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January 1. John Newton. Newton spent a number of years trying to get rich by selling human beings. But God saved him and gave him a fruitful ministry. With the poet William Cowper, Newton published a volume of hymns. On this date in 1773, Newton introduced a hymn he wrote—”Amazing Grace.” An executive at Broadcast Music said, “It may be the most recorded song on the planet.” It’s estimated that the hymn is performed 11,000 times a year. 

Fifteen years later, he published Thoughts Upon the African Slave Trade. He opened it with an apology for what he had done as a slave-trader and then he described the trade in all its evil atrocity. A copy went to every member of Parliament. Within twenty years, Parliament made the slave-trade illegal in the British empire. Newton was a rich man in the truest sense. Here’s his story. 

When a wise man wants God’s help, he’s man enough to ask for it. 

The slave ship lurched so hard it knocked John Newton from his bunk. In his captain’s quarters, the floor was already flooded. He scrambled up the ladder and threw open the hatch to the deck. 

A flash of lightning struck, lighting the ship as bright as an eerie day, like the moment before a hurricane hit. The upper deck on the port side had been torn away, and as the ship pitched, their precious provisions spilled into the raging sea. 

“All hands on deck!” Newton yelled. He refused to panic. “Sound the alarm!” 

Torrents of rain engulfed them and made it tough to breathe. They gasped. Tried to talk. But thunder cracked so close, the crash reverberated in the air around them and in their skulls. One moment, lightning illuminated the fractured ship, and the next, its absence plunged them into a sightless void. 

With all his strength Newton worked the pump, but water gushed into the ship faster than any human could pump it out. With buckets, kettles, pots, and pans, every crew member bailed to save his life. But the water in the ship continued to rise. 

As a slave trader, Captain Newton had been through many storms, but this terrifying tempest made him feel helpless. In his mind, he was 11-years-old again begging his father to get them out of the wind and water. He wanted to live. 

Another monster wave crashed against the shattering ship, and Newton cried out now for his Father. His Heavenly Father. 

“Please, God,” he prayed, “I know that I am a terrible sinner. No man has ever deserved Your mercy less than I do, but I beg You to help me!” But here he was—a slave-ship captain! Surely, his share of God’s mercy had been spent long ago. 

Lungs burning, core muscles screaming, with nowhere else to turn, Newton prayed as fervently as he pumped. And he kept it up. 

Then, in new slivers of calm between blasts of wind, Newton heard a sailor yell, “The storm! It’s passing!” 

The rush of relief almost undid Newton. “Thank you, Father.” 

Nine hours after the storm began, a shaft of late-morning sun streaked through still-angry clouds, and soon the wind gave up its assault. The men breathed easier, though they were still in danger. 

Newton ordered every man to strip his bedding and use it to stop the leaks. Towels, pillows, blankets, and clothes were stuffed into the cracks and nailed down with boards to keep the battered ship afloat. They aimed the ship toward England. 

With their firewood lost, men huddled together, so they wouldn’t freeze. There was little food left, and what fish they managed to catch by hand, they had to eat raw. Every day they grew colder and weaker. On the tenth day, a man died. 

As his men lost hope for salvation, Newton wrestled with God over his own salvation. Many times in his life he had narrowly been saved from death. Each time, he had turned to God, but as soon as the danger was over, he dove back into his life of sin—always deeper than the time before. Why would God answer the prayer of a man like that? 

Through long sleepless nights, Newton ransacked the pages of a borrowed Bible until he read the words: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,” (Romans 3:23–24 ESV). 

A gift! “If such grace is possible, save me one last time, Lord. And I will serve you till the day I die.” 

Eighteen days later, the battered ship made it to the coast of Ireland. As soon as every man stood on shore, the wind picked up. The ship groaned one last protest, tilted severely, and sank. 

Knowing that God knows your greatest failures and still extends his grace to you, how does it change your perception of yourself? When a wise man wants God’s help, he’s man enough to ask for it. 

