Archives: Episode

September 30. Lewis Hayden. Lewis was born a slave, but no mistreatment or ugly label could hold him back. When he finally escaped slavery, he dedicated his life, his time, and his skill as a businessman to serve and support slaves and escaped slaves. 

Lewis ran a clothing store, where he dressed runaway slaves—and he held meetings and campaigned against slavery. His home had a hidden tunnel connected to the Underground Railroad, a passageway to safety and freedom for escaped slaves. 

At Lewis’s funeral, the pastor said about him, “The secret of the success in Lewis Hayden’s life is that he lived for others. He was, indeed, a prince among us.” On this day in 1850, Lewis became the chairman of The Friends of Liberty. 

Circumstances can drag a man down, but God-given dignity can lift him up. 

In 1811, Lewis was born a slave to a family of twenty-five in Lexington, Kentucky. Not an ideal situation. While he had family members all around him, life for a child slave was not safe. 

Lewis was property, like a dog or a hamster is property. If slave children were disobedient or showed any kind of free spirit at all, they could be beaten just like adult slaves. Their owners did not see them as human beings. Just things to be used. 

His father was sold off first. And Lewis knew that at any time he could be sold too, or his mother, or his siblings. This molded Lewis’s firm belief that he was only worth what someone was willing to pay for him. 

When Lewis was ten, it finally happened. His owner sold all of Lewis’s family to different slaveholders and traded Lewis to a traveling salesman for two horse carriages. In one swoop, Lewis lost his entire family. He was left alone, a young slave. Not much sense of self-worth after that, not much of anything to cling to. 

But when he was fourteen, an American Revolutionary War soldier visited Kentucky, and one day as he strolled past, he tipped his hat to Lewis. 

What to most would have been a simple nod, a smile, a gesture … to Lewis, it was as if a veil had been lifted from his eyes. Someone acknowledged him. Him. As if he were a human being. A person. Not a slave, not a piece of property, but a young man. 

This sparked something human in Lewis. For the first time in his life, he recognized his own value. And not just that, but the value his Father in heaven had for him. He was of worth in God’s eyes. He clung to that. 

Not that Lewis’s troubles magically disappeared—they didn’t—he was still a slave, but he was a slave who, with that simple acknowledgment, began to change. He now had a belief in himself as a man. 

This stayed with him, and a few years later, he approached Lewis Baxter, an insurance office clerk, and Thomas Grant, an oil manufacturer, and asked if they would buy him and hire him to make money for them—and let him keep some of the earnings to eventually buy his own freedom. 

The men accepted, and Lewis was hired out as a waiter at Lexington’s Phoenix Hotel, and now knowing his own value as a man, he worked hard and began his savings for his own freedom. 

Then in 1844, Lewis, still a slave working at the hotel and now married with a stepson—both of them slaves—and fearing his family could be separated, met another man who loved God, a Methodist minister involved with the Underground Railroad. Lewis asked the pastor to help them escape. 

The minister asked Lewis, “Why do you want your freedom?” Lewis replied, “Because I am a man.” 

No longer a slave. A man. The minister agreed and helped Lewis and his family escape slavery via the Underground Railroad. 

Amazing what recognizing one’s own worth and developing self-respect can do to someone, and how it can affect others’ lives, too! 

“Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it” (Psalm 139:14 NLT). 

You may feel like a slave to circumstances; let boldness move you to action. Circumstances can drag a man down, but God-given dignity can lift him up. 

New Bedford Historical Society. “Lewis Hayden.” Accessed July 6, 2020. http://nbhistoricalsociety.org/Important-Figures/lewis-hayden/. 

Yee, Shirley. “The Black Past.” Published February 22, 2007. https://www.blackpast.org/?s=lewis+hayden. 

Story read by: Chuck Stecker 

Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter 

Audio production: Joel Carpenter 

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

Project manager: Blake Mattocks 

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

September 28. Charles Hodge. As a boy, Charles dutifully memorized Scripture and the Westminster Catechism. Then the revival of 1815 “led Charles into an intense season of spiritual searching, and he found that God had made his boyhood beliefs both sincere and heartfelt.” 

