True, sourced stories for sermons and lessons. Search by keyword, theme, or Bible book.
11 illustrations found
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.
Does Anyone Here Owe Their Life to Nicholas Winton?
In 1939 a London stockbroker named Nicholas Winton worked his day job and then spent his evenings arranging permits, foster homes, and money so that eight trains could carry 669 children, most of them Jewish, out of Prague to safety in Britain before the war closed the borders.
Fanny Crosby’s First Face
When Fanny Crosby was only six weeks old, a man posing as a doctor treated an illness by putting hot mustard poultices on her eyes, and the treatment left her blind for life.
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.
James Harrison Never Missed an Appointment
When James Harrison was 14, he had lung surgery in Australia and needed many blood transfusions. He woke up in intensive care determined to give back.
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.
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.
Sarah Hale Wrote Lincoln One More Letter
Before 1863, there was no national Thanksgiving Day. Each state picked its own date, mostly in New England and the North.
Thanking Everybody Behind One Cup of Coffee
Writer A.J. Jacobs decided to thank every person who had a hand in his morning cup of coffee. He started with the barista and kept going: the people who roasted it, the truckers who hauled it, the farmers who grew it, even the folks who made the cup and the lid.
The Oldest Tree Ever Cut Down
In the summer of 1964, a geographer named Donald Currey was studying ancient bristlecone pines below Wheeler Peak. He found a tree local mountaineers called Prometheus.