Newton, John, Out of the Depths: The Autobiography of John Newton. Read by William Sutherland. Blackstone on Brilliance Audio, August 7, 2018. MP3CD. 

Strom, Kay Marshall. John Newton: Angry Sailor. Santa Rosa, CA: Books and Such, 2018. 

December 31. Alvin York. Five years after York committed his life to Jesus, the United States invited York to World War I. On the draft notice, York scrawled, “don’t want to fight.” He thought the war was wrong, but cynics thought his conscience was convenient. That’s about where today’s story begins. 

Afterward, York—who had had a total of 9 months of formal education in his life—went on to fight in the war. With 16 other soldiers, he engaged in a firefight with a much larger group of German soldiers, who had a machine gun. Heroically, York disabled the machine gun. Nine of the American soldiers lay dead, and their surviving team members took 132 prisoners. On this date in 1919, York was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. 

When he returned to the United States, people compared him to Davy Crocket and Abraham Lincoln, and movie-makers tried to woo him. Companies tried to get him to endorse their products. But York only wanted to go home to Tennessee and resume his quiet life. He had been Sunday school teacher and music leader, and now he wanted to find a way for the young people in his area to get education. Turns out—the cynics were wrong about Alvin York. Here’s how it happened. 

The man who stands up for the Word of God honors the Creator of men. 

York explained, “The Bible said, ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ That was so definite a child could understand it.” But when his nation called him to war in 1917, York faced the greatest dilemma of his life. 

“There were two reasons why I didn’t want to go to war. My own experience told me that it weren’t right. And the Bible were agin it, too.” York had admittedly lived a hard life of sin and promised he would never return to that life. A battle raged within him as his conscience told him war was wrong, but his beloved ancestors had fought and killed for his country. He readily identified with the Apostle Paul’s struggle when he wrote, “but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members” (Romans 7:23 ESV). 

York wanted to be both a good Christian and a good American. Deep in prayer and contemplation, he trekked through the mountains of his native Pall Mall, TN, and he spent hours reading his Bible. “I jes couldn’t make up mind that that the Bible were wrong. And I couldn’t make up my mind Uncle Sam were right. I was a soul in doubt.” 

He wrote his local draft board seeking conscientious-objector status, but they refused. After numerous failed appeals, and in consultation with his pastor, York reported for duty. 

During training, he continually informed his superiors of his objection to killing another person in any form. One of his commanders—Major Edward Buxton—also shared faith in Christ, and this pleased York greatly. They talked together about their beliefs and Bible passages. Buxton enlightened York with several verses on just causes for war, such as Jesus’ command to buy a sword. 

“I believed the Lord was in that room,” York said. 

And he left that room knowing Major Buxton would relieve him from frontline duty if that’s what York decided. 

The Army issued York a pass home, and he spent more time in the Bible and praying in the mountains. 

The Lord answered him on that mountain and met him in his burden. A peace came over York. And he returned for duty. In due time—for his heroic actions on the battlefield—York became one of the most decorated soldiers of World War I and a national hero. 

God delivered York from his internal battle, so he could lead others to victory on a European battlefield. 

“Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful” (James 5:11 ESV). 

Is there a struggle you can take to the Lord today? The man who stands up for the Word of God honors the Creator of men. 

York, Alvin Cullum, et al. Sergeant York: His Own Life Story and War Diary. New York, NY: Racehorse Publishing, 2018. 

Birdwell, Dr. Michael. “Sergeant Alvin York.” Legends and Traditions of the Great War. http://​www.worldwar1. com/​heritage/​sgtayork.htm.  

Story read by Blake Mattocks 

Story written by Darren Sapp, darrenlsapp@gmail.com 

December 30. John Smith. Smith had trained to be a baker, but he applied to be a missionary. He was accepted and soon ordained. On this date in 1816, Smith sailed to Guyana, a tropical country bordered by Venezuela on the west, a country that drove its economy on the backs of human slaves. 

In the next 4 years, Smith baptized 390 slaves, and his tiny congregation grew to 800 people. 

