True, sourced stories for sermons and lessons. Search by keyword, theme, or Bible book.
83 illustrations found
Expect Great Things, Attempt Great Things
William Carey was an English shoemaker's apprentice who became convinced that the church should be taking the gospel to the whole world. In 1792 he helped organize a missionary society and preached a sermon with the call, "Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God!"
Fifteen Whooping Cranes
Whooping cranes are the tallest birds in North America, and there were once more than 10,000 of them. Shooting and the loss of prairie habitat to farming nearly wiped them out.
Fire Ants Hold On to Each Other
When floods hit, fire ants do something amazing. They link together and build a living raft that floats.
Firefighters Save the Dinosaur Trees
The Wollemi pine is so rare that it was thought to be extinct, known only from fossils, until 1994, when a park officer named David Noble rappelled into a narrow canyon in Australia and found trees he didn't recognize.
Fixing Voyager from 15 Billion Miles Away
In November 2023, NASA's Voyager 1, the most distant human-made object in existence, started sending home gibberish. Engineers figured out that one memory chip in an onboard computer had failed, taking some of the spacecraft's code with it.
Forty Days Lost in the Amazon
On May 1, 2023, a small plane went down in the Colombian Amazon. The mother and two pilots died, but four children, ages 13, 9, 4, and 1, survived the crash and wandered into the jungle looking for help.
Fosbury Flopped Backward to Gold
Before Dick Fosbury, high jumpers went over the bar face down using the straddle or the scissors. As a teenager at Medford High in Oregon, Fosbury worked out a different way.
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.
George Washington Carver Pressed On
George Washington Carver was born into slavery near the end of the Civil War. As a baby he was stolen along with his mother, and only he was brought back, sick with whooping cough.
Gertrude Ederle Swam the Channel Anyway
In 1925 Gertrude Ederle tried to swim the English Channel. After eight hours and 46 minutes her coach made her stop because he feared she was swallowing too much saltwater.
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.
Great Is Thy Faithfulness from an Insurance Man
Thomas Chisholm was born in a log cabin in Kentucky and never had much formal education. He was ordained a Methodist minister in 1903, but ill health cut his ministry short after one brief appointment.
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."
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.
If She Says They’re Good
As a girl in West Virginia, Katherine Johnson counted everything: the steps to the road, the steps up to church, the dishes she washed. Her father was so determined she would reach her potential that he moved the family 120 miles so she could keep going to school.
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.
Jackie Robinson Didn’t Fight Back
Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers didn't just want Jackie Robinson for his talent. He wanted him for his character.
Jim Abbott’s No-Hitter
Jim Abbott grew up in Flint, Michigan, born without a right hand. He became a left-handed pitcher anyway.