Archives: Episode

June 26. Francis Scott Key. Key was a serious believer in Jesus and an amateur poet. And he was against the War of 1812. Still his strong sense of personal duty drove him to join the Georgetown Light Field Artillery.  

So when a situation arose that called for a soldier and a skilled negotiator, they sent Key. Here’s what happened. 

Sometimes we think we’re powerless. But we can always pray. 

Key paced the deck of the sixty-foot American sloop, The President, and prayed for favorable winds. The good Dr. Beanes had been wrongly arrested, hauled off, and locked up on the British flagship, HMS Tonnant. Key, a lawyer, and John Skinner, a prisoner-of-exchange officer, chased the British fleet to negotiate Beanes’s release. 

Just weeks before, British troops had pillaged Washington and left it a smoldering ruin. Who knew where they would next attack—or what they would do to old Dr. Beanes? If only Key’s sloop could move faster! 

Two long days later, near the mouth of the Potomac River, Key and Skinner found the British fleet and boarded the Tonnant. 

The British Admiral said he planned to hang Dr. Beanes. But Key showed him letters from many British officers whom the doctor had helped.  

The British did release Dr. Beanes. But the Admiral feared Key and his companions would tell the American military about his plan to attack Fort McHenry and Baltimore, so he didn’t let them leave. Forced to travel with the British, Key was powerless to help his country. But he committed the fort and Baltimore to God.  

The formidable fifty-ship military fleet, with its trained troops, neared Baltimore Bay. And Key thought of the American soldiers—mostly shopkeepers and farmers. How could they fight such massive military strength?  

British Marines returned Key and his companions, still under guard, to their sloop, which had been towed and then anchored behind the fleet.  

For four grueling days, they waited. Then, while the helpless Americans watched from their moored vessel, the fleet formed a semicircle around Fort McHenry—just out of reach of American guns. 

On September 13 at 6:30 in the morning, the first British bomb burst in the air. Then it “seemed as though mother earth… was vomiting shot and shell in a sheet of fire and brimstone.” Key’s sloop tossed upon the angry sea. 

As night neared, a shell punctured the American flag and ripped away one of its fifteen stars. The flag hung limp. But just then—at “twilight’s last gleaming”—a breeze stirred. The proud banner stretched to defy British guns.  

Darkness fell. The British continued their unrelenting deluge. But there, in the red glare of the rockets and the white explosion of bombs, Key glimpsed the American flag. 

Groans of wounded men pierced the battle-worn night.  

Then—suddenly—all was silent.  

The blackness hid its secrets. Had the well-trained British troops landed as planned? Attacked?  

Gloomy hours lengthened.  

Rain clouds shrouded the long-anticipated dawn. Then, just after six, the clouds parted.  

At the first light of dawn, Key strained to see. Limp fabric dangled. At first, Key couldn’t discern whether it was the American flag or the Union Jack. Then a morning gust lifted the flag. And stars and stripes unfurled and snapped in the wind. 

Key thanked God for His “most merciful deliverance.” 

He reached into his pocket and found the only paper available, the back of a letter. On it he began, “O, say can you see…”  

Gratitude birthed poetry. He wrote four verses. In the last he poured the crux of his worship. “Blessed with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n rescued land, Praise the Pow’r that hath made and preserved us a nation.” A line later he added, “In God is our trust!” 

“Some nations boast of their chariots and horses, but we boast in the name of the LORD our God” (Psalm 20:7 NLT).  

When you are helpless to rescue someone, without options, what is your first go-to? Sometimes we think we’re powerless. But we can always pray. 

Key-Smith, F. S. Esq. Francis Scott Key: Author of the Star Spangled Banner; What Else He Was and Who. Washington, DC: Key-Smith and Publishing, 1911. 

Leepson, Marc. What So Proudly We Hailed: Francis Scott Key, A Life. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2014.  

Do You Want to Learn More About This Man? 

Lecture by Marc Leepson, author of What So Proudly We Hailed. July 2, 2015. Virginia Museum of History & Culture. https://www.virginiahistory.org/read-watch-listen/video-and-audio/what-so-proudly-we-hailed-francis-scott-key-life-marc-leepson.  

Key was a serious believer in Jesus and an amateur poet. And he was against the War of 1812. Still his strong sense of personal duty drove him to join the Georgetown Light Field Artillery.  

