Thought Exercise on Weather

illustration

Re-creating the Conditions of Earth

Author

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 50:19-21 , Exodus 14:10-31, Isaiah 40:28-31, Matthew 7:24-27 , 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, Psalm 1:1-3

In the desert outside of Tucson, scientists dreamed up an experiment to re-create the conditions of earth for space, when and if the earth could not be made great again. The biosphere was a little wor...

illustration

The Perfect Storm

Author

N. T. Wright

Keywords

Scripture

Job 38:1–11, Jonah 1:4–17 , Exodus 14:21–31 , Mark 4:35–41, Acts 27:13–44 , John 20:24–29

It was late October 1991. The crew of the fishing boat Andrea Gail , out of Gloucester, Massachusetts, had taken the vessel five hundred miles out into the Atlantic. A cold front moving along the...

illustration

Forget the Thermometer

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 58:6–10, 2 Kings 4:8–37 , Genesis 12:1–4, Philippians 2:3–8 , Matthew 25:34–40 , Psalm 121:

Dr. Albert Schweitzer, who famously left his renowned practice in Switzerland to become a medical missionary in Africa, was hosting a group of European visitors at his hospital in Lambarene, French Eq...

illustration

The Perfect Storm

Author

Andy Cook

Keywords

To understand why the Andrea Gail never had a chance, one needs only to search the clues along the shoreline of the Eastern Seaboard. At first, it went by the name of the “Halloween Storm,” given its...

illustration

Crazy, But True Stories of Criticism at a Christian Radio Station

Author

Brant P. Hansen

Keywords

In his excellent book, Unoffendable, Brant Hansen shares a few humorous, but sadly true, stories of people being critical of his work at a Christian music station: One day, we talked about the local...

illustration

The Value of Not Watering Your Plants

Author

William Rowley

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 37:7, Hosea 12:6, Psalm 27:14, Isaiah 40:31, Psalm 130:5-6, James 5:7-8

An experienced gardener knows the value of not watering their tomatoes. Well, there's a little more to it, but that's the headline. Suppose you go to the nursery in the spring and get a tom...

illustration

Just a stain in the soil

Author

William Rowley

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 3:19, Ecclesiastes 3:20, Genesis 18:27, James 4:14, Psalm 90:12, Psalm 39:4, 1 Peter 2:24-25, Psalm 90:10, Psalm 78:39, 1 Chronicles 29:15, Psalm 39:5, Psalm 144:4, Job 14:1, Psalm 103:15-16, Job 7:6-7, Genesis 2:7

I love a British TV show called Time Team. Hosted by Tony Robinson, a team of archeologists descend on a site in Britain and excavate for three days. Inevitably, the archeologists unearth the dead...

illustration

Cairns and Inherited Ways of Prayer and Worship

Author

Tish Harrison Warren

Keywords

Scripture

2 Corinthians 1:10, Psalm 61:2, Hebrews 12:1, Isaiah 30:21, Psalm 119:133

Years ago, during a vacation in New Hampshire, Jonathan and I climbed Mount Washington, which is notorious for erratic weather. It can change from sunny and warm to snowing in a few hours. The wind is...

illustration

A Question of Motivation

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Proverbs 22:6, Hosea 1:1-4, Matthew 18:1-5, Ephesians 6:4, Psalm 127:3

There’s a story about philosopher John Dewey walking with his young son on a cold, wet, and windy day. The boy, barefoot, was gleefully splashing in a puddle despite the weather. A concerned friend pa...

illustration

A Beloved Christmas Tradition: King Wenceslas

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Deuteronomy 15:7-11, Proverbs 19:17, Luke 3:10-11, James 2:14-17, Psalm 112:9

Saint Stephen’s Day, also known as the Feast of Saint Stephen or Boxing Day, is observed on December 26. You may have actually heard of St. Stephen’s Day through a popular Christmas carol “Good King W...

illustration

Water: A Finite Resource

Author

Jonathan A. Moo and Robert S. White

Keywords

Water is an essential requirement for any form of life. The earth is blessed with huge volumes of water at the surface, which is one of the main reasons why it is habitable. Seventy percent of the ear...

illustration

Getting Stuck Stinks

Author

Max Lucado

Keywords

Being Stuck

Scripture

Jonah 1:17-2:10, Jonah 2:2, Psalm 40:1-3, Luke 15:17-18, Exodus 14:13-14, Acts 16:25-34

Timothy Cipriani’s idea was simple. He would lower himself into the pizza restaurant from the ventilation duct, rob the cash register, and climb back out. The plan backfired. Either he had been eating...

illustration

Weighed Down By Gold

Author

Randy Alcorn

Keywords

After striking a large deposit of gold, two miners in the Klondike gold rush were so excited about unearthing more and more gold each day that they neglected to store up provisions for the winter. The...

illustration

The B.C.

