True, sourced stories for sermons and lessons. Search by keyword, theme, or Bible book.
66 illustrations found
Frederick Douglass Traded Bread for Lessons
As an enslaved boy in Baltimore, Frederick Douglass had a mistress who started teaching him the alphabet. Then her husband found out and shut it down.
From Bagging Groceries to Super Bowl MVP
Kurt Warner went undrafted out of Northern Iowa. The Green Bay Packers brought him to camp and cut him.
Gail Devers Nearly Lost Her Feet
Around the 1988 Olympics, sprinter Gail Devers was running slowly and getting sicker. She lost weight, lost hair, had headaches and skin sores, and at one point weighed just 79 pounds.
Glasses for the Hubble
The Hubble Space Telescope launched in April 1990 with huge expectations, and two months later NASA had to admit the images were blurry. The main mirror had been ground to the wrong shape, too flat near its outer edge, with an error ten times larger than allowed.
Horatio Spafford: It Is Well
In November 1873, Anna Spafford and the couple's four daughters sailed for Europe on the S.S. Ville du Havre while her husband Horatio stayed behind in Chicago on business.
Houston, We’ve Had a Problem
In April 1970, Apollo 13 was headed for the moon when an oxygen tank blew. Jack Swigert saw the warning light and said, "Houston, we've had a problem here."
Humpback Whales Got a Second Chance
Humpback whales live in every ocean and make one of the longest migrations of any mammal. Some swim 5,000 miles between warm breeding waters and cold feeding grounds.
I Never Heard of Him
Going into the 10,000 meters at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, nobody was talking about Billy Mills. The favorite was Australia's Ron Clarke, the world record holder.
In the Beginning, from the Moon
On Christmas Eve 1968, at the end of one of the most painful years in American history, Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders became the first humans to orbit another world.
Ingenuity Was Built for Five Flights
When NASA sent the little Ingenuity helicopter to Mars, the plan was modest. It was a test, designed to make up to five experimental flights over 30 days.
Jim Thorpe Got His Gold Back
At the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Jim Thorpe, a member of the Sac and Fox Nation, won both the pentathlon and the decathlon in dominant fashion.
Jimmy V: Don’t Ever Give Up
In 1993, college basketball coach Jim Valvano, who had led North Carolina State to the 1983 national championship, was dying of cancer. At the first ESPYS awards, he received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award.
Joseph Meister Came to Pasteur’s Lab
On the morning of July 6, 1885, a nine-year-old boy named Joseph Meister was brought to Louis Pasteur's laboratory in Paris. A rabid dog had bitten him fourteen times.
Kevin Briggs Listened for 92 Minutes
On March 11, 2005, Kevin Berthia went to the Golden Gate Bridge. Overwhelmed by depression and medical bills for his premature daughter, he climbed over the rail.
Lasse Viren Got Back Up
At the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Finland's Lasse Viren was one of the favorites in the 10,000 meters. Then on the 12th lap, he got tangled up with Tunisia's Mohamad Gammoudi and both men went down on the track.
Lou Gehrig: The Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth
Two weeks after an ALS diagnosis forced him out of baseball, Lou Gehrig stood at home plate in Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939, in front of 61,808 fans.
Malala Kept Going to School
When Malala Yousafzai was eleven, she started writing an anonymous blog for the BBC's Urdu site. Under the heading "I am afraid," she wrote about her nightmares of being too scared to go to school because of the Taliban in her Swat Valley.
Opportunity Kept Rolling
NASA's Opportunity rover landed on Mars on January 24, 2004. It was planned for a 90-day mission.
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.