Episode | 365 Christian Men

February 11. John Clough. On this date in 1858, Clough was baptized into the family of Christ. He grew up to be an American scholar and farmer and then a missionary to South India.

In 1877 and 1878 Clough worked tirelessly in famine-relief work and with the Ongole mass movement—a welcoming into the body of Christ of people who have been outrageously oppressed by the religious, social, economic, and·moral standards and customs of India. These are outcasts, who are not allowed to enter the village, nor to worship in the village temple, nor to send their children to the village school. They are not even allowed to drink from the village well.

During one six-week period in 1878, Clough and his assistants baptized nearly 9,000 members of the Madiga community. He focused on villages and encouraged people ready to convert to Christianity to wait until some friends or a family member were ready to come too, that they might go through life as Christians in a community of Christians, though small. The churches he planted were served by pastors from among the native people, and Clough did all he could to provide ongoing support for the many, many new believers.

When God wants to free a people, a famine may be the way out.

In 1865, Clough and his family arrived in Nellore, South India. Clough—charismatic and friendly—soon befriended the Brahmin, the highest-ranking members of Telegu society.

The Brahmin included priests and scholars of their religious texts, and they had vowed never to kill a living thing. Soon one priest was baptized a Christian, and Clough hoped to lead many more to Jesus.

In the area lived another group of people: the Madiga—poor, aboriginal outcasts of Telegu society and leather workers by trade. The Brahmins despised them.

But now the Madiga were coming to Clough, and they too wanted to be baptized as followers of Jesus. But the Brahmin gave Clough an ultimatum. If he baptized the despicable Madiga, the Brahmins would no longer associate with him.

Clough didn’t want to offend the Brahmins, nor could he turn away the Madiga. He prayed about the dilemma for a long time.

The Lord spoke to him from 1 Corinthians 1:27: “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong” (NIV).

Clough recognized that the Madiga were those “foolish things” and that God had chosen them for his own purposes. So he baptized the Madiga.

Deeply offended, the Brahmins wanted nothing to do with the God Clough preached.

Over the next ten years, Clough devoted himself to telling the Madiga about Jesus. He planted churches, built schools, and raised up Madiga believers as preachers and evangelists. Through Clough’s labors, several thousand Madiga believed in Jesus. The work was going well—until 1876, when the Great Famine struck.

A severe drought in the Deccan Plateau ruined most of the crops that fed South India, and now millions of Indians were starving. To get food supplies across South India faster, the British government decided to extend the Buckingham Canal by another five miles. A huge workforce was needed, and their salaries would be paid in food rations.

At this point, Clough could have given up and gone home to America. But instead, he accepted a contract from the British government to build a three-mile section of the canal. To accomplish this, Clough recruited thousands of starving Madiga. In return for their hard labor, he paid them in grain, ensuring their survival.

Clough employed thirty of his Madiga preachers as overseers for the canal workforce, each man responsible for a hundred workers. Whenever the Madiga laborers sat down for a break, the Madiga overseer preachers shared about Jesus with them.

As a result, the gospel of Jesus quickly spread through the worker groups, and in a short time, hundreds of Madiga were asking to be baptized. Clough told them to wait. He didn’t want fear of starvation or cholera to be their motivation for surrendering their lives to Jesus.

Two years later, when the famine ended, Clough summoned his workforce to meet him at a rest house in Vellumpilly, so he might reorganize them for their next task. But when he arrived, he found a vast number of Madiga who still wanted to be baptized. This time he could not refuse them.

On July 2, 1978, 3,536 Madiga were baptized.That year, Clough and his companions baptized 9,666 Madiga.

The Madiga community was turned upside down. They abandoned their old gods. And before he knew it, Clough’s church had 21,000 Madiga members.

Take a look at the hard things you’re facing right now. Could there be an assignment from God for you? When God wants to free a people, a famine may be the way out.

Carr, Floyd L., and Herbert Waldo Hines. John E. Clough: Kingdom Builder in South India. New York: Baptist Board of Education, 1929.

Rauschenbusch-Clough, Emma. John E. Clough, Missionary to the Telegus of South India: a Sketch. Boston: American Baptist Missionary Union, 1902.

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

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February 10. Ben Mueller. Ben holds an MBA and has a stellar record as Chief Financial Officer, Controller, and International Financier. But one of his biggest achievements happened at a weekend event with The Crucible Project.

A men’s Crucible Weekend is like a retreat designed to challenge men to look at what is and is not working in their lives. It’s an opportunity to discover new truths about themselves and to embrace their God-given masculinity. It’s about radical honesty and grace. Not all men are ready to be that honest with themselves. But on this date in 2018, Ben did it. Here’s his story.

Until you discover what drives you, change feels impossible. Let God reveal and heal.

Ben was thirteen when he had his first beer. That night, one beer turned into eight. “This is what I wanna feel like,” he thought. “Instant freedom.”

But Ben was addicted. Soon he was in bondage to drugs too, including crack cocaine.

