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September 22. Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was not only a statesman, a lawyer, and the 16th President of the United States. As a young man, he was also a star wrestler and not above talking some smack in the ring. In about 300 matches, he was defeated only once. And after one of his winning matches, he challenged the spectators. 

He yelled, “I’m the big buck of this lick. If any of you want to try it, come on and whet your horns.” Nobody came. And Lincoln received an “Outstanding American” award in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. 

Lincoln’s adult life is full of achievement. He led the country through the Civil War, promoted national healing, and on this date in 1862, President Lincoln signed the first order to end slavery in the United States—the Emancipation Proclamation. 

Restore the individual, and be merciful, as God is merciful. 

It was a couple of years before the end of the Civil War, and one after another, a parade of people visited President Lincoln. Some wanted their spying relatives saved from execution; some just wanted a day pass to visit a husband in jail. Lincoln listened to them all. 

On September 7, 1863, a young Mrs. Thomas Theophilus Brown came to see the president. With a young baby in her arms, she had traveled all the way from Alexandria, Virginia, in Confederate Territory. She had already been to the War Department looking for help for her husband and his brother, but nobody would help her. 

Mrs. Brown begged to be allowed to tell her story. And Lincoln obliged. The young woman should have all the time she needed. 

She told how her husband and his brother had been at the Battle of Gettysburg, and they had been arrested as spies and imprisoned in the Old Capitol Prison. They had been locked in there for weeks, and now people were saying the men were going to be shot. Mrs. Brown couldn’t hold back the tears. 

She explained that they had never been on the side of the Confederate Army, had always been loyal to the country, but had been drafted and forced to fight. Lincoln must realize her men were no spies, and she hoped he could somehow save them. 

The whole time she talked, the baby girl Mrs. Brown held had been watching the president and smiling and burbling. 

Enjoying the tender moment, Lincoln held the baby and brought her close and embraced her. 

The baby cooed, “Papa.” 

The President laughed and placed the baby back into Mrs. Brown’s arms. For a moment, he was silent and paced back and forth several times. Finally, he stopped and wrote something on a slip of paper. “Mrs. Brown, you are a brave little woman,” he said warmly and handed the piece of paper to her. 

She glanced at the paper and saw it was a letter for the prison. In it, Lincoln had written that “This lady says that … they were conscripted into the rebel army, and were never for the rebel cause, and they are now willing to do anything reasonable to be at liberty. This may be true, and if true, they should be liberated. Please take hold of the case, and do what may seem proper in it.” 

Within three days, the men had taken the Oath of Union Allegiance, and Thomas Theophilus Brown and his brother walked out of the Old Capitol Prison. Mrs. Brown “kissed her ragged, shaggy husband, trembling with fever and nerves, his feet torn and scarred.” She took them back to Alexandria and nursed the men back to health before she told her husband about the tall man his daughter had called “Papa” in the White House. 

Carl Sandburg wrote, “With the North squeezing the South toward its last loaf of bread and final bullet, Lincoln looked to the day when it would be an advantage to have a political record free from vengeance.” 

“Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to act” (Proverbs 3:27 NIV). 

Mercy is a choice. Choose to extend it today. Restore the individual, and be merciful, as God is merciful. 

Sandburg, Carl. The War Years, 1864-1865. New York: Dell Publishing, 1959.  

Quick Facts. “Civil War Facts.” American Battlefield Trust. Accessed July 2, 2020. https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/civil-war-facts. 

Would You Like to Learn More About This Man? 

April 14, 1865, Lincoln signed the bill that created the US Secret Service, and some hours later, he went to Ford’s Theatre and was shot. The Secret Service didn’t protect him because their primary mission was to deal with counterfeit currency. 

But after Lincoln’s death, when grave robbers stole his body and held it for ransom, Secret Service agents infiltrated the gang and foiled the kidnappers’ plan. 

Story read by: Chuck Stecker 

Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter 

Audio production: Joel Carpenter 

Story written by: Shelli Mandeville, https://worthy.life/ 

Editor: Teresa Crumpton, https://authorspark.org/ 

Project manager: Blake Mattocks 

© 2020, 365 Christian Men, LLC. All rights reserved. 

