Episode | 365 Christian Men

April 17. Bob Goff. Bob is a lawyer, professor, and a NY Times best-selling author. In 2003, Bob founded Restore International, a non-profit human rights organization, to “find daring, productive, and effective ways to fight the injustices committed against children.” His goal is to restore justice to those without a voice—children and poor people. He provides legal assistance, education, and food.

His books encourage others to live extraordinary lives, too. On this date in 2018, Bob released his second book, Everybody Always.

In spite of his busy schedule, Bob makes himself more available, not less, to those who want to talk to him, which means almost a million readers have his cell-phone number. He says that living with constant interruptions is what Jesus did.

Taking a bigger step may be the seed that grows the impossible.

Bob Goff calls himself “a recovering lawyer.” With a passion to spread love everywhere he goes and to encourage others to do the same, he lives out the Gospel at every opportunity. Whether helping a dying widow cross off bucket-list items or defending helpless children from witch doctors, Bob’s life is defined by love in action.

In Uganda, witch doctors have an unofficial immunity. They can torment anyone they want for their own gain. Young boys are of particular interest to them because the boys’ body parts are believed to give them added power. Children are disappearing every week, and the government’s efforts to stop this do little good. This practice has been going on for centuries, and in the last decade, it’s been getting worse.

Kabi, the leader of the witch doctors in the north, was on the move, and eight-year-old Charlie was his next victim. This case was different from a thousand others only because this time Charlie lived to talk about what the witch doctors did to him. Now Bob had a case.

With a deep love for children, and 25 years as a lawyer, Bob stepped in to get Kabi prosecuted and bring this evil system to justice. Kabi went to prison for life. This was the first time in Ugandan history this had happened.

But Charlie’s family abandoned him because of the atrocity, and Bob became Charlie’s legal guardian.

“The minute he attacked Charlie, Kabi became my enemy,” Bob said. “It’s easy to talk a good game about loving your enemies until you have one. I realized if I wanted big things to happen in my life, I’d need to take bigger steps and risk more than I had before, so I decided to visit Kabi in prison.”

With the same love that compelled Bob to love Charlie, Bob walked in to Luzira Maximum Security Prison, where Kabi had been incarcerated, one of the scariest places on the planet, and asked to see Kabi.

“Kabi entered the dark room where I was waiting,” Bob said. “He had no shoes and was wearing a torn, dirty prison uniform.” He seemed remorseful.

He told Bob, “I know I am going to die in this place; what I need is forgiveness.” Kabi came to Christ in that dark room and began to learn about Jesus.

During his next prison visit, Bob asked the warden if they could share Jesus with the men in Luzira. “At first he waved me off, but then, as if I’d done a Jedi move, he said he’d let Kabi talk to them.” Bob and Kabi soon found themselves standing before the 3,000 death-row prisoners.

Not as enemies, but as brothers, Bob held Kabi’s hand as Kabi shared what Jesus had done in him. “Every guy in that place knew who Kabi was and what he had done, and more than a few knew I was the guy who put him there.” When Kabi finished speaking, hundreds of men walked toward them. The men on death row wanted to know about this Jesus who could reconcile such obvious enemies. <.p>

“But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you,” (Luke 6: 27–28, NIV).

Are there enemies in your life God is asking you to forgive? Taking a bigger step may be the seed that grows the impossible.

“Bob Goff Author Profile.” New Release Today. June 30, 2012. https://www.newreleasetoday.com/authordetail.php?aut_id=1018

Rogers, Joshua. “Five Questions With Bob Goff.” Boundless. Focus on the Family. October 13, 2014.

https://www.boundless.org/blog/five-questions-with-a-new-york-times-best-selling-author/

Seither, Marci. “Bob Goff’s Audacious Parenting Adventure.” Focus on the Family. November 1, 2017.

https://www.focusonthefamily.com/Bparenting/Bbob-goffs-audacious-parenting-adventure/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/09/26/witch-doctors-sacrificing-children-drought-stricken-african-country-uganda/703756001/

https://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2011/s3344511.htm

Everyone Always, Bob Goff, Nashville, Tennessee, Nelson Books, 2018

http://www.100huntley.com/watch?id=227620 Exclusive interview with Bob Goff

Story read by Nathan Walker
Story written by: Toni M Babcock, https://www.facebook.com/toni.babcock.1

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April 16. Richard Baxter. On this date in 1641, Baxter began his 17-year-long pastorate at Kidderminster.

He was a man full of contrasts. In church matters, he was a non-conformist (not an Anglican), but he always urged the church to be united. In theological matters, he adopted positions that suited neither the Calvinists nor the Armenians. In political matters, he supported the monarchy, but he served as chaplain to the Parliamentary Army.

Baxter was a simple parish pastor, yet he was the most prominent English churchman of the 1600s. Although he was largely self-taught, he wrote more than 200 works.

More than 400 years after his death, pastors urge other pastors to read and reflect on this model shepherd whose motto was, “In necessary things, unity; in doubtful things, liberty; in all things, charity.”

Affliction can prepare ordinary men for extraordinary tasks.