Ben didn’t understand it, but self-hatred drove him. “I was trying to kill myself with drugs, alcohol, whatever,” he said. “But the other part of me, my soul, was trying to survive. It was this constant internal battle.”

In his late twenties, Ben attended Alcoholics Anonymous, and AA taught him to pray for help. “God’s not going to help me,” Ben thought. “He’s got other stuff to do.”

After an AA meeting, Ben drove to a liquor store, opened the door, and then said, “Okay God, if you are going to help me, this is the time.” He closed the door and drove away. He couldn’t believe it!

Ben was sober for thirty days. But he started using crack again, and he was distraught. He wrote a letter to God. “You either take this now, or I’m going to kill myself.” He drove to a church where an AA group met and slipped the letter into the huge Bible on display at the back.

He never used crack again.

But beneath the victory lurked unrelenting self-hatred. Ben fought it with overachievement. But whenever he had a success—in relationship, fitness, or business—Ben always did something to “screw it up.”

On the outside, Ben had it together. He went to church, had a beautiful family, and earned success. But Ben resisted deep connection. His life was marked by anxiety, depression, and self-sabotage.

When Ben was thirty-four, he had his third back surgery. The doctor put him on OxyContin. Addiction was immediate. After four months, Ben almost died. The doctors changed his prescription to Suboxone, also an opioid. Thus began a ten-year battle with prescription-drug addiction.

Desperate, Ben quit taking the medicine. He crashed. His family watched helplessly as he crawled through their home, sobbing. He had come off too quickly. With his doctor’s help, Ben began to slowly come off the opioids.

A year and a half into the process, Ben attended a Crucible Project weekend. Crucible forced him “to dig in and see what the heck was going on.” Ben realized his self-hatred had started when he was nine. The day Ben’s babysitter’s seventeen-year-old son took Ben to his room and sexually abused him. From then on, Ben had believed he was worthless. Bad. For two years, the teen—and sometimes the guy’s friends—abused Ben.

At Crucible, Ben realized the sexual abuse drove everything. “I had compartmentalized and pretended it was gone … but it was the thread.” Three guys laid hands on Ben and prayed for him.

Sobs shook Ben’s body. His beliefs went from, “You’re bad, and you caused this. No one wants you. No one loves you,” to “You’re a great person. God loves you. Your family loves you.”

His whole life Ben had “danced around the thread” of abuse. “As men, we put blinders on and keep crashing through walls. But sooner or later trauma catches up to you. You either fight out of it or you die.”

After Crucible, Ben chose to trust God more deeply, finish titration, and go through trauma counseling. It was a painful journey, but now Ben is free from addiction, self-hatred, and self-sabotage.

“[God] reveals the deep things of darkness and brings utter darkness into the light” (Job 12:22 NIV).

Could there be a hidden root of destruction in your life? Until you discover what drives you, change feels impossible. Let God reveal and heal.

Based on an interview with Ben Mueller, 2019.

Story read by Nathan Walker

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February 9. Olaudah Equiano. As a child, Equiano was sold into slavery to a captain in the British Empire’s Royal Navy. Later, a Quaker trader bought him. Equiano became the man’s clerk, and he learned about Jesus. On this date in 1759, Equiano was converted to Christianity and was baptized.

Eventually, in 1766, by skillful trading and saving all he earned, he purchased his own freedom. In time he partnered with the same man who had once owned him.

He wrote and published his autobiography: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, and during his life, it went through one American and eight British editions. This gave him a platform from which to fight for the abolition of slave trading. Today’s story gives us a glimpse into the way Equiano thought.

When terror grips your soul, trust in the God who will not let you go.

In his memoirs, Equiano wrote that he considered himself “a particular favorite of heaven.” That revealed a lot about the character of the man. He was born in Africa and “had never heard of white men or Europeans, nor of the sea.”

But when Equiano was eleven, he was kidnapped and sold into slavery. Of the many jobs he learned, he became skilled on a ship. He bought his freedom more than once, and became a businessman in his own right.

At the end of one business trip in the West Indies, Equiano was ready to return to England. But Robert King, his business partner, begged Equiano to make another trade voyage to Atlanta, Georgia in the New World. He agreed and boarded the King’s ship, the Nancy.

Soon after the ship departed, Equiano had a dream. The same dream haunted him again the following night. And the next. “I dreamt the ship was wrecked amidst the rocks, and that I was the means of saving everyone on board.”

That third night, Equiano took the midnight watch on deck, and the helmsman immediately alerted him to a large fish swimming close to the bow. Equiano saw at once it was no fish. He was horrified. It was an enormous rock. Desperate to save the ship, he woke the slumbering captain and advised him to change direction, but by the time the captain arrived on deck, it was too late.

The vessel struck the rock.

Wave after wave slammed the ship against the rock and gashed the hull.

The terrified crew “abandoned all care of the ship, fell to drinking and lay about like pigs.”But Equiano thought about the Lord. He called to mind the many mercies the Lord had shown him in times past.

