apologies to Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First."

Abbott: We're in 2 Kings 17:4. Let's go over the story. Hoshea quit paying tribute to the king of Assyria and sent envoys to Egypt. I forget the King of Egypt's name.

Costello: So. 

Abbott: Huh?

Costello: So.

Abbott: You're right, it's not important, we'll let it go for now.

So, the king of Assyria ...

Costello: So the king of Egypt.

Abbott: I was gonna say the king of Assyria arrested Hoshea.

Costello: That's right.

Abbott: So, the king of Assyria ...

Costello: No, So the king of Egypt.

Abbott: Let me tell the story!

Costello: Well, then, tell it right!

Abbott: Who arrested Hoshea?

Costello: The king of Assyria.

Abbott: Is that so?

Costello: No, that's the king of Egypt.

Abbott: So, the king of Egypt?

Costello: Right.

Abbott: So the king of Egypt arrested Hoshea?

Costello: No, the king of Assyria arrested Hoshea.

Abbott: But you just said the king of Egypt did.

Costello: I didn't say So.

Abbott: Oh, come on! So, the king of Assyria ...

Costello: No, he's the king of Egypt.

Abbott: How do we keep coming back to Egypt?

Costello: You said the king's name.

Abbott: What makes you think I even know his name?

Costello: You said So!

Abbott: I did not!

Costello: I heard you!

Abbott: Let me tell the story!

Costello: Then tell it right!

Credit: Jonathan E Settlemoir

A Potential Sermon Illustration

Surely there must be at least one sermon illustration in this story: "40 Sea Gulls Wrecked His Hotel Room. 17 Years Later, a Pepperoni Pardon."

More Effective Storytelling

Inc. has a brief but helpful article here on telling more effective stories.

Project Habakkuk

This story might need to be put in the bizarre file, but you can read about a secret proposal called "Project Habakkuk," to build aircraft carriers out of ice during WW II.

Fake Readers

I have often wondered whether my students actually read their assigned readings but according to this story, some librarians seem to have created fake readers of another kind. Apparently, these readers were created in order to bolster the circulation numbers of some books. I suspect that there is a good sermon illustration here.