His whole life, Richard Baxter suffered from chronic illness that left him weak and uncertain if he’d breathe a next breath.

But when he was 23, he so badly wanted to help people know Jesus that he decided to go into the ministry. He said, “Expecting to be so quickly in another world, the great concernments of miserable souls, did prevail with me against all these impediments …” Baxter believed that if God used him to win one or two souls to Christ, it would be worth all his suffering.

He wanted to minister to an area where people hadn’t already heard the gospel, and this led him to the people of Kidderminster—a town of 800 families made up of crude-handloom workers. The place was infamous for its ignorance and depravity.

After Baxter preached his first sermon with scarcely one family from each street in attendance, he was unanimously elected minister. He spoke on the importance of church discipline and taking the Lord’s Supper. Though he had little education, he was a compelling speaker. His immense knowledge was evident. He could readily quote from any of the hundreds of books that lined his shelves.

Baxter went from house to house. The families he visited seriously thought about the things Baxter shared, and many of them cried.

Baxter said, “Some ignorant persons, who have been so long unprofitable hearers, have got more knowledge and remorse of conscience in half an hour’s close disclosure, than they did from ten year’s public preaching.” He’d leave a chosen book or two from his library for each family to read.

Soon, great crowds flocked to hear Baxter, even though his sermons were an hour long, and he read straight from a manuscript. The building held 1,000, and it was soon full. The crowds grew so much that five galleries had to be built to accommodate all of the people. On any given day, hundreds of families were singing psalms or repeating Sunday sermons in their homes.

Concerning the rapid growth Baxter said, “When I first entered on my labors, I took special notice of every one that was humbled, reformed, or converted; when I had labored long it pleased God that the converts were so many … families and considerable numbers at once came in and grew up I scarce knew how.”

“[Jacob] named the second Ephraim, ‘For,’ he said, ‘God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction,’” (Genesis 41: 52, ASV).

Baxter continued to have pain, but instead of growing bitter, he saw his pains as blessings God used to mold him for greater ministry. He said, “I humbly bless his gracious providence, who gave me his treasure in an earthen vessel and trained me up in the school of affliction.…” This he said allowed him to preach with compassion “as a dying man, to dying men.”

How are you allowing God to use the tool of affliction in your life to prepare you for the extraordinary tasks that lie ahead? Affliction can prepare ordinary men for extraordinary tasks.

Beeke, Joel, and Randall J. Pederson. “Richard Baxter.” Meet the Puritans. Reformation Heritage Books. Monergism.com. Accessed August 1, 2020.

https://www.monergism.com

Belli, Andrew. “Richard Baxter: 400 Years Later, Still a Model Pastor.” The Gospel Coalition. November 12, 2015.

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/richard-baxter-400-years-later-still-model-pastor/

“Richard Baxter: Moderate in an Age of Extremes.” Christianity Today. Accessed August 1, 2020.

C. Syndney Carter, Great Churchmen: Richard Baxter, (London: Church Book Room Press, Ltd. , n.d. ), p.6

Brister, Tim. Who Is Richard Baxter? 4 November 2008. 1 January 2019.

http://timmybrister.com/2008/11/who-is-richard-baxter

Hulse, Erroll. Banner of Truth. 18 January 2005. 29 December 2018.

https://banneroftruth.org/us/resources/articles/2005/the-zeal-of-richard-baxter

Hulse, Erroll. 2005. Banner of Truth. January 18. Accessed December 29, 2018 https://banneroftruth.org/us/resources/articles/2005/the-zeal-of-richard-baxter/

Bacon, L. (1931). Select Practical Writings of Richard Baxter with a Life of The Author. New Haven: Durrie & Peck. Accessed 9 Dec. 2018.

https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=ldkOAAAAIAAJ&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA

Story read by Daniel Carpenter

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April 15. Jackie Robinson. Jackie was playing in an all-Black league, when someone was man enough to ask the uber-star-athlete Jackie Robinson to come in for an interview with the Dodgers. The agent Clyde Sukeforth was sent to see Jackie play. Unfortunately, Jackie was recovering from a shoulder injury and didn’t play.

Sukeforth brought Jackie back to New York anyway, and people commented that they were scouting a man’s character more than baseball skills. To get Jackie to the meeting, Sukeforth had to pay $2 to an operator to allow Jackie to use the whites-only elevator. They took a train overnight, and the fact that the two men—one Black and one white—shared the Pullman car turned heads. It was the start of change that was long over-due.

On this date in 1947, at significant personal risk, Jackie Robinson became the first African American to play Major League Baseball. It was the Dodgers against the Boston Braves, and Jackie played first base. More than 25,000 spectators at Ebbets Field watched 28-year-old Jackie make his Major League Baseball debut.

Opportunity and trouble can have a common denominator: Risk.

In America, in 1945, we had the Jim Crow laws—a collection of state and local laws that made racial segregation legal. While many Americans wanted to end the shameful practice of segregation, others fought to keep things the same. And baseball was one of the most segregated sports. Talented black athletes didn’t even dream of playing in the majors.