He entered Princeton Theological Seminary, where they required him to memorize the Catechism again—in Latin—and on this date in 1819, he graduated. Within the year, Charles began to teach at the seminary. 

And he kept on teaching, “representing the faith,” for 56 years. And he trained up more than 3,000 seminary students, more graduate students than “any other professor of any kind in the 19^th century.” 

Although Charles’s teaching and the books he wrote caused him to be popularly known as “the pope of Presbyterianism,” he trusted Christ alone. 

Point people to Jesus. You can’t give what you don’t have. Get to know God’s empowering grace; then share it. 

Charles stared at the blank stationery on his desk. Thought of Sarah. Wondered why their letters had become superficial—that is when there were any letters at all. 

When he had first noticed her back home in Philadelphia, he had only been fifteen. And now that they were old enough to court, she had agreed to correspond while he studied at Princeton Seminary. He imagined her large, searching blue-gray eyes. What had happened between Sarah and him? 

Most likely he was to blame. Sarah had trusted him with her private struggles with God and faith. His response had not satisfied her questions. Was it his inability to help her through those painful emotions that had created this distance? 

Yesterday his beloved professor had encouraged the class to “look unto Jesus!” Until a person looked to Jesus, he was left struggling in his own strength. When he looked to Jesus, the battle became God’s. Charles prayed for wisdom. He couldn’t give Sarah what he didn’t have. But as he experienced the grace of God, he could share it with her. 

Sarah tried so hard to be good. Charles was learning that to be good before believing Jesus was the One who made you good was like trying to start a fire with no wood. The direct reverse of what God prescribed! 

He put the fountain pen upon the paper. “My dear Sarah, the reason why persons truly pious make so little progress … is because they do not carry on the conflict in the right way.” Trying to change inner motivation never worked. You couldn’t force holiness. Jesus promised to deliver from faults, and He never failed! 

“Use Christ as though He were your own,” wrote Charles. “Employ His strength, His merit, and His grace in all your trials. This is the way to honor Him. Fear not that He will be offended at the liberty.” Charles prayerfully re-read the letter and wrote the year—1818—across the bottom. 

As Charles continued his studies, his thoughts were not far from Sarah. How would she receive his letter? 

When Sarah wrote back, the tone encouraged him. Soon they corresponded with more intimacy. 

What joy to share the love of Christ with his wife-to-be! Paul wrote that a husband should love his wife as if she were a part of himself. Charles would love Sarah as God loved him, sharing with her God’s patient grace. Together, grounded in Christ, they would build a strong, godly relationship. 

“In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself” (Ephesians 5:28 NIV). 

As Charles finished seminary, preached, and then received an appointment to teach at Princeton, he continued to share with Sarah what he was learning—to look to God, not oneself. Don’t wait until “your heart becomes penitent and humble,” he wrote. “Go with a proud heart for Him to change … He alone can give you what you need.” 

For roughly two years, the correspondence continued. One day Charles eagerly opened another letter from Sarah, written on August 4, 1820. “I love to feel myself bound to you by … ties that not even the grave can change,” he read. Sarah wrote that she felt cherished. Guided by his words. Grateful that he was the instrument God had used to draw her closer to Himself. Moisture pricked Charles’s eyes. God gave him grace. And God gave grace to Sarah through him. 

How do you love others as you love yourself? Point people to Jesus. You can’t give what you don’t have. Get to know God’s empowering grace; then share it. 

Hodge, Archibald Alexander. The Life of Charles Hodge, D.D. LL.D: Professor in the Theological Seminary, Princeton, N.J. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1880. 

Taylor, Justin. “The Remarkable Legacy of Charles Hodge.” TGC. Posted on December 27, 2016.  

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/evangelical-history/the-remarkable-legacy-of-charles-hodge/.

Story read by: Joel Carpenter 

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 

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

September 27. Prince Kaboo. In the jungles of Liberia, nearing the end of the nineteenth century, people were always preparing for tribal warfare. Or they were recovering from tribal warfare. Or they were in the middle of tribal warfare. 

It was a hard way to live. 

But fifteen-year-old Prince Kaboo—the son of a Kru tribal chieftain—bore more than his share of the tribal-warfare pain. Already he had been kidnapped and held for ransom—twice. 