He sprang into action and devised an ingenious way to repair the boat: “We had no materials to mend our boat. I took some pump leather and nailed it over the hole and plastered it over with tallow-grease.”

His repairs held, and the next morning, Equiano and the four members of the crew who had remained sober spotted an island about six miles away—the perfect place to repair their ship. But the ship couldn’t cross the shallow reef that surrounded the island.

Equiano, an African who had suffered much at the hands of white men, could have chosen to abandon the white, drunken, unconscious sailors. But he could not help thinking that if any of those people had been lost, God would charge him with their lives.

So Equiano and his skeleton crew of four loaded the twenty-eight other survivors into a rowboat, a few at a time, and rowed them to the island. It took them six trips to deliver everyone to the island, lifting the boat over the reef each time, and by the end of their labor, their legs were cut and torn, and the skin was stripped entirely from their hands.

It was another eleven days before they managed to repair the boat, and Equiano became the leader of all the survivors.

Just like the Apostle Paul on his voyage to Rome, God spoke to Equiano and reassured him that not one person would be lost. And just like the Apostle Paul, Equiano refused to let fear paralyze him.

“The righteous person may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all” (Psalm 34:19 NIV).

Which fear do you need to conquer with God’s help today? When terror grips your soul, trust in the God who will not let you go.

Walvin, James. An African’s Life: The Life and Times of Olaudah Equiano, 1745–1797. London: A & C Black, 2000.

Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1789.

Story read by Daniel Carpenter

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February 8. Athanasius. Athanasius, whose nickname was “Black Dwarf,” was a theologian, a church leader, and an Egyptian political leader. If he had lived in the twenty-first century, instead of the fourth, we would call him an influencer—maybe Chief Influencer.

For forty-five years he was Bishop of Alexandria, and his congregation included all of Egypt and Libya. During that time, he was exiled—thrown out of the country—five different times—on trumped up charges brought by his religious enemies.

On this date in the year 356, soldiers stormed a church, and Athanasius narrowly escaped. Here’s how it happened.

When a man changes the truth, that’s the act of the devil. But when the truth changes a man, that’s an act of God.

Early in the fourth century, some false teachers in the church hid behind a thin veil of religious civility and tried to poison the minds of people who wanted to know God. These lie-spreaders fought the one man they envied the most—Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria. The politics involved got Athanasius exiled from Egypt more than once.

After one six-year-long exile, when Athanasius was able to safely return to Egypt, the people of Alexandria were thrilled to have him back. They crowded in from every corner of the city and cheered.

Under the Egyptian sun, they ushered Athanasius through crowds of people waving palm fronds in his honor. As he breathed in the familiar scent of sand and sea, he must have thanked God he was finally home in Alexandria to lead God’s people again.

He immediately set to work building up his fellow bishops and caring for the orphans and widows. Most importantly, he warned the people about men who twist or distort the Scriptures.

“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Timothy 4:3–4 ESV).

Years passed, and all seemed well, but in secret, the haters were again plotting against Athanasius.

It was winter, and without warning, a Roman general named Syrianusmarched into town with a large contingent of soldiers, and he gave no reason for even being in Alexandria.

Athanasius went out and met him and reminded him that the Emperor had promised to leave Alexandria at peace. A deep foreboding enveloped the city as the band of soldiers set up their camp. No one knew why they were there or what was coming, but whatever it was—it couldn’t be good.

Midnight, three weeks later, Athanasius was leading an all-night prayer service at the Church of St. Theonas. The dimly lit sanctuary was full of people. Suddenly the air shook. Stomping feet rumbled. Armor clanged. And a host of startled people shouted.

Syrianus and his troops had surrounded the church. They intended to overrun the church and take Athanasius dead or alive.

Athanasius refused to leave the building. Sitting still in prayer, he told one of his deacons to read Psalm 135 out loud. “Praise ye the LORD. Praise ye the name of the LORD …” the deacon began.

But the monks and clergy in the sanctuary interrupted and begged Athanasius to leave the building at once. “Not until all have left the church,” he replied.He wanted his people out safely.

By the end of the psalm, chaos was in full tilt as Syrianus stormed the church, and the people tried to escape. Some were trampled. Others fell to the sword. The scene was so painful to watch, Athanasius collapsed. A crowd of monks and clergy surrounded him, lifted him off his feet, and carried him out of the building. Miraculously, Athanasius escaped the soldiers unharmed. He later said he believed “God covered their eyes.”

Lies you hear, you are responsible to correct; will you? When a man changes the truth, that’s the act of the devil. But when the truth changes a man, that’s an act of God.

Forbes, F.A. Saint Athanasius. Rockford: Tan Books and Publishers, Inc., 1998. p. 62.

Metropolitan Ephraim of Boston. “Saint Athanasius and the Arian Controversy.” Toronto Orthodox Conference lecture, 1996. Accessed September 26, 2020. In Defense of the Faith. http://orthodoxyinfo.org/.StAthanasius.html.

