Determination
One-Armed Football Player
Trey Wood
was born with only one arm. Most people assumed that his handicap would prevent
him from participating in a sport like football. Instead of feeling sorry for
himself, Trey decided to prove the experts wrong. Not only did he learn to play
football, he received an athletic scholarship to Sam Houston State University.
He went beyond expectations and earned a starting position as a defensive back.
One of his responsibilities was to knock down passes when the football was
thrown in his area.
Another
one-armed young man named Dawuan Miller also had a dream to play football. In
spite of his disability he, too, earned a scholarship and became the starting
defensive back for Boise State University.
Both
players made first team. Both excelled at their positions. Despite lacking an
arm, Wood broke the career record for Sam Houston State with eleven blocked
kicks. Dawuan silenced the doubters by using his one arm to intercept two passes
in playoff games.
On
September 16, 1995, Sam Houston State played Boise State in football. For the
first time in the history of the sport, two colleges played a game with
one-armed defensive backs starting for each team. Few will remember the score of
the game, but no one who was there will forget how two one-armed players’ gutsy
performances overshadowed the rest of the talent on the field.
Each of these two football players did more with one arm than most people do with two. When one-talent people apply themselves, they can accomplish incredible feats. You can do amazing things with just one talent, if you will dare to believe it (Matthew 25:15). (Kent Crockett, Making Today Count for Eternity, Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 2001, p. 59.)
Fun To Do
"It's kind of fun to do the impossible." --Walt Disney (1901-1966)
You Gotta Be Determined
“You gotta be determined to be determined.” --Yogi Berra
The Key to Success
“Some people succeed because they are ‘destined’ to, but most people succeed because they are determined.” --Elmer Towns
Faith to Walk
"My mother taught me very early to believe
I could achieve any accomplishment I wanted to. The first was to walk without
braces." --Wilma Rudolph 1940-1994, Olympic Gold Medalist
Diets
Fun Facts About Dieting
One of life's mysteries
is how a two-pound box of candy can make a woman gain five pounds.
Brain cells come and go,
but fat cells live forever.
Inside some of us is a
thin person struggling to get out, but she can usually be sedated with a few
pieces of chocolate cake.
Amazing! You just hang
something in your closet for a while and it shrinks two sizes.
I had to give up jogging
for my health. My thighs kept rubbing together and setting my pantyhose on fire.
I recently joined a diet
clinic and in just ten days I lost $1,000.
If God meant for us to
touch our toes, He would have put them farther up our body.
I'm on a holistic diet.
I'm not going to eat anything but donuts.
DIET: What you keep
putting off while you keep putting on.
DIETING: Mind over
platter.
I never count calories.
But my body does.
A woman looked at her
shadow on Groundhog Day and predicted six weeks of dieting.
Diets are for people who
are thick and tired of it.
Kent Crockett's Sermon Illustrations, www.kentcrockett.com
Fun Facts About Chocolate
If you get melted
chocolate all over your hands, you're eating it too slowly.
Problem: How to get 2
pounds of chocolate home from the store in a hot car? Solution: Eat it in the
parking lot.
Diet Tip: Eat a chocolate
bar before each meal. It will take the edge off your appetite and you'll eat
less.
If you can't eat all your
chocolate, it will keep in the freezer. (But if you can't eat all your
chocolate, it may be a sign of a deeper problem.)
Q. Why is there no such
organization as Chocoholics Anonymous?
A. Because no one wants
to quit.
If not for chocolate, the
entire clothing industry would be devastated.
Kent Crockett's Sermon Illustrations, www.kentcrockett.com
When To Go on a Diet
An overweight husband
asked his petite wife, "Have you seen my belt around the house?"
"Is it around the
house???" she asked.
Kent Crockett's Sermon
Illustrations, www.kentcrockett.com
Discipleship
Carrying the Cross
Your cross isn't what God
does to you for following Him. It's what the world does to you for following
Him. --Kent Crockett
(Kent Crockett's Sermon Illustrations,
www.kentcrockett.com )
Ready to Die for Him?
"If you're not ready to live for Him, you're not ready to die for Him." --Mike Lobmeyer (missionary)
Citizens of heaven
"If you are a Christian, you are not a citizen of this world trying to get to heaven; you are a citizen of heaven making your way through this world." -- Vance Havner
Identification with Jesus
Twelve year-old David
Whitthoft wore the same Green Bay Packers football jersey every day for over
four years. For 1,581 straight days, David donned the jersey of his hero, QB
Brett Favre. Week after week, month after month, and school year after school
year, David’s classmates didn’t have to wonder whom he admired the most. When
they looked at David Whitthoft, they saw Brett Favre.
Perhaps this is what Paul
means when he says to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 13:14). We should
represent the Lord in our behavior so that when people look at us, they see
Jesus Christ.
--Kent Crockett’s Sermon
Illustrations, www.kentcrockett.com
Discontentment
Never Satisfied
A beggar
standing on a street corner commented to his friends, “If only I had a hundred
dollars, I would never complain again.” A businessman walking by overheard his
statement and interrupted the conversation.
“Excuse
me,” the man said. “Did you say if you had a hundred dollars, you would never
complain again?”
The beggar
replied, “You heard right, mister.”
The man
pulled out his wallet, handed him a hundred dollars, and said, “I’m glad I can
have a small part in bringing happiness to the world.”
After the
man walked away, the beggar turned to his friends and remarked, “I wish I had
asked for two hundred dollars!”
When we
become discontented, we’re not satisfied by what we receive because our problem
is internal.