Does life seem like it is over? There’s still hope. 

The third time the Grebo tribe defeated the Kru and captured Prince Kaboo, they held him for ransom—as usual. And as usual, the prince survived at the mercy of the drunken Grebo chief. 

But this time, no matter how much rice, ivory, or other gifts Kaboo’s father brought, the Grebo chief refused to free Kaboo. 

Now—after all this fighting—that crazed Grebo chief had plans. He told Kaboo the Grebo were going to tie Kaboo to a tree and beat him until he passed out. 

Then they were going to bury him up to his neck and prop his mouth open with a stick. Next, they would smear honey all over the boy to attract flesh-eating driver-ants. 

And when the ants had had their way, the Grebos would hang Kaboo’s skeleton as a warning that ransom must be paid. 

The time came. Warriors bound Kaboo to the whipping post. With poisonous, thorny vines, his captors lashed him over and over. His body was shredded, and escape was impossible. 

Suddenly a blinding light from above shone on Kaboo’s mangled body. 

“ … the Grebo chief screamed in terror.”¹ 

Everyone there heard a voice that seemed to come from above them. “The voice said, ‘Get up, Kaboo, get up and run away.’” 

The vines that had held him to the tree fell off, and he burst free. 

He bled. A lot. But his body surged with new energy. 

Miraculously strong, Kaboo ran. 

He saw a soft light ahead, and he followed it. That unexplainable light led him through the thick maze of murky jungle to a coffee plantation, where he met missionary Anna Knolls. And he stayed—there where he was safe—and he could heal. 

One day during normal Bible study time, Anna told the story of the light that had blinded the Apostle Paul. 

“I have seen that light!” Kaboo yelled. “When they were whipping me, and I was about to die, I heard that voice. … Now I know who it was who saved my life. It was Jesus!” 

Stunned, the missionary explained that Jesus died on a cross to pay the ransom for all people. Kaboo understood being ransomed. 

One night he was again surprised by light. “The room grew brighter until it was filled with glory. The burden of my heart suddenly disappeared. … I … shouted until everyone in the barracks was awakened: ‘Praise God! Praise God! I am His son! He is my Father!’” 

“For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Romans 8:15 NASB). 

For the rest of his short life Kaboo, who was later named Samuel Morris at his baptism, clung to the truth that he was a son of God, who loved him. 

A missionary advised Kaboo to go to the United States for education, and he did. Since he had no money, he started off to America on foot. For several nights, he slept on the beach until he could barter his passage for work. 

He was on his way, but they beat him and gave him the dirtiest, most dangerous jobs. By the time Kaboo arrived in New York, the captain and most of the crew had become Christians. In the United States, Kaboo preached the gospel to anyone who would listen. 

Have you been through some battles? Is there a way to use that to speak into someone else’s life? Does life seem like it is over? There’s still hope. 

1 Brother James. “Samuel Morris aka Prince Kaboo.” Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. 

http://www.courtofheaven.com/pdfs/books/15-Sam-Morris-22-pages.pdf

Whalin, W. Terry. Samuel Morris: The Apostle of Simple Faith. Heroes of the Faith. Uhrichsville OH: Barbour Publishing, 1996. 

Keller, Kenneth B., ed. Journal Gazette. February 14, 1971. 

Would You Like to Learn More About This Man? 

Would you like your children or grandchildren to know more about Samuel Morris? Quest for the Lost Prince, written for children by Dave and Neta Jackson, tells more of his story. You can view this and other Trailblazer books at http://trailblazerbooks.com. 

Taylor University President Thaddeus Reade said, “[Kaboo] thought he was coming over here to prepare himself for his mission to his people, but his coming was to prepare Taylor University for her mission to the whole world.” 

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

Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter 

Audio production: Joel Carpenter 

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

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

Project manager: Blake Mattocks 

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

September 26. John Stott. Stott was an Anglican priest and theologian. On this day in 1950, he was inducted as rector of All Souls Church. 

But he lived in a two-room flat above the garage behind the rectory. He had a bedroom, but it also served as a hallway and a study for his research assistant.   