So when a situation arose that called for a soldier and a skilled negotiator, they sent Key. 

June 25. Phil Trujillo. Phil was stockbroker, who faced some hard things. Have you ever been accused of a crime? Have you ever been tried and acquitted? Have you ever been tried and convicted and sent to prison? Have you ever had to start life all over again? This story—about Phil—offers practical ideas for issues we may be facing.   

Prosperity is not just a condition; it’s a spiritual truth. 

Like many men, fear of failure drove Phil. His whole life, he had tried to get somebody’s approval. 

It didn’t matter what he chose to do. He had to reach the top, to be the very best. In sports it was becoming a world-record-holding powerlifter. In business it was achieving financial success as a stockbroker and financial planner. Failure was not an option. It was a plan that worked well until the day his life came crashing down.  

“I went from being very successful and controlling my own destiny to being out of control, alone at the very bottom. There I was, facing 12 years in prison because I made the mistake of trusting someone else’s investment due diligence. My life had been destroyed. I lost my business, my reputation was shot, and I was completely broken.”  

Phil was exactly where God wanted him to be.  

“I was a Christian when that cell door slammed shut, but I didn’t understand the spiritual issues that I had been dealing with all my life that were responsible for getting me there. My plan was to build my business and make the money I needed to provide for my family and live the good life. In prison I found out that God had another plan, and it began with opening my eyes to the reality that prosperity is not just a condition; it’s a spiritual truth.” 

While in prison, the Lord revealed that truth to Phil in His Word. God’s financial prosperity is based upon the principles of sowing and reaping. He has commanded us to bring Him the tithe, the first 10 percent of what we earn. Like many Christians, however, Phil chose to follow the world’s path to financial success, putting himself first and God last, or out of the picture all together if nothing was left at the end of the month. He was ignorant of God’s command to test His promise.  

“Moving into financial freedom requires us to be obedient to the Holy Spirit as He helps us shed the erroneous beliefs that we’ve built up over the years that have continued to negatively affect our prosperity, our health, and our spiritual life. The lies the enemy has fed us need to be revealed and replaced with the biblical truths about who we are, whose we are, and God’s promises regarding our prosperity.”  

After three years, Phil stepped through that prison gate a free man with the truth, a burden, and a mission. His life is dedicated to sharing the truth of God’s financial principles that he lives by, the truth that destroys the plans of the Enemy and brings about spiritual freedom and financial breakthrough.  

“God promises to prosper us if we hearken unto His voice, are obedient to His commands, and turn to Him with all our heart and soul. That is the message the Lord has called me to share, to help those whom the enemy has held captive with his lies to break free spiritually and financially.” 

“‘Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,’ says the LORD Almighty, ‘and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it’” (Malachi 3:10 NIV). 

Is there an area of your financial life that you are you holding back from God’s provision? Prosperity is not just a condition; it’s a spiritual truth. 

Flagstar Bank. Philip Trujillo 

Trujillo, Phillip. Flagstar Bank. “Crafting the right solutions for a diverse audience.” Accessed May 9, 2020. https://www.flagstar.com/commercial/homebuilder-finance/homebuilder-finance-team/philip-trujillo.html. 

Based on an interview with Philip Trujillo, 2019. 

June 24. Francis Xavier. Francis was born in the family castle in what is now Spain. When he finished his basic education, he earned a master’s degree in philosophy and taught it for four years at the University of Paris. Then he studied theology for two more years. But Francis never imagined that this God he was studying about would turn Francis’s life inside out. The big change came when he made friends with another Spanish nobleman named Ignatius Loyola.  

Ignatius had recently encountered Jesus Christ and told Francis how his life had changed. Soon, the Lord Jesus changed Francis too. Francis and Ignatius and five other men took vows and called themselves the Society of Jesus. On this date in 1537, Francis was ordained a priest. Today’s story is set in India, where Francis was a missionary, where—through Francis—God revealed His might and mercy. Here’s the story. 

Miracles can happen in the life of a man who believes God. 

The bitter weeping of a heartbroken woman rose from the church graveyard. Here, where her daughter had been buried just days before, a mother knelt and cried out to God. She cried out for answers. For comfort. For hope of any kind.  

Not long ago, her daughter had become suddenly ill, and she searched Malacca, trying to find the man who had recently led her to faith in Christ. He could have prayed for her daughter, and she would have been healed. If only he had been here. 