Smith was only thirty-four years old when he died, but his death became a powerful catalyst in the abolition of slavery in England. Here’s his story.  

Stand up for the voiceless; a godly man’s voice will always make a difference.  

When Smith first landed in Guyana, the Governor demanded to know Smith’s intentions. Smith said he wanted to clearly preach the gospel to the slaves, to teach them the Christian catechism, and to teach them to read it for themselves. 

But the Governor said, “If ever I know you, sir, to teach a slave to read, I will send you out of the colony immediately.” 

But Smith went ahead and taught the people to read, and he taught them the gospel. Many of the slaves risked severe punishment to sneak away and hear Smith preach, and his church got bigger and bigger. 

That kind of success made many of the slave owners anxious. They were against any kind of instruction for the slaves, anything that could possibly make the slaves think they had any power. 

The slave owners thought it dangerous to make slaves Christian brothers. The slaves would see themselves as equal with the slave owners! They would resist their harsh working conditions, or worse, seek their freedom. That would cut into the slave-owners’ prosperity. They couldn’t stand for that. 

When the slaves did rebel, the slave owners tried to cover up the true reason for the rebellion—they had treated the slaves cruelly. And the slave owners blamed Smith for provoking the revolt. Blamed him legally. 

During Smith’s trial, forty-nine witnesses testified against him. Since he had refused to fight against the slaves, the prosecutor was eager to show that Smith opposed slavery and was guilty of inciting the rebellion. 

Smith confessed to the accusation—he was definitely against slavery. He said that if it was a crime to hate slavery, then some of the best men in the world were guilty. He said that since the British government had passed a proposition that “Slavery is repugnant to Christianity,” he—as a minister of the Christian Gospel—shouldn’t have to justify his own belief that slavery is wrong. 

Although the witnesses contradicted one another in their testimony, Smith was found guilty of conspiracy and rebellion and condemned to be hanged. The sentence was submitted to the King of England for approval. 

Smith was then placed in the common jail, where his cell floor sat above the town’s sewage, and gaping holes in the floorboards allowed stagnant-water vapors to rise to the continual detriment of his health. 

While he awaited the King’s decision, Smith wrote a letter to the London Missionary Society. He described his trial and the real causes of the uprising. Smith wrote, “I am satisfied that I am in the Lord’s hand, and there I wish to be. I feel pretty happy in my mind. I know not what judgment awaits me. 

“Sometimes I think my decaying frame will not hold together long enough for [the King’s decision] to affect me. Indeed, I often feel anxious for the period to arrive when I shall inhabit ‘a house not made with hands.’ Pray for me.”  

Still waiting in his smelly cell, Smith’s severe suffering came to an end. Smith took up residence in his new house not made with hands. Back in England, the charges against were dismissed, but he was dead before that news came. 

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy” (Proverbs 31:8, 9  NIV). 

Where are you called to make a difference? Your voice will always count—in this life or the life to come. Stand up for the voiceless; a godly man’s voice will always make a difference.  

“Case Study 3: Demerara (1823)—Quamina and John Smith.” The Abolition Project. Accessed August 21, 2020.  http://abolition.e2bn.org/resistance_52.html.  

Imperial Magazine. Memoir of the Rev. John Smith. May: No. 65-Vo. VI. London, England: Caxton Press, 1824.  

Chamerlin, David. Smith of Demerara. London: Colonial Missionary Society, 1923. 

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

December 29. Jacob DeShazer. On December 7, 1941, in a surprise attack, hundreds of Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor and inflicted much damage, including 8 battleships and more than 300 airplanes. More than 2,400 Americans died, and another 1000 were wounded. 

Within a month, the United States had planned its own surprise attack on Tokyo and four other Japanese cities, and—in April—the attack was led by Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle. Sixteen bombers and eighty volunteer bombardiers were to attack and then fly to the safety of the east coast of China, which they did, but of the sixteen bombers, some landed in China and some crashed there. Some were helped by the Chinese people, but DeShazer and his team were captured by the Japanese. 