And Stott needed a research assistant; he wrote fifty books, which were translated into sixty-five languages. He also worked with evangelist Billy Graham to shape the 1974 International Congress on World Evangelization in Lausanne, Switzerland, and served as its principal writer. 

In 2005, TIME Magazine named him among the 100 most influential people in the world. On the twenty-fifth anniversary of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, which he founded, Stott said he felt most alive “in worship, where praises reach to the heavens; in enjoying the gift of friends; and in the natural world, early in the morning, where the sights, sounds, and smells are all clear and fresh.” 

An interviewer asked Stott how he wanted to be remembered, and he answered, “As an ordinary Christian who has struggled to understand, expound, relate, and apply the Word of God.” 

What if you were suddenly jobless, homeless, and sick? How would you want to be treated? 

In the late 1940s, London was rebuilding itself after World War II and the effects of the German bombs. Blown-out buildings and debris lay throughout the old city. Amid the reconstruction, a young priest sought to build a bridge between the Anglican Church and the poor. 

In general, the church ignored people living on the street and made a priority of attending to the needs of their parishioners. But many churchgoers felt sympathy for the homeless. They felt sorry for their problems. 

Stott sought to spread empathy, not sympathy, for the homeless. He wanted the church members to imagine themselves as homeless. 

Stott said, “We must allow the Word of God to confront, to disturb our security, to undermine our complacency, and to overthrow our patterns of thought.” To discover their needs, Father Stott disguised himself as a homeless man and lived on the street. 

Near the Charing Cross Bridge in London, the night was biting cold. Stott was surrounded by trembling tramps with only flimsy newspapers for blankets. A chill grabbed Stott’s feet, and he looked down at his shoes. Each had a hole, a perfect opening for the wind. He had chosen these shoes, as well as his clothes, so he could fit in with the homeless people. By understanding their pain and challenges, he could learn to better serve the poor, not just write sermons. 

The next morning when he woke on that cold pavement, he was thirsty and hungry, so he walked to several tea shops close by—one after another. Although Stott had grown up privileged and spoke the Queen’s English quite well, he created a Cockney accent to ask the tea shop workers, “Can you gimme a job for a cuppa tea? Or even spare a breakfast?” After being ignored and rejected several times, Stott moved on to another part of London and took a nap in some soft grass. 

Toward evening and still hungry, he went to the Whitechapel Salvation Army hostel for the homeless to ask for a bed. The officers in charge spoke to each homeless man who came in. The officers were disrespectful, grouchy, and brusque. Stott was allocated a bed in a dormitory with no privacy, and he slept little. He listened as men, some drunk, some mentally ill, came in and out of the hostel. 

The experience of living among the vagrants made a profound effect in Stott’s heart. After this time with the homeless, he taught his congregation ways they might meet the needs of the poor. 

First, Stott established the All Souls Clubhouse, to serve as a place for clubs or groups to meet. He emphasized to everyone that it was meant for not only the congregants, but also the non-church members, the homeless, and the poor. He led a midweek service-and-meal geared toward the poor. He ministered to young homeless men and women. 

In his lifetime, he wrote more than 50 books and led many conferences, encouraging all Anglicans to minister to the poor. Stott understood that ministering to the poor meant ministering to Jesus. 

In Basic Christianity, Stott wrote: “It is never enough to have pity on the victims of injustice if we do nothing to change the unjust situation itself.” 

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ 

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ 

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me’” (Matthew 25:34–40 NIV). 

How can you empathize with someone less fortunate and then help them, and not just sympathize and do nothing for them? What if you were suddenly jobless, homeless, and sick? How would you want to be treated? 

Costanzo, Eric. “John Stott (1921–2011) Lives As A Homeless Man—A Story In Memory Of His Death Today.” Posted on July 27, 2011. https://ericcostanzo.me/?s=John+Stott. 

Stott, John. Basic Christianity. Downers Grove IL: InterVarsity Press, 1958. 