The woman composed herself and stood to leave her daughter’s grave. As she wiped the tears from her eyes and brushed the dirt from her knees, her heart was resolute. She would find Francis. He would pray for her daughter. God would bring her daughter back to life.  

Since Francis had arrived in her city, many people had experienced miraculous healings. And the news of how God was using this humble man to bless the people had been spreading by the day. Everybody was talking about it. But Francis had traveled out of town to take care of some people, and the mother was unable to find him to pray for her daughter before it was simply too late. 

The mother searched through Malacca until she learned he had returned to the city, and she felt new hope. She ran. 

And when she found him, she fell at his feet and explained to Francis her daughter had died while he was away. And if he would only pray for her to be healed, she was certain her daughter would be brought back to life. 

Francis stood speechless. 

He knew this dear woman had just recently come to Christ, and he was stunned at the purity of her faith. Moved with compassion for her and for her daughter, he prayed for God to grant her prayer and to console her broken heart. Then he told her to return to her daughter’s grave, that her daughter was alive. 

Now the mother was speechless. 

She started to tell Francis that her daughter had been dead for three days, but she stopped herself, turned, and ran for the church.  

A crowd of people had seen her with Francis, and they ran with her, back to her daughter’s grave. When they got there, several of them helped lift the gravestone away, and the daughter, who had been dead three days, came out alive! And her mother held the girl. And the mother thanked God. All the people praised God. 

“I tell you for certain that if you have faith in me, you will do the same things that I am doing. You will do even greater things” (John 14:12 CEV). 

Is there anything in your life that God wants to bring back from the grave? Miracles can happen in the life of a man who believes God. 

Hardon, John A., S.J. “The Miracles of St. Francis Xavier.” The Real Presence Association. Accessed May 8, 2020. 

Hebert, Albert J, S.M. “Resurrection Miracles.” True Stories of 400 Resurrection Miracles. Jeevanjal Ministries. Accessed May 8, 2020. http://www.jeevanjal.org/jeevanjal/rm8.html. 

June 23. Manny Pacquiao. Manny had a dream, and he wasn’t afraid of the work it would require. When he was little, Manny lived in a shack in a dense Philippines jungle, where his father climbed seventy trees a day and gathered coconuts to get the family some food—not enough food. They usually couldn’t afford rice, and Manny’s ribs and shoulders were clearly visible under his skin.  

But Manny made up his mind to become a boxer, and when he was twelve, he quit school and started training hard. At fifteen, to ease the burden on his mother, he stowed away on a boat to Manila and slept on the street, but he got to the gym every day to train. 

Manny has won twelve major world titles. On this day in 2001, Manny won the Bantamweight title. And now he is a leading senator in his own country.  

“Approximately 19.6 million people have bought one of his pay-per-view fights over the years, with [more than a billion dollars] in revenue made from those 23 pay-per-view bouts.” Today’s story shows what Manny does with his money.  

Sometimes the best way to bring about peace is to pick a fight. 

It had already been a week, and Manny’s body was still sore. His joints felt stiffer than normal. These days the swelling from his bouts in the ring seemed to be taking their toll longer. Overall, his body just hurt. Age was definitely playing a major role in his less-than-speedy recovery. 

He was back home in the Philippines trying to get a few days, maybe even weeks, of rest before he picked his training up again. He mentally replayed the rounds from his last fight against Jeff Horn—a week earlier—in which Manny had lost by a controversial decision. Those losses were always the hardest to accept. 

His body was basically screaming at him that it was time to hang up his gloves. But it had been making that claim for years, so he pushed the thought out of his mind.  

He had retired once. Not long after the biggest fight of his career and the century, if not of all time, his much-anticipated brawl against undefeated Floyd Mayweather, Manny walked away from boxing. He gave it up. But only for a little while. 

Deep down Manny always knew he would fight again. His motivation was just too great. As a matter of fact, that motivation had just showed up and was forming a line outside his house that stretched several blocks. Manny, you see, is a Christ-follower. 

He got to his feet while his aging body creaked and shuffled out in his sandals to meet the masses of children who lined the street. 

He handed out money to every kid in line. This line was very long, but Manny’s pockets were very deep. And it took some time. 

But Manny made sure every child was taken care of.  

