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Books
Preface Soon after being called as pastor of a real live church – at the ripe old age of twenty – I learned that the best sermon illustrations are not found in books, but in everyday life. Which is not to say that I never used illustrations culled from books, journals, other preachers or the Internet (though that came many years later). Instinctively, however, I knew those stories were never as effective, because they didn’t connect with my life. When you’ve rarely crossed the state line, it’s hard to be very convincing with a story that begins with “a wee urchin on the streets of London . . . ” Hoping to communicate the gospel more effectively, I consciously began to think theologically as I walked the corridors of everyday life. In doing so, I discovered that God can speak in wads of ways – through newspaper headlines, conversations on the corner, a three-legged cat, a squirrel scrambling to fill its larder before hard winter sets in. Old habits die hard. So, when I turned in my pastor’s badge after twenty-six years and took up residence in the editor’s chair at the Biblical Recorder, it seemed only natural to keep looking for learning in the vagaries of daily life. The tweaked and edited thoughts expressed in the pages of this book first appeared in the Recorder as a personal column that I call “Intrigued.” A few began their lives in the editorial column, but didn’t really belong there. On first glance, they may look like glorified sermon illustrations. That’s because that is what they are. God never called me to stop preaching. Indeed, He has given me a much larger congregation of readers than I ever had as hearers. In the following pages, I hope God may speak to you in some of the ways I believe He has spoken to me. Even more, however, I hope these stories may serve as an encouragement for you to put on your own theological thinking cap when you get out of bed each morning.
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