Athanasius. “Five-time exile for fighting ‘orthodoxy.’” Christian History. Accessed September 26, 2020. Christianity Today. https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/theologians/athanasius.html.

“Athanasius and the Creed of Christ.” Timeline. Originally published May3, 2010. Christianity.com. https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/301–600/athanasius-and-the-creed-of-christ-11629667. html.

“#108: Athanasius on Christ.” from The Incarnation of the Word by St Athanasius, Trans. by Rev. A. Robertson. Accessed September 26, 2020. Christian History Institute. https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/study/module/athanasius.

“Council of Nicea” from The History of the Church; Book 1, chapter 8 published by Socrates Scholasticus. Accessed September 26, 2020. Christian History Institute. https://‌christianhistoryinstitute.org/‌study/‌module/‌nicea.

Story read by Blake Mattocks

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

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February 7. Tony Dungy. On this date in 2007, Tony became the first Black head coach to win the Super Bowl: the Indianapolis Colts versus the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI.

The same year, Tony released his memoir: Quiet Strength: The Principles, Practices, and Priorities of a Winning Life, and it reached number one on the hardcover nonfiction section of the New York Times Best Seller list. Today’s story gives us a look at some of Tony’s priority-setting.

Learning to put God first starts with a decision but takes a lifetime.

When Tony first started playing in the NFL with the Pittsburgh Steelers, he was young and ready to win, but he had a problem keeping his cool.

When he was in school, he was known for losing his temper, and on the basketball court, he earned technical fouls.

His dad scolded him about it, but Tony brushed it off. Venting helped him focus. But when he was vying for a permanent place on the Steelers’ roster, things started to change.

The change started with the Steelers’ Bible study.

Tony believed in God, and he knew he was a Christian. But until he went to the Bible study, he never realized he wasn’t putting God first in all that he did.

His teammates were often known for being the biggest and toughest guys around. So when Tony saw them praying together and studying the Word, he realized their faith wasn’t weakness, but true strength. Strength they drew from God. He wanted to be strong in the faith like that too.

Tony made the team, but during his second season, he got sick with mononucleosis. And he wasn’t allowed to take the field until his white-blood-cell count normalized.

Three weeks passed, and he still wasn’t up to par, nor was he allowed to practice with the rest of the team during their pre-season camp. Tony felt his old temper and frustrations coming back. His inability to train and condition could leave his spot on the team open for anyone to take. He told Donnie, one of the Christians on the team, about how he felt. “This is just not going according to plan,” Tony said.

Donnie understood Tony’s frustrations but helped him put the situation in perspective. “You profess to be a Christian, and you tell everybody that God has first place in your life. Now, when your career looks like it’s teetering, we’re getting a chance to see what really is in first place for you.”

Tony agreed. He had been learning about how to put God first more and trust Him. “I’m trying to understand what you guys have. But all of a sudden, I come to a crisis point, and I begin to panic. My thoughts turn to: ‘What am I going to do?’”

Donnie’s answer was clear. “All the Lord is trying to do is find out what’s in first place in your life, and right now, it looks like football is.”

What Donnie said made an impact on Tony. Donnie was telling it straight. Tony knew he needed to change more.

Football was something God allowed him to do, but it didn’t have to define him. His identity needed to be in God. Tony made a decision right then and there to keep God first no matter what happened. Whether he was benched, healed, or cut from the team, God would still be number one.

Two weeks passed, and Tony got better, just in time for the first pre-season game. He was able to return to practice with his team. The Steelers that year won fourteen games and lost two and later won the Super Bowl against Dallas with a score of 35–31.

Tony led the team in interceptions and tied in tenth place in the entire NFL. But despite his success as a player and later on as a coach, Tony never forgot the most important achievement of his life: learning to put God first.

When he was eventually traded and then saw his career on the verge of collapse, he knew from experience that as long as he kept God first, God would handle things. The door shut on his playing football, but an even bigger door opened for him to become one of the most famous coaches of all time.

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33 NIV).

What might be holding you back from putting God first in your life? Learning to put God first starts with a decision but takes a lifetime.

Dungy, Tony, and Nathan Whitaker. Quiet Strength: A Memoir. Carol Stream: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2007.

“TONY DUNGY, INDIANAPOLIS COLTS AND TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS.” Accessed September 26, 2020. PRO FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME. https://www.profootballhof.com/players/tony-dungy/.

Story read by Chuck Stecker

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February 6. Lou Bloss. Lou is a man with wide-ranging experience. He is a US Army veteran and an award-winning journalist, who has published everywhere from minor-league baseball news to Christian devotionals to a how-to-write textbook. Lou owns Lou Bloss Media, which provides marketing, advertising, and publishing for the restaurant industry.

And Lou is a man with a great sense of humor. He can keep a straight face while he boasts about his bowling average of 132. That sense of humor doesn’t mean life has been all ponies and firecrackers. Here’s his story.

Real courage calls you to stay the course; answers will come.

