Episode | 365 Christian Men

August 26. John Winthrop. Winthrop was elected governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, which Winthrop called,“a city upon a hill, before the Puritans ever left England. The great hope was that the settlement would allow them to pursue their religious beliefs without persecution.

Punishment can correct the offender; mercy can restore him.

Winthrop watched the snow fall as another Massachusetts winter blasted Boston. It wasn’t his first winter, nor would it be his last, but every year it was the same. Freezing temperatures. Howling winds. Blizzards that dumped piles of snow and ice that disrupted the town.

Worst of all, these winters lasted much longer than the winters in England, and that meant suffering. Already he had seen hundreds of people die or flee the settlement because of lack of food and prevalence of disease. Surely this winter would bring about just as much hardship, … and he would have to lead them through it.

One of the settlers approached, and he seemed upset. And Governor Winthrop acknowledged the settler and asked him what was wrong.

The man quickly said he was happy Winthrop was alone. The man didn’t want to make a scene, but someone had been going onto his property and stealing wood from his woodpile.

Winthrop’s temper flared. Boston was supposed to be a holy and righteous city that followed God’s Word. Stealing was certainly not allowed! Didn’t the thief realize how cold it had been? Did he want the poor man to suffer from a lack of wood for the fire?

“I’ll take a course with him,” Winthrop said. And he was fuming. “Go, call that man to me; I’ll warrant you I’ll cure him of stealing.”

The settler gave a nod, hurried off to find the thief, and led him back to the governor for punishment.

But when Winthrop beheld the thief, seeing how poor and ragged he was, he suddenly realized he had been too quick to judge.

The thief explained why he had stolen the wood. He was freezing in the unending cold that had killed so many people when they had first arrived in Massachusetts. He didn’t want to steal the wood, but he felt as if he had no other choice. Boston had little wood to go around, since many of the trees had been felled to make homes and buildings. How else was he to stay warm?

The Governor thought of all the times he had witnessed poverty among other people. If ever there was a family who needed food or money, he had given it to them out of his own pocket and supply. They had never been tempted to steal because they had been provided for. Didn’t God command his people to take care of the poor and needy? How could he call himself a Christian, let alone the governor of Massachusetts, if he didn’t care for the least of his people? When he gave to the poor, he gave glory to God.

Stealing was wrong. Winthrop knew this, and there was plenty of punishment that could be done. But if he only punished the thief without curing the root of his stealing, how would he help the thief turn back to God and righteousness?

Winthrop knew what to do to cure the root of the problem, and he turned to the thief. “Friend,” he began, “it is a severe winter, and I doubt you are but meanly provided for wood; wherefore I would have you supply yourself at my wood pile till this cold season be over.”

The thief was shocked, thankful for the governor’s generosity. He would not have to steal any more wood that winter.

“Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and He will reward them for what they have done” (Proverbs 19:17 NIV).

How might you be able to help the needy today? Punishment can correct the offender; mercy can restore him.

ushistory.org. “Massachusetts Bay—‘The City Upon a Hill.’” Accessed June 22, 2020. https://www.ushistory.org/us/3c.asp.

Bremer, Francis J. “John Winthrop.” Reviewed January 22, 2015. https: //www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199827251/obo-9780199827251–0028. xml.

Story read by: Blake Mattocks

Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter

Audio production: Joel Carpenter

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

Project Manager: Blake Mattocks

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August 25. Lee Strobel. Lee has won multiple awards as the legal editor of The Chicago Tribune and is a New York Times best-selling author of more than forty books and curricula that have sold fourteen million copies.

At Colorado Christian University, Lee is president of the Lee Strobel Center for Evangelism and Applied Apologetics. That’s all pretty impressive on its own, but it becomes astounding when you note that well into his adulthood, Lee was a staunch atheist. “Atheist” as in the exact opposite of apologist. He went from being a man certain there was no God to a man whose life is dedicated to showing that God is and who God is. On this date in 1998, Lee published The Case for Christ.

When life leaves you unfulfilled, dig for truth.

Lee stumbled through the front door. His toddler, Alison, grabbed her toy blocks, scurried to her bedroom, and shut the door. Lee shook off her cold-shoulder reception. Tried to forget the times he had yelled. Kicked a hole in the wall. Made Alison and her mother—his wife, Leslie—cry. An atheist, he had chosen to focus on sensual pleasure. If there were no eternal consequences, then you grabbed all the pleasure you could. But chasing happiness with alcohol had left him unfulfilled, profane, and angry.

That night Leslie had big news. She had become a Christian. Lee’s first thought was “divorce.” He hadn’t signed up for marriage to a prudish do-gooder. But over time he noticed attractive changes in Leslie’s character and morality. In how she treated him and the kids.