News reporters didn’t document this charitable act. It wasn’t a publicity stunt. The only certified proof of this great kindness came from random cell phones that waved in the crowd. 

“This is why I fight.” Those in need have always been his reason for fighting. “Every income I receive in boxing, almost half of it goes to the less fortunate.” Evidence: he’s had 1,000 houses built in the Sarangani Province, and he’s given them away. No strings attached. Stepping in to help those in need motivates Manny to keep stepping into the ring. 

The motivation for his last fight was the same as the motivation for his first fight. When Manny was around nine or ten, his brother was being bullied for being “poorer than dirt.” This didn’t sit too well with the future Hall of Fame boxer. He found the boy who had been tormenting his brother and unleashed his first lightning-fast jab. It only took one punch from Manny to floor his brother’s bully. And he’s been fighting for those in need ever since.  

“Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed” (Psalm 82:3 NIV).  

Who do you know who could use someone to fight for them? Sometimes the best way to bring about peace is to pick a fight. 

Boon, Jon. The Sun. “PACMAN Manny Pacquiao’s amazing life story, from sleeping rough in Manila to becoming king of the ring and thought of as the future president of the Philippines.” 

Accessed May 11, 2020. https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/9523488/manny-pacquiao-life-story-philippines/. 

Collins, Penn. “Manny Paquiao Was Handing Out Cash to Kids in the Philippines.” Total Pro Sports. Video. July 10, 2017. https://www.totalprosports.com/2017/07/10/manny-pacquiao-hand-cash-kids-philippines-video/. 

Velin, Bob. “Manny Paquiao builds and gives away 1,000 houses in Philippines to poor and homeless.” USA TODAY. October 27, 2016. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/boxing/2016/10/27/manny-pacquiao-builds-and-gives-away-1000-houses-in-philippines-to-poor-and-homeless/99720880/. 

June 22. Chris Quilala. Chris was an on-fire worship leader. When things were good, he worshiped God. When things went wrong, he had to learn what to do.  

When pain paralyzes you, hang tight to the truth you know. It can hold you up. 

 
Chris sat down limply. Out of habit, his arm reached for his guitar propped against the couch where he had left it this morning—this morning, when life had been full of hope. He automatically formed chords and began to strum. Hoarsely, barely above a whisper, he sang about a great and loving God. The words seemed ironic at first. The darkest time of his life hardly seemed like a time for praise. But as he sang, he felt hope returning to his shattered soul. 

Earlier that day, Chris and his wife Alyssa, nearly nine months pregnant, had driven to a prenatal appointment where a doctor performed several tests. 

“I’m sorry,” said the doctor, with real sympathy in his voice. “There is no heartbeat.” 

The words hit them like a brick. They could only stare back, dazed. 

The doctor told them to go home and process. He would set up an induction to deliver the baby later that afternoon. 

Still trying to register the news, Chris helped his wife off the exam table. They held each other and sobbed. Just days ago, his wife had laughed, feeling the baby’s kicks. Now, all was still and quiet. The reality of their baby’s death slowly sunk in.  

How did this happen? 

God was good. He was merciful, kind, and always loving. These things were still true—right?  

On the drive home, Chris kept replaying the truths in his head. As a worship leader, he had sung about them in front of thousands of people. But now, he felt frozen with a horrible choice. Would he choose to believe the truth? Belief, real belief, required action. And he felt tired. Too tired to hold on. It would be easier to let go of the struggle to believe a God who, in this moment, didn’t seem good. But could he just let the storm of his grief and doubts smash every tower of truth he had built? 

When they got home, Chris called some close friends and family to come over. He stood in the living room and listened to his pastor pray intensely over his wife. Chris was in awe of the boldness of those prayers. He realized now was the time for his choice.  

He walked over to his wife and took her hand. Together with the little group, they began to proclaim God’s deep love in song. They sang about how God always stayed the same, no matter the circumstance. In this dark hour, Chris’s response wouldn’t change either. No matter if it was life or death. No matter if it was perfect joy or deep sadness, he chose faith in the One who holds it all in His loving hands. Chris ran to find refuge in the strong tower of God’s promises and worshiped Him like he never had before.  

A few hours later, Chris and Alyssa drove back to the hospital. The sun was still out, warmer and stronger in the late afternoon. Soon they were set up in a hospital room and the painful process of labor and delivery began. Chris held his grieving wife’s hand through it all, praying and worshiping his Lord. 