Early morning sun shone weakly through the windows, blanching the pages of the open Bible. The young father sat motionless. Upstairs, his daughters slept, too young to understand the gaping hole left in cancer’s wake. Who was he now? Widower. Single father. One half of a shattered whole.

He skimmed the page, a story he had read many times. But this time, the words spoke to him with new meaning:

“And as [Rachel] was having great difficulty in childbirth, the midwife said to her, ‘Don’t despair, for you have another son.’ … So Rachel died.… Over her tomb Jacob set up a pillar, and to this day that pillar marks Rachel’s tomb. Israel moved on again and pitched his tent beyond Migdal Eder” (Genesis 35:17, 19–21 NIV).

He pulled his Bible closer and saw with an understanding that had seemed impossible, even moments before.

Lou and Terrie Bloss had looked forward to the birth of their second daughter. With only three years between them, their girls would grow up close—friends, as well as sisters. Lou and Terri had spent the last months of the pregnancy doing typical things: they got the nursery ready, talked with their firstborn about becoming a big sister, and made plans for their future.

But a rare form of cancer was silently spreading throughout Terrie’s body. Within four months of their daughter’s birth, Terrie was gone.

“I had these expectations of happily ever after,” Lou said. “Life didn’t work that way.”

The months following Terrie’s death were the most difficult of Lou’s life. “Everything felt hard. Just getting up felt hard. I knew I had to get my head together—I had two young daughters depending on me—but I had the same question anyone else would: How?”

Until he had answers, Lou simply stayed the course. He showed up at his job every day, even on the days it felt impossible. He continued to go to church, even when he wanted to stay home. And he maintained the friendships he and Terrie had cultivated together, even though it hurt to do it without her. Most importantly, Lou clung desperately to God and looked for answers in the Bible.

Daily reminders of God’s love—the kindness of his coworkers, the support of his friends—these comforted him, but the strength he needed to survive came from the quiet time he set aside each day to pray and read his Bible.

One morning, several months after Terrie’s death, he had a breakthrough. “I was reading the story of Jacob in Genesis 35, and it hit me. Jacob was on his path, doing what God told him to do, and his wife, Rachel, died in childbirth. She named their son Benoni, which means ‘son of my sorrow,’ but Jacob renamed him Benjamin, which means ‘son of my right hand.’

“He didn’t want to constantly dwell on the sorrow; he wanted to dwell on the good. Jacob buried Rachel. He grieved her and memorialized her, remembered her, but he also moved on and continued with what God had called him to do. I thought that was significant. I knew I couldn’t constantly dwell on what I had lost. I had to move forward. The more I thought about it, I realized moving on with my life was an act of faith.”

Lou believes this same process—grieving and then moving on in faith—applies to many of life’s difficulties. “For all of us,” he says, “something drops into our lives unexpected. We get fired, get hurt, lose someone. Things happen. Some people get kicked down the hill and don’t get back up. You have to get back up.”

Are you facing difficulties right now? Take a moment and write out something you could do today to move forward. Real courage calls you to stay the course; answers will come.

This story is based on an interview with Lou Bloss, 2019.

Story read by Joel Carpenter

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February 5. John Calvin. Born into a devout Catholic family, Calvin was sent off to study philosophy and law. By the time he was twenty-four, he embraced Protestantism and worked for changes in the Roman Catholic Church. He wrote The Institutes of the Christian Religion, a foundation of Protestant systematic theology. And he wrote commentaries on every book in the New Testament except Revelation and on most books of the Old Testament. He was thoroughly convinced of the majestic sovereignty of God.

Some people have said that Calvin was cold, unapproachable, unemotional, and reluctant to speak, but those who knew him well understood that façade shielded a man who felt deeply and was especially anxious for the state of the world and of men’s souls. Calvin himself said, “There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice.”

Our physical weaknesses never have to limit our spiritual strength.

Calvin’s body was failing him. It had been for a long while now. Even on his best youthful days, Calvin had always leaned toward the frail side.

Now as an older gentleman closer to the sunset of life rather than the sunrise, just getting out of bed proved difficult. Migraines, lung hemorrhages, gout, and kidney stones had rendered Calvin’s physical condition bleak at best. But his mind was as strong as ever.

Calvin had been working his way through the entire Bible. He was writing a commentary on nearly every book. When he was no longer able to write, he finished many of these by dictating to his assistants. Ministers throughout the city would come and visit with him with the intent of encouraging a dying leader, but they were often the ones who left inspired.

When his body provided enough strength to sit up and go out, Calvin went to church in a chair carried by friends and students. But he wasn’t there to sit in the service. He was there to lead. His assistants would place Calvin in his chair behind the pulpit, where he would preach and even conduct baptisms. His faith and determination willed his body into work.

“But if I say, ‘I will not remember Him or speak anymore in His name,’ then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire shut up in my bones; and I am weary of holding it in, and I cannot endure it” (Jeremiah 20:9 NASB).

His soon-to-be successor, Theodore Beza said, “It is true that not only ministers, but friends too, urged him not to wear himself out by coming and working like this. But he would make excuses and say that it did him good and that time would hang too heavily on his hands if he stayed indoors all the time.”