One Sunday morning, Lee stirred as Leslie dressed. He had planned to sleep off last night’s drunk, but Leslie invited him to church, and he went. The speaker toppled misconceptions about Christianity. The claims disturbed Lee. Oh, he didn’t believe them. But if they were true, they had huge implications.

At its core, Christianity relied on one event, the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. If it wasn’t true, Christianity was false. An investigative reporter for The Chicago Tribune and a graduate of Yale Law School, Lee was wired to dig for truth. So he set out to disprove the Christian myth.

For two years, Lee chased the evidence. He studied the claims of a dozen experts, authorities with degrees from places like Cambridge and Princeton. Atheists. Jewish scholars. Historians. Psychologists. Not one could disprove the resurrection. Lee’s head swam.

One Sunday afternoon, he shut himself in the bedroom with a yellow legal pad. On it, he dumped a summary of all he had learned—page after page after page—an avalanche of evidence. It all pointed to one place. Jesus was who He said He was: the Son of God. And Jesus backed up his claim by rising from the dead. Lee put down his pen. It would take more faith to maintain his atheism than to become a Christian.

Now what?

Lee grabbed a Bible and read John 1:12. “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (ESV). An equation formulated in his mind. Believe plus Receive equals Become.

Lee knelt beside the bed and poured out a lifetime of curl-your-hair immorality. After his confession, he received the forgiveness Jesus offered. He became a child of God.

Leslie was in the kitchen. And he went in and told her what had happened. She cried and threw her arms around him. She had told her friends that Lee was a hard-headed, hard-hearted legal editor, who would never bend his knee to Jesus, but one of them had read Ezekiel 36:26 to her. “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (ESV).

For years, Leslie asked God to take her husband’s stony heart and replace it with a new one. Now, God had done it.

Over time, Lee quit being angry, disrespectful, and narcissistic. About six months later, Alison, now five years old, told Leslie and her Sunday school teacher, “I want God to do for me what he is doing for my daddy.” Lee and Alison became the best of friends. Lee had taken his family on a road to destruction. But when he dug for truth, God rescued them.

Does your belief system lead you and your loved ones toward destruction or toward restoration? When life leaves you unfulfilled, dig for truth.

Strobel, Lee. The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998.

History vs Hollywood.“Lee Strobel Tells His Story of Finding Christ.” The Case for Christ. Accessed June 23, 2020. http://www.historyvshollywood.com/video/lee-strobel-speech/.

Story read by: Chuck Stecker

Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter

Audio production: Joel Carpenter

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

Project Manager: Blake Mattocks

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August 24. Mike Lynch. Mike was a US Army gunner who got knocked for a horrific loop. Today’s story shows how Mike handled it. On this date in 2018, Mike decided it was time for him to forgive God.

A genie, God is not—not found in a bottle or a magic lamp, but in a relationship.

For thirteen years Mike wore a thick metal bracelet engraved with his best friend’s name: Aaron M. Hudson.

Mike and Aaron had met in basic training. Together, they deployed to Iraq. Together, they faced Iraq’s stifling heat and putrid smell of burning trash. Together, they withstood Iraq’s constant threat of danger.

And Mike admired Aaron’s faith, as his own was less established. In boot camp, he could go to chapel or clean the barracks, so Mike chose chapel. In Iraq, Mike related to God like an all-powerful genie in a bottle. Before Mike went on a mission, he rubbed the bottle and prayed for safety.

One day, Aaron’s Humvee had mechanical problems, so Mike’s team volunteered to take Aaron’s squad’s next shift. That night, expecting to head out early on Aaron’s shift, Mike told Aaron goodnight and that he loved him. But the next morning, Command sent Aaron’s team out in the ASV—a tank with tires instead of tracks, usually used by Mike’s squad. Aaron, a gunner like Mike, sat in Mike’s seat.

Back at base around lunchtime, Mike tried to get online, but there was a communication blackout. Whenever a soldier was killed, the army cut all communication until the family was notified. It happened so often Mike didn’t think much about it. When people started acting strange, Mike connected the dots. For four months, Mike had run successful missions from his seat in the ASV. But on April 16, 2005, Aaron sat there, and an improvised explosive device took his life.

The next day it was back to mission. Mike swallowed everything. If he didn’t, lives would be endangered. But Mike’s whole body revolted. He spent the day puking off the top of the truck.

Survivors’ guilt stole his sleep. “It should have been me,” he thought. “It was my truck.” The army gave him sleeping pills.