September 21. Donald Cargill. About seven years after he started preaching, Cargill joined the Covenanters—a group of Bible believers who refused to swear that the king was the head of the church. They believed Christ was the head of the church and fought to defend that belief. 

At first, he tried to make peace between the king and the Covenanters, but soon the harsh way the king persecuted the Covenanters appalled Cargill so much that he joined the Covenanting Army. He fought in several battles before he was wounded and fled to the Netherlands to heal. 

When Cargill returned to Scotland, he ran coordinated campaigns of preaching in open space mixed with guerrilla warfare throughout Scotland. On this date in 1680, Cargill excommunicated King Charles II and his supporters. 

When life is filled with challenges, faith-filled men draw strength from the life to come. 

On the night of June 3, 1680, Cargill and Henry Hall sat in a quiet inn in Scotland. They were rebel ministers being hunted by King Charles II, who wanted total control of the church. They were leaders in the Covenanter Movement—Scottish Christians who met in secret because they refused to recognize anyone else but Jesus Christ as head of the church. 

But on this night, in the inn known as The Palace in South Queensferry, all they wanted to be was two friends enjoying each other’s company and a well-deserved rest. 

After a short while, a nobleman sat down at their table. The man asked Cargill and Hall to share a glass of wine with him, and being gentlemen, they did. But as soon as they finished their wine, the man stood and drew his sword. His name was Middleton, Governor of Blackness, and he arrested the two ministers. 

The ministers drew their own swords. Middleton attacked first, seriously injuring Cargill. Hall wrestled with Middleton, trying to seize his sword, and in the confusion, Cargill escaped. Hall overpowered Middleton and attempted to escape himself, but a waiter struck him on the back of the head with the knob on the grip of his sword. Hall died shortly afterward. 

Cargill, bleeding badly, crawled into a dark alley and passed out. A woman found him, tore her own clothes to bind his gaping wounds, and after a great struggle to lift his body, carted him to the house of James Punton. 

Although the Puntons were strangers to Cargill, they showed him mercy. They fed him and called a surgeon to dress his wounds. A few hours later, after Cargill was well enough to stand, he thanked them and departed. 

Cargill fled to neighboring Cairnhill. He had lost a dear friend and almost his own life. An innocent man and his family would likely suffer because they helped him. Most men would have found somewhere to wallow in self-pity. To lick their wounds. 

Cargill knew his time was short. He had determined to finish the race of life full of joy. And so he used what little money he had left to buy food for the many starving citizens of Cairnhill. 

Then he stood on top of a crowded hill, still covered in dried blood, and he preached from Hebrews 11. Cargill reminded his audience of those “who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth” (Hebrews 11:33-38 ESV). 

Angered by his failure to capture Cargill, Middleton forged a letter from Robert Stark, a famous preacher, inviting Cargill to preach in Edinburgh. But once again, a woman, Mrs. Moor, came to Cargill’s aid and warned him that Middleton’s soldiers were waiting for him. Cargill fled, and for the next thirteen months, he preached in secret open-air meetings whenever he could. 

Cargill was finally captured on July 27, 1681. As he approached the gallows, his joyful expression shocked everyone. His last recorded words were: “The Lord knows I go on this ladder with less fear than ever I entered the pulpit to preach.” 

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2 NIV). 

Today, where do you get your strength? When life is filled with challenges, faith-filled men draw strength from the life to come. 

Walker, Patrick. Six Saints of the Covenant. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1901. 

Jardine, Mark. “Ambushed at the Inn: The Queensferry Incident of 1680.” Jardine’s Book of Martyrs.  Accessed July 2, 2002. https://drmarkjardine.wordpress.com/2018/01/21/ambushed-at-the-inn-the-queensferry-incident-of-1680-history-scotland/. 

Howie, John. The Scots Worthies. London: Forgotten Books, 2018. 

Story read by: Peter R Warren, https://www.peterwarrenministries.com/ 

Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter 

Audio production: Joel Carpenter 

Editor: Teresa Crumpton, https://authorspark.org/ 

Project manager: Blake Mattocks 

© 2020, 365 Christian Men, LLC. All rights reserved. 

September 20. Josiah Henson.  Born into slavery, Josiah refused to remain enslaved. When he was 18, he became a Christian and soon began to preach after slaving all day. He also married and had twelve children. 