When he was unable to go out to church, he would bring church to himself. Some days, Calvin’s bedroom filled to capacity while he lay in bed and read from the Bible and his notes.

Even when it was clear that this simple act of reading aloud was deteriorating his condition, no one dared stop him. He was a man on a mission.

On occasion, friends would voice their worries about the daily regimen’s effect on his health. But his response was always, “What! Would you have the Lord find me idle when He comes?”

“That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10 NIV).

How can God use your weakness today to reveal His strength? Our physical weaknesses never have to limit our spiritual strength.

Gordon, Bruce. Calvin. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009.

Beza, Theodore. Life of Calvin. Lindenhurst, NY: Great Christian Books, 2012.

Maseko, Achim Nkosi. Church Schism & Corruption: Book 3 Reformationists. Lulu, 2008.

Story read by Daniel Carpenter

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February 4. James Cash Penney. Penney built his life on the value of honesty—and it paid off, literally.

When he was 26, he scraped together enough to buy his first dry goods store: “The Golden Rule.” Within a decade, he owned 30 more stores. Today, there are 850 JC Penney stores in the US and Puerto Rico. And when he died, he left a personal estate of $35 million.

In a time of buyer-beware business practices, Penney’s philosophy of “treat others the way you would like to be treated” earned him the country’s trust and business. And long after his death, the seeds he sowed continue to produce good fruit.

One of his many philanthropic projects was the Penney Retirement Community in Florida—a non-profit, caring Christian community for retired ministers and missionaries, which still thrives today. In 2019, the JC Penney store in Bangalore, India, received the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design award from the leading program for green buildings and communities worldwide. Today’s story presents a look into the personal side of Penney’s life.

The poison of the past can blind us with bitterness. God’s truth can set us free.

For Penney, being genuine was everything.

Even once he reached retirement age, Penney kept up a busy speaking schedule. In the late 1930s, a church thirty miles outside his hometown of Hamilton, Missouri, invited him to be a guest speaker. Penney accepted the invitation—but not without some dread—to a place so close to where he had grown up. It was a place Penney had been badly hurt.

When he was fourteen years old, he sat in a pew at the Hamilton church, where his father had pastored for many years. Penney watched church elders condemn his father and call him a heretic.

His heresy? Pastor Penney had asked the church for financial support for his family and to start a Sunday school for children.

After the verdict on his father, Penney remembered his mother standing up beside her husband. In a firm voice, she said, “I believe as Jimmy does.”

The church excommunicated them both.

The very people who claimed to know God and follow His ways were the ones who threw Penney’s family out of the church for wanting to teach children! Hypocrites!

“I bitterly resented the incident,” Penney wrote.

Now he was back in Missouri, willing to keep his speaking engagement, but anxious to get this day done. He hurried into the church office and hoped not to run into any familiar Hamilton faces. Once seated, the church’s minister explained the order of service to Penney, beginning with how the Communion service would work.

A new panic hit Penney. He had never taken Communion in his life. He had not been baptized, nor was he a church member. He did have a reputation for representing Christian beliefs and morals. He built his life on honesty and openness. But—

“Is something wrong, Mr. Penney?”

Penney cleared his throat. “It’s just that I’ve never taken Communion.”

For years, Penney had worked hard to avoid this situation. As a public figure, he was always under scrutiny. If he did not take the cup and the bread, someone would notice. Everyone would think he was a Christian hypocrite! His stature in the community and the country was at stake.

On the other hand, if he did take Communion, he would feel like a hypocrite before God. He led a moral and generous life, but he felt he wasn’t truly worthy of publicly declaring himself a member of God’s family.

“Practicing the golden rule in my business benefited everyone … Surely that was being a practical Christian! I had to pass through many … clashes with life before recognizing that what seemed to me sufficient was much less than what Christ taught.”

Penney looked at the minister, “What should I do? I feel unworthy.”

“Are you a Christian?” the minister asked.

Penney felt the weight of the question. Was his commitment to Christ real? Genuine faith meant genuine commitment. Did he trust God? Or had he just been trying to be worthy of acceptance on his terms? Penney’s thoughts jumped back to that judgment scene in the Hamilton church, where his father had pastored. He heard his mother’s bold statement, “I too believe.”

“Yes, I am a Christian,” Penney said.

Bitter thoughts of the Hamilton hypocrites left him, and his focus turned to Christ and all He had done on Penney’s behalf. He said, “As though a Voice were speaking into my mind, there came the words gently spoken, ‘Don’t be afraid!’”

Penney wrote, “ … it is not enough for men to be upright and moral men.…”

“I must admit it was only after I assumed the responsibility of church membership thus rendering unto God the things that are God’s—that I realized just how merely … attending church regularly, is not enough. For all men, there must be yet one more thing: giving oneself over to God’s purpose.”