After his deployment was over, Mike hated being stateside. He was angry. Misunderstood. An outsider. He battled PTSD. If he passed trash on the side of the road, he clenched his fists, afraid an improvised explosive device would explode.

For the next ten years, Mike numbed out with alcohol.

In 2016, Mike’s wife went to church. But Mike didn’t. He had stopped talking to God back on April 16, 2005.

One day, Mike’s wife asked him to watch a sermon online. The preacher said people blamed God for everything bad. Then they took credit for everything good. It made Mike think. He went to church. Reunited with God. Built relationships with others. Two months later, he quit drinking. He and his family did a 180.

As Mike pursued a “with-God” lifestyle, he attended Operation Heal Our Patriots. The chaplain said, “Sounds like you’ve blamed God for a long time. Have you forgiven him?”

Mike thought, Of course.

But the chaplain pressed. “Have you said it out loud?” Mike stared at the bracelet he had worn every day for thirteen years. Right on his wrist. A constant reminder of the worst day of his life.

Mike had held onto the pain to honor his friend, and it had nearly destroyed Mike and his family. But it was not the life he wanted. It was not the life Aaron would want for him. It was not the life God wanted for him.

In a special ceremony, Mike nailed the bracelet to a pole. “I’ve been mad at You for a long time,” he told God. “This is me forgiving You.”

“How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?” (Psalm 13:1–2 NIV).

Do you treat God like a genie, or do you trust Him and do life with Him? A genie, God is not—not found in a bottle or in a magic lamp, but in a relationship.

Based on an interview with Mike Lynch, 2019.

Story read by: Blake Mattocks

Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter

Audio production: Joel Carpenter

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

Project Manager: Blake Mattocks

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August 23. Rodney Williams. Rodney’s life was already in a downward swirl when a meth lab blew up in his face. And God met Rodney there in his pain. On this date in 2008, Rodney’s life story was performed on stage. Listen to this.

Has life blown up in your face? Reach up.

If the meth lab hadn’t blown up in his face, Rodney would probably be dead now. At best, he would still be enslaved to methamphetamines.

Craving a chemical high started when Rodney was introduced to marijuana—then alcohol. He was around twelve and carrying a deep hurt. He had been molested as a small child, and getting high helped mask the pain.

Some years later, a car accident made pain pills necessary, and Rodney got addicted. A second car accident made it worse.

Rodney got married and had a son, but inside he was restless, on edge, and craving drugs. He tried to keep his behavior a secret—once telling his wife he was going coon hunting. Instead, he and a friend got drunk and went gambling, and—with the win—bought three-and-a-half grams of cocaine.

But it wasn’t cocaine. It turned out to be methamphetamine, and it nearly killed him. Now, he was hooked on meth.

Rodney’s wife couldn’t handle the chaos anymore and divorced him. Dejected, he started doing LSD and Ecstasy—his new drugs of choice. He wanted to be punished for who he was.

Things came to a head the night Rodney locked himself inside a meth user’s trailer with ingredients for cooking it. Fixated on the brew, Rodney stood over jars of steamy chemicals. Fumes grew noxious. He watched meth drop to the bottom of the jars.

Suddenly, the heat lamp ignited the fumes. The room exploded. Rodney ran and unlocked the door, but flames engulfed him. He stumbled out the door beating out flames.

Charred and disoriented, Rodney staggered to a neighbor’s house for help. His right eye and ear, face, hands, and neck all burned.

He was a burned and broken man. He had lost his family, his reputation, and his self-respect. Rodney had hit rock bottom. He cried out to God and surrendered—not just part of himself, but all of himself. Then he entered a faith-based treatment program—and this time it worked.

“Therefore, if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8:36 NKJV).

Today, Rodney shares his story of deliverance from addiction, and God works. He tells a story of addiction the people understand.

When Rodney tells how he was lit on fire in a meth explosion and Christ rescued him, people have hope they can be rescued too. Now, Rodney runs a non-profit organization called Club Meth to Christ. He gives his book Club Meth to Christ free to addicts and prisoners or anyone else who needs one and can’t afford it.

Has life blown up in your face? Reach up. Do you think you’ve fallen too far? Not so.

Williams, Rodney. Club Meth to Christ. Huntsville, AL: Evangel Publications, 2008.

Williams, Rodney. Once an Addict, Now Free! Escatawpa, MS: Club Meth to Christ, 2018.

Story read by: Stephen Holcomb

Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter

Audio production: Joel Carpenter

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

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

Project Manager: Blake Mattocks

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August 22. Tamrat Layne. Layne was a guerrilla fighter, and as part of a junta, he became Ethiopia’s Prime Minister from 1991 to 1995.

