Sermons & Devotionals by Sermon Illustrations II

Henry Ford is credited with saying, "Cut your own wood and you warm yourself twice." What he meant was that the man who chops his own firewood not only enjoys the heat from the logs burning in his fireplace, but he also gets physically warmed from the exercise involved in his labor. If you really wa... Read More

The Dutch were a very important part of the reformation era, so it only stands to reason that they would have translated Bibles for their use. Although only one complete tranlation in Dutch was printed in the 15th Century, several portions appeared as well. The earliest Reformation Bible was the Men... Read More

The Douay Bible was and to a great extent, remains the English language Bible of the Roman Catholic Church. With many Book names protestants are not used to, and some controversial notes, the Douay is still a readable version of the Bible, with the NT being published in Rheims in 1582 and the OT at ... Read More

The great Bible, published in 1539, is essentially a revision of the Matthew Bible by the Scholar Miles Cloverdale. It is primarily built on the Cloverdale, Tyndale and Matthews Bibles. The difference is that Thomas Cranmer and Thomas Cromwell backed this translation and ordered a copy for every par... Read More

John Wycliff was a great English scholar and Bible student, and conceived the plan of translating the entire Bible into the common English language. He did the New Testament by 1380 and much more before his death. His work rested solely on the Vulgate Bible of Jerome. Wyclif, along with Jan Huss and... Read More

Miles Cloverdale was a close friend of William Tyndale. He published a new Testament dedicated to Henery the eighth in 1535, basically based on Tyndale's New Testament. While he disclaimed his own Scholarship, he is known to have used the Vulgate, and other versions as well as Tyndale's version. Fro... Read More

William Tyndale built a lot of his work on Wycliff's, but, as a Greek scholar, he was able to use both Jerome's wonderful latin text, as well as Erasmus' Greek text. Tyndale completed his New Testament in 1525 and his Pentateuch in 1530. It is an interesting side note that Tyndale, called the greate... Read More

Work on an Italian Bible was begun in the 1530's by a man named Antonio Brucioli, but a protestant Italian Bible did not appear until 1562 at Geneva, and this was a revision of earlier translations. Giovanni Diodata, who was Beza's (the fellow who colaberated on the Textus Receptus) successor at Gen... Read More

Because of the Inquisition, most spanish Bible translation occured outside of the country. Both the Translations of Francisco de Enzinas and Juan Perez de Pineda worked outside the country, de Enzinas produced his NT in Antwerp in 1543, and de Pineda his NT in Geneva in 1556. The first complete Span... Read More

"The United Bible Societies have announced that complete Bibles are now available in 318 languages and dialects- an increase of four in 1990. The number of languages with one or more books of the Bible grew to 1946, an increase of 18 over 1989. In addition, Living Bibles International released two n... Read More

In these days we let the word "billion" roll glibly off our tongues as easily as if it were "hundred." We know that it's a lot of money, but how many people have any actual conception of the amount? Compare it to minutes, of which there are 1,440 a day, and guess offhand how many years equal a billi... Read More

There used to have a sign out in front of our local post office that scared me as a boy. It was a picture of this stern looking old man with white hair and a white goatee looking straight at me with his arm outstretched and his forefinger pointed. The caption on the sign said, "Uncle Sam wants you!"... Read More

A certified public accountant did something that maybe all of us should do. He decided to open a journal with God. He wanted to write everything that God gave him and everything that he gave to God. He started keeping a debit and credit book with God. If someone did him a favor, he put it down as Go... Read More

A lad was told by his mother not to play near a certain pond. One day the temptation was too much, and, venturing too close, he fell into the water. He was very conscious of his wrongdoing, and most uncomfortable. So he wrote on his school slate: "Dear mother, I am sorry I have been bad. If you to f... Read More

John Maynard attended an old-time, country schoolhouse. Most of the year he had drifted carelessly along, but in mid-winter some kind words from his teacher roused him to take a new start, and he became distinctly a different boy and made up for the earlier faults. At the closing examination, he pas... Read More

In the midst of the North African campaign General Montgomery was asked to explain, for the benefit of his soldiers, how he kept so fit for his duties. He replied, "I do not smoke, I do not drink, I go to bed at ten o'clock except when duty forbids, and I am 100 per cent fit" Immediately thereafter ... Read More

When Bonaparte was about to invade Russia, a person who had endeavored to dissuade him from his purpose, finding he could not prevail, quoted to him the proverb, "Man proposes but God disposes;" to which he indignantly replied, "I dispose as well as propose." A Christian lady, on hearing the impious... Read More

In the year 1876, when the great Corliss engine was to be tested at the Philadelphia Exposition, and they gave the signal to the engineer to start, the engine would not move. They looked her over; they could see nothing wrong, but she would not move. They sent for the maker. He came and made an exam... Read More

Brother Dallas relates the following experience: One day my little sister and I were playing in the yard. Mother had some little ducks and I would put one of them in a tub of water to see him swim. Also, I would put him under the water and hold him there. One time I held him too long. He was a drown... Read More

A gentleman relates the following experience: "I saw the carcass of a sheep floating down Niagara River. A giant eagle lit upon the carcass and began to pick out the eyes. Finally the carcass began to enter the rapids of the mighty falls and was about to go over. All that time the eagle was unconsci... Read More