Penney had determined to show God he was not a hypocrite. But by relying on himself and his behavior, he had come up short. In his fear, Penney had missed out on the peace and strength that come from truly following God. Now he realized that being genuine wasn’t about being perfect; it meant giving himself entirely over to God.

That evening, Penney phoned his wife. He told her he decided to be baptized and join a church family. He was sixty-seven years old when he was baptized.

For JC Penney, a genuine commitment to God was everything.

“‘Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter’” (Matthew 7:21 NLT).

“I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith” (Philippians 3:9 NLT).

Are you afraid you might not be worthy enough for God? Give him your fear and step out in simple obedience. The poison of the past can blind us with bitterness. God’s truth can set us free.

Tibbetts, Orlando L. The Spiritual Journey of J.C. Penney. Danbury, CT: Rutledge Books, Inc., 1999.

Penney, J.C. Fifty Years with the Golden Rule. New York: Harper, 1950.

Penney, J.C. Lines of a Layman. Papamoa, New Zealand: Papamoa Press. December 2, 2018.

“JC Penney’s Estate is Estimated at $35-Million.” Published March 2, 1971. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1971/03/02/archives/j-c-penneys-estate-is-estimated-at-35million.html.

“J.C. Penney.” Timeline. Accessed 10/05/2020. Christianity.com. https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1901-2000/jc-penney-11630672.html.

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

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February 3. Mel Trotter. On this date in 1900, Mel was appointed Superintendent of Grand Rapids Rescue Mission. He ran the mission for his forty years and helped start sixty-seven other Rescue Missions across the country. Here’s how his story started.

What seems impossible with men is entirely possible with God.

Mel pushed open the door to his little house—what was left wasn’t much of a home. He had drunk most of it away until all that was left was a cold shell. His marriage too. This time his drunk had lasted ten days.

Now, the house was strangely quiet. There sat his wife Lottie rocking back and forth, their two-year-old in her arms.

Mel stepped closer. But the little fellow didn’t move, and there was a strange color to his skin. The boy was dead.

Mel fell to his knees.

A guttural cry rose from so far inside him it sounded as if it was from someone else. He was a slave. A slave to liquor and a murderer. “I’m anything but a man!” Mel groaned. “I can’t stand it, and I won’t stand it!” He would end his life. That’s what he would do.

But death meant facing God, and he didn’t have the courage for that. Emotion drove Mel from the house, but he couldn’t outrun the painful reality.

When he returned, his wife led him into the little room where she had laid their son in a tiny white casket she had made herself. “Promise me you’ll never take another drink, Mel Trotter. Promise!”

Mel put his arm around her. “I’ll never touch liquor again, not as long as I live.”

She nodded and prayed for him. He wanted to keep his word, but deep down he knew. He was a slave to the devil. He made it through the funeral before having his next drink, but not two hours after his child was put into the grave, he stumbled home, dead drunk.

Mel left his wife. He had nothing left. For a while he wandered the streets of Chicago.

One night, staggering along Van Buren Street, Mel headed for Lake Michigan. There he would plunge into its icy waters and eternal damnation. He had lost everything and everyone, tried again to be sober, and failed as usual.

Not even his fear of meeting God mattered now. The drink had him, and nothing could be done about it. He winced as his bare feet, numb from the snow, began to pulse. He had sold his shoes for one more drink. Mel stumbled as he passed Pacific Garden Mission. The doorkeeper invited him in and took him to a chair along the wall where he could lean back and not tumble out of it.

The man up front locked gazes with him. He stopped the singing and told everyone to bow their heads. “O God,” he prayed, “save that poor, poor boy.”

The man then talked about how once he had been a drunk, but the Lord had saved him. At the end he told those gathered to raise their hands to let Jesus know they wanted to make room for Him.

Mel raised his hand and then rushed to the front. The man told him, “Jesus says, ‘All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away’” (John 6:37 NIV).

Suddenly, Mel remembered the story he had heard so many times. He saw Jesus carrying the cross, men spitting at him and shoving a crown of thorns on his head. And Mel understood that Jesus did it for him. He saw Jesus start up the steep hill, falling beneath the weight of his cross. He saw Jesus willingly give up his life for him. That glimpse of Jesus was one he never for an instant lost again.

Mel never touched another drop of liquor.

What in your life is a seemingly impossible situation? Why not invite God’s strength into it right now? What seems impossible with men is entirely possible with God.

Henry, Carl F. H. The Pacific Garden Mission. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1942.

“A Testimony of Mel Trotter” from Stories with a Message, Selected and Edited By Duane V. Maxey. Accessed September 25, 2020. http://www.the-new-way.org/testimonies/conv_varie_083_a_testimony_of_mel_trotter.html.

“History.” Accessed September 25, 2020. MEL TROTTER MINISTRIES. https://www.meltrotter.org/themission/history.

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

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February 2. Wilfrid Barbrooke Grubb. The biographer said that Grubb considered obstacles mere “straws to be brushed aside” and … “his appearance conveyed an impression of physical endurance and great strength of character.”