Ethiopia’s Supreme Court found him guilty of embezzlement and sentenced him to 18 years in prison. He never stopped saying he wasn’t guilty all the time he was being held in solitary confinement. Here’s how it happened.

Betrayal can be a prison of bitterness, but forgiveness unlocks the door.

Layne and Meles Zenawi made a great team—college buddies and comrades in their united efforts to protest the corrupt government and bring better leadership to Ethiopia. During the Ethiopian Civil War, Layne and Zenawi led a guerilla army. And after they overthrew the existing oppressive government, Layne and his friend took office to lead the country in their Communist agenda.

“After three years I started questioning the very policies we fought for because I realized they weren’t working. I proposed a democracy. The President was not in agreement, and a conflict arose between us,” Layne said.

President Zenawi decided Layne needed to be shut up. His solution was to hide away his best friend in prison. To an isolated cell known as The Dark Room, Layne was sentenced to spend 18 years, and he remained there with only a fragment of light that came from the corridor.

With a violent history, Layne—a self-professing atheist and former guerilla fighter—had a lot on his mind. His best friend had totally betrayed him. And Layne had nothing to do with his anger except plan his betrayer’s demise.

In this abhorrent prison, Layne endured beatings, torture, and even being poisoned. He became obsessed with thoughts of killing Zenawi.

In isolation, Layne grew more hopeless by the day. “I had no idea where my family was. All of these things added up and became too much for me.” He became suicidal.

“I started reading books just to get some kind of hope. I studied all kinds of religions, including Islam for two years, but nothing could give me hope.”

One day, a nurse slipped a piece of paper under Layne’s pillow. The paper told about Jesus. “This was the first time I had heard or seen the name of Jesus,” Layne said. He couldn’t get his mind off the words on the bit of paper: Jesus loves you, Jesus is the way, and Jesus is the only one who can give you hope.

That evening, Layne had a vision of Jesus. “The voice said to me, ‘I am Jesus. Believe in Me and follow Me. I am the only one who can give you the life you are looking for.’ For the first time in my life, I prayed.” And as Layne studied the Bible, he experienced an inward transformation. “My life had made a 180-degree turn.”

“Then the Lord started nagging me to forgive the man that put me in prison.” Layne resisted at first. How could he forgive a friend—whose life he had saved many times—a friend who had cast Layne into this prison and ruined his life? But Layne had really heard Jesus’ voice and finally surrendered. “I am willing to forgive. Help me, [Lord]. When I get out of here, I will go to him.”

After this decision to forgive, miraculously, during year twelve of his eighteen-year sentence, Layne received release papers. The next day he walked out of that hellish prison—a free man.

He phoned Zenawi, set up a meeting, and went to see him. Face to face with the man who had imprisoned him in solitary confinement, separated him from his family and society, Layne strode up to this old friend, hugged him, and said, “I forgive you, and I love you. Let’s put all of this behind us and be friends again.”

Not only was Zenawi stunned, Layne was liberated. “I lived in two prisons, a physical prison and a prison of hatred and unforgiveness.”

“I have to live a life of forgiveness for my own sake.”

“Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, ‘Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?’

“Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times” (Matthew 18:21-22 NIV).

Have you ever been betrayed? What would it take to make you willing to forgive? Betrayal can be a prison of bitterness, but forgiveness unlocks the door.

Jackson, Madison II. “Tamrat Layne.” Beyond the Single Story. Posted February 1, 2017. https://beyondthesinglestory.wordpress.com/2017/02/01/tamrat-layne/

Layne, Tamrat. “Tamrat Layne – Life Testimony.” Posted June 9, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bL8KrvOIz4Y

Association for Human Rights in Ethiopia. “Ethiopian Political Prisoners and Their Accounts of Torture.” Published February 2018. https://ahrethio.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Ethiopian-prisoner-and-their-accounts-of-torture.rep2018.pdf

Story read by: Daniel Carpenter

Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter

Audio production: Joel Carpenter

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

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

Project Manager: Blake Mattocks

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August 21. Jeff Voth. Jeff grew up primarily in Colorado but now lives in Oklahoma.

He has written three books that evolved out of his personal walk with Christ. He is the founder and director of an international men’s ministry called Cavetime, which challenges men to practice five disciplines in their daily lives.

On this date in 2012, Jeff published Cavetime, God’s Plan for Man’s Escape from Life’s Assaults.

Driven to succeed, a place to hide may be what you need.

Jeff was powering through his ten-mile run when pain shot up his left arm. What was happening? That question and a million others raced through his mind as the pain increased and spiraled out of control.