But when Dodgers’ scout Clyde Sukeforth leaned over the dugout, introduced himself to Jackie, and said he represented the Dodgers, Jackie had to risk dreaming.

At first Jackie, who played in the professional Negro league, blew-off Sukeforth. He told his teammates about the encounter, and they all had a good laugh.

After the game, Jackie dressed with one thought in mind: dinner. But Sukeforth waited outside the dressing room. Jackie tried to ignore him, but the man was so respectful that Jackie had to listen to him.

“Sukeforth … was ready to take me on the most important journey I’d ever taken,” Jackie later wrote. “ … to [Branch Rickey] … who could grant me an opportunity in a field never before opened to my people.”

But the decision was shrouded in risk. Jackie would have to walk away from his present success—and steady paycheck. If he went with Sukeforth and failed, he’d be the laughing stock of baseball. The guy dumb enough to believe a Negro might get a chance to play in the Majors.

But what if he could?

In the night sky, a brilliant star drew his gaze. “Maybe that star is especially bright for you tonight,” thought Jackie. “Maybe Someone is trying to lead you. Maybe He is up there trying to tell you to go see Mr. Rickey.” Jackie risked a new dream, and the sparkling star seemed to shine right on him.

Branch Rickey, Dodger’s President, offered Jackie a straight path to the majors. But first he was brutally candid about Jackie’s future, acting out scenarios of racial hatred with such fervor that Jackie found himself chain-gripping his fingers behind his back.

Rickey asked Jackie if he was man enough to turn the other check. “We can only win if we can convince the world … you’re a great ballplayer and a fine gentleman. You will symbolize a crucial cause. One incident, just one incident, can set it back twenty years.”

Robinson risked another life-altering decision, “If you want to take this gamble, I will promise you there will be no incident.” And there wasn’t.

God saw beyond society’s limitations to the future He’d planned for Jackie. God sees more for you than your circumstances dictate, too.

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end,” (Jeremiah 29: 11, ASV).

How can you cooperate with God’s plans for your future? Opportunity and trouble can have a common denominator: Risk.

Jackie Robinson: My Own Story. http://www.historynet.com/jackie-robinson

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

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April 14. Chad Robichaux. Chad has been a Force Recon Marine—eight deployments in Afghanistan. He has been a detective—that is a Surveillance Detection Senior Program Manager with the US State Department and a Special Agent with the US Federal Air Marshal Service—and received the Medal of Valor. He has been a professional Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) World Champion, and he is a third-degree black belt.

Chad is president and founder of Mighty Oaks Foundation, a nonprofit organizations that serves military and first-responder communities. The Foundation offers faith-based combat trauma and resiliency programs, and they see lives healed.

Chad has spoken to more than 150,000 active-duty troops and led life-saving programs for more than 3,300 active military and veterans.

He has written five best-selling books related to veteran care. Is it any wonder his life-story is being made into a feature-length movie?

Things could have gone differently. That could have been a terribly short movie. Here’s how it went.

Success isn’t final. Failure’s not fatal. What counts is the guts to keep going.

Chad Robichaux, the golden-boy Force Recon Marine, sat in a dark closet with his gun, and he could only think of one way out. Eight tours in Afghanistan had trashed his life.

Chad thought about all the evil he’d seen day after day, what one man can do to another, what hatred can do to a culture, what the constant violence had done to him.

Chad couldn’t make sense of it, couldn’t process it, couldn’t live with it. He’d gone to Afghanistan to do something right. So how had he come back so filled with evil?

He couldn’t be that man full of pain and hate in Afghanistan and then come home to his family and suddenly be someone different.

The man who came home said and did hateful things, and he didn’t care that he said and did hateful things. Here, in the dark, in the closet, alone with his gun, Chad wondered why he didn’t care.

At the end of his last tour of duty, he’d lost control, and his life crashed down around him. Repeatedly he felt numb in his face, hands, and feet. He felt like his airway was swelling shut, and he had full-blown panic attacks. He couldn’t remember things. ““I was a runaway train looking for a place to crash.”

Chad morphed from the really ugly person Afghanistan had made him to a weak-and-broken man. He was removed from the task force—like going from the star player to being kicked out of the game. They sent him home to face a new enemy … Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Chad’s pride was shattered. Being sent home left a big void in his life that he had to fill.

He thought mastering Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) was an answer. And for a while it worked. It didn’t give him time to think about Afghanistan. He did become a world champion, but it didn’t solve his problem.

Chad’s failure to deal with the issues that brought on PTSD resulted in separating from Kathy, selling their home, and planning for divorce. Their children were devastated.

While he sat in the closet, thinking how could he take his life and make it look like an accident to spare his children, Kathy turned to her relationship with God. She prayed for Him to let her see Chad the way He did, to help her to forgive him as God forgave him.

And God answered.

Holding divorce papers, Kathy knocked on the closet door. When Chad opened it, she asked him, “How could you do all the things you have done in the military, in Afghanistan, and as an MMA fighter and never quit, but when it came to our family you quit?”