In 1830, Josiah escaped to Canada and founded a settlement and a laborer’s school for other fugitive slaves. In 1842, he founded the British American Institute, an Afro-Canadian community and industrial school—a refuge for escaped slaves.  

Real strength comes from facing real weakness. 

Before he escaped to Canada and gained freedom for himself and his family, Josiah had spent about four decades as a slave.  

While in Canada, Josiah’s oldest son, Tom, had the opportunity to go to school. He learned to read, and Josiah would often ask his son to read the Bible to him to help him memorize the stories and verses to preach on. But one early Sunday morning before church, Tom had been reading from the Psalms and asked, “Father, who is David?” 

Tom was eager to learn more about the Old Testament king who’d written the psalm he had just read. But even though Josiah was a preacher, he had no idea who David was. It wasn’t because he didn’t want to know. 

Josiah had never learned to read. And because he’d never learned to read, he’d never read the story of David. 

Josiah was afraid to admit to his son that he didn’t know because he didn’t want Tom to think less of him. He tried to give the boy a simple answer, one that hopefully had no follow-up questions. “He was a man of God, my son.” 

But the answer wasn’t what Tom was looking for. He already knew David was a man of God. But Tom wanted to know where David lived and what he did. How had David become a man of God? 

The questions came at Josiah like a whirlwind, so any chance to avoid the real answer became impossible. Finally, after minutes of listening to Tom’s pleading, he admitted that he didn’t know anything about David. 

But Tom saw deeper into Josiah’s admission. “Why, Father … can’t you read?” 

Josiah felt his spirit sink. To Tom, Josiah was the very definition of what it meant to be a man. He was the leader, the protector, the provider of his family. To admit to his son that there was something he couldn’t do … it was embarrassing. 

But Josiah couldn’t lie. He admitted the truth—he couldn’t read. 

“Why not?” Tom asked curiously. 

“Because I never had an opportunity to learn, nor anybody to teach me.” Back in America slaves were not allowed to have an education. They weren’t permitted to learn anything about letters and words. 

“Well,” Tom said. “You can learn now, Father.” 

Josiah wanted to laugh. He was nearly fifty years old. “I am too old, and have not time enough,” he said. “Still there is nobody to teach me.” 

But Tom wouldn’t accept any excuses. “Why, Father, I’ll teach you! I can do it, I know. And then you’ll know so much more that you will be able to talk better and preach better!” 

Josiah was shocked at his son’s persistence. He always knew he wanted his children to be more successful in life, and it was no surprise that someone like Tom would grow up to know more than him because of better opportunities. But to learn from his own son … learn a skill that most people mastered in childhood … he never expected such a turn of events. Fathers were supposed to instruct their children, not the other way around. 

But Josiah knew that Tom was right. Tom could help him. Their lessons began, and at first it wasn’t easy for Josiah to learn or for Tom to teach. But as the weeks and months passed, Josiah eventually learned to read, and the knowledge he acquired burned in him an even deeper passion to help others—especially those who had been denied an education because of slavery.  

“Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or turn away from them” (Proverbs 4:5 NIV). 

When you find you need help, are you willing to ask for it? Real strength comes from facing real weakness. 

Chapple, William. The Story of Uncle Tom. Dresden, Ontario, 1900. Internet Archive. Accessed  March 4, 2019. 

Neivman, Debra, ed. The African-American mosaic; a Library of Congress resource guide for the study of Black history and culture I. “Uncle Tom’s Story of His Life: An Autobiography of the Rev. Josiah Henson (Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom”)” London: Christian Age Office, 1876. Internet Archive. Accessed Web. March 4, 2019. 

Henson, Josiah. The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada, as Narrated by Himself. Boston: Arthur D. Phelps, 1849.  

The following passage is written by Josiah Henson, remembering the day his family was sold off one by one.  

The [man who owned the estate, Josiah’s mother and siblings] was riding from one of his scenes of riotous excess, when, falling from his horse, in crossing a little run, not a foot deep, he was unable to save himself from drowning. 

