True, sourced stories for sermons and lessons. Search by keyword, theme, or Bible book.
46 illustrations found
Livingstone Died on His Knees
David Livingstone spent his childhood working 14 hours a day in a cotton mill. He trained to be a medical missionary to China, but the Opium War shut that door.
Louis Zamperini: From Revenge to Release
Louis Zamperini was an Olympic runner who survived a plane crash, weeks adrift on a raft in the Pacific, and brutal treatment in Japanese prison camps during World War II.
Make Seeing Eyes Blind
Andrew van der Bijl grew up poor in the Netherlands and lived through the 1944 famine, when he ate tulip bulbs to survive. After he gave his life to God, he began reaching believers behind the Iron Curtain.
Mamoudou Gassama Climbed Four Floors
In May 2018, a 22-year-old undocumented migrant from Mali was walking down a Paris street when he saw a crowd staring up at a four-year-old boy dangling from a fourth-floor balcony.
Marshall Keeble Kept Preaching
Marshall Keeble was a Black preacher among the churches of Christ who spent 55 years as a full-time evangelist, much of it in the segregated South.
Mary Slessor Went Forward
Mary Slessor grew up in Scotland and sailed for Calabar in West Africa in 1876. In that region twins were often feared and killed, and Slessor became a champion baby-saver.
Mother Teresa Leaves the Convent
For years Mother Teresa taught at St. Mary's High School in Calcutta. But she couldn't stop thinking about the suffering and poverty she saw outside the convent walls.
Now Thank We All Our God Came Out of a Plague Year
Martin Rinckart was a pastor and musician in the German city of Eilenburg during the Thirty Years' War, which ran from 1618 to 1648. War, famine, and plague filled the town with refugees.
Pando, the Trembling Giant
In central Utah, on the Fishlake National Forest, there's a grove of quaking aspen that looks like a whole forest. It's actually one living thing.
Pine Cones That Need Fire
In the summer of 1988, wildfires burned across huge stretches of Yellowstone. Many people grieved, convinced the park they loved was ruined.
Precious Lord, Take My Hand
Thomas Dorsey was a blues piano man who later gave his life to gospel music. One hot August day in 1932 he left his pregnant wife Nettie in Chicago to sing at a revival in St. Louis.
Spurgeon in the Snowstorm
As a teenager, Charles Spurgeon was miserable under the weight of his sin and kept visiting churches hoping somebody would show him how to be saved.
The Arctic Tern Goes the Distance
The Arctic tern is a small seabird with a big reputation. Audubon calls it a long-distance champion.
The Butterflies That Know the Way
Every fall, monarch butterflies in eastern North America head south, some of them flying up to 3,000 miles to the mountain oyamel forests of central Mexico.
The Fish That Came Back from Extinction
For a long time scientists believed the coelacanth had died out with the dinosaurs, about 70 million years ago. They knew it only from fossils.
The Four Chaplains Give Away Their Life Jackets
Shortly before 1 a.m. on February 3, 1943, a German submarine torpedoed the Army transport ship Dorchester in the icy North Atlantic, with 902 men aboard.
The New Testament Sewn into a Pillow
Adoniram and Ann Judson were American missionaries in Burma. In 1824, when war broke out with the British, Adoniram was arrested as a suspected spy and thrown into the death prison at Ava.
The Soldier Who Didn’t Know the War Was Over
Hiroo Onoda was a Japanese army officer sent to Lubang Island in the Philippines near the end of World War II with orders never to surrender.
The Stick Insects on One Bush
Lord Howe Island, off Australia's east coast, was once crawling with big, wingless stick insects about six inches long. Then in 1918 a shipwreck brought rats to the island, and the insects disappeared.
The Wood Frog Thaws Heart First
The wood frog of the far north survives winter in a remarkable way. It freezes.