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HomeIllustrations

9,108 Illustrations

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Sermon Illustration

The GPS Said You've Arrived

In 2018, a paramedic named Rachel Torres responded to an overdose call in a Tucson apartment complex. She had been on dozens of these runs,...

Acts 9:1-6Universal

241 words

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Sermon Illustration

Following the Thread

In George MacDonald's 1872 fantasy *The Princess and the Goblin*, young Princess Irene receives an extraordinary gift from her mysterious great-great-grandmother: a thin, silken thread...

Universalobedience

243 words

Sermon Illustration

The Load-Bearing Wall

In 2019, a couple in Charlotte, North Carolina, hired a contractor to open up their cramped kitchen. They wanted the wall between the kitchen and...

1 Corinthians 15:12-20Universal

237 words

Sermon Illustration

The First Word Spoken Over the Clay

In 1987, master potter Magdalena Suarez stood in her workshop in Oaxaca, Mexico, at four in the morning. The kiln had gone cold overnight. No...

Genesis 1:1-3Universal

227 words

Sermon Illustration

Basil's City of Mercy Outside Caesarea

In 369 AD, a devastating famine swept through Cappadocia. Bishop Basil of Caesarea watched the wealthy of his city continue their feasting while peasants collapsed...

Isaiah 58:1-12Universal

242 words

Sermon Illustration

The River That Brought a Desert Back to Life

In 1935, the Tennessee Valley was dying. Decades of poor farming had stripped the soil bare. Rivers ran brown with erosion. Families abandoned homesteads where...

Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12Universal

237 words

Sermon Illustration

The Surgeon's Blade That Heals

In 1846, at Massachusetts General Hospital, surgeon John Collins Warren made the first incision using ether anesthesia. Before that breakthrough, every patient who lay on...

Hebrews 4:12Universal

246 words

Sermon Illustration

The Fire That Already Burned

In August 1949, a crew of fifteen smokejumpers parachuted into Mann Gulch, Montana, to fight what seemed like a routine wildfire. But the blaze turned...

1 Peter 3:18-22Universal

243 words

Sermon Illustration

The Dive That Brought Them Home

In June 2018, twelve boys and their soccer coach crawled into Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand. Monsoon rains flooded the passages behind them, trapping...

1 Peter 3:18-22Universal

240 words

Sermon Illustration

The Missionary Who Crossed the Mountains with a Hundred Children

In 1940, as Japanese forces advanced through China's Shanxi province, Gladys Aylward faced an impossible choice. The small English missionary had been caring for nearly...

Psalm 121Universal

225 words

Sermon Illustration

The Symphony Inside a Single Cell

In 2003, when scientists finally mapped the entire human genome, Dr. Francis Collins — the director of the Human Genome Project and a devout Christian...

Psalm 139:14Universal

235 words

Sermon Illustration

The Surgeon Who Operated Without Power

In 2010, when a 7.0 earthquake leveled Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Dr. David Vanderpool arrived at a makeshift clinic with almost nothing. No electricity. No sterile operating...

1 Samuel 17:45Universal

227 words

Sermon Illustration

No Reserves, No Retreats, No Regrets

In 1904, sixteen-year-old William Borden graduated from a prestigious Chicago prep school as heir to the Borden dairy fortune. His family sent him on a...

John 12:1-8Universal

246 words

Sermon Illustration

The Parlour Maid Who Opened Gates

In 1930, the China Inland Mission rejected Gladys Aylward. At twenty-eight, she was a London parlour maid with no formal education, and the mission board...

Psalm 118:14-29Universal

244 words

Sermon Illustration

Warsaw Rebuilt from Paintings

In January 1945, Soviet soldiers entering Warsaw found a graveyard of rubble. The Nazis had systematically demolished eighty-five percent of the city, block by block,...

Revelation 21:1-6Universal

237 words

Sermon Illustration

The Parlor Maid Who Was Expected in Yangcheng

In 1930, Gladys Aylward was a parlor maid in London — small in stature, plain in education, with no theological degree and no mission board...

John 1:43-51Universal

243 words

Sermon Illustration

The Lion's Jaws After the Laying of Hands

On a November evening in 1840, David Livingstone knelt in a small London chapel as elder missionaries laid hands on him. He was ordained, commissioned,...

Mark 1:9-15Universal

230 words

Sermon Illustration

The Pastor Who Sang Underground

In 1948, Romanian secret police dragged Richard Wurmbrand from his family and buried him in a cell three floors beneath Bucharest. For three years he...

Acts 16:16-34Universal

224 words

Sermon Illustration

The Two Oak Trees on Maple Street

In 2019, the city of Charlotte, North Carolina planted two identical red oak saplings along Maple Street, just three blocks apart. Same species, same nursery,...

Jeremiah 17:5-10Universal

243 words

Sermon Illustration

Coming Up from the Water

In 2019, a retired Marine named David Cade walked into a small church in Clarksville, Tennessee, carrying thirty years of silence. He had never told...

Mark 1:4-11Universal

240 words

Sermon Illustration

The Shoe Clerk Who Needed a Nudge

On a spring afternoon in 1855, eighteen-year-old Dwight Moody stood behind the counter of Holton's shoe store on Court Street in Boston, wrapping boots in...

1 Samuel 3:1-10Universal

232 words

Sermon Illustration

The Gold Medalist Who Chose the Wilderness

In July 1924, Eric Liddell stood on the Olympic podium in Paris, a gold medal around his neck for the 400 meters. All of Scotland...

Mark 1:9-15Universal

235 words

Sermon Illustration

Perpetua's Journal from the Arena Floor

In the year 203 AD, a young noblewoman named Vibia Perpetua sat in a Carthaginian prison, nursing her infant son and writing in her journal....

Colossians 3:1-4Universal

225 words

Sermon Illustration

The Quiet Roots of Willowbrook Street

In 2019, Maria Gonzalez watched three houses on her block in East Austin flip to investors within a single summer. Glossy renovation crews arrived. Prices...

Psalm 37:1-11, 39-40Universal

222 words