  In consequence of his decease, it became necessary to sell the estate and the slaves, in order to divide the property among the heirs; and we were all put up at auction and sold to the highest bidder, and scattered over various parts of the country. My brothers and sisters were bid off one by one, while my mother, holding my hand, looked on in an agony of grief, the cause of which  I but ill understood at first, but which dawned on my mind, with dreadful clearness, as the sale proceeded. My mother was then separated from me, and put up in her turn. She was bought by a man named Isaac R., residing in Montgomery county, and then I was offered to the assembled purchasers. My mother, half distracted with the parting forever from all her children, pushed through the crowd, while the bidding for me was going on, to the spot where R. was standing. She fell at his feet, and clung to his knees, entreating him in tones that a mother only could command, to buy her baby as well as herself, and spare to her one of her little ones at least. Will it, can it be believed that this man, thus appealed to, was capable not merely of turning a deaf ear to her supplication, but of disengaging himself from her with such violent blows and kicks, as to reduce her to the necessity of creeping out of his reach, and mingling the groan of bodily suffering with the sob of a breaking heart? Yet this was one of my earliest observations of men; an experience which has been common to me with thousands of my race, the bitterness of which its frequency cannot diminish to any individual who suffers it, while it is dark enough to overshadow the whole after-life with something blacker than a funeral pall.—I was bought by a stranger.—Almost immediately, however, whether my childish strength, at five or six years of age, was overmastered by such scenes and experiences, or from some accidental cause, I fell sick, and seemed to my new master so little likely to recover, that he proposed to R., the purchaser of my mother, to take me too at such a trifling rate that it could not be refused. I was thus providentially restored to my mother; and under her care, destitute as she was of the proper means of nursing me, I recovered my health, and grew up to be an uncommonly vigorous and healthy boy and man. 

September 19. Charles Spurgeon. When Charles was 19, a church asked him to come for a 6-month try-out as pastor. Charles agreed to a 3-month trial and said, “The congregation might not want me, and I do not wish to be a hindrance.” He stayed 38 years and brought more than 14,000 people in. 

Usually, Charles chose the theme for the Sunday-morning sermon the night before, took a single page of notes to the pulpit, and spoke about 140 words per minute for 40 minutes. The man could talk, and what he said, God used.  

Charles often preached 10 times in a week, and about 3,600 times in his lifetime. Though some criticized Charles for his active sense of humor, that wasn’t the whole story about him. Listen to this. 

Trapped in the dark? God knows where you are. He’ll equip you to lead others out. 

Charles felt wretched as he readied himself to preach the word of God one Sunday morning. 

His spirit was downcast; his heart was weighed down by an invisible burden. Whatever joy he had felt was gone, and the depression was like a dark cloud that hovered above his head, following him wherever he went. There was no sickness, no pain that caused such a depression—at least, not this time. 

Charles certainly didn’t love God less or feel as if he were leaving the faith. His life had been spotless, and no guilt kept him up at night. But, as Charles went about his days preaching and teaching the Word of God, he wondered if God had left him. Why did God allow His servant to fall into such a deep depression? 

Charles felt much sorrow, but instead of dwelling on it, he decided to speak about it in one of his sermons. He had felt forsaken, and he remembered that Jesus, too, had felt forsaken when he hung on the cross. Charles gathered whatever energy he could muster and took to the podium and preached about Jesus’ trial. Charles connected Jesus’ ordeal to the feelings he was now experiencing. 

Once the sermon was over, Charles stood in a room near the sanctuary and noticed a man coming toward him. He looked to be about sixty years old, with bright eyes filled with tears. 

Visibly shaken, the man took Charles’s hand in his own and held it, cried, and with a dazed look, he said, “Birds of a feather will flock together.” 

Charles was taken aback. What did the man mean? Was he mad? 

But then the man explained what he meant. “Nobody ever preached my experience before. I have now been for years in a horrible gloom of great darkness and could not find God, but this morning I learned that I was not the only man in the thick darkness.” He paused, a new glimmer of hope shining in his eyes. “And I believe that I shall get out.” 

Charles felt an understanding suddenly wash over him. God had not forsaken him like he thought. Even amidst the depression, there was still work to be done and a ministry to help others learn about the love and comfort of Christ. “Yes, that was the reason why I was put into the dark, that I might help you,” Charles said. The invisible burden that weighed him down earlier seemed to weaken. “And now that I know the reason,” he continued, “I am already out of the prison.” 