Soon, flat on his back in the emergency room, hooked to a heart monitor and numerous other medical devices, Jeff wondered how this could happen. A gnawing in his gut wouldn’t quit. “I was only thirty-three years old. Was I having a heart attack? I just felt sick … hopeless. I needed to hide somewhere.”

Jeff was a self-admitted junkie—and performance was his drug of choice. Life was one big competition to achieve, to win, to be the best, to live clean, and to do well at all costs. He believed that to be loved, he had to perform at a certain level—at home, at church, and in his relationship with God.

Turned out, Jeff wasn’t having a heart attack. He was having a full-blown panic attack. He was—like many men who for one reason or another find themselves in trouble—panicking and believing he had nowhere to go for help.

Panicking men don’t have an escape plan or any idea where to hide and collect their thoughts in a healthy way. They try to escape everything and run back to old “comfortable” places. “I became depressed and began to have panic attacks,” Jeff said. “I went into what [one writer] has called the dark night of the soul.”

“I wouldn’t have admitted to it before this emotional crash, but I really believed deep in my heart that for God to love me (and for that matter, for people to love me), I had to earn it. I spoke of grace, but I didn’t accept it from God, and I didn’t extend it all that well either. What’s more, I was the product of a culture that put pressure on a man to be a man, yet did nothing to help him find out what being one really meant.”

Jeff needed answers, and he found them where he never expected … in a cave with King David.

Through no fault of his own, David—that one-time shepherd boy who decapitated the giant Goliath—had grown up and was overcome by debt and distress. He was being hounded by King Saul, who wanted to kill David. So David was searching for a safe place to hide, a place where he could find strength, honor, and bare his soul to God without judgment. Having lost all of his support systems, he ran to a cave he knew so he could hide. In the quiet darkness, David found God waiting there for him.

Jeff discovered that David’s time in the cave provided a clear message for men today—men like himself. The message from the cave built men up and allowed them to become the strong men God had created them to be. That message changed Jeff’s life and the lives of hundreds of men with whom he has shared its truth through his ministry, Cavetime.

Cavetime helps men in the middle of life’s assaults. By challenging men to spend time alone with God and build a deeply personal relationship with him, Cavetime helps men find hope. God desires a real, raw, and transparent relationship—one forged in vibrant, truthful conversations—in the cave.

“Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by” (Psalm 57:1 ESV).

Have you ever overlooked the warning signs in your life and found yourself in trouble? Battered by a storm? God is waiting for you; find your cave. Driven to succeed, a place to hide may be what you need.

Voth, Jeff. Cavetime: God’s Plan for Man’s Escape from Life’s Assaults. Sapulpa, OK: Honor Net, 2015.

Sherman, Bill. Tulsa World. “Pastor follows David’s path to escape the dark.” 2016. Posted October 6, 2012. https://www.tulsaworld.com/lifestyles/pastor-follows-davids-path-to-escape-the-dark/article_eaf5e8ce-3cbe-5d20-9124-15e0bd750af0.html

Story read by: Chuck Stecker

Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter

Audio production: Joel Carpenter

Story written by: Thomas Mitchell, http://www.walkwithgod.org/

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

Project Manager: Blake Mattocks

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August 20. Nick Vujicic. Though Nick was born without arms or legs, in 2005—when he was only 17—Nick founded Life Without Limbs, an international non-profit ministry whose mission is to spread the gospel and unite the body of Christ.

Nick says he keeps a pair of shoes in his closet because he believes in miracles. On this date in 2008, Nick learned to surf with Bethany Hamilton.

Sometimes the best way to succeed is to fall down, get back up, and try again.

He wiped out—again. Swimming away from his board, Nick came up for air, then let the waves wash him toward the shoreline. To his left, professional surfers went head-to-head in competition, rolling and flipping dramatically through the waves to earn the judges’ favor. Nick just wanted to stay on his board. His instructor, Bethany, nodded her encouragement. Face set, Nick waded back into the deeper water.

A small crowd of people had gathered along the break wall, and almost as one, they turned their attention away from the competition and toward Nick. Some held up cameras. Nick felt his heartbeat rising in his chest—Too many people were watching!As a wave approached, he narrowed his focus. Bethany nodded, murmured a word of encouragement,and nudged his board forward. Would he fall again?

No!

The crowd on the beach erupted with cheers and whistles, and laughing happily, Nick joined in with his own victory cry. What made this simple accomplishment such a victory? And, why was this crowd so impressed, when just beyond, professional surfers performed far greater feats? Because this student was Nick Vujicic, born without arms or legs, and he had just demonstrated a powerful truth: Sometimes, the best way to succeed is to learn from our failures.