Story read by: Blake Mattocks 

Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter 

Audio production: Joel Carpenter 

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

Project manager: Blake Mattocks 

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

September 25. CS Lewis. Lewis wrote more than thirty books, which have sold millions of copies. They run the literary gamut: fantasy, sci-fi, speculative fiction, apologetics, autobiography, and now-classic Christian non-fiction. The Chronicles of Narnia have also appeared on stage, TV, radio, and in films. 

Lewis taught English at both Oxford and Cambridge, and during World War 2, he bolstered the courage of many young military people with special BBC broadcasts, which later became the text of Mere Christianity. Though he was a highly-esteemed professor, today’s story shows that Lewis remained teachable. Here’s the story. 

Watch out for the poison of conceit. It can sneak up on a guy. 

When CS Lewis walked into the sanctuary that Sunday morning, the local butcher welcomed him by name, smiled with genuine warmth, and held out a hymnal. 

Lewis nodded and accepted the book from the butcher’s blood-stained fingers. Made his way down the aisle. 

Hot and claustrophobic-ish, Lewis sidled into a pew, sat, and loosened his collar. Another service of wretched organ music, badly-written hymns, and barely-biblical sermons. A jarring assortment of local people surrounded him, and he tried to ignore the too-much perfume, the too-loud nose whistle, and the too-close bad breath. Church services could be “wearisome affairs.” 

Lewis thought about the stimulating meeting he had had the night before—a deep theological discussion with friends like fellow-author JRR Tolkien. Surely that was what church should be like—two or three learned men gathered for a serious discussion. 

But in the pew next to Lewis, generous old Mrs. Green belted out, “All praise and glory!” She sang hopelessly off-key. 

Lewis refused to grimace. With proper harmony and pitch, the music might be tolerable. 

Now boots squealed on the waxed floor and came tromping down the aisle; Mr. Green, home from his latest gambling adventure, climbed over some more-punctual parishioners to sit next to his generous old wife. 

Lewis mourned that he had nothing in common with these people. He looked around at them. Some of them led quite “un-Christian” lives—except on Sunday morning. And the vicar’s main job seemed to be to help his flock develop patience—by means of sermons, long and rambling and pointless. 

Just then a new idea struck Lewis: Here I am at a gathering of the body of Christ, and every thought and feeling I have is smug and conceited. Wouldn’t the devil be quite pleased? 

Lewis looked at the motley collection of people again. This assembly wasn’t a group of people with shared interests. They didn’t have the same tastes in music or similar jobs. They didn’t all agree on every point in a particular theology. 

Mr. and Mrs. Green, the smiling butcher, the dignified physician—no this wasn’t a club. It was the Body of Christ, a living organism, “spread throughout all time and space and rooted in Eternity, terrible as an army with banners.” 

What had Lewis expected the Body of Christ to look like? If it should look like a bunch of well-behaved saints in white clothing singing praises like a world-famous choir, then he wouldn’t have been allowed to join. 

“If I, being what I am,” Lewis said, “can consider that I am in some sense a Christian, why should the different vices of these people in the next pew prove their religion is hypocrisy and convention? 

“The idea of allowing myself to be put off by mere inadequacy—an ugly church, a gawky server, a badly turned-out celebrant—is horrible.” 

Lewis thought seriously about how he had given in to the temptation to think that he was better than these other people, and idea for a story formed—a story of one devil advising another devil how to keep a believer from growing in his faith. 

Here’s one way to “treat your patient” the devil teaches: cause him to look around at the people around him, but don’t let him see the persons. Get him to focus on the little things that bug him. Make him feel superior. Before long, he would be put off by the Body of Christ. He would be cut off from the rest of the body and unable to worship God. Lewis had given in to that temptation, and he knew others had, too. 

Two years later, Lewis published The Screwtape Letters, a bestseller full of letters from a senior devil named Screwtape to his nephew devil, Wormwood. Wormwood had been assigned to corrupt the “Patient.” In one of the letters old Screwtape describes a church scene starring attendees who were neighbors the “Patient” otherwise would go to lengths to avoid. Lewis hoped the book would be “useful and entertaining.” 

Though the “wearisome” aspect of the church service never changed for Lewis, he did learn not to use it as an excuse for pride, grouchiness, and withdrawal. He said about himself, “you realized that the hymns (which were just sixth-rate music) were, nevertheless, being sung with devotion and benefit by an old saint in elastic-side boots in the opposite pew, and then you realize that you aren’t fit to clean those boots. It gets you out of your solitary conceit.” 