Charles continued to minister to the man over time, rescuing him from the brink of insanity and helping him to find his way back to his calling. But Charles found himself being rescued and learned that God was able to use him to help others with depression because he had experienced it himself. 

“You cannot help a man if you know nothing about him, and therefore the Lord sends you into many a thick wood and dark valley that you may meet with His own redeemed in their wanderings,” he said. “If you did not know the wilderness, how could you act as a guide through it?” 

Charles understood that depression could happen to anyone, even someone who loved Jesus with all his heart. But even though depression made his faith feel weak, God was able to use it and grow it into something strong to help others. “If you believe in Christ Jesus, though your faith be as a grain of mustard seed, it will save you, and it will, by and by, grow into something stronger.” 

“My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:26 NIV). 

Trapped in the dark? God knows where you are. He’ll equip you to lead others out. 

Spurgeon, Charles. “Our Leader Throught the Darkness.” Spurgeon Gems, Sermon #3370. September 4, 1913. https://​www.spurgeongems.org/​sermon/​chs3370. pdf. 

Spurgeon, Charles. “Encouragement for the Depressed.” Spurgeon Gems, Sermon #3489. December 9, 1915. https://​www.spurgeongems.org/​sermon/​chs3489. pdf. 

Would You Like to Learn More About This Man? 

Once—to test the church’s acoustics, Charles  yelled, “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.” A worker high in the rafters heard him and converted to Christianity! 

“These are dark days, but you can bring on a spiritual summertime if you know how to pray.” ~Charles Spurgeon 

Story read by: Daniel Carpenter 

Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter 

Audio production: Joel Carpenter 

Editor: Teresa Crumpton, https://authorspark.org/ 

Project manager: Blake Mattocks 

© 2020, 365 Christian Men. LLC. All rights reserved. 

September 18. GK Chesterton. Chesterton was an exuberant man, a keen debater, and a prolific writer—ninety books, ten novels, and many articles. Best known for his Father Brown mystery series, Chesterton was also a philosopher, lay theologian, and literary and art critic. He has a camp of followers and a camp of haters. Either way, he makes a reader think deeply. 

Chesterton knew how to have fun, and he knew how to do serious work. On this date in 1909, Chesterton influenced Ghandi about India’s independence. 

When weak thinking undermines truth, thinking people must speak up. 

Chesterton lived in an era of intellectualism when it was popular to debate in public, to trade witty barbs with your opponents, and to deny the existence of God. 

Chesterton was an intellectual, too, and a lover of the one true God. It was his duty and his calling to speak up against the lies being passed off as “the new truth.” 

Chesterton was a 300-pound, six-foot-four man, who wore a cape and tiny glasses “pinched to the end of his nose.” This was the day he would debate his greatest opponent—and respected friend—George Bernard Shaw. They would argue about what to believe and how to live. As he had often done, Chesterton would wield his favorite weapon: words. 

In an auditorium packed with a murmuring crowd, Chesterton lumbered toward the stage. Judging by the number of attendees, the gate had done well. It wouldn’t hurt his finances—if he had remembered to sign for his share of ticket sales. He couldn’t remember if he had. 

Chesterton crushed his cigar. Straightened his crumpled hat. Finger-combed his magnificent mustache. This was going to be fun. He stepped onto the stage. 

Shaw, with his snow-white hair and pressed black suit was Chesterton’s opposite. He was a vegetarian teetotaler, and he liked his cup of tea. Chesterton loved red meat, red wine, and a good cigar. But the important differences went deeper. 

For a long, long time in the Western world, most people had believed in a God, who was a person and who had created the universe and everything in it. It was a given. 

And this kind of thinking was called orthodoxy, which means “correct teaching.” But with the new wave of intellectualism, growing numbers of people called themselves atheists—who said, “there is no God” or agnostics—who said, “we can’t know whether there’s a god” or some ambiguous mix. Shaw called himself an agnostic. 

Chesterton argued that an all-powerful, all-wise Creator did indeed exist. And the all-good Creator had sent His Son to save the world. Chesterton said Christianity had not “been tried and found wanting;” it had been “found difficult and left untried.” 

Shaw said it was impossible for people to know whether a personal creator existed, and he actively promoted a Socialist agenda. The newspapers made a small fortune publishing the Chesterton-Shaw battles. And—not having TV or internet—people attended debates for the fun of watching these men try to outwit one another. 

