True, sourced stories for sermons and lessons. Search by keyword, theme, or Bible book.
195 illustrations found
A 2,000-Year-Old Seed Sprouted
In the 1960s, archaeologists digging at Masada, Herod's fortress by the Dead Sea, found ancient date seeds buried under rubble. Radiocarbon dating put them at about 2,000 years old.
A Brother’s Hug in a Dallas Courtroom
In 2018 an off-duty Dallas police officer, Amber Guyger, walked into the wrong apartment and shot and killed Botham Jean, an innocent man sitting in his own home.
A Church Body That Chose to Die
On June 28, 1804, at Cane Ridge in Bourbon County, Kentucky, Barton W. Stone and five other Presbyterian ministers signed one of the strangest documents in church history.
A Circle of Prayer 700 Meters Down
In 2010, a rockfall trapped 33 miners about 700 meters underground at the San Jose mine in northern Chile. They were stuck in a space about the size of a small apartment, with almost no food and heat that never dropped below about 90 degrees.
A Ring Around Christian Eriksen
On June 12, 2021, Denmark was playing Finland in Copenhagen when midfielder Christian Eriksen collapsed on the field just before halftime. Captain Simon Kjaer was one of the first to reach him and appeared to clear his airway.
Albert Lexie Gave His Tips Away
Twice a week for more than 30 years, Albert Lexie rose before dawn and rode buses for an hour and a half from Monessen to Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.
Amy Carmichael Had to Do Something
In 1901, a seven-year-old Indian girl named Preena escaped from a Hindu temple and ran to Amy Carmichael, a young missionary from Ireland. Preena's widowed mother had dedicated her to be "married to the gods," which meant a life of abuse.
An Eleven-Year-Old Told Lincoln to Grow a Beard
In October 1860, an eleven-year-old girl named Grace Bedell in Westfield, New York saw a picture of Abraham Lincoln and wrote him a letter. She told him his face was so thin that if he let his whiskers grow, he would look a great deal better, and she would try to get her brothers to vote for him.
Anthony Robles Wrestled on One Leg
Anthony Robles was born without a right leg. He tried a prosthetic, but at age three he pulled it off and chose crutches instead.
Augustine Heard Take Up and Read
Augustine was a gifted teacher who had spent years chasing pleasure and wrestling with his sin. He later wrote about stealing pears as a youth just for the thrill of doing what was forbidden.
Bald Eagles Came Back
The bald eagle is the national symbol of the United States, but by 1963 only 417 nesting pairs were known in the lower 48 states. Habitat loss, illegal shooting, and the pesticide DDT had nearly wiped them out.
Banting Read One Article
In the early 1920s, doctors knew diabetes was linked to a missing substance from the pancreas, but every attempt to extract it had failed. Frederick Banting, a young Canadian doctor, read a medical article by Moses Baron about what happens when the pancreatic duct is tied off.
Beethoven Couldn’t Hear the Applause
On May 7, 1824, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony premiered in Vienna. Beethoven stood onstage, but he was so deaf that the conductor told the orchestra and choir to ignore Beethoven's beat and watch him instead.
Ben Hogan Threw Himself Across His Wife
On a foggy morning, February 2, 1949, golf champion Ben Hogan and his wife Valerie were driving home to Fort Worth on a two-lane Texas highway when a Greyhound bus trying to pass a truck came straight at them in their lane.
Bessie Coleman Learned French to Fly
Bessie Coleman grew up in Texas and later worked as a manicurist in Chicago. When her brother came home from World War I talking about women flying airplanes in France, she decided the sky would be her arena.
Bethany Hamilton Couldn’t Wait to Surf
In 2003, thirteen-year-old Bethany Hamilton was lying on her surfboard off Hawaii with her left arm dangling in the water. A shark came up and attacked, pulling her back and forth.
Bikila Ran Barefoot Through Rome
The 1960 Olympic marathon in Rome started at 5:30 in the evening and finished in the dark, with torches lighting the ancient streets. One of the runners was an Ethiopian named Abebe Bikila, and he was running barefoot.
Bonhoeffer Refused Cheap Grace
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a brilliant young German pastor and theologian. In his book The Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer warned against what he called cheap grace.
Booker T. Washington’s Entrance Exam
Born into slavery, young Booker T. Washington heard about Hampton Institute in Virginia and decided he would get there somehow, even though it was about 500 miles away.
Bunyan Would Not Promise to Stop Preaching
When Charles II took the throne, the freedom to worship outside the Church of England ended. By January 1661, preacher John Bunyan was in the county jail.