Author

Source Unknown

Keywords

Humor

This story deals with a rather old-fashioned lady, who was planning a couple of weeks vacation in Florida. She also was quite delicate and elegant with her language. She wrote a letter to a particular...

illustration

The Peaks and Troughs of our Hypersexual Age

Author

Jonathan Grant

Keywords

Sex

A few years ago, while celebrating our fifteenth wedding anniversary, my wife, Esther, and I stayed at the base of the twin mountains of Whistler and Blackcomb, the mammoth ski resort on Canada’s West...

illustration

Losing Everything

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

1 Corinthians 3:15, Philippians 3:5-11, Matthew 19:16-30, John 12:20-26, Mark 8:27-38, Hebrews 11:1, Jeremiah 29:11

A ship went down in a storm, and only one man survived. He was fortunate enough to land on an uninhabited island in the South Pacific. With just a few items in his pocket, he was able to build a small...

illustration

Gardeners and Failure

Author

Michael Pollan

Keywords

Scripture

Hebrews 12:11, Philippians 3:13-14, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, Proverbs 24:16, Romans 5:3-5, James 1:2-4

All the accomplished gardeners I know are surprisingly comfortable with failure. They may not be happy about it, but instead of reacting with anger or frustration, they seem fairly intrigued by the pe...

illustration

Faith Like a Journey

Author

Samuel Rodriguez

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 40:31, Acts 20:24, Hebrews 12:1-2, James 1:2-4, Proverbs 3:5-6, Psalm 37:23-24, Philippians 3:13-14

While global flights and online booking have made travel easier in many ways, other aspects, often related to safety and security, still create challenges. As often as I fly, I could tell you plenty o...

illustration

Discontent is Everywhere

Author

Andrew M. Davis

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 6:31-33, Proverbs 14:30, Psalm 131:1-2, Hebrews 13:5, Ecclesiastes 5:10, 1 Timothy 6:6-8

In this tragic world, we are surrounded by discontented people. Every minute of the day, it is possible to see evidence of this restless discontentment in the way people respond to circumstances. Peop...

illustration

Emotional Nanocrafts in the Space Between Us

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 12:10, Revelation 3:20, Matthew 25:40, Luke 8:43-48, Song of Solomon 2:14, Psalm 42:7

In I’d Like You More If You Were More Like Me , John Ortberg uses an interesting analogy for an aspect of our relationships. In 2015, Stephen Hawking and Yuri Milner announced the Starshot Initiati...

illustration

Storms Defined in Scripture

Author

Tony Evans

Keywords

Storms

Scripture

John 16:33

For context, a storm in Scripture refers to an adverse set of circumstances. When the Bible speaks of a storm, the writer is conveying negative events entering into a life. A storm connotes trouble, t...

illustration

What it Means to be a Master

Author

Denise Levertov

Keywords

How would you define a master? Denise Levertov, the American poet, offers one definition by comparing a master to a Mountain: Not one who one imitates, emulates even, but rather, a powerful presen...

illustration

The Standing Stones of Callanish

Author

Judith Couchman

Keywords

If you don’t mind gray skies and misty bogs, you can wander through one of the world’s intriguing mysteries. It’s a group of huge, upright stones, weathered and wood-like, but still erect after five t...

illustration

The Church Losing its Place as the Center of Attention

Author

Tim Wu

Keywords

The Church was the one institution whose mission depended on galvanizing attention; and through its daily and weekly offices, as well as its sometimes-central role in education, that is exactly what i...

illustration

See What Happens

Author

Charles F. Stanley

Keywords

Do you ever feel as if God is far from you? Be assured, He is steadfastly near. Do not be disheartened because you don’t see Him in your circumstances. I saw an illustration of this during a photograp...

illustration

The Three Twilights

Author

Barbara Brown Taylor

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 1:3-5, Exodus 10:21-23, Isaiah 50:10, John 8:12, Mark 13:35-37, Psalm 121:5-6

In the midst of an experiment to become more attuned to darkness, author and pastor Barbara Brown Taylor decided to spend time outside as dark sets in: According to the U.S. Naval Observatory, eve...

illustration

Surface Winds and Deep Ocean Currents

Author

Source Unknown

Keywords

Scripture

Proverbs 19:21, 2 Corinthians 4:17-18, Psalm 42:7-8, Romans 8:28, Isaiah 55:8-9

In the frigid waters around Greenland are countless icebergs, some little and some gigantic. If you’d observe them carefully, you’d notice that sometimes the small ice floes move in one direction whil...

illustration

Through the Seasons

Author

Gene Edwards

Keywords

Scripture

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, John 15:1-2, Psalm 1:3, Galatians 6:9, Genesis 8:20-22, Mark 4:26-29, James 5:7-8, 2 Timothy 4:1-7, Hosea 6:3, Daniel 2:21, Acts 1:7, Psalm 104:19, Genesis 1:14

I have observed through the years that most Christians have little understanding of the word ‘season’. Our Lord is a seasonal God; He comes, He departs. His faithfulness never changes, but His seasons...

illustration

What Time Is It?

Author

Jeffrey Bilbro

Keywords

This may seem like a simple question, but there are many ways to answer it: my phone tells me it’s 6:18 a.m.; the calendar tells me it’s May 25; my prayer book tells me it’s the thirty-fifth day of Ea...

illustration

The Power of Wind

Author

Billy Graham

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 2:7, Exodus 14:21, Ezekiel 37:9-10, John 3:8, Psalm 104:3-4 , Acts 2:1-4

It is interesting that in Scripture, in both the original Hebrew and Greek languages, the word used in speaking of the Spirit is the word that can also mean “wind.” In like manner, the Holy Spirit wor...

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

illustration

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

Genesis

Exodus

Leviticus

Numbers

Deuteronomy

Joshua

Judges

Ruth

1 Samuel

2 Samuel

1 Kings

2 Kings

1 Chronicles

2 Chronicles

Ezra

Nehemiah

Esther

Job

Psalm

Proverbs

Ecclesiastes

Song of Solomon

Isaiah

Jeremiah

Lamentations

Ezekiel