With extra drama to entertain the audience, Chesterton cast his gaze at Shaw. “To look at you,” he said to Shaw, “anyone would think a famine had struck England.” 

Without a pause, Shaw responded, “To look at you, anyone would think you had caused it.” 

The audience roared. 

And so, the debate began. 

Both Chesterton and Shaw had been Socialists as very young men. But Chesterton grew up, denounced Socialism, and became a Christian. 

He chuckled. Despite their differences, he respected Shaw—and enjoyed matching his wit. They danced circles with words. The audience was always entertained. Chesterton and Shaw might banter, but they “would have died rather than really hurt” each other. 

The advertised debate topic varied. But the specific topic didn’t matter. Shaw would fight for “progress.” And he said progress could only happen if men threw aside all belief. 

Chesterton stood for reason and faith. He poked holes in Shaw’s theories. He believed his generation must “rediscover the reasons for believing” in God or humankind was “lost.” Chesterton’s admirers said he stepped into their confusion, turned “the tables on the heretics,” and exploded “their paper castles with a splutter of fireworks.” That was his plan. To fight for humanity by confronting its core problem—failing to believe in the one true God. He hoped his generation would “pay attention and gain understanding.” 

“Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction; pay attention and gain understanding. I give you sound learning, so do not forsake my teaching. For I too was a son to my father, still tender, and cherished by my mother. Then he taught me, and he said to me, ‘Take hold of my words with all your heart; keep my commands, and you will live’” (Proverbs 4:1–4 NIV). 

For that purpose—and because there was little else as delightful as intellectual debate—he had taken this stage. 

How do you confront weak thinking? When weak thinking undermines truth, thinking people must confront it. 

Chesterton, GK. The Everlasting Man. 1925, Reprinted by Project Gutenberg, 2001. Accessed May 7, 2020. http://​gutenberg.net.au/​ebooks01/​0100311. txt. 

Chesterton, Gilbert Keith. The G.K. Chesterton Collection. The Catholic Way Publishing, 2014. 

Story read by: Peter R Warren, https://www.peterwarrenministries.com/ 

Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter 

Audio production: Joel Carpenter 

Story written by: Paula Moldenhauer, http://paulamoldenhauer.com/ 

Editor: Teresa Crumpton, https://authorspark.org/ 

Project manager: Blake Mattocks 

© 2020, 365 Christian Men. LLC. All rights reserved. 

September 17. TD Jakes. When TD was a boy, the neighborhood kids called him “Bible Boy,” but because he had a speech impediment, grownups said he would never be a preacher. TD proved those grownups wrong, and he started preaching in a storefront church with only ten members. 

On this date in 2001, TD was featured on the cover of Time Magazine. He is now a pastor, author, and filmmaker. Today’s story shows an important event in his early life. 

Alone, we can get stuck, but together we can overcome obstacles. 

When TD was six, he had to run down a path of hard, Appalachian soil from his house to the school bus stop. Full of energy, TD had no problem running behind his house and down the street with the other kids. But there was an obstacle he just couldn’t get past. There was a giant boulder. 

Now, the other boys got themselves up and grabbed the edges of the rock and pulled themselves over the boulder to the other side, and they caught the school bus. But when TD got to the boulder, he froze. 

That boulder was so big that every time he looked at it, he was filled with fear. Fear of slipping and falling. Fear of getting bruised or cut. Fear of getting trapped in the blackberry bushes that grew on both sides of the boulder. No matter how much he wanted to climb like the other boys, his feet just wouldn’t budge. Fear held him in place. 

Every day, he would run down the path—and he would be stopped by the boulder. Day after day he ran home with plenty of tears and the sounds of the other boys mocking him in the distance. He felt defeated. Humiliated. Overwhelmed. The only way he could get over the boulder was if his mom or dad would lift him over it. Double humiliating. 

A new day. Another trek down the path. That boulder would be waiting for him. Of course, the guys would have new insults for the new day. 

But this time when TD saw the boulder up ahead, he stopped. His eyes and his mouth rounded. His two-hundred-sixty-pound father was whacking the boulder with a sledge hammer! Thwack. Thwomp. On and on he swung, chipping away rock, bit by bit, until a stairway formed. Before long, TD could step onto the boulder himself, climb the newly made stairs over the boulder, and slide down to the other side where the pathway to the bus stop was clear. 