“So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:1-11 ESV). 

Do you ever find church services wearisome? Is something going on under the surface? 

Watch out for the poison of conceit. It can sneak up on a guy. 

Lewis, C.S. God in the Dock. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1970. 

Lewis, C.S. The Screwtape Letters. Uhrichsville OH: Barbour and Company Inc, 1990. 

Lewis, C.S. Surprised by Joy. New York: Harcourt Brace and Company, 1956. 

Lewis, C.S. Letters to Malcolm, Chiefly on Prayer. New York: Harper Collins, 1964. 

Dickieson, Brenton. “How C.S. Lewis Conceived of ‘The Screwtape Letters.’” Posted on January 15, 2014. https://apilgriminnarnia.com/2014/01/15/conception/. 

Story read by: Daniel Carpenter 

Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter 

Audio production: Joel Carpenter 

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

Project manager: Blake Mattocks 

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

March 1. John Quincy Adams. Adams was a man of integrity with his mind made up to use whatever skills and talents he had to serve the country that loved. 

One evening early in 1821, a certain politician visited Adams and let him know that he was being considered as a candidate for the presidency. 

“To one thing, however, I had made up my mind,” Adams said. “I would take no one step to advance or promote pretensions to the Presidency—If that office was to be the prize of cabal and intrigue, of purchasing Newspapers, bribing by appointments or bargaining for foreign Missions, I had no ticket in that Lottery. … I will devote none of my time to devising laws to increase my own patronage, and multiply canvassers in my favour. …” 

Of course, he did become the sixth President of the United States. And that prestigious office didn’t change him. He refused to play politics and make deals. Today’s story tells how that went. On this date in 1841, twelve years after he left the presidency, Adams persuaded the US Supreme Court to free wrongly-imprisoned men, men who had been kidnapped and were to be forced into slavery. 

Even when we’re defeated, God has a plan. 

When Adams was elected President of the United States, he believed he had reached the pinnacle of his career because his single-minded goal had always been to serve his country. And what better opportunity could there be? 

But on every proposal, he battled Congress. They refused to support anything he wanted to do, and they brought the government to a halt. His term ended, and when he ran for re-election the voters trounced him. He wrote: “The sun of my political life sets in the deepest gloom.” He had set out to serve his country, to use his skills for the good of the people, and he had failed. 

But soon, some men asked Adams to run for Congress. His wife and his son were mortified; they wanted no more public humiliation. But Adams saw only an opportunity to serve his nation. 

He accepted the call on two conditions: he would not affiliate with any political party, and he would run without campaigning. If the people wanted him to serve, they would elect him. 

And they did. 

Nine consecutive times. Eighteen years in the House of Representatives. 

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28 NASB). 

Adams detested slavery and what it did to human beings, and he wanted it abolished. This caused his Southern colleagues to disdain him. 

Instead of assigning him to Foreign Affairs, in which he had extensive experience, they put him on the Committee of Manufactures—a sphere he knew nothing about. To keep him from bringing up slavery on the House floor, they instituted the “Gag Rule” and forbid the mention of the word slavery in House proceedings. 

But Adams had purposed to serve his country, and he wasn’t going to let his opponents stop him. He learned House rules and circumvented the Gag Rule. Into the House record, he read citizens’ petitions for abolition. He read them constantly. And he read them loudly—over his opponents’ loud protests. 

Adams investigated manufacturing issues until he discovered the economic tie between cotton manufacturing and slavery, and he used that to strike a major blow against slavery. 

After years of battling slavery, seventy-four-year-old Adams argued before the Supreme Court for the acquittal and freedom of kidnapped Africans, who had mutinied aboard the ship Amistad. 

Summoning all his mastery of language and law, combined with his firm belief that slavery was “a sin before the sight of God,” his impassioned speech persuaded the Justices, a majority of whom were slaveholders themselves, to his point of view. The Africans were returned to their native land, free. 