At last, the doctor handed them a little wrapped bundle. They held their lifeless, beautiful child, who was now safe in the arms of Jesus. And they were too. On earth or in heaven, Jesus was their only hope and life.   

In an interview, Chris shared, “…Eternity’s real, and I want to anchor myself in eternity. Even though circumstances here on Earth change or there’s mountains and there’s valleys, God doesn’t change. I want to anchor myself in that truth.” 

Chris ran his rough, guitar-trained fingers lightly over his baby’s head. He didn’t think he ever would have been prepared for this day, but the truth and promises of God were the strong roots that held him in this storm.  

“…We’re going to worship,” said Chris, “We’re going to still proclaim those things that we’ve proclaimed all our lives, that God is good, that He’s our healer, that He’s faithful.”  

“The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed” (Psalm 34:18 NLT).  

“Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock” (Matthew 7:24–25 NLT).  

What truths are you building into your life to handle the storms of life? When pain paralyzes you, hang tight to the truth you know. It can hold you up. 

Goodwyn, Hannah. “Split The Sky: Jesus Culture’s Chris Quilala Looks To Heaven.” CBN.com. Accessed May 8, 2020. 

Quilala, Alyssa, and Chris Quilala. Mending Tomorrow. Pennsauken, NJ: Bookbaby, 2016. 

June 21. Andy Stanley. Andy will tell you he’s an introvert. He says, “Crowds kill me.” At a party, he wants to find one person and sit and talk to him. 

But Andy is the senior pastor of North Point Ministries, which includes North Point Community Church, Buckhead Church, Browns Bridge Church, Gwinnett Church, Woodstock City Church, and Decatur City Church. And the weekly attendance for North Point alone is more than 40,000 people.  

Today’s story is about a time before he came to North Point when Andy was pastoring the same church as his father Charles Stanley. Listen to this.  

Anger can hold a relationship hostage, but love can set it free. 

Andy and his dad had been living in the everyday tension of leading the same church with two opposite leadership styles. And that strained an otherwise devoted relationship. The two men refused to let it affect their father-son bond, and they continued to strive for unity. 

“We had no tolerance for father versus son,” Andy said. 

But then—Andy’s mom filed for divorce. 

Heartbroken and frustrated at how the divorce was being handled, Andy wanted to help his dad, but it only created more tension. The father-son team grew further apart. Suspicion and frustration nearly wrecked their relationship. 

Andy had watched his parents continually try counseling, to no avail. He didn’t know who to blame for the marriage failing, but he was angry. 

And this anger made it too difficult to continue working with his father, so he prayerfully made the decision to leave the church. He walked into his dad’s office and gave him the news. 

“It signaled the death of an unspoken dream. What could have been, and perhaps should have been, wouldn’t be. So, we just stood there and cried,” Andy said. 

His father felted betrayed. 

Not wanting further damage to scar their relationship, the two made weekly counseling meetings together the norm. It was hard. Once Andy asked his counselor, “When can I give up on my relationship with my dad?” 

The counselor said, “When your Heavenly Father gives up on His relationship with you.” 

Andy realized how his stubbornness and resentment were keeping him from true relationship. 

His dad continued to reach out to him, asked him to lunch. And the meetings were awkward, but the two men kept pursuing full reconciliation. “The conversations were stilted, to say the least,” Andy said. “We were both so mad and so hurt. But he kept initiating. And I kept showing up.” 

During one of their strained lunch dates, Andy’s dad said, “We both know what usually happens to fathers and sons who go through something like this.” He looked him in the eyes and said, “Andy, I don’t want us to end up like that.” 

Andy let out a broken whisper, “Me neither, Dad.” 

“So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God” (Matthew 5:23–24 NLT). 

Is there a relationship in your life that God is asking you today to reconcile? Anger can hold a relationship hostage, but love can set it free. 

Stanley, Andy. Deep & Wide. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012. 

Blake, John. “Two preaching giants and the ‘betrayal’ that tore them apart.” CNN November 19, 2012. http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/17/us/andy-stanley/index.html. 

June 20. John Frith. Frith was a brilliant scholar and a man who loved God. And he was willing to die rather than endorse a church rule he knew to be untrue.  