TD looked at his father like a hero that day, and the boulder never gave him a problem again. But his father had also taught a valuable lesson: his father had helped him, so he could help other people. “Little did I know that I would spend the rest of my life with a mallet and pick in my hands trying to help people who were stuck at their own big rocks, helping them over their hurdles into the field of their dreams.” 

TD kept the lesson close to his heart for years to come and incorporated it into his ministry. “God has invested a great deal in you,” he wrote, “and for all the Creator has put in you, there is only one thing God wants to know: ‘What will you do with what I gave you?’” 

“I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw” (Proverbs 24:32 NIV). 

What unexpected lesson is God trying to teach you? Look for it in the obstacles. Alone, we can get stuck, but together we can overcome obstacles. 

Jakes, T.D. “Destiny: Step into Your Purpose.” New York: Faith Words, 2016. 

Jakes, T.D. “He-Motions: Even Strong Men Struggle.” New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2004. 

Story read by: Blake Mattocks 

Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter 

Audio production: Joel Carpenter 

Story written by: Paula Moldenhauer, http://paulamoldenhauer.com/ 

Editor: Teresa Crumpton, https://authorspark.org/ 

Project manager: Blake Mattocks 

© 2020, 365 Christian Men. LLC. All rights reserved. 

September 16. Matt Krueger. Matt was a hard-driving accountant. He was still a very young man when he had a close encounter of the God kind, and it changed his life forever. Here’s his story. 

You can’t fight an enemy you don’t know exists, and you can’t fight a battle you don’t know you’re in. 

The nurses kept coming back. The results must be wrong. They ran the tests three times. With normal cholesterol levels around 100 to 150, they couldn’t believe that healthy eighteen-year-old Matt’s was over 400. He was a candidate for coronary artery disease. For Matt, it was just business as usual … keep on drinking because life is short; party hard! 

Matt was too busy getting on with life to let a medical test interrupt his wild lifestyle. He was in great shape playing sports and he just shrugged off the results and ignored God. He was having too much fun to be bothered with church and a relationship with God. 

A few years later, Matt had a heart scan. So much plaque had built up in his arteries that the doctor warned him that he needed immediate surgery. He could have a heart attack or stroke at any moment. The shock overwhelmed him as he came face-to-face with his mortality. The fear of dying during surgery consumed him. What would happen; where would he go? Heaven or hell? The thoughts tormented him, and he put off the surgery. 

But Matt’s fear of death began to wreak havoc on his marriage. He could only focus on himself and his wife Marina was left on the outside. She felt like she couldn’t meet his expectations. His fear was becoming a wedge between them. Where was this all headed? 

In desperation Matt followed Marina’s lead and started going to church and listening to Christian radio. Finally, the fear became too much for the whole family and he scheduled the surgery. The surgeon was successful in opening up Matt’s arteries, but his fear of dying only got worse. Any pain he felt—he thought was a sign of a heart attack until one morning it finally all came to a head. 

“After planting a tree, the previous day, I thought I experienced pain in my left shoulder and arm. Again, fear, anxiety, and paralysis took hold of my mind that morning. I thought this was the big one.” 

This time, however, Matt’s fear turned to strength, determination, and resolve. Falling on his knees Matt gave his life to Jesus. “If this was really a heart attack, I asked Jesus to save me in the life to come, and if not, I pledged my belief in him in this life, as well.” 

The pain left, and at that moment an overwhelming peace and a fighting determination welled up in Matt. He finally stood up to the bully that had been hounding him for years. “I remember in my prayer that day, literally telling the devil to go pick on someone else. I finally knew who he was, and I was finished with allowing him to torment me.” 

It was no longer about Matt … it was about Jesus. His battle with the enemy’s condemnation was over. His struggle with the fear of dying ended when his knees hit the sidewalk that morning. Matt’s past life of running from God ended, and his new life in Jesus began. 

Marina was the first to notice the change. “He became selfless. Matt has a heart for God and a heart to serve. He is 110 percent opposite of who he used to be.” 