“Every time you fall down,” Nick says, “every time you fail, you learn something new. You’re ready for the next one. You’ve learned how not to do something. Learn from it, and move on. You can only win if you don’t give up!”

When Nick’s speaking tour took him to Hawaii in 2008, he knew it was the right time to try to fulfill one of his life-long dreams: to learn how to surf. Years earlier, his mother had shown him the website of a young girl, Bethany Hamilton, who had lost her arm to a shark attack while she had been surfing. In spite of this staggering loss, Bethany was back on the water within three weeks and soon became nationally recognized for her talent on the board.

Nick knew she would be the perfect teacher for him, and as soon as he landed in her home state, he reached out to ask for a lesson. “I was psyched at the prospect of learning how to surf,” he said. “I also was more than a little nervous.”

They began on the beach. As Nick struggled to raise himself upright on the board, he and Bethany devised a platform made of folded towels, duct taped just off center, which he could use for leverage. Once he could raise himself up on his own, he rode several waves perched on the end of Bethany’s board.

Finally, he was ready to try it on his own, and Bethany nudged his board into a wave, …. and he immediately fell off. Wriggling from side to side like a fish, Nick swam back out to the deeper water, waited while Bethany positioned his board, and tried again. Wipe out!

Wave after wave, Nick tried, and wave after wave, he failed—but he didn’t give up. Each time he stayed on the board a little longer and made minute adjustments to his body—based on what worked or hadn’t worked during his previous attempt.

And late in the morning on August 20, 2008, Nick successfully surfed a wave all the way in to the shore. The happy crowd whistled and cheered its delight.

“Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand” (Isaiah 41:10 NLT).

In your life, what challenge seems impossible? Sometimes the best way to succeed is to fall down, get back up, and try again.

Vujicic, Nick. Life Without Limits: Inspiration for a Ridiculously Good Life. New York: Doubleday, 2010.

Vujicic, Nick. “How not to be afraid of failure.” Published April 27, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM1jVHb5Z1M.

Vujicic, Nick and Bethany Hamilton. “Nick Vujicic and Bethany Hamilton.” Accessed June 18, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=eBLuRDqu584.

Story read by: Nathan Walker

Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter

Audio production: Joel Carpenter

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

Project Manager: Blake Mattocks

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August 19. Li De Xian. Pastor Li has been arrested so many times he’s lost count. Arrested and treated brutally for illegal preaching.

He keeps a go-bag ready, not for jet-setting, but for the next arrest. It contains a blanket and a change of clothes.

Don’t settle for safe; do what you’re called to do.

God called Li to a nation who didn’t know Christ, to a legal system at war with Christianity, to a life of danger.

Still, Li treasured God more than he feared anything man could do to him, and he was compelled to preach the Gospel of Jesus in China. More times than he could count, brutal Public Security officers burst in while Li was preaching, and they dragged him out of the house. But he was relentless. He said, “I will preach until I die.”

One quiet Tuesday morning in an unregistered house church, about 400 Christians crowded in to celebrate the God, who had given them a freedom they had never thought possible.

Secretly shuffling in, they found seats on wrinkled newspapers on the floor because the authorities had already confiscated their chairs. The people knew what the authorities would do to them if they were caught, but they loved their Savior, and they loved each other, and they loved gathering in his name.

Pastor Li opened his mouth to preach. Again, angry government employees stormed into the crowded home, shouted accusations, and shoved their way through the people. Officers seized Pastor Li and dragged him outside. They bludgeoned him—as his fellow Christ-followers looked on. Including his wife.

United in their barbarity, they made an example of Pastor Li, smashed his face against the stone and repeatedly kicked him in the stomach and groin. As they hauled him off to prison, Li’s wife Zhao handed him a small black bag.

“What is that?” they demanded.

“It’s a blanket and some clothes. I’ve been expecting you,” said Pastor Li.

At the police station, they shackled Pastor Li’s ankles and his shins, and inserted a metal rod to hold his feet apart wider than his shoulders. Between his legs they put a ring and shackled his wrists to it, so he had to stand, his spine bowed. They left him like that for three days.

They interrogated Pastor Li, but he would not succumb to fear. “I do not fear you,” he said.

They shouted back, “You fear us!”

He endured several more hours of abuse and then was placed in isolation because the officers did not want him to preach the gospel to any of the other prisoners.

Pastor Li eventually returned home, after being given a strong warning not to preach any longer. This was a warning that he had received many times before. But he remained resolute in his call, and he would not stop.

“Christ was the first to suffer; we just follow Him. There are many thorns, but we are just injured a little on our feet. This suffering is very little,” Pastor Li said.

