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Sermon Illustrations: Scripture

Reading the Word of God is like eating fish. When you come across some bones just put them aside. Put difficulties aside and read on. Don't throw out the fish with the bones.

Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand. Mark Twain

Sin will keep you from this book. This book will keep you from sin. D.L. Moody

Men do not reject the Bible because it contradicts itself but because it contradicts them.

Voltaire said that in 100 years the Bible would be a forgotten book found only in museums. When the 100 years were up, Voltaire's home was occupied by the Geneva Bible Society.

People often don't think things through. A New York tyre company mailed discount coupons to 20,000 homes each month for 8 months. The coupons were dated and valid only for the month in which they were mailed. One of the coupons promised to give a vehicle inspection for $1.99 instead of for the regular $3.00 price. In the 4th mailing, however, the printer made a mistake and the coupon price was $2.99 a one penny saving. When researchers compared the number of car inspections before, during and after the error, it was found that the coupons attracted as many new customers when they read $2.99 as they did during the other months. Magnificent Mind. Gary R. Collins (It is important to search the Scriptures and carefully weigh things up for ourselves.

Do we Christians have time to eat daily, but no time to get into the Word? Do we have time to read the newspaper every day, but not the Bible? Time enough to glue ourselves to the TV set, but no time for the Scriptures? What does all of this say about our values? Earl D. Radmacher - You And Your Thoughts

Normal pulpit reading speed - you can read the entire Bible through in 70 hours 14 minutes. "You can read through your entire Bible in 1 year if you'll just spend 12 minutes a day reading the Word." Bob Orr

It's one thing to say, "I believe the Bible from cover to cover." It's another thing to know what's between the covers. Charles Simpson

Abraham didn't have a Bible, but he knew God.

Ps 19:10 - God's Word is worth more than all the gold. But how many Christians sacrifice it because they want more money, or an X-rated testimony, or to pursue other things?

If our people don't have the Word of God in their hearts, they're leaving the Holy Spirit without a weapon. Trevor Chandler

Lift your Bible up. It makes the devil nervous. If you really want to make him nervous, open it up. James deMelo

BIBLE - Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.

Do you know why you water down medicine for children? To make it easier to swallow. That's what happens when people water down Scripture.

John Sandford, talking to a homosexual, quoted Lev 20:13 "If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them." Response: "John, that's talking about promiscuity. I don't lie with any man, only my lover."

Converted Indian: "I have two dogs living in me - a mean dog and a good dog. They are always fighting. The mean dog wants me to do bad things, and the good dog wants me to do good things. Do you want to know which dog wins? The one I feed the most!"

Eusebius records that Mark carefully recorded the teaching of Peter for the church at Rome after Peter's death.1

There are 129 Old Testament references in Matthew. These are taken from no less than 25 of the 39 Old Testament books.2

An English teacher wrote on the blackboard "Woman without her man is nothing." Then she asked her Year Ten class to punctuate the sentence correctly. The boys wrote: "Woman, without her man, is nothing." The girls wrote: "Woman: without her, man is nothing." Since the original New Testament was written without punctuation, this highlights the occasional problems in interpreting Scripture.

When the Prince of Granada, heir to the Spanish throne, was kept prisoner for 33 years, with nothing but a Bible, he worked out that the Old Testament has 39 books, 929 chapters, 23,214 verses, 592,253 words, and 2,738,100 letters. The New Testament has 27 books, 270 chapters, 7,967 verses, and 933,380 letters. 1 Chron 1:25 is the shortest verse in the Old Testament, and Jn 11:35 is the shortest in the New Testament. Esther 8:9 is the longest verse. The word "and" occurs 35,543 times.3

A Brazilian man bought a New Testament and took it home intending to burn it. He lit the fire and tried to burn it, but it wouldn't burn. He spread out the pages so that it would burn more easily, saw the Sermon on the Mount, and flung it back into the fire. But then he had a strange desire to read it, so he pulled it back out of the fire, and read it all through the night. By the time the sun rose, he was a believer.

Vincent Quiroga in Chile found a few pages washed up on the shore after a tidal wave. He read them and wouldn't rest till he got a complete Bible. He became a Christian and devoted his life to distributing the Scriptures in northern Chile.4

A travelling Bible salesman in Sicily was held up by a bandit at gunpoint in a forest. He was ordered to start a fire and burn his books. He started the fire and asked if he could read a bit from each book before he burnt it. He read a bit from the 23rd Psalm out of one, then the story of the good Samaritan from another, then the Sermon on the Mount, then 1 Cor 13. Each time the robber said, "That's a good book; we won't burn that one; give it to me." Not a single Bible was burned, and years later the same bandit turned up again. But now he was a minister of the gospel.5

Randall Peterson, a retired autoworker, thinks there could be an interest for a new kind of Bible. He sarcastically says that a publisher ought to create an electronic Bible that would allow for editing from the pew. That way individuals and churches could make the Bible say what they want it to say. He says it could be called the "LAME" Bible: "Locally Adaptive Multifaith Edition" and "could be sold to any church regardless of what it believes." Our Daily Bread 27th July, 2008

1 Laney, J. Carl Divorce And Remarriage p199 referring to Historia Ecclesiastica 3:39
2 Slater, Philip A Biblical Examination Of Divorce And Remarriage, p6
3 Giant Book of Fantastic Facts, p109
4 Barclay, William The Daily Study Bible: Timothy, Titus & Philemon p201
5 Barclay, William The Daily Study Bible: Timothy, Titus & Philemon p201