On this date in 1948, DeShazer returned to Japan as a missionary, and during his stay there, he established 23 new Christian churches throughout Japan. Listen to this.  

Hate can’t destroy a man who is determined to obey Christ. 

DeShazer was a bombardier—one of the eighty men in the famous Doolittle Raid over Japan shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. 

During the raid, DeShazer and his fellow crewmen bailed out of their B-25 Bomber over China and were taken captive by the Japanese as prisoners of war. 

The Japanese moved DeShazer from one prison camp to another, where he saw how the Japanese treated Chinese citizens. He wondered how humans could to that to others. “It was the first time that I had ever been in such a wicked environment,” he said. 

He soon realized they would treat him and his fellow air-crewman the same way. They spent most of their time in solitary confinement and faced beatings and the threat of execution nearly every day. They lived on meager rations and received no treatment for illnesses like dysentery and beriberi. 

As DeShazer endured the endless days with no news of the war or his release, his hatred for his captors deepened. Another prisoner, Lieutenant Robert Meder had shared the Good News of Jesus Christ with DeShazer. The Japanese allowed the prisoners a few privileges, so DeShazer asked for a Bible. He had been raised in a Christian home, but the Bible had no real significance for him. 

He sat in his cell under poor lighting and read the Scriptures over several weeks. He memorized as much of it as he could. In Romans, he read, “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9 ESV). 

Now DeShazer believed in Jesus, and became his apprentice. Salvation was in his heart, but his body remained locked in a cell. 

And the day after his conversion, one of the guards assaulted DeShazer. The day before, he would have reacted differently. But now, he remembered the words of Jesus: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:43–44 ESV). 

DeShazer chose to love the guard rather than hate him. He spoke to him kindly no matter the circumstance, and over time, the guard became friendlier. God healed the relationship between prisoner and guard. 

DeShazer spent more than a year after his conversion in captivity. On August 20, 1945, he was finally released, and only a few years later, he returned to Japan as a missionary preaching love and forgiveness to the Japanese people. 

Japanese citizen and former pilot Mitsuo Fuchida had led the attack on Pearl Harbor—the incident that had so deeply angered DeShazer. After the war, Fuchida read one of DeShazer’s pamphlets and became so persuaded that he gave his life to Christ. The pair connected and began to preach alongside one another. 

Is there someone who has hurt you that you could pray for today? Hate can’t destroy a man who is determined to obey Christ. 

DeShazer, Jacob. “Jacob DeShazer’s Personal Testimony.” ATS Digital Resources. Whitmore, KY: Marston Memorial Historical Center, 2012. Accessed August 21, 2020. https://​place.asburyseminary.edu/​ecommonsatsdigitalresources/38/. 

Goldstein, Dr. Donald M. and Carol Aiko DeShazer Dixon. “A Doolittle Raider’s Story of War and Forgiveness.” Return of the Raider. Accesses August 21, 2020. http://​www.jacobdeshazer.com/. 

“Doolittle Raid 18 April 1942.” Naval History and Heritage Command. Published May 10, 2019. https://​www.history.navy.mil/​browse-by-topic/​wars-conflicts-and-operations/​world-war-ii/​1942/​halsey-doolittle-raid.html. 

Story read by Blake Mattocks 

Story written by Darren Sapp, darrenlsapp@gmail.com 

December 28. Michael Faraday. Being from a poorish family, Faraday got a minimal formal education. But at fourteen, a local bookbinder took Faraday on as an apprentice—for seven years. During that time, he read a lot and covered a wide range of science. 

When he was twenty-one, Faraday attended four lectures by a famous chemist Humphry Davy at the Royal Institution and then wrote to the man and asked to be his assistant. 

The man turned him down, but within a year Davy appointed Faraday chemical assistant at the Royal Institution. 

Thirteen years later, Faraday founded the Royal Institution’s Friday Evening Discourses and the Christmas Lectures—“the UK’s flagship science series,” which is still broadcast on national TV every year. 