Today Matt and Marina have a strong marriage and family. He lives for serving Christ and sharing his testimony in word and music … standing up to the enemy and standing for Christ. 

“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9 NIV). 

Are you ignoring the obvious? You are in danger of living in denial, look in the mirror. You can’t fight an enemy you don’t know exists, and you can’t fight a battle you don’t know you’re in. 

Copen, Lisa and Matt Krueger. “Faith Begins When Worry Ends, The Story of Matt Krueger.” Rest Ministries. April 7, 2011. http://restministries.com/blog/2011/04/07/faith-begins-when-worry-ends-the-story-of-matt-krueger/.  

Krueger, Matt. Matt Krueger Music. Accessed May 7, 2020. http://mattkruegermusic.com/the-music/. 

Matt Krueger: The Heart of the Matter. Christian Broadcasting Network. Accessed May 7, 2020. https://www1.cbn.com/700club/matt-krueger-heart-matter.  

Story read by: Joel Carpenter 

Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter 

Audio production: Joel Carpenter 

Editor: Teresa Crumpton, https://authorspark.org/ 

Project manager: Blake Mattocks 

© 2020, 365 Christian Men. LLC. All rights reserved. 

September 14. William McKinley. In 1861, McKinley was a 17-year-old teacher in a country school when the Civil War broke out, and he enlisted. By the end of the war in 1865, he was a major. By 1897, he had become the 25th President of the United States. He was a man who knew his duty and did it. On this date in 1901, McKinley died from a gunshot wound, a wound inflicted by an assassin. 

Faithfulness to God demands daily decisions. 

In July of 1864, 21-year-old Second Lieutenant McKinley found himself on Lieutenant Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes’s staff, currently in the Virginia valley near Kernstown. 

The Confederates began firing. 

The Union army, having underestimated the South’s strength, retreated. Hayes turned to McKinley, a young man he had come to think of as a son, and gave him a task—a dangerous task that would require more courage than Lieutenant McKinley had ever shown. 

“There’s a regiment caught in the orchard, still under fire,” Hayes told McKinley. “We need them to move into retreat—if they haven’t already fallen.” 

Years before, McKinley had given his life to the Lord. And he had no doubt of the rightness of the North’s cause. So he put his life in God’s hands and simply mounted his horse and took off toward the advancing enemy and the stranded regiment. 

In spite of the constant shelling from the enemy, McKinley charged across open fields while his fellow officers watched in concern. The young man directed his mount to sail over fences in plain view. To forge through ditches. To keep moving forward. 

The air filled with vapor from the barrage of cannons, and shells whizzed all around. Then one exploded very near to him; the smoke obscured him from view. All the officers who marked his progress flinched, for Lieutenant McKinley was a favorite with everyone, enlisted and officer alike. They feared Lieutenant Colonel Hayes had sent the promising young man to his death. 

Then suddenly, “Out of this smoke emerged his wiry little brown horse with McKinley still firmly seated and as erect as a hussar.” (That’s a Hungarian horseman.) 

Hope soared as McKinley reached the orchard. Once there, he directed the stray regiment to join the retreat. After one last volley with the enemy, the regiment followed McKinley to safety. They soon fell in line with their brigade to march back to a more secure position. 

Young McKinley returned to the side of his commanding officer. Hayes turned to him, “I never expected to see you in life again,” he said. 

McKinley simply smiled, acknowledging he had done the duty asked of him for the sake of the men in that regiment. 

“We know love by this, that [Jesus] laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 John 3:16 NASB). 

Faithfulness to God demands daily decisions. Can you be counted on? 

Freidel, Frank, and Hugh Sidey. “William McKinley.” The White House. Accessed July 1, 2020. https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/william-mckinley/. 

Hawks, Steve A. “Two Future U.S. Presidents Fight at Kernstown wayside marker.” Stone Sentinels. Accessed July 1, 2020. http://stonesentinels.com/less-known/battles-of-kernstown/two-future-presidents-wm/. 

Story read by: Daniel Carpenter 

Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter 

Audio production: Joel Carpenter 

Story written by: Shelli Mandeville, https://worthy.life/ 

Editor: Teresa Crumpton, https://authorspark.org/ 

Project manager: Blake Mattocks 

© 2020, 365 Christian Men, LLC. All rights reserved.