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I Shouldn't Be Alive

Salvation Spiritual Death Redemption

Source: TV Show, I SHOULDN'T BE ALIVE, by Darlow Smithson Productions

Link to Source: Click here to view source

Contributed By: Chris Huff | Date Posted: 2023-12-05

Scripture: Ephesians 2:1 ; Ephesians 2:5

Author: Chris Huff
5

ILLUSTRATION

There’s a great tv show called I Shouldn’t Be Alive. Have any of you seen it?

In every episode of the show, a person or group of people end up in some dangerous situation and struggle to survive, whether in a desert, or an ocean, or a jungle, or the like. And in every episode, the situation gets so bleak that the viewer would fully expect the person or group of people to die. There appears to be no hope at all. But then, against all odds, the person is either rescued or they somehow find their way back to civilization, and survive.

There were six whole season of these heart pounding, nail biting survival stories. Here are the synopses of some of the shows just from the first season:

  • - Traveling to Idaho to attend a funeral, a family from California becomes trapped in a blizzard; while trekking off to find help, a wrong turn leads them deep into the unforgiving wilderness.
  • - A crew of five aboard a luxury yacht sailing from Maine to Florida that sank in a storm, leaving the crew adrift on a lifeboat with no food or water and menaced by sharks.
  • - Three adventurers are captured by the Khmer Rouge and must either negotiate their release or take their chances escaping into the jungle.
  • - A Hollywood camera crew in a helicopter crash into an active volcano they were filming. Rescue attempts are hampered by lava, toxic gases and bad weather ...
  • - A plane crash in the Kalahari Desert leaves survivors without food or water, and two of them try to find help for other passengers who are injured.

APPLICATION

Now, we could look at this show and talk about how it’s like our situation before we knew Jesus, how we were lost in our sin and felt like we had no hope, but then Jesus came and rescued us.

But in actuality, this doesn’t even come close to our situation!

In actuality, our situation was much worse, because we weren’t just close to dead — the Bible says that we were already dead in our trespasses and sins!

So Jesus didn’t just rescue us when we were close to not being able to make it on our own. Rather He made us alive when we were already dead!

"As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins ... " (Ephesians 2:1, NIV).

"... [E]ven when we were dead in our trespasses, [God] made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved ..." (Ephesians 2:5, ESV).

Wells of Salvation

Salvation Spiritual Health Faith

Source: "How do wells get their water from underground rivers?" Category: Earth Science, Published: July 16, 2013West Texas A&M University Science

Link to Source: Click here to view source

Contributed By: Marcelle Smith | Date Posted: 2023-11-28

Scripture: Isaiah 12:3 ; Ephesians 3:17

Author: Marcelle Smith
0

ILLUSTRATION

Water sources are always precious, especially in a desert climate. According to Texas A&M Science:

Most wells don’t get their water from underground rivers, but instead get the water from aquifers. Aquifers are layers of rock and soil with water flowing through their small pores. Groundwater drips slowly and gently through the small spaces within rocks, between rocks, and between loose materials such as sand and gravel. In fact, water in aquifers can take years to centuries to flow back to the surface. A typical flow rate for water in aquifers is ten feet per year. For this reason, if a region experiences no rain for a few weeks, the wells will not immediately run dry. New water from rain and melting snow drips down into the ground through the pores and cracks in the rocks and soil. The well has to be deep enough so that it is below the water table so that the water fills up.

APPLICATION

Those who are deeply rooted in Christ will experience sustainance and joy unspeakable from the salvation and security He provides, with plenty of "reserves" on hand rippling through and flowing up from the swell of the groundwaters of His grace.

"With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation" (Isaiah 12:3, ESV).

"[I pray that] that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:16-19, ESV).
 

The Deadline for the Soul

Salvation Urgency God's Judgment

Source: "The Dangerous History Behind the Word 'Deadline'" By Paul Anthony Jones, published Mental Floss, Aug 22, 2017

Link to Source: Click here to view source

Contributed By: Illustration Exchange | Date Posted: 2023-08-24

Scripture: Hebrews 9:27 ; 2 Corinthians 6:2

Author: Illustration Exchange
5

ILLUSTRATION

The word “deadline” has an interesting, and oft, well, “deadly” history.

Earliest occurrences of the word seemed to have referenced a fishing angler’s weighted line which would hang perfectly still, or “dead” in the water, bait attached, to attract unsuspecting fish who, upon biting such line, would soon find themselves also “dead.”

Its meaning was later expanded to refer to any fixed or immovable line.