Chad had never been called a quitter. But she was right; he’d quit being a husband and a father. PTSD had stranded him on the edge of a cliff, and he was the one responsible.

At that moment Chad decided he wanted to live again. There was a fight to win, and it was the biggest of his life. “My wife had fought for me when I was weak, and now it was my turn to fight for her.” When Chad submitted his life to Christ and walked in relationship with Him, he discovered that PTSD no longer controlled his life.

Now, Chad and Kathy help veterans and their families get victory over PTSD through their Mighty Oaks Warrior Program. They share their story of hope to end the tragedy of 22 veterans committing suicide every day and the failure of 80 percent of marriages in the military.

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh,” (Ezekiel 36: 26, NIV).

Are you trying to survive on your own? Success isn’t final. Failure’s not fatal. What counts is the guts to keep going.

This story is based on an interview with Craig Garland.

Story read by Blake Mattocks
Story written by: Thomas Mitchellhttp://www.walkwithgod.org/

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April 13. George Frideric Handel. Handel wrote operas, large-scale choral works, church music, and oratorios—large-scale musical works for orchestra and voices often with religious theme.

But George’s passion and talent couldn’t be denied. By the time he was 10, he had mastered composing for the organ, oboe, and violin. He later added the harpsichord.

George became an international figure, famous in Italy, Germany, and England. He experienced bankruptcy, suffered two mild strokes, regained both health and fortune, and helped establish what is now the Royal Society of Musicians. In 1750, he lost sight in his left eye. In 1752, he lost sight in his right eye. But blindness couldn’t stop him, and he continued to compose until he died in 1759.

On this date in 1742, his greatest oratorio Messiah debuted in Dublin.

With a vision from God, endure the critics. The vision’s time will come.

You’d think a man of genius like George Frederic Handel would have it all. But it wasn’t success that set the backdrop for Handel’s Messiah, one of the most powerful musical compositions in history.

When Handel was 56, he wondered if he’d just given his last concert. Life’s circumstances overwhelmed him. Like many of us do when things get tough, Handel considered giving up.

In the spring of 1741 debtor’s prison loomed before Handel. Four years before, overwork and anxiety brought on an attack of paralysis, and the resulting bankruptcy nearly destroyed him. While his work had since gained some acclaim, he was at odds with the Church of England. Debt, depression, and the compulsion to eat, not compose, filled his days.

What had gone wrong? Too much entrepreneurial spirit? Mixing his love for Bible stories with his love for theater? Much of his demise stemmed from the censure of the religious elite.

When he’d released the oratorio Esther, the religious leaders were furious, and they declared Scripture belonged in the church, not the theater. When Israel in Egypt released, they ripped down concert fliers and disrupted performances.

Handel pushed against their attempts to silence him. Setting Scripture to music and sharing it with the masses brought him joy. A good Lutheran, he read Scripture for himself and was at peace. The church need not define his choices.

But passion-of-purpose didn’t pay the bills. And for Handel, depression had become the norm.

Then one day a wealthy friend Charles Jennings came to visit with an interesting proposal—a libretto he’d taken directly from Scripture in an effort to establish the deity of Christ. Would Handel compose the music?

He would. When he was later promised a generous commission to compose for a charity benefit, he set to work. Once again Handel would put Scripture to music for performance in a public venue.

For nearly three weeks Handel didn’t leave his London home. He composed at a feverish pace, emotional, often leaving his food untouched.

After he finished the Hallelujah Chorus, tears streamed down his face. “I did think I did see all Heaven before me and the great God Himself,” he said. On page 259 of Messiah, the last of a work with an estimated quarter of a million notes, Handel penned “SDG” or Soli Deo Gloria—To God Alone the Glory.

Later he quoted the Apostle Paul, “Whether I was in the body or out of my body when I wrote it I know not.”

Handel’s Messiah debuted in Dublin. Men left their swords at home, and women didn’t wear hoops under their skirts, so an additional 100 people could squeeze into Fishamble Street Musick Hall. The overcapacity crowd of 700 wasn’t disappointed.

The Dublin Journal said Messiah, “conspired to transport and charm the ravished Heart and Ear.” The concert raised more than 400 pounds, which was used to free 142 men from debtor’s prison.

While it took a while for the religious of London to fully embrace Messiah, eventually it became a mainstay during the Christmas season. Handel grew wealthy and successful—and often alleviated the suffering of others through generous donations.

In 1759 Handel gave his last performance to a thunderous ovation. As the people cheered, Handel cried out, “Not from me … but from Heaven … comes all.”

“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world,” (John 16: 33, NLT).

Has God given you a vision of something to accomplish? With a vision from God, endure the critics. The vision’s time will come.

Biography.com Editors. “George Frideric Handel Biography.” The Biography.com website. A&E Television Networks. Updated June 16, 2020. Accessed August 1, 2020. https://www.biography.com/musician/george-handel.

Cudworth, Charles. “George Frideric Handel: German-English Composer.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Britannica.com. Accessed August 1, 2020. https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Frideric-Handel/Music .