[Kent
Crockett, I Once Was Blind But Now I Squint, Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers,
2004, 25]
The Wrong Direction
Discontentment points us to a place where God isn’t leading.
[Kent
Crockett, I Once Was Blind But Now I Squint, Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers,
2004, 26]
Searching for Gold
In the
1800’s a prospector went to California in search of his fortune. He spent his
entire life scouring the mountains for gold, only to die as a pauper. When they
were digging the grave behind his house to bury him . . . do I really need to
finish the story?
Sometimes
the gold we’re searching for is located in our own backyard. We don’t need to
search the world over to find happiness. We simply need to follow wherever the
Shepherd leads and then lie down and rest in God’s will.
(Kent
Crockett, I Once Was Blind But Now I Squint, Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers,
2004, 29)
Lemonade Stand in the Desert
A man in
the desert was craving something to drink and saw a lemonade stand on the next
sand dune. He ran to it, but when he arrived, the lemonade stand disappeared and
reappeared on the next sand dune. When he ran to the next sand dune and grabbed
for the lemonade, it disappeared and reappeared again on the next dune. He
continued to chase it from dune to dune until he died of thirst. He was only
chasing a mirage. Discontentment is a mirage that leads us on an endless chase
and never satisfies our thirst. (Kent Crockett, The 911 Handbook,
Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2003, 24)
The Nearest Exit Sign
Discontentment always searches for the nearest exit sign.
[Kent
Crockett, I Once Was Blind But Now I Squint, Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers,
2004, 22]
Discouragement
Blind Eye to the Telescope
When Lord
Horatio Nelson was fighting the Battle of Copenhagen, his senior officer, Sir
Hyde Parker, also known as “Old Vinegar,” hoisted the flag signaling retreat.
Nelson deliberately put his telescope to his blind eye and said, “I do not see
it.”
If he had
surrendered when it looked like defeat, he would not have captured twelve Danish
ships.
I don’t see
defeat. Do you?
When you’re
fighting the Battle of Perspective, Satan will hoist his flag, trying to
discourage you. Remember to put a blind eye to the telescope. Refuse to see the
retreat flag. Keep going forward.
(Kent
Crockett, I Once Was Blind But Now I Squint, Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers,
2004, 139)
Comparing Ourselves with Others
If we compare ourselves with others, we will become either proud or discouraged—and neither is from God. (Kent Crockett, Making Today Count for Eternity, Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 2001, p. 141)
The Black Envelope
"Sometimes God sends His
mercies in a black envelope." --Charles Spurgeon
Kent Crockett's Sermon Illustrations, www.kentcrockett.com
The Power of Encouragement
The students at Sandy's
high school were badly shaken by the news that a classmate had killed himself.
The suicide note said, "It's hard to live when nobody cares if you die." Glen, a
teacher, realized this was a teachable moment about the importance of making
people feel valued. He asked the class to imagine they were about to die and to
write a note "telling someone how and why you appreciate them."
Sandy, who had a rocky
relationship with her mother, decided to write her mom. Her letter said, "We've
had some rough times and I haven't always been a very good daughter, but I know
I'm lucky to have you in my life. You are the best person I've ever known. And
even when I disagree with you, I never doubt you love me and want what's best
for me. Thanks for not giving up on me."
When her mom read the
note, she cried and hugged Sandy tightly but said little.
The next morning, Sandy found a note on her mirror. "Dearest Sandy, I want you
to know being your mother is, by far, the most important thing in my life. Until
I got your note, I thought I had lost your love and respect. I felt like such a
failure. I intended to end it all last night. Your note saved my life." --Character
Counts!, Josephson Institute of Ethics; reprinted with permission.
www.charactercounts.org
Division
Cross Reference: UNITY
See "Unity" for more illustrations.
It Is Not Always the Devil
"A lot of people think
Satan is breaking up their churches, when it is God who is breaking them up!"
--Peter Lord
(God is starting to work in the church, but stubborn people resist Him)
Division is Having Two Visions
"Division in a church is
caused by having two visions, leading in opposite directions." --Kent Crockett
www.kentcrockett.com
Divorce
Double divorces
One-fourth of U.S. children will see at least one parent divorce twice. --Christianity Today, Oct. 2007.
Advice to Married Couples
Never use the D word. If
you never mention the word divorce to your spouse, you will never get a divorce.
Keep the word out of your conversations. --Kent Crockett
Doubt
The Hitchhiker
Doubt is not unbelief, but it is not faith either. It wavers between faith and unbelief, unable to make up its mind what it wants to be. It is like the hitchhiker who was thumbing a ride with his hand in one direction--and thumbing a ride with his other hand in the other direction. He wasn't sure which way he wanted to go. (Kent Crockett, The 911 Handbook, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2003, 14)
Two-Headed Snake
Scientists
once studied a snake that was double-minded. It was born with two heads. Each
head had a mind of its own and would try to control the body. One moment it
would crawl one way, then the other mind would take over, and the snake would
crawl in a completely different direction. It truly was double-minded.
That's the
picture of the one who doubts. As confused as a termite inside a yo-yo, he
doesn't know which way is up and which way is down. (Kent Crockett, The 911
Handbook, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2003, 15)
The Cause of Doubt
Doubts occur when what we expect to happen isn't happening, or what shouldn't be happening is happening. Circumstances are in direct conflict with what we believe. This causes us to be confused and waver between the two, wondering which is right. (Kent Crockett, The 911 Handbook, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2003, 16)