Faraday went on to make many important discoveries about electricity and magnetism. He became Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Military Academy and scientific advisor to Trinity House—a charity that provides for the maritime community and the official authority for lighthouses and other navigational resources. 

On this date in 1848, Faraday delivered his famous Christmas Lecture: “The Chemical History of a Candle.” And that’s where today’s story begins. 

Honor God who created you by doing your duty with honor. 

Michael Faraday warmly began this year’s Christmas Lecture. “And now, my boys and girls, I must first tell you of what candles are made.” His smile immediately captured the evening’s crowd of several hundred people, who had gathered in the familiar lecture theatre. 

The people watched, as he described the qualities of various types of candles, which had been gifted to him for the lecture. He delightfully detailed how each type of candle had been created, and which types would burn with greatest efficiency. 

Observing two cosmetically beautiful candles, designed to cast shadows as they burned, as “a glowing sun above and bouquet of flowers beneath,” Faraday said, “All, however, that is fine and beautiful is not useful. These fluted candles, pretty as they are, are bad candles; they are bad because of their external shape.” 

Faraday then pulled an old, cracked candle from his collection and raised it in one hand for the room to see. He said the candle had been salvaged from a deep shipwreck after more than fifty years in unfavorable conditions. 

“I have here a candle that was taken out of the Royal George, it is said, by Colonel Charles Pasley. It has been sunk in the sea for many years, subject to the action of salt water. It shows you how well candles may be preserved; for, though it is cracked about and broken a great deal, yet when lighted, it goes on burning regularly, and the tallow resumes its natural condition as soon as it is fused.” Faraday then lit the wick of the shipwrecked candle and revealed a strong, golden flame. 

“There is not a law under which any part of this universe is governed which does not come into play and is touched upon in these phenomena. There is no better, there is no more open door by which you can enter into the study of natural philosophy than by considering the physical phenomena of a candle.” 

The crowd watched in fascination. 

As he lit several types of candles, Faraday made his way through the outline of his lecture and experiments, pointing out scientific observations as he went, from how candles burn without immediately being consumed, to how candles can remain a solid and a liquid simultaneously. 

He noted that light, heat, and flame occur without effort at first glance. Then he identified the vast array of chemical and physical interactions that made these simple aspects of a candle possible. A miraculous, complex harmony of natural laws at work. Natural laws which Faraday’s faith caused him to attribute to the reliability of God’s laws. 

“You would hardly think that all those substances which fly about London, in the form of soots and blacks, are the very beauty and life of the flame,” Faraday said. 

Members of the audience nodded silently in agreement. 

Faraday masterfully blended his observations of natural law with his principled faith in God, and closed this historic Christmas lecture with a compelling moral challenge: 

“Indeed, all I can say to you at the end of these lectures … is to express a wish that you may, in your generation, be fit to compare to a candle; that, in all your actions, you may justify the beauty of the taper by making your deeds honourable and effectual in the discharge of your duty to your fellow-men.” 

“‘You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house’” (Matthew 5:14–15 NIV). 

How can you better use your influence at work to bring glory to God? Honor God who created you by doing your duty with honor. 

BBC. “Michael Faraday (1791–1867).” History. Accessed August 21, 2020. http://​www.bbc.co.uk/​history/​historic_​figures/​faraday_​michael.shtml. 

Brigden, James. “Faraday and the Christmas Lectures: The Chemical History of a Candle.” Homerton College Library Weblog. December 7, 2018. https://​homlib.wordpress.com/​2018/​12/​07/​faraday-and-the-christmas-lectures-the-chemical-history-of-a-candle/. 

Ouellette, Jennifer. “Christmas with Faraday: The Chemical History of a Candle.” Scientific American. December 25, 2011. https://​blogs.scientificamerican.com/​cocktail-party-physics/​christmas-with-faraday-the-chemical-history-of-a-candle/. 

