A note from Brian Lowery, managing editor: "News That Illustrates" is a new feature that we're adding to our weekly illustrations. Each week I'm going to offer links to ten, up-to-the-minute news articles that I feel have some real illustrative potential for you as a preacher. Enjoy!

The folks at Slate asked readers to share what they have sacrificed in light of the recession. Some of the responses ...

Albert Einstein wrote things that suggested he had some sort of belief in God, but he also wrote of his own unbelief. James Randerson says:

Einstein penned [a] letter on January 3, 1954, to the philosopher Eric Gutkind who had sent him a copy of his book Choose Life: The Biblical Call to Revolt. The letter went on public sale a year later and has remained in private hands ever since.

In the letter, ...

On February 25, 2007, author and speaker Philip Yancey experienced a horrible car accident. In an article for Christianity Today, he describes the crash and the moments just after:

I was driving alone on a remote highway, curvy but not too hilly, at about 65 mph. A curve came up suddenly, and I turned to the left, perhaps too sharply. As you may know, Ford Explorers are notorious for fishtailing, and ...

When I was 10, I first heard Matthew 21:22, where Jesus, who never lies, said, "If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." It was the "whatever" model of prayer—believe, ask for whatever you want, and it's yours.

I remember running outside, standing on our driveway, closing my eyes real tight, and praying: God, I want to fly like Superman. And I believe you can do it. So ...

Americans who say the Bible is the actual Word of God and should be taken word-for-word: 28 percent

Americans who said this 30 years ago: 38 percent

In his book Jesus Mean and Wild, Mark Galli references his interview with Stephen Prothero in 1994. During that interview, Prothero said:

Christians traditionally, as they've shaped Jesus, have been worried about getting it wrong, including the Puritans. Americans today are not so worried. There isn't the sense that this is a life-and-death matter, that you don't want to mess with divinity. There's ...

On the night of October 3, 1998, a snake-handling evangelist named John Wayne Brown, Jr. was bitten by one of his own timber rattlesnakes in the middle of his sermon. Though Reverend Brown continued to speak to the people of Rock House Holiness Church, he soon collapsed onstage. The congregation gathered around him—praying and trying to cool him with an electric fan—but Brown was dead within ...

Anne Rice, whom the media has called the Queen of the Occult, has sold millions of novels about vampires and witches. Several of her books have also been made into movies, even starring Hollywood big-shots like Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. But since a near-death experience in 1998, Anne has had a change of heart—she's turned to Christ.

In 2005, she stunned her fans by declaring, "I promised from ...

Author John Piper tells this story of physical healing in 19th century English pastor Charles Simeon.

In 1807, after 25 years of ministry, his health failed suddenly. His voice gave way so that preaching was very difficult and at times he could only speak in a whisper. After a sermon he would feel "more like one dead than alive." This broken condition lasted for 13 years, till he was 60 years old. ...

Author John Piper tells this story of physical healing in 19th century English pastor Charles Simeon.

In 1807, after 25 years of ministry, his health failed suddenly. His voice gave way so that preaching was very difficult and at times he could only speak in a whisper. After a sermon he would feel, "more like one dead than alive." This broken condition lasted for 13 years, till he was 60 years old. ...