Spiritual lives of the Great Composers, Patrick Kavanaugh, 1992,1996, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids Michigan.

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=880893

Story read by Nathan Walker

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April 12. Robert Murray M’Cheyne. Two resolutions marked Robert’s ministry. One: Never rest until you accomplish your task. Two: Never hurry in a way that prevents the Holy Spirit from calming your heart.

Robert—the son of a Scottish lawyer—spent his early life in comfort and luxury, but when his older brother died, Robert looked for a life of deep communion with God.

He got his education and entered the ministry. From the outset, Robert suffered from frequent illness and sensed that his time on earth would be short. But he was determined to make every moment count. His life had been saved by Jesus, and it belonged to Jesus. Robert wouldn’t waste a minute.

About this resolution, he wrote, “As I was walking in the fields, the thought came over me with almost overwhelming power, that every one of my flock must soon be in heaven or hell.”

With some friends, on this date in 1839, Robert left London for a six-month journey to Palestine. It was a fact-finding mission to learn about the spiritual condition of the Jewish people living there. Today’s story starts with Robert returning from his trip. It was time to tell his congregation all about the trip, right?

A life lived for God’s glory leaves an eternal legacy.

When Robert returned from an exhausting—yet very fruitful—six-month missionary journey ministering to the Jews in Israel, M’Cheyne made his way to his church, gave thanks to the Lord, encouraged his flock, and then led them in prayer. After this, he preached for an hour.

Although a great revival had occurred during his absence under the ministry of his assistant William Burns, M’Cheyne was unwilling for even a single member of his church to miss out on the grace of salvation. “He seized that opportunity, not to tell of his journeyings, but to show the way of life to sinners.”

When he left the church that night, he found the road to his house blocked by congregants who were waiting to welcome him back. Did he politely greet them and go on home for a much-needed respite?

M’Cheyne shook hands with every one of them, many at the same time, and since they’d gathered, he felt compelled to speak some words of life to them again. Out on the road, he stood and prayed with them as long as they would pray.

A month later, when preaching at his church one Sunday afternoon, M’Cheyne once again demonstrated his unyielding passion for the Lord when he said, “Dearly beloved, I now begin another year of my ministry among you; and I am resolved, if God give me health and strength, that I will not let a man, woman, or child among you alone, until you have at least heard the testimony of God concerning his Son, either to your condemnation or salvation.”

M’Cheyne died four years later during an epidemic of typhus. He was 29 years old, and his ministry had lasted less than six-and-a-half years. But although his life and work were short, much like our Lord Jesus,’ his influence has been longlasting.

M’Cheyne did not let anything distract him from pursuing Christ every day, not even the intense suffering he endured in his body.

“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom,” (Psalm 90: 12, NIV).

Today, his powerful sermons, love for the Word of God, and life of communion with Christ still inspire countless believers worldwide.

Are you making every day count for Jesus? A life lived for God’s glory leaves an eternal legacy.

“Robert Murray M’Cheyne: His Life.” Banner of Truth, Issue 4, December 1955, pp. 14–23. Transcribed for digital transmission by David F. Haslam. Copyright 2019. Accessed August 1, 2020. https://www.mcheyne.info/his-life/.

Bonar, Andrew. Memoir and Remains of Robert Murray M’Cheyne. Banner of Truth, 1966

https://www.mcheyne.info/life.php

Story read by Blake Mattocks

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April 11. Anthony Ashley Cooper. Anthony was the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury. He came to be a Christian through the care of his first best friend –an old family servant who loved the Lord.

Anthony believed the true responsibilities of Christian aristocrats included caring for the bodies and the souls of those entrusted to their oversight. He devoted himself to political, legal, and social reforms that would improve the lives of factory workers, miners, chimney sweeps, and agricultural laborers. Anthony tackled the Poor Law, public health laws, and lunacy laws—to make them more humane.

In Parliament, he introduced an act that would outlaw employing of women and children underground in coal mines.

On this date in 1844, Anthony founded the Ragged School Union, an alliance of British ragged schools designed to provide educational and other services for children too poor and too “ragged” to obtain those services anywhere else.

What a man believes shows in what he does.

Anthony, strode down the uneven street in the dimly-lit London neighborhood. Ill-clad women dashed to find an alcove to block the icy wind, and crop-headed jailbirds pulled up coat collars—if they had one.

Behind the earl marched a small, determined group of modestly dressed men. Though none were men of means, they did what they could.

Ashley believed, “a man’s religion, if it is worth anything, should enter into every sphere of life and rule his conduct.” He fought for the dignity of mankind with Legislation in the House of Commons. He fought for better schools for destitute children. He fought in person on these dismal streets.

“For the poor will never cease to be in the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall freely open your hand to your brother, to your needy and poor in your land,” (Deuteronomy 15: 11, NASB)

The great clock at St. Paul’s Cathedral had already clanged midnight before the men began tonight’s mission. In silence they walked toward Victoria Arches—the Vagrant’s Hiding Place. These dismal vaults built into the riverbank made a poor substitute for a home, but where else could the poor find shelter?

