As we stated in a previous blog on “Rhetorical Techniques,”
“Dr. Tony Evans is a master at taking the ordinary events, objects, and experiences of life — and “choosing and using” them in a message.”
(see our blog on “Choose & Use”).
Here are three more examples (which are posted free online at his home site)
TRAILWAYS BUS LINES:
I was working at Trailways Bus Lines,
and the people I worked with were engaged in something
illegal—a scam—and this went on while I worked there. They
pressed me to get involved with what they were doing. I refused.
As a result, I often ended up cleaning the busses alone.
Then the manager called me into the office a few weeks later
and said, “We know about the scam, we know you weren’t
participating, and we want to make you the head of the shift.”
The irony of it all was that I didn’t even want to be working
there. I was working all night long from eleven at night to seven
in the morning all in the name of trying to work my way through
school. Even though I wanted a different job, God repositioned
me in that job. In short, He joined me at the location I was in,
rather than move me to a different one. The point is that when
we are standing up for righteousness’ sake and suffer for it,
God will often join us in the midst of that suffering and see us
through it.
IN A HOLDING PATTERN:
My wife and I were on our way
back from Denver, Colorado, and we got on a plane from Denver to Dallas. Our plan was a straight line—nonstop; to leave
Denver to Dallas. Our plan was a straight line—nonstop; to leave
Denver and arrive in Dallas in an hour and forty-five minutes.
Part way into the flight, the pilot came on and said, “There
are storms in the Dallas area, and we have been re-routed.
We won’t be going to Dallas. We’re going to be landing in
Oklahoma City.” Oklahoma City was not in my plans, I had
not requested it, desired it or anticipated it, yet somebody else
was in control. And that somebody just told me I wasn’t going
where I thought I was headed and, as such, we wound up
landing in Oklahoma City. Not only were we in Oklahoma
City, but we were stuck on an airplane, a place I didn’t want
to be stuck. The pilot kept coming on and saying, “15 minutes,
20 minutes, 30 minutes,” and he did this for over two hours!
Finally, we were told we could leave Oklahoma City, and I
could get back to my destiny which was Dallas. So the plane
got on the runway, then suddenly, it slowed down again. The
pilot said, “I am so sorry but new storms have shown up in the
Dallas area, so we were not able to take off” Hours more went
by. Then he said, “Things have cleared up in Dallas, we’re
going to take off.”
Finally, I’m going to reach my destiny which
is Dallas, I thought. The plane landed. The pilot came back
on and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, I have some good news
and some bad news. The good news is that we have landed
in Dallas. The bad news is there are no gates available, and it
will be another forty-five minutes before we can anticipate pulling up to a gate.” Some of you feel like that’s the story of your
up to a gate.” Some of you feel like that’s the story of your
life; you planned to be “somewhere” by now. And yet you’re in
a holding pattern, and you don’t know when this plane called
destiny is going to land.
MATH IS HARD:
Certain fields of mathematics—geometry, algebra, calculus —are considered by some to be rather are considered by some to be rathercalculus—are considered by some to be rather are considered by some to be rather
—are considered by some to be rather are considered by some to be rather
—are considered by some to be rather sophisticated or even complicated. Explaining the complexities of these or even complicated. Explaining the complexities of these
Explaining the complexities of these
fields are beyond many of us. But even if the finer points of
mathematics are too much for the average person, they rest on
one simple principle: one and one equals two. All the higher
principles rest on that foundational one and if you don’t get
the simple one right, all the others will fail to make sense. Life
feels like math sometimes. It can get so complicated, where
the things that happen just don’t add up. But if you start with
the foundation that God is sovereign and that He providentially
arranges things in order to accomplish His goal, you have laid
a foundation through which to look at the complexities of life
that come your way.
RhetoricAndHomiletics.Org 
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