All he had to do was agree that the church authorities were right about some things like communion and hell, and he could have had a long, productive life. Instead, he kept telling the truth, and when he was 30 years old, on this day in 1526, he was declared a heretic and sentenced to be burned to death. 

It’s better to die for the truth than to live a lie. 

After several discouraging weeks in isolation, Frith was glad to visit his friend and fellow Reformer William Holt. When Holt asked Frith about recent activities among Protestants Reformers, Frith told him about the teachings of two prominent Swiss Reformers. 

Frith said that—after much thought—he had firmly rejected the Roman Catholic’s position. He had prayed and studied and consulted other scholars, and he had decided the position of the Protestant Reformers was true. 

Holt cleverly appeared enthusiastic to agree with Frith’s position on the disputed doctrine. And he asked Frith to put his argument down in writing, so that Holt could better understand it. 

At first, Frith hesitated. If he wrote that down and it fell into the wrong hands, Frith could be branded a heretic, arrested, convicted, and executed. But Holt was his friend. He had never let the writing out of his sight. And he was persuasive. So Frith, who wanted his friend to have a correct understanding of the disagreement, finally agreed to write out his argument. And he did. 

But Holt was a spy. Without delay, he delivered what Frith had written to Lord Chancellor Thomas More—the main persecutor of so-called heretics in England. After reading what Frith had written, a confession of heresy, Thomas More declared Frith’s teaching heretical and confusing to those not capable of discerning theological truths. He immediately had Frith arrested. 

Frith was stunned.  

“For it is not an enemy who taunts me—then I could bear it; is not an adversary who deals insolently with me—then I could hide from him. But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend” (Psalm 55:12–13 ESV). 

When faced with the price of his friend’s betrayal, Frith determined it was better to die for the truth than to live a lie. Frith would not deny what he had written. 

Thomas More had Frith delivered to Winchester for examination. But the two archbishops, who were supposed to take him to Winchester, contrived a plot to let Frith escape. One of them said, “Mr. Frith, I am ordered to bring you to Croydon; and knowing the rage of your enemies, I consider myself as bringing you like a lamb to the slaughter.” 

The archbishops couldn’t bear the thought of what was ahead for Frith. In their distress, they disregarded any hazard to themselves and conspired to deliver Frith out of the “lion’s mouth.” But Frith refused to escape. 

With a smile, he said, “Do ye think I am afraid to deliver my thoughts that are clearly founded on the absolute accuracy of divine revelation before the bishops of England?”  

Frith said that while he was free, he cherished his freedom as long as it was for the benefit of the church of Christ. But now, by the providence of God, having been delivered into the hands of the bishops, Frith consider himself bound by the ties of gratitude and love for his Redeemer, to fight for the purity of the faith. 

He believed if he ran away, he would be running away from God and the testimony of His Word. Even worse, he would be denying the Lord who had bought him, and he would grieve the hearts of Christ and the faithful Christians who had lived before him.  

Frith vowed to the bishops if they would not take him to the place appointed, he would travel there by myself. So the reluctant bishops conceded. 

Has the betrayal of a close friend or family member ever caused you to question your faith? It’s better to die for the truth than to live a lie. 

A Puritan’s Mind. “Memoirs of the Reformers—John Frith (1503–1533).” Accessed May 8, 2020. https://www.apuritansmind.com/the-reformation/memoirs-of-the-reformers/memoirs-of-the-reformers-john-frith/. 

Samworth, Dr. Herbert. Tyndale’s Ploughboy. “John Frith—Part 1.” Published April 23, 2019. https://www.tyndalesploughboy.org/john-frith-part-1/. 

June 19. Stuart Epperson. Stu grew up on a tobacco farm. When he was about sixteen, he and a buddy were hoeing corn on a mountainside in Virginia when they saw smoke rising and ran to check it out. Turned out to be one of Stu’s relatives and the buddy’s brother operating a corn-liquor still. Stu’s first shot at being an entrepreneur!  

He said that summer was when he knew he had been created for entrepreneurship.  

He went on to found the Salem Media Group, the leading US radio broadcaster, internet-content provider, and magazine publisher for Christian and traditional-values programming. He has more than 100 radio stations, including 67 in all of the top 25 markets and SRN News with more than 2,400 Affiliates.   