In the Amistad case, Adams told the Justices his hope for each of them was that they would “be received at the portals of the next life with the approving sentence, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of the Lord.’” 

Have you ever seen a defeat turned to greater opportunities for you to serve and glorify God? Even when we’re defeated, God has a plan. 

Unger, Harlow Giles. John Quincy Adams. Boston: Da Capo Press, 2012, p. 256. 

Hogan, Margaret A. “John Quincy Adams.” Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia. Accessed September 26, 2018. https://millercenter.org/president/jqadams.  

Story read by Chuck Stecker 

Would You Like to Learn More About This Man? 

See The Diaries of John Quincy Adams https://www.amazon.com/​Diaries-John-Quincy-Adams-1779–1848/​dp/​1598535218/​ref=sr_​1_​1?_ie=UTF8&qid=1538080723&sr=8–1&keywords=john+quincy+adams. 

September 10. Thomas Cranmer. Cranmer was a leader of the English Reformation, and he was the Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of two kings and a queen of England.  

Cranmer loved God and was sincere in his beliefs. His story is one of hope for people who sometimes make mistakes. On this date in 1533, Cranmer became godfather to the then-future Queen Elizabeth. 

When success gets you slander, stand firm in the truth. 

When Cranmer became the Archbishop of Canterbury, he suddenly faced a slew of accusations. People started rumors saying he wasn’t educated enough to be in such a high position in the country and the Church. 

One time, in an alehouse in Yorkshire, England, a fellow priest had been gossiping among his neighbors. No doubt enjoying the attention, the ability to make his neighbors laugh, and the pleasure of being “in the know,” the priest claimed that Cranmer had as much education as a gosling. 

This was not the land of free speech, and in that time and place that kind of talk landed the gossipy priest in prison. Worse, after eight or nine weeks of punishment, what the priest had said was reported to the Archbishop. 

Cranmer didn’t seem at all threatened by the priest’s idle talk, but the Archbishop was eager to put the rumors to rest. He got the priest out of prison, invited the priest to the palace, and offered to let the priest quiz him. The gossipy priest could now get proof of just how ill-educated Cranmer was. 

The priest accepted the invitation (it being a time and place one did not turn down the invitation of an Archbishop). He met Cranmer in the garden of Lambeth Palace, where the Archbishop was sitting under a vine, waiting. Right off, brother-to-brother, Cranmer asked why the priest had said such hurtful words about him. The priest, eager for an excuse, admitted it was probably the drink at the alehouse that had caused him to do it. 

Cranmer listened with respect. And he allowed that enough drink could loosen many tongues. But now that the priest was there, he could finally learn the truth about how educated Cranmer was. “You may oppose me, to know what learning I have,” Cranmer said. “Begin in grammar if you will, or else in philosophy and other sciences, or divinity.” 

But the priest knew he couldn’t question anyone in those areas. “I have no manner of learning in the Latin tongue,” he replied. He knew only English. 

Cranmer nodded. There would be no questions in Latin, nor would the priest be quizzing him in such worldly matters. Perhaps a Bible quiz would suffice. Surely, as a priest, he would know the Scriptures, and Cranmer used the opportunity to quiz the priest instead. 

Cranmer asked if the priest had read the Bible. 

Of course. He was a priest. He nodded. “Yes—that we do daily.” This would not be so bad, the priest thought. 

“Who was David’s father?” Cranmer asked. 

The priest stood still. “I … cannot surely tell, Your Grace.” 

“Who was Solomon’s father?” 

The priest answered that he didn’t really look at genealogies. 

By this time Cranmer had already proven that his own education wasn’t low or poor. The King wouldn’t have appointed him to be Archbishop if he weren’t prepared. 

Cranmer looked to the priest, scolding him gently as a fellow minister, who wanted to make sure his brother learned his lesson. “God amend you,” he said, “and from henceforth, learn to be an honest man, or at least a reasonable man.” 

The priest nodded again, and obviously felt very sorry. He had been wrong to spread such a false and hurtful rumor. 

The Archbishop sent the priest—not back to prison—but to his home. 

