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24 illustrations for sermon preparation
In 1851, John Clifford discovered an old Bible in a London bookshop with a handwritten note tucked inside its cover. The note read: "Last year...
In 2015, a small congregation in Portland voted to become a sanctuary church for undocumented families. The decision cost them. Within six months, they lost...
Picture a farmer who planted seed in good ground. He watered it, spoke life over it, and declared that a harvest was coming. Weeks passed....
When James writes that God gives wisdom "generously and ungrudgingly," the Greek word is *haplos* — simply, without double-mindedness, without sorting people into categories first....
A young surgical resident once confessed to her attending physician that she felt overwhelmed — so many decisions, so many variables, so many lives depending...
A seasoned cartographer once explained why sailors in the age of exploration trusted Mercator's projection above all others. It was not merely beautiful or convenient...
In 1731, a devastating fire swept through Ashburnham House in London, threatening the Cotton library — one of the most important collections of biblical manuscripts...
In the early days of westward expansion, surveyors drove iron benchmarks deep into bedrock across the American frontier. Floods washed away bridges. Tornados leveled towns....
In the writings of Teresa of Avila, she describes seasons when prayer feels like drawing water from a deep well with a broken bucket —...
In 1859, when workers began constructing the Great Eastern — the largest ship ever built at that time — they discovered that Isambard Kingdom Brunel...
When James writes, "If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault," he invites us into...
In the practice of centering prayer, there comes a moment the mystics knew well — when the sacred word dissolves, distractions swarm like locusts, and...
In 2018, a community garden collective in East Baltimore planted raised beds on a vacant lot surrounded by crumbling row houses. The city had forgotten...
There is a season in the life of prayer that John of the Cross called *la noche oscura* — the dark night of the soul....
When James writes, "If any of you lacks wisdom, let God know," we often imagine wisdom arriving like a warm blanket — comforting, familiar, confirming...
James tells us to ask God for wisdom, and God will give generously. But what if the asking itself must be transformed before wisdom can...
In the fourth century, a young monk traveled deep into the Egyptian desert to seek counsel from Abba Poemen. "Father," he said, "I have sat...
Thomas Merton once described a moment in his hermitage at Gethsemani when he stopped praying for answers and simply sat with the question itself. The...
In the writings of John of the Cross, there is a passage about the soul entering what he calls the "dark night" — a season...
In a coastal village in Louisiana, a Vietnamese Catholic grandmother named Bà Lan spent thirty years repairing fishing nets after Hurricane Katrina destroyed her community....
When James writes "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God," we assume the answer will arrive as certainty. But what if divine...
In her memoir *Searching for Sunday*, Rachel Held Evans described the exhausting work of staying in faith communities that didn't want her there — showing...
In her memoir *Searching for Sunday*, Rachel Held Evans describes returning to church not because she found perfect answers but because she found a community...
There is an old story among the desert mothers and fathers about a young monk who traveled three days across scorching sand to reach an...
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