Zhao stood with her husband and said confidently: “God will take care of him; there is no need to worry.”

The next Tuesday morning in that same small, crowded home church, Pastor Li preached the Gospel of Jesus.

“The LORD is on my side as my helper; I shall look in triumph on those who hate me” (Psalm 118:7 ESV).

Is fear keeping you from trying something you think the Lord may be calling you to do? Don’t settle for safe; do what you’re called to do.

Crosswalk.com. “Continuing to Preach Despite Persecution.” November 9, 2003. https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/spiritual-life/continuing-to-preach-despite-persecution-the year 1170448.html.

DC Talk and the Voice of the Martyrs. “His Heart Would Not Die.” Accessed June 18, 2020. http://www.sermonillustrator.org/illustrator/sermon5/his_heart_would_not_die.htm

Would You Like to Learn More About This Man?

“Don’t feel sorry for us,” Zhao says of their lifestyle. “At least we are constantly reminded that we are in a spiritual war. We know for whom we are fighting. We know who the enemy is. And we are fighting. Perhaps we should pray for you Christians outside of China. In your leisure, in your affluence, in your freedom, sometimes you no longer realize that you are in spiritual warfare.”

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

Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter

Audio production: Joel Carpenter

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

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

Project Manager: Blake Mattocks

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August 18. Denzel Washington. Denzel was the son of a preacher and a hairstylist.

Denzel says, “I was what they call ‘throwing rocks at the penitentiary,’ but I never hit it.” He adds, “I never got caught…. But I also knew right from wrong, so I never wanted to go too far.”

Proactively, his mother sent him off to boarding school before things could go too wrong. When someone asks what advice Denzel would give to his 15-year-old self, he answers, “Listen to your mother!” In today’s story, Denzel was in college.

It’s not how much you have; it’s what you do with what you have.

Denzel felt like a failure.

Struggling in college, his grade point average was 1.7, so low that he worried he would flunk out. And he started to question whether he had really made the right choices about his education. A part of him wondered if he should just start over and join the army. Maybe there, he would find more success.

One March day, he took his frustrations to his mother’s beauty shop and occasionally glanced up at the mirror to see what was happening behind him. But one time he looked in the mirror, he realized an older woman under the hairdryer was looking back at him.

He looked away. Maybe it was one of those accidental eye contacts.

But after that, every time he looked up, she was looking back. And it started to feel weird. He didn’t recognize the woman.

Suddenly, she called out, “Somebody, get me a pen! Get me a pencil! I have a prophecy.”

Somebody handed her a blue envelope, and the woman scribbled on it. Then she spoke to Denzel. “Boy,” she began, “you are gonna travel the world and speak to millions of people.”

Denzel was taken aback. The woman was a prophet? Didn’t she know he was flunking out of school? Didn’t she know he was just wandering through life? Didn’t she know he didn’t have a clue what he should do?

But something in his spirit stirred. He felt it.

The woman gave him the envelope with the word: “Prophecy” written on it. And his mother came along and added the word “preacher.” Perhaps that was what he was going to be. Denzel wrote his own name on the envelope.

And he took the blue envelope home. About four months later, Denzel decided to try something new—acting. He had found his calling.

Looking back, he realized that the moment in the beauty shop had had a profound effect on him. Even though he had felt lost in his life, God still had His hand on him and was guiding him—even if Denzel didn’t realize it at the time. “I’ve been protected. I’ve been directed. I’ve been corrected,” Denzel said. “I didn’t always stick with Him, but He always stuck with me.”

Denzel knew a calling from God came with responsibility. God gave him success, and just as the older woman spoke God’s calling into Denzel’s life, Denzel would speak God’s calling into the lives of others … not always with words, but with action.

At Howard University, another young man was studying to become an actor. His mentor at the school offered him an opportunity to further his education and study at Oxford. But the young man didn’t have enough money to go. He was going to have to limit his dream due to lack of funds.

His mentor, Phylicia, knew Denzel (who was a famous actor by then) and contacted him. Denzel then paid for the student to go to the Oxford program.

Years later, the mystery of the young man whom Denzel had sponsored came out. He was Chadwick Boseman, now famous for playing Black Panther in the Marvel Superhero movies.

Denzel remembered what it was like to struggle in college. During a commencement speech at Dillard University, Denzel said, “It’s not how much you have; it’s what you do with what you have.”

“Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:20-21 NIV).

With whatever resources you have, be intentional about speaking life into other men’s lives. “It’s not how much you have; it’s what you do with what you have.”