“So also the tongue is a small thing, but what enormous damage it can do. A great forest can be set on fire by one tiny spark.And the tongue is a flame of fire. It is full of wickedness, and poisons every part of the body. And the tongue is set on fire by hell itself and can turn our whole lives into a blazing flame of destruction and disaster” (James 3: 5-6 TLB). 

Have you ever faced slander or gossip from people who didn’t celebrate your success? How might you deal with words meant to hurt you? When success gets you slander, stand in the truth and find peace. 

Mason, Arthur James. Thomas Cranmer. London: Methuen & Co. 1898. Internet Archive. March 19, 2019. 

Nichols, John Gough, editor. Narratives of the Days of the Reformation: Chiefly from the Manuscripts of John Foxe the Martyrologist; with Two Contemporary Biographies of Archbishop Cranmer. Westminster: The Camden Society, 1859. Internet Archive. March 19, 2019. 

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

Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter 

Audio production: Joel Carpenter 

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

Project manager: Blake Mattocks 

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

September 9. Oswald Jeffrey Smith. At an RA Torrey conference Oswald became a Christian at age 16. About 14 years later, he founded The Peoples Church in Toronto in 1928. On September 9, 1928, he preached his first service to an audience of 2000. 

Several missionary boards turned him down, saying he was too physically frail for the mission field. 

But Oswald lived in the power of the endless life of Christ and served eighty years in the ministry, preached more than 12,000 sermons in 80 countries, and wrote thirty-five books. His life didn’t go the way he had plan, but it did go. Here’s his story. 

Hearing “no” could lead to an unexpected “yes.” 

Oswald grew up in a small, country town. A sickly boy, his parents and doctors questioned whether he would reach adulthood. He was absent from school on and off, and eventually missed two entire years of school. 

But Oswald defeated the odds, and at 16, went to Toronto to hear an evangelist preach. He listened to that evangelist, and his heart was caught. That’s what he wanted to be. And he didn’t want to be only an evangelist; he wanted to be a missionary. He wanted to travel to places God wanted him to and tell anyone he could about the gospel. 

With his trip to Toronto stamped in his heart forever, he decided that was the place to be. So, when he turned 18, he moved there and started attending evening classes at Toronto Bible College, his longing to be a missionary burning strong inside. 

Finally, when the doors opened, he applied for an appointment in the mission field through the church. On the precipice of his dream coming true, excitement brewing inside, he was told “no.” He had been too weak and sick when he was a young boy, they said. He would never be suited for the mission field. 

Oswald struggled with the rejection and disappointment, but he wouldn’t give up. If God had put this in his heart, God would be faithful to bring it to pass. 

Oswald took a job selling Bibles door-to-door for the Bible Society. It was a way to make money and allowed him to travel a bit, meet new people, and talk to them about God and His Word. 

He was so good at selling Bibles that the Bible Society sent him to Vancouver, some thirty miles away. Meeting this person and that, he made his way up the coast, making contacts with a variety of people and local pastors. Sometimes he would make a call to a lumber camp or to a home in the middle of nowhere. All the while, he spoke to these people about God, His Word, and the truth written there. 

Traveling farther and farther through the country, he wound up near the native people. He preached to them and sold them Bibles. It was there that a Methodist missionary noticed Oswald and asked if he would be willing to stay through the winter as his associate and minister to the Indians. 

Oswald said, “Yes.” 

It wasn’t the way he thought it would go. He had thought he would sign up at the church and take an assignment in the mission field and in an orderly fashion, off he would go. No. God took a different route. A longer route, an out-of-the-way route. But the destination was the same. 

“The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, and He delights in his ways.” (Psalm 37:23 NKJV)   

What disappointments are you dealing with? Hearing “no” could lead to an unexpected “yes.” 

Hull, John D. “Oswald J. Smith.” Online Encyclopedia of Canadian Christian Leaders. Accessed June 27, 2020. https: //www.canadianchristianleaders.org/leader/pauline-vanier-2–2-2/ 

“Osward Jeffery Smith, Pastor, Evangelist.” Believer’s Web. March 17, 2003. https: //believersweb.org/view.cfm? ID=130 

Story read by: Nathan Walker 

Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter 

Audio production: Joel Carpenter 

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

Project manager: Blake Mattocks 

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