The men arrived at the Arches, and Ashley sucked in a quick breath. The shielded expressions of his men reflected the pain he felt. He nodded to the one who’d brought the candles, and the man solemnly passed them out. After they were lit, Ashley led the group into the gloom of the brick archways.

It took a moment for Ashley’s eyes to adjust. While he fought for focus, foul-smelling vagrants pushed past him, rushing outside, away from the candlelight. Others crept backward from its bright circle.

Rats scurried into the dark, and Ashley swallowed hard. The impoverished people were crammed together, some on smelly straw, others on bare earth. As the glow fell upon them, most turned to hide dirty faces and pulled tattered garments closer.

A wave of grief assaulted Ashley, and he shrugged it off. He couldn’t rescue all of them, but he could reach a few. According to their plan, Ashley’s men spread out and looked for the youngest of the vagrants. The men spoke kindly, but with authority, and they gathered about thirty boys, who responded more from fear than trust.

The men herded their young charges out of the vaults and down the crooked London Streets.

It was close to two in the morning by the time they reached the warmth of Field Lane School. Ashley was especially affected by two small boys huddled together, eyes wide. He asked to sit between them, and they slowly parted. With gentle questions, he learned their stories.

The youngest, only eight, remembered better days before his father died, but he’d spent most of the last year sleeping on the dirt floor in the Arches until the other, not much older, had shared his straw. It was a small comfort, but straw was better than bare ground. They weren’t brothers by blood, but poverty had created the bond of brotherhood, and now they looked after each other.

Ashley’s eyes misted. He comforted the boys, and the terror in their eyes gradually diminished. When he explained that they no longer had to live in the Arches—that they would have a warm bed and an education, the astonished boys cried.

Ashley looked away to hide his own tears. There were more boys to rescue, and he would keep fighting poverty on every front.

In what ways does your belief system dictate your actions? What a man believes shows in what he does.

Hammond, J.L., and Barbara Bradby Hammond. Lord Shaftesbury. London: Constable, 1923. Hathi Trust Digital Library, SUNY Potsdam. Accessed August 1, 2020.

The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. “Ragged School.” Encyclopedia Britannica. June 25, 2008. https://www.britannica.com/topic/ragged-school. Accessed August 1, 2020.

The Life and Work of the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury K. G., Edwin Hodder, 1893, Cassell and Co Limited, London, Paris, Melbourne. For free online viewing visit: https://archive.org/details/lifeworkofsevent00hoddiala/

The Nuttall Encyclopædia, James Wood, ed. (1907). To access this entry online visit: https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmXoypizjW3WknFiJnKLwHCnL72vedxjQkDDP1mXWo6uco/wiki/Ragged_school.html and The Ragged School Union Magazine, Volume III, December 1851, Blackburn and Bert Printers, Holborn Hill, London.

Story read by Daniel Carpenter

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April 10. John Harper. Growing up in a Christian household, Harper came to faith when he was 14. By the he turned 18, he couldn’t be kept quiet. He had to preach about Jesus.

He became a pastor and served churches in Glasgow and London before he went to Chicago in 1911 and back to London, where he pastored.

He’d been invited to return to Moody Church, so on this date in 1912, Harper—with his daughter and his niece—boarded the luxury liner RMS Titanic.

The forces of nature were too much for the Titanic, but the force of John’s love for lost souls was greater. This man used every minute, every opportunity. Here’s how it went down.

Crisis makes telling the truth in love urgent.

Illuminated from stem to stern, the great RMS Titanic struck an iceberg, sending shards of ice over her starboard deck. As water flooded into her side, a horde of panicking people filled the multiple boat decks. Stars flickered above like festive lights, and strains of “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” rose from a sinking deck. And the stench of death mingled with the acrid smell of saltwater.

John Harper’s voice rang above the din, “Let the women, children, and the unsaved into the life boats!” John, the great revival preacher, responded from the same fervor that guided his every-day life—the passion to see people saved for eternity. Crisis makes telling the truth in love urgent.

John lowered his six-year-old daughter, Nana, into a lifeboat, then he rushed about, asking man after man if he was saved. One rebuffed him. John took off his life vest. “You need this more than I do.” John knew his future. Fearless, he fought for the future of those who didn’t know the Lord.

The men on that deck formed a circle and knelt. Some say it was John who asked the band to play Nearer My God to Thee. The Titanic settled, the bow and bridge completely under water. A wave crashed over the deck—and washed it clear.

Gasping for breath in the icy waters, John grabbed a piece of wreckage. Using it to keep his torso above the frigid grave, he kicked against the freezing sea. “Are you saved?” he called to the nearest soul. On to the next and the next he went. “Are you saved?”

The great RMS Titanic swung upward, the stern shooting out of the water. Her lights went black, flickered on again for a single flash, and then went forever dark. There was a terrible crashing.

When it ended, the RMS Titanic hung vertical. It seemed an eternity she stood on end, mammoth propeller dangling from the stern, out of place in the night air. Then she slid slowly forward as her haunches slipped slanting down … down … and she was gone.

