Sermon Illustrations

Cassie was in the school library reading her Bible when two young killers burst in. According to witnesses, one of the killers pointed his gun at Cassie and asked, do you believe in God?" Cassie answered, "Yes, I believe in God." "Why?" the gunman asked. Cassie did not have a chance to respond; the gunman had shot her dead.

But what you may not know is that just a few years before this Cassie had dabbled in the occult, including witchcraft. She had once embraced the same darkness that drove her killers to commit such horrible crimes. She wrote one time, “I love the power of darkness!” But two years later, Cassie had an encounter with Jesus Christ, and was dramatically changed.

According to the Boston Globe, on the night of Cassie’s death, her brother Chris found a poem she had written just two days before she died. This is her poem:

"Now I have given up on everything else

I have found it to be the only way

To really know Christ and to experience

The mighty power that brought

Him back to life again, and to find

Out what it means to suffer and to

Die with him. So, whatever it takes

I will be one who lives in the fresh

Newness of life of those who are

Alive from the dead."

Cassie Burnall had gone from loving darkness to living by the truth, she encountered Jesus Christ, she experienced His power, and now she is in the Light.