On this date in 1967, Stu founded the Winston-Salem Rescue Mission. He also founded Salem Pregnancy Support Center, One Kid At A Time, the Christian Association of Youth Mentoring, and Kidz Xtreme, an intercity Christian youth program focusing on Section 8 Housing. Not bad for a boy hauling moonshine. Today’s story takes a look at a moment in Stu’s grown-up family life. 

The man who understands his influence can use it for generations to come.  

One December morning, almost as soon as Stu had settled in his office, he learned someone had broken into his son’s home. There was gunfire. And his daughter-in-law Julie was there. Stu grabbed his phone and dialed her. 

Her phone rang, and it rang, and it rang.  

At last Julie picked up. With a crack in her voice, she told Stu what had happened.  

Like every weekday morning, she had dropped the kids off at school and gone back home.  

She was pulling back into their garage when she saw a pile of shattered glass on the ground. And the door she had locked just moments ago was now standing wide open. Instinctively, she grabbed her phone from her purse and managed to dial 911. 

She threw the car into reverse to back out of the garage, but a man in a black ski mask appeared at the door with a gun in his hand. He shouted at her to get out of the car, but she floored it, and he opened fire. Two shots exploded from his .45, but both bullets miraculously missed her. Julie’s car slammed into a tree, and the criminal escaped on foot. 

Within minutes police arrived and found Julie at a neighbor’s home—shaken, but happy to be alive. The police also discovered that as he fled the scene, the criminal had dropped his ski mask and his knife—evidence they could use to bring the masked man to justice. 

On the day that appointment with justice arrived, Stu accompanied Julie to the hearing where the criminal would be sentenced for attempted murder.  

Having worked with troubled youth through various organizations he had founded, Stu was familiar with the process. But this time, a young man’s anger had literally come to his family’s doorstep, nearly taking Julie’s life. Through all of this, it had been a challenge for Stu to respond in a way that honored God. 

Rather than take this personal story to the airwaves of his national media empire or use his power to destroy the young man who had nearly destroyed his own family, Stu showed up in court and looked for an opportunity to positively influence the outcome. Could any good come out of this? 

“When it came time for sentencing, the judge allowed family members to speak on [the criminal’s] behalf. The only male family member present was his great-grandfather. With tears welling in his eyes, the old man told the court he was a ‘good boy who fell in with the wrong crowd.’”  

Stu asked the judge for permission to speak to the court, and he asked why this boy’s father or his grandfather were not here for such an important hearing. It came out: sadly, neither one had been involved in the young criminal’s life. Two generations of fathers had been absent from duty. And the judge said he saw this “all the time.”  

“Prisons are full of young men who have fathers—if they can be found,” Stu later wrote about the experience. 

As a founding board member of Christian Association of Youth Mentoring, he is committed to help lead troubled young men out of a lifetime of bad choices. This happens through close relationships with father figures who are willing to invest in the young men. Over the years, Stu has seen the lives of many young men restored. 

“I have witnessed the positive results when an absentee father or adult male mentor chooses to get involved in a child’s life. Forging an emotional bond is true fatherhood and the best hope to stop this epidemic,” Stu said. 

“Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1 NIV). 

You have influence; use it productively. The man who understands his influence can use it for generations to come.  

Stones Cry Out. “50 Leaders of the Evangelical Generation: #43 Stu Epperson.” Radio Transformer. May 24, 2010. https://stonescryout.org/?p=3348. 

Epperson, Stuart Sr. “What it means to be a father.” Winston-Salem Journal. June 16, 2018. 

Do You Want to Learn More About This Man? 

Stu’s first shot at being an entrepreneur was making moonshine with a relative.  

They filled the trunk of his 1940 Ford with ten dollars’ worth of sugar and corn mash and turned it into moonshine, which they sold all over the mountain for five dollars a jug. Stu said he knew then that was what he had been created for. Entrepreneurship—not moonshining.  

At the end of that summer, the relative got busted. He went to prison; Stu went to Bob Jones University. He says, “We argued about who had the most confinement.”  

At Bob Jones, Stu learned how to live in God and how to build a radio station, and after he graduated, two years after his family home got electricity, it also had its own radio station. “It was illegal, but it was built,” he says.  

Next—to realize his dream—he needed a building to house a legal radio station. So he bartered. A builder would put a fully equipped building on Stu’s land, and after the radio station was up and running, Stu would advertise the builder’s company. Thirty-five builders turned him down before one agreed that the country needed a Christian radio station.  