Nothing remained to prove she’d been there except the crushing chorus of a thousand or more voices moaning, crying, begging for salvation from icy death. They bobbed in the water in life belts, clung to the wreckage scattered upon the dark, bitter wet.

“Are you saved?” John called to the nearest man.

“No,” came a Scottish brogue. “I am not.”

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” The waves pulled John from the young man, then the swell brought him near again. “Are you saved now?”

“I cannot honestly say that I am.”

“They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, along with everyone in your household,” (Acts 16: 31, NLT).

Of the 1,528 people that went into the water that night, six were rescued by the lifeboats. One of them was this young Scotsman, Aguilla Webb. A few years later, he shared his story. “[John Harper] went down,” Aguilla said. “And there, alone in the night, and with two miles of water under me, I believed. I am John Harper’s last convert.”

What will give you courage in crisis? Crisis makes telling the truth in love urgent.

“A Story of the Titanic Article from the Evangel. June 1912.” Billy Graham Center Archives. Collection 330, Box 42, Folder 3. Wheaton College. Updated June 14, 2002.http://www2.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/docs/titanic4.htm

The Titanic’s Last Hero, Moody Adams, 2012, Ambassador International

Acts 16: 31, Holy Bible, King James Version, public domain

Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations, Paul Lee Tan, 1982, Assurance Publishers

Story read by Blake Mattocks

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April 9. William Seymour. All his life, Seymour never let a locked door stop him from seeking God’s will. Born to freed slaves, Seymour fled the deep south to escape poverty, oppression, and prejudice. But while he was working in Ohio, he contracted smallpox, which left him partially blind. But it also confirmed in him God’s call to preach.

In 1905, Seymour attended Bible school, where segregation laws forced him to sit in the hallway, outside the classroom. This locked door, couldn’t stop him, though. He soaked up the lessons and was soon teaching them to others.

In 1906, he accepted an invitation to preach in Los Angeles. This time, the content of his Pentecostal message got him locked out. But he preserved, and on this date in 1906, God poured out his Spirit on William and his small band of like-minded seekers. In time, the Pentecostal message spread across the globe.

In 1988, long after Seymour’s death, the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary dedicated its chapel to William’s memory, and at the close of the 20th century, Christian History Magazine named William one of the top ten most influential Christians of the 20th century.

Rejection can derail us, but prayer keeps us on track.

The first Sunday-morning message William Seymour preached for his small Holiness congregation, was his fifth message in five days. An eager congregation filled the hall.

Seymour was “a man alive and on fire” as he preached, passionate about his vision for the church. Full of excitement, he took the crowd through Acts 2 and described the power of the Holy Spirit poured out on Pentecost. He told the people this same Holy Spirit could be poured out on them, too.

But many congregants were put off by this message. Even J. M. Roberts, President of the Southern California Holiness Association, approached Seymour and advised him—in the future—to tone it down and play it safe. But Seymour didn’t care about being safe. He wanted to see Pentecostal power poured out on the 20th century church.

Unfortunately, his congregation was against this radical new idea.

Sorely disappointed, Seymour had his sights set on God, and he purposed that he would keep himself optimistic and keep obeying God. Out of courtesy, his congregation members Edward and Mary Lee invited their new preacher home for lunch, and Seymour made a few friends. Though they didn’t embrace his weird ideas.

Just a few hours later, it was time to head back for the evening meeting. Seymour and his two hosts walked through the streets toward the meeting hall. A crowd stood around the doors of the mission, and the doors were padlocked shut.

They were locked out. The message was plain: Seymour had lost his job. Fired! On the first Sunday. How was he to deliver the message God had given him, if they wouldn’t let him preach?

More reality crashed in on him. Seymour had also lost his only place to sleep.

Edward and Mary Lee did the only humane thing to do and invited the homeless pastor back to their home.

Seymour gratefully accepted, and for the next few days, he went to God in prayer and fasted. He refused to let his discouragement show. He was following wherever the Lord led. For today, the Lord had led him on the outside of the church, shut away from the general congregation. He kept on asking for the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and if anyone else wanted to come along with him, he would be delighted to bring him along.

Edward and Mary Lee watched Seymour closely for a few days. He refused to give up. He refused to believe that the Holy Spirit was not to be poured out on these people. He refused to look glum. Lee and his more skeptical wife knelt beside their pastor and joined him in prayer.

Then Edward Lee received the gift of the Holy Spirit. He spoke in tongues and a new fire burned in him. Faster than Seymour could imagine, word spread among other members of the congregation, and many more men and women joined this collection of souls thirsting for more of the Spirit.

God blessed Seymour’s steadfastness, and a revival was born. Seymour and his new gathering soon received exactly what they had prayed for: the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the gift of tongues, and a renewed fervor for the Lord’s work and power. Thousands more were filled with the Spirit in the next year.

“Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus,” (Philippians 4: 5–7, NIV).

Today what situation can you submit to God through prayer? Rejection can derail us, but prayer keeps us on track.

Borlase, Craig. William Seymour: A Biography. Lake Mary, Charisma House, 2006.