As strong as his character was his desire for the good of his South American parish—the notorious Chaco region of Paraguay. There in the wild, Grubb established the first mission at a time the natives were deep into mere straws like ritual mutilation and cannibalism.

Grubb worked with the Lengua people. His methods were quite individual. Grubb told how he won the respect of the natives, so he could give them the gospel. He said, “On arriving at a village, I insisted, as far as possible, upon all the people ministering to my comfort. I ordered one to prepare my resting-place, another to make a fire, a third to bring me water, and another to pull off my knee boots. When the heat was great or the flies troublesome, I made two sit by me with fans. When on foot, and having to cross a swampy patch, I made one of them carry me across.…”

When one of the natives shot Grubb in the back with a poisoned arrow, he recovered, having avoided the people’s practice of burying people alive and despite that as he recovered, a “roving goat” would—from time to time—sit on Grubb’s chest.

Another time, when one of the natives got angry, he strung an arrow on his bow and pressed the tip against Grubb’s chest. The missionary believed that if he showed fear, the people would lose all respect for him, but if he lived and ate and worked with them, he would find a place in their hearts. So, as the tip of the arrow pressed into his chest, he tossed back his head and roared with laughter. It must have worked, since he went on ministering to them for twenty years and past many, many mere straws. Listen to today’s story.

When evil strikes, a man can hide, or he can expose the evil and drive it out.

In October 1900, after twelve years of intense effort to help the tribes of Paraguay know who Jesus is, Grubb’s work finally thrived. He had established a missionary station and a school in the village in Eastern Paraguay. (The name of the village was twenty letters long.)

Work was underway translating the Bible, and the Lengua Christians were enthusiastically helping Grubb. He was overjoyed at this success, especially when three young men were baptized.

But the next day, the three boys, who had been christened John, Andrew, and Thomas, fell violently ill. John and Thomas recovered quickly, but Andrew only grew worse.

Within two days, he had a high fever and could barely walk. Grubb and the villagers suspected it was the work of the village witch doctors, but before they could say a word, the witch doctors incited the people against Grubb: “You are killing him. You want to kill all our friends,” they said.

The witch doctors took ten of their cronies and forced their way into the house where Andrew rested. They intended to take him away to treat him themselves. But the missionaries refused to let Andrew go.

The crowd threatened violence, but the missionaries stood their ground, and the crowd eventually departed.

But that night, Andrew died. Believing his spirit would be angry at his death, his family members fled the house.

The following night, strange things happened. Ghosts appeared to terrify the villagers; roof tiles mysteriously flew off houses; people heard blood-chilling noises.

Grubb had failed to help Andrew, and now it seemed that the forces of darkness were conspiring against him.

He could have chosen to flee the village—to cut his losses and take his work elsewhere, but he chose to stay because he loved the Lengua people. He had committed his life to seeing them follow Jesus and turn away from witchcraft.

Grubb took a deep breath and thought about what was really going on. The next morning, he leaped into action.

After carefully interviewing the villages, he discovered the culprits. In front of their entire village, Grubb gathered them together and chewed them out.

First, Grubb showed his Winchester rifle to one of the witch doctors. This witch doctor was the one who had thrown the roof tiles off the houses. Grubb promised that if he heard a roof tile fall off again, he would shoot in that direction.

No more tiles were thrown.

After this, Grubb turned to the other witch doctors. He pointed at them and laughed as loud as he could. “Just look at them. Who could possibly be afraid of them?” he said. “Look at their leader; he isn’t far from the grave; his friends will soon be getting it ready!”

Ashamed, the witch doctors slunk away.

In the evening, Grubb called the Lengua people together to decide how to punish the witch doctors. The tribe then forced the witch doctors to pay two sheep each as compensation for their evil acts. The witch doctors paid up, and the sheep were then sold, and the proceeds devoted to the village church.

Grubb didn’t stop there. He knew that the witch doctors would try to assert their control again. And he desperately wanted the people to break free of their dependency on the witch doctors. From that moment on, Grubb took every opportunity to expose their fraud.

The Lengua Christians enthusiastically supported Grubb, and within a few years, almost the entire village believed in Jesus, including most of the witch doctors themselves.

“Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:17–18 NIV).

Are you prepared to stand against evil in your own life? When evil strikes, a man can hide, or he can expose the evil and drive it out.

Grubb, Wilfrid B. A Church in the Wildlands. London: Seeley, Services and Co. Limited, 1925.

Davidson, Norman J. Barbrooke Grubb, Pathfinder. London: Seeley, Services and Co. Limited, 1924.

Hunt, R. J. The Livingstone of South America: The Life & Adventures of W. Barbrooke Grubb among the wild tribes of the Gran Chaco in Paraguay, Bolivia, Argentina, the Falkland Islands & Tierra del Fuego. London: Seeley Service & Co. Limited, 1932.

Bedford, C.T. Barbrooke Grubb of Paraguay. London: Seeley, Services and Co. Limited. 1932.

Story read by Blake Mattocks

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