Story read by Daniel Carpenter 

Story written by John Mandeville, https://www.johnmandeville.com/ 

December 26. George Washington. Washington represented the colony of Virginia at the Continental Congress, and in June, 1775, he became Commander of the Continental Army. 

On this date in 1776, he led his troops across the Delaware River, which is what today’s story is about. 

In 1781, General Washington and a French general defeated the British forces at Yorktown, and five days later, they surrendered, ending the Revolutionary War. 

From 1789 to 1797, Washington served as the first President of the United States. During that time, he established the Executive Branch of the government, the US Cabinet, a six-ship US Navy, and a treaty with Spain that empowered the US to travel on the Mississippi River. Today’s story begins in the dead of winter during the Revolutionary War. 

Circumstances can tear men down, but well-chosen words can turn them into heroes. 

Christmastime 1776 was anything but merry for General Washington and his troops. Washington wrote, “I am wearied almost to death.” 

Ill-fed, ill-dressed and hundreds just plain ill, the Continental Army’s hope of winning the war was fading fast. Washington figured he needed a win now, that without it—by the new year—he may have no army. So, he orchestrated a bizarrely difficult plan. 

About 1400 Hessian mercenaries held Trenton New Jersey across the Delaware River from Washington and his men. The plan: 3 groups of soldiers would cross the nearly frozen Delaware River and sneak-attack the Hessians. “Washington set the date for the river crossing for Christmas night 1776.” 

“By the time that most of the soldiers had reached the launching point for the boats, … drizzle had turned into a driving rain.” 

Washington and his 2,400 soldiers crammed into high-sided Durham boats—cargo vessels, 40-to-60 feet long. Soldiers loaded horses and heavy artillery onto wire-guided ferries. The river wasn’t frozen enough to walk across, but too clogged with frozen chunks for boats to pass through without brutal effort. 

By 11 PM “… a howling nor’easter made the miserable crossing even worse. One soldier recorded that ‘it blew a perfect hurricane’ as snow and sleet lashed Washington’s army.” 

They crossed where the river was about 300-yards wide, but once across, the men had to march through the dark, 9 miles on roads slick with ice and snow. The Continental Army didn’t have enough boots, so some of the men tied rags around their feet. Others were barefoot. Clothes and weapons were soaked, and the guns wouldn’t fire. Washington ordered the men to attach their bayonets. Tired, sodden, and frostbitten, the men pounded forward. And Washington rode up and down alongside the marching troops and buoyed his men with praise and encouragement. 

By the time the bedraggled army reached Trenton, three hours late—the sun was risen. Washington had lost the advantage of attacking in the dark. But he refused to turn back. “Follow me.” He led his men into battle. 

The Hessian garrison didn’t expect an attack on Christmas; their commander had been injured early in the battle, and without him, they seemed disoriented. The Continental Army surrounded Trenton and defeated the Hessians, and history and artists celebrate Washington crossing the Delaware. 

But he didn’t see it as his big triumph. The next day, in a letter to John Hancock, Washington wrote about his men, “… their Behaviour upon this Occasion, reflects the highest honor upon them. The difficulty of passing the River in a very severe Night, and their March thro’ a violent Storm of Snow and Hail, did not in the least abate their Ardour.” 

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (Hebrews 10:24 NIV). 

Are you facing a tough job? Does your team need a win now? Consider how you could encourage someone—before, during, or after the fact. Circumstances can tear men down, but well-chosen words can turn them into heroes.  

“10 Facts about Washington’s Crossing of the Delaware River.” George Wahington’s Mount Vernon. Accessed August 20, 2020. https://​www.mountvernon.org/​george-washington/​the-revolutionary-war/​the-trenton-princeton-campaign/​10-facts-about-washingtons-crossing-of-the-delaware-river/. 

“History.” Washington Crossing Historic Park. Accessed August 20, 2020. https://​www.washingtoncrossingpark.org/​history/. 

Story read by Chuck Stecker 

Story written by Teresa Crumpton, https://authorspark.org/