Jump directly to the Content
Jump directly to the Content

Sermon Illustrations

Home > Sermon Illustrations

Grisham Novel Describes Conversion

In The Testament, novelist John Grisham paints a portrait of one man's surrender to God's will. Nate O'Reilly is a disgraced corporate attorney plagued by alcoholism and drug abuse. After two marriages, four detox programs, and a serious bout with dengue fever, Nate acknowledges his need for God. Grisham describes the transformation:

With both hands, he clenched the back of the pew in front of him. He repeated the list, mumbling softly every weakness and flaw and affliction and evil that plagued him. He confessed them all. In one long glorious acknowledgment of failure, he laid himself bare before God. He held nothing back. He unloaded enough burdens to crush any three men, and when he finally finished Nate had tears in his eyes. "I'm sorry," he whispered to God. "Please, help me."
As quickly as the fever had left his body, he felt the baggage leave his soul. With one gentle brush of the hand, his slate had been wiped clean. He breathed a massive sigh of relief, but his pulse was racing.

Related Sermon Illustrations

Murderer Carla Faye Tucker Confesses Christ

Carla Faye Tucker in 1983 helped to kill two people with a pickaxe, and she was so animalistic in her behavior that she laughed while she did it. She was found guilty and imprisoned. ...

[Read More]

Conversion Is Like Waking Up to an Alarm Clock

Bible scholar N.T. Wright uses the analogy of waking up in the morning for how some people come to Christ through a dramatic, instant conversion and others come to Christ through a ...

[Read More]