I have pastored the same church for forty-one years. In that time, I have written many sermons in story form. I first started this when I read Matthew 13:34 (KJV): "All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them:" Jesus appears to never teach the public without a parable or story sermon.

In my search for stories to illustrate biblical truth, I found myself often reflecting on my own childhood. Looking back, I realized how the houses that I grew up in affected my childhood. Those houses gave me wonderful ideas for story sermons. The first story and house that you will read about is "The Painted House." It was this house that gave me the idea for writing a book using some of the house-based story sermons that I have used over the years. I hope you enjoy these stories as much as the church where I pastor has enjoyed them.

Just in case you are wondering, each of the houses I describe here are real or were at one time. Many of them are no longer standing. Many of the events I tell happened as they were told. Sometimes I have taken the liberty of pulling events out of time and placing them together to form the story. Sometimes, I have told a story that is fictional, based solely on what I found in an old, abandoned house. For those stories, the house became the center of the story. While the people in these stories all existed, the names used are usually fictional.