Story read by Daniel Carpenter

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April 8. James Chalmers. Chalmers was known to be a stubborn man—a stubborn man on fire to be the first one to preach to a group of people who needed Jesus. So Chalmers and his first wife Anne sailed to the Cook Islands northeast of New Zealand. Part-way there, they were shipwrecked, stranded, and rescued by a pirate ship. And the pirate leader allowed Chalmers to preach for the rest of the journey.

For 10 years James served in the Cook Islands, and then for another 24 years in New Guinea, he worked up and down the coast in 105 villages. He always preached Jesus. He always established a Polynesian teacher to carry on the ministry, and he always traveled unarmed—to allay some of the natives’ fear of him.

When the government offered him a position, Chalmers said, “Gospel and commerce, yes: but remember this: It must be the gospel first.… The ramparts of heathenism can only be stormed by those who carry the cross.”

To understand what it meant for Chalmers to “carry the cross” in this time and place, you need to know three things. Chalmers knew them.

The natives had never heard of Christianity and were steeped in religion of their own

A dubu is a public building for the native warriors, and it could only be used after it was consecrated by a human sacrifice. Wooden idols stood in the corner, and human skulls were piled near them.

The natives would never know Jesus if someone didn’t tell them, and Jesus had said—as you’re going, tell them.

So—knowing all that, on this date in 1901, Chalmers headed for a new-to-him remote village. When Chalmers and his party arrived, the natives leapt with joy; they were delighted to welcome the group to the island. Shortly, they invited Chalmers and his missionary partner into the dubu for refreshments, fell upon the men, dismembered them, and passed the limbs to the women, who cooked them with herbs. That was Easter Sunday, 1901. Chalmers knew what it meant to “carry the cross.”

When we’re secure in our future, we can be fearless in our present.

When Chalmers and his wife arrived at New Guinea, it “was an unknown land, full of terrors, savagery, and human degradation.… there were some uncomfortable habits (cannibalism) … and the sanctity of human life was unknown, and every man was a thief and a liar.” The men were most proud of their tattoos, but they were only entitled to wear one when they had murdered someone. Chalmers intended to introduce the New Guinea cannibals to Jesus.

“Chalmers’ fearlessness must have been a great factor of success in his hazardous work. He disarmed men by boldly going amongst them unarmed …”

As Chalmers’ boat gently bobbed up and down outside another primitive village, they waited a short distance from the shore, in their usual way, so the villagers had time to notice the strange vessel in the water and to take in the shock of seeing a white man for the very first time.

In the hot New Guinea sun, suspicious native protectors—a host of armed savages with barbaric markings on their faces, sticks in their noses, and human bones around their necks—got into their canoes and paddled out to Chalmers’ boat.

Chalmers spoke peacefully and gave them gifts—things like pieces of hoop iron and red braid. He let them know that he was leaving, but he would be back to tell them about a great Being they didn’t know. He had a way about him that instantly disarmed them.

A short time later, Chalmers did return to the village with his wife. Greeted with a warm welcome, they touched their noses and their bellies and then nose-rubbed, as was the custom. The village chief invited them to his home. Human skulls decorated the room, and blood-stained weapons lined the walls. Mrs. Chalmers did her best not to let her angst show.

Chalmers and his wife built their own hut in the village and began to teach the villagers about Christ. One afternoon, as they labored, a group of armed savages surrounded them and yelled, “Tomahawks, knives, iron, and beads!” The villagers said that, if the missionaries didn’t supply these things, they would be killed.

Chalmers told them, “‘You may kill us, but never a thing will you get from us.’ He always refused to make terms with force.” The missionaries spent a very anxious and restless night in their hut. The next morning the leader of the angry visitors returned, only in a very different manner.

Apologetic about the previous night’s escapades, he wanted to be friends.

“Now you are unarmed,” Chalmers said, “we are glad to make friends with you.” He invited the once hostile villager into his hut and offered him gifts and conversation. And he won the hearts of the cannibal groups all along the coast for Christ.

“The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear. The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27: 1, NIV).

What frontier might God be calling you to pursue, in spite of fears that stand in your way? What steps can you take today to begin moving your life in this direction of obedience? When we’re secure in our future, we can be fearless in our present.

Mathews, Basil. “James Chalmers: The Boy of the Adventurous Heart.” Wholesome Words. Children’s Corner. Missionary Biographies and Adventures. Wholesomewords.org. Accessed August 15, 2020.
https://www.wholesomewords.org/children/heroes/hchalmers.html

Royer, Galen B. “James Chalmers: Fiery Missionary of the South Sea Islands.” Wholesome Words. Missionary Biographies. Wholesomewords.org. Accessed August 15, 2020.

https://www.wholesomewords.org/missions/bchalmer3.html

https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-Chalmers

https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1901_2000/chalmers-and-co-clubbed-to-death-on-the-fly-11630669.html

https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/chalmers-james-3187

Story read by Peter R Warren, https://www.peterwarrenministries.com/
Story written by: Shelli Mandeville, https://worthy.life/

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