Above Inspiration. “Put God First—Denzel Washington Motivational & Inspiring Commencement Speech.” Published 26 Oct. 2017. https: //www.youtube.com/watch? v=BxY_eJLBflk&feature=youtu.be.

Smith, Dean. “An old woman’s prophecy over actor Denzel Washington said he would speak to millions.” OpentheWord.org. February 12, 2017. https: //opentheword.org/2017/02/12/an-old-womans-prophecy-over-actor-denzel-washington-said-he-would-speak-to-millions/.

Hill, Zahara. “Denzel Washington and Phylicia Rashad Helped Chadwick Boseman Study at Oxford.” Ebony. Published February 20, 2018. https: //www.ebony.com/entertainment/denzel-washington-phylicia-rashad-chadwick-boseman/.

Story read by: Stephen Holcomb

Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter

Audio production: Joel Carpenter

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

Project Manager: Blake Mattocks

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August 17. John Mott. John came to faith in Christ when he was an undergrad at Cornell. He was among the first hundred students to sign up in Dwight Moody’s summer conference in Massachusetts. The pledge was, “It is my purpose, if God permit, to become a foreign missionary.”

John was still a student when he turned a Cornell group into the largest and most active YMCA Chapter on American campuses. In 1915, He enlisted 20,000 people to serve soldiers and prisoners, and in 1946, he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work establishing and building up international Christian-student organizations that worked to promote peace. By 1951, John had enlisted more than 20,000 missionary volunteers. On this date in 1895, John founded the World’s Student Christian Federation.

To keep going, you must choose to rest.

John noted the short blasts of the ship’s horn, a sure signal they were nearing port. Soon he would step onto English soil, plan a conference, and gather influential students he could empower to share Jesus with the world. Evangelism was a high calling. His calling. But at that moment, a slight dizziness blurred John’s vision.

He shook it off.

In the three years since he had established the World’s Student Christian Federation (WSCF), he had circled the globe, hosted conferences, and met with student leaders from more countries than he could quickly count. His wife said he hadn’t taken a real break in years—the last she remembered was their honeymoon. Sure, weariness dogged him. But when one is called of God, shouldn’t he give his all?

John’s friend D. W. thought John needed more rest, and he owned many acres of lake-front property in Canada. And what a generous friend—not only had he offered John’s family any plot they wanted, he had also promised to cut a road to the plot and give John all the logs needed to build a vacation cabin. But John thought: who had time for such things? The Lord’s work needed to be done.

John debarked from the ship and headed for the site of the next conference. The back-to-back schedule of the upcoming conferences would tax him. They would be intense and far-reaching. But with his daily disciplines of healthy eating, physical exercise, and daily time alone with God, John was confident he could persevere. He always had.

John arrived at the conference. Offered his smile and warm handshake to the helpers. But then John’s head swam. Spots appeared before his eyes.

When he awoke, he was on the floor with a painful bruise covering the side of his face and one eye. When he had fallen, he had hit a stand.

Somebody called a doctor—and that wise man ordered John to bed. John couldn’t continue with the conference plans. Diagnosed with a nervous breakdown, he wondered if his years of service to God were over. He couldn’t stand that thought.

For ten years, John had trusted his iron constitution. But he had pushed his body farther—and longer—than it could sustain. He lay in bed. Rested. Prayed. Studied the relationship of periods of rest to staying-power in one’s work.

Eventually, he was strong enough to go home. Convinced God had designed his body for more rest—and that it would help, not harm, his ability to serve, John took D. W. up on his offer of a vacation home. On a secluded island in the Canadian wilderness, John built a sturdy family cabin.

Throughout the rest of his life, John continued to travel. But each summer, John and his family took extended vacations. No phone. No local telegraph. No easy access. John completely unplugged.

He had always worked hard, and that didn’t change. But the new John, the one who had learned to rest, kept going strong for the long haul. He clocked nearly two million miles of foreign travel and recruited tens of thousands of students to help him spread the gospel of Jesus.

His service, fueled by rest, spanned more than half a century, and in 1946, fifty-seven years after the break-down, John received the Nobel Peace Prize for creating a “peace-promoting religious brotherhood”throughout the world.

“Then Jesus said, ‘Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.’ He said this because there were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his apostles didn’t even have time to eat” (Mark 6:31 NLT).

Will you finish strong? To keep going, you must choose to rest.

Matthews, Basil Joseph. John R. Mott, World Citizen. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1934.

The Norwegian Nobel Institute. John R. Mott: Facts. The Nobel Prize. Accessed June 17, 2020. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1946/mott/facts.

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

Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter

Audio production: Joel Carpenter

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

Project Manager: Blake Mattocks

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