True, sourced stories for sermons and lessons. Search by keyword, theme, or Bible book.
195 illustrations found
Marie Curie Kept Working
Marie Sklodowska was born in Warsaw in 1867, the daughter of a schoolteacher. She married Pierre Curie, and together they took up the study of radioactivity.
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 Anning Dug Out a Monster
Mary Anning grew up poor in Lyme Regis on the English coast. Her father, a cabinetmaker, taught her to hunt and clean fossils on the beach, and when he died in 1810 the family sold her finds to pay debts.
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.
Mister Rogers Goes to the Senate
On May 1, 1969, a soft-spoken children's television host named Fred Rogers sat before a Senate subcommittee. Funding for public television was on the line, and the chairman, Senator John Pastore, called himself a pretty tough guy.
Moody’s Candy and Pony Rides
Dwight L. Moody came to Chicago selling shoes, dreaming of making a fortune of $100,000. But after he came to faith, it slowly dawned on him that his life should be spent helping people instead of piling up wealth.
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.
Ninety Guests and Five Deer at Plymouth
The only eyewitness account of the 1621 harvest celebration at Plymouth comes from Edward Winslow in a letter published in Mourt's Relation.
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.
Opportunity Kept Rolling
NASA's Opportunity rover landed on Mars on January 24, 2004. It was planned for a 90-day mission.
Oseola McCarty Gives It All
Oseola McCarty spent her life washing and ironing other people's clothes in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. In 1995 she gave $150,000, most of her life savings, to the University of Southern Mississippi to help students who needed scholarships.
Pandita Ramabai Translated for Forgotten Women
Ramabai was born in India in 1858. Girls had no schools, but her parents taught her Sanskrit.
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.
Patrick Went Back to His Captors
When Patrick was 16, Irish pirates raided his village in Britain and carried him off. He was sold as a slave and forced to herd pigs.
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.
Rick Rescorla Went Back Up
Rick Rescorla fought in Vietnam as a young Army lieutenant. Years later he was head of security for Morgan Stanley in the World Trade Center.
Rocky Bleier Decided He Would Walk
Rocky Bleier finished his rookie season with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1968, then was drafted into the Army and sent to Vietnam. After only three months his platoon was ambushed in a rice paddy.
Roger Bannister Breaks the Four-Minute Mile
For years people said running a mile in under four minutes was beyond what the human body could do. Roger Bannister was a 25-year-old medical student who trained around his studies.
Rosa Parks Stayed Seated
On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. She was not simply a tired seamstress who happened to say no.