But it was the ravages of war which would give the word its next iteration. Enter one infamous Confederate Civil War prison commander, Henry Wirz, responsible for the operations at the notorious Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia.

In 1864, Wirz was put in control of Camp Sumter, a newly-established internment camp for Union soldiers located near Andersonville in rural Georgia. Over the remaining 14 months of the war, Camp Sumter grew to become one of the largest prisoner of war camps in the entire Confederacy. At its peak, it held more than 30,000 Union prisoners, all of whom shared an enormous 16.5-acre open-air paddock—conditions inside of which were notoriously grim. Disease and malnutrition were rife, and a lack of clean water, warm clothing, and adequate sanitation led to the deaths of many of the camp’s prisoners. Of the 45,000 Union prisoners held in the Camp at one time or another, it is estimated that almost a third succumbed to Sumter’s squalid and inhumane conditions.

But wait, there’s more. One of most damning examples of his inhumanity was his implementation of what became known as the Camp’s deadline:

“ … a line around the inner face of the stockade or wall enclosing said prison, and about twenty feet distant and within said stockade; and so established said dead line, which was in many places an imaginary line, in many other places marked by insecure and shifting strips of [boards nailed] upon the tops of small and insecure stakes or posts, he … instructed the prison guard stationed around the top of said stockade to fire upon and kill any of the prisoners aforesaid who might touch, fall upon, pass over or under or across the said “dead line ... “ — Report of the Secretary of War, October 1865

Wirz must have been deemed to have of “crossed the line” of human decency, because he was found guilty of war crimes, and was hanged on the November 10, 1865. 

*Execution of Captain Henry Wirz in 1865 / Library of Congress

By the early 20th century, with its wartime inhumanity connotations nothing more than a speck in American culture’s rear view mirror, a new meaning emerged from the pages rapidly churning off journalistic printing presses.

Printers used the word to describe that point at the bottom of a type case (printing tray), below which typeset could not be added. It was the "deadline" on the tray. Journalists, rushing to get their stories to press, competed to get space on the page before the “deadline” was "set" and there was no more room to include another story.

While the typesetting machines of the early 20th century are likewise but a speck in our rear view windows, the connotation of the term has since stuck and expanded. Today, the word deadline is used broadly to refer to any date or time by which something must be accomplished.

It may no longer exclusively refer to matters of life and death, but urgency is still at the core of its meaning.

APPLICATION

In spiritual terms, there is a deadline looming over each one of us which does indeed bear life and death consequences. In fact, this deadline is itself a choice between life (eternal!) and death. Only in this case, we do not know when or how the deadline will present itself.

God has told us in His Word that it is “appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27, ESV). He has likewise told us that we must choose “this day” whom we will serve (Joshua 24:15); “… behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2, NKJV).

None can possibly know when that deadline will come. As such, don’t delay another moment. “[As] Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God! (2 Corinthians 5:20, NIV), TODAY!

Our Deepest Need

Salvation Spiritual Growth Sanctification

Contributed By: Marcelle Smith | Date Posted: 2023-03-04

Scripture: Ephesians 3:18

Author: Marcelle Smith
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Have You Had Your Water Quota Today?

Renewal Salvation Sanctification

Contributed By: Marcelle Smith | Date Posted: 2023-03-04

Scripture: John 4:14 ; John 4:10

Author: Marcelle Smith
3

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Not Overrated

Heaven Afterlife Salvation

Contributed By: Charles Krieg | Date Posted: 2023-01-22

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 2:9 ; Romans 10:9

Author: Charles Krieg
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You Must Be Born Again, AGAIN

Salvation Second Chances Science

Contributed By: Illustration Exchange | Date Posted: 2022-05-31

Scripture: John 3:1 ; John 3:6

Author: Illustration Exchange
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Experience God's Power

Power Experiencing God Salvation

Contributed By: Stephen Kingsley | Date Posted: 2022-04-07

Scripture: Jeremiah 31:34 ; Proverbs 2:5

Author: Stephen Kingsley
3

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Jesus Is Our Path

Obedience Jesus Christ Salvation

Contributed By: Illustration Exchange | Date Posted: 2022-01-10

Scripture: John 14:6

Author: E. Stanley Jones / Illustration Exchange
20

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Grace Is Just Too Easy

Grace Salvation Skepticism

Contributed By: Illustration Exchange | Date Posted: 2021-04-22

Scripture: Romans 6:23 ; John 3:3

Author: Illustration Exchange
7

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