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221 illustrations — Vivid stories and real-world analogies for sermon use
In the spring of 1865, Abraham Lincoln visited the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, just days after its fall. Witnesses described a man who looked...
SermonWise.ai generates complete sermon outlines for any passage across 17 theological traditions. Try it with Jeremiah.
In 1940, as Nazi forces swept across France, millions of refugees fled south in desperate chaos. Villages emptied. Families separated. The vulnerable — especially Jewish...
As we navigate the complexities of our modern world where social justice and faith intersect, let me take you back to a poignant moment in the life of a young woman named Sarah. She grew up in a neighborhood shadowed...
A few months ago, I had the joy of meeting a vibrant young woman named Lydia at a community event. She had recently moved to our town, leaving behind everything familiar in pursuit of her dreams. Like many of us,...
In a cozy corner of my neighborhood, there’s a small bakery that’s become a beloved spot for many. The aroma of freshly baked bread invites you in, but it’s the owner, Maria, who captures your heart. Maria has a remarkable...
A few years ago, I found myself in a garden, watching a novice gardener attempt to tend to his struggling plants. With each weed he pulled, I could see his frustration grow. The thorns and brambles seemed relentless, and he...
In a small town, there lived a man named Tom. For years, he wrestled with addiction, feeling trapped in a cycle of shame and despair. Friends and family stood by him, but nothing seemed to break the chains of his...
In a small coastal town, there was a lighthouse that stood tall against the crashing waves. For generations, it had guided weary sailors safely to shore, its light cutting through the darkest nights. The town’s folks revered this lighthouse not...
In the 1920s, settlers across the Southern Plains of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas tore up millions of acres of native grassland to plant wheat. The...
On a chilly autumn afternoon, I visited a local community garden, a vibrant space bustling with life and connection. As I walked among the plots, I noticed a group of young families gathered around a patch that had seen better...
Sarah sat in her small kitchen, staring at a bowl of ripened bananas, their peels speckled with brown spots. Each morning, she would walk past them, half-heartedly thinking about making banana bread, but instead, she would reach for a quick...
In 1982, a pastor named Václav Malý stood before a secret congregation in a Prague basement. Czechoslovakia had been under Communist rule for over thirty...
Sarah was a woman who wore many hats: mother, daughter, friend, and community leader. Yet beneath the surface of her vibrant life, she wrestled daily with feelings of inadequacy. She had grown up in a religious household where rules reigned...
On April 14, 1935, residents of Boise City, Oklahoma, looked up to see the horizon swallowed whole. A wall of dirt two thousand feet high...
In 2019, a seven-year-old girl named Eliana sat in a hospital room at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, coloring pictures of houses she...
When Hurricane Katrina scattered 100,000 residents of New Orleans across the country in 2005, many landed in Houston with nothing but the clothes on their...
Tolkien, devout Anglican, coined the word "eucatastrophe"—the sudden turn in a story where everything seems lost, then unexpectedly comes right. He saw it in the gospel: crucifixion looked like the end; resurrection was eucatastrophe. Jeremiah 29:11 is eucatastrophic promise: exile...
On May 22, 2011, the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for Joplin, Missouri, seventeen minutes before an EF5 tornado carved a mile-wide path...
In the spring of 2023, residents of Lahaina, Maui, knew the trade winds well. For generations, those gentle breezes had been a blessing — cooling...
In 2009, engineers in Louisville, Kentucky broke ground on the Abraham Lincoln Bridge — a massive cable-stayed span across the Ohio River. But here's the...
In 1943, Olympic gold medalist Eric Liddell — the Scottish sprinter whose story inspired *Chariots of Fire* — found himself behind the walls of the...
Dr. Rachel Nguyen had treated thousands of patients during her twenty-two years at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. She had learned to compartmentalize, to move...
On April 14, 1935 — a day survivors called "Black Sunday" — a wall of dust two thousand feet high rolled across the Oklahoma panhandle,...
In 1865, when Union soldiers rode into Texas with news that enslaved people were free, a woman named Charlotte Brooks fell to her knees in...