June 18. Harland Sanders. Harland started his business career in a questionable neighborhood known as Hell’s Half-Acre. He owned a Shell gas station, and he wheeled out an old dining table to feed homemade ham and steak dinners to truck drivers.  

He was hard-working, hard-driving, and hotheaded, and he never backed down from a fight. Most people know Harland Sanders as Colonel Sanders of KFC fame, but today’s story starts out when he was a young man trying to get a toehold.  

When hard things happen, some men get angry. Some men get to work. 

The story starts back in the day—way before Kentucky Fried Chicken—when Colonel Sanders owned a gas station, and being type A all-the-way, he painted a zillion ads on billboards throughout the area. Of course, competitors took exception to Harland’s campaign, and one named Matt Stewart got himself a ladder and started painting out the signs.  

It was a tight community, and when Harland heard what Matt was doing, he grabbed a couple Shell Oil executives and raced over to stop him.  

The car skidded to a stop, and Harland and the two oil guys jumped out. Matt dropped his paintbrush, pulled a gun, and fired. But Harland’s aim was better. He fired and hit the reckless painter. Twice. 

“Don’t shoot, Sanders,” Matt said. “You’ve killed me.”  

Turns out Matt lived, and Harland was charged with attempted murder, but those charges were dropped. 

After that harrowing incident Harland changed, but not enough. He owned the Shell station, a hotel, and a restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky. He tried many different things, including correspondence-school lawyering and worked hard a lot of years. The businesses in Corbin did well. 

Then—through no fault of his—reality barged in and ruined Harland’s retirement. The interstate diverted traffic seven miles away from his businesses—a death sentence for a business like his. 

Facing bankruptcy, Harland sold his businesses at auction for a loss to pay the bills and taxes. Left at age 65 with only a $105-per-month Social Security check, Harland had an idea. And a recipe. 

Few people thought he could be successful, and some thought he was finished before he had started. Willing to risk to succeed, he put his wife and his pressure cookers into his car. And he franchised his eleven-herbs-and-spices formula to restaurant owners, who agreed to sell chicken dinners made according to his specifications. And a nickel for each chicken soon added up.  

“Don’t quit at age 65,” Harland said. “Maybe your boat hasn’t come in yet. Mine hadn’t.” 

He decided he could do one of two things. “Feed the poor and get rich, or feed the rich and get poor.” But money didn’t satisfy the Colonel. 

Harland knew he needed to change. He wanted to change. He tried to change. Finally, he realized he couldn’t change himself. “I knew I should have [Jesus]. I knew I should walk with him [but] I couldn’t reach him [because of] my sinfulness. I used to curse terrible, did since boyhood. I wanted to quit for years and years, but I couldn’t. [I realized] you’ve got to get God in your heart, and you’ve got to get in his heart, too.”  

Harland decided it was never too late to change. 

He accepted God’s forgiveness. Not long before his death he said that salvation became the greatest experience of his eighty-nine years. But he wanted to do more than change his own life. 

He sold Kentucky Fried Chicken for $500,000 and paid his first tithe. He gave the Canadian operations to the Harland Sanders Charitable Foundation to fund thousands of scholarships. “That’s where the Lord has saved me, I think, for that kind of a deal… to do something for him.” 

Harland made a fortune and gave away millions. “No use being the richest man in the cemetery ’cause you can’t do any business in there.” 

“So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him” (2 Corinthians 5:16–18 NLT). 

Do you think it’s too late? When hard things happen, some men get angry. Some men get to work. 

Damn Interesting. “Colonels of Truth.” Accessed May 7, 2020. https://www.damninteresting.com/colonels-of-truth/. 

Gavaris, Dean. “Christian testimony of Col Sanders of KFC fame.” 1979. Accessed May 8, 2020. 

June 17. John Eliot. John dreamed of taking the gospel to nearby native Americans. On this date in 1670, John established a church at Maktapog and preached to them—a little haltingly maybe—in their own language.  

A fundamental Puritan tenet held that believers ought to be able to read and interpret the Bible for themselves.  

So while he did his full-time pastor’s job, John managed to devise an Algonquian grammar so their language could be written, and then he translated the Old and New Testaments into Algonquin. Here’s how the church for Native Americans got started. 

When dreams are delayed, don’t give up. God will come through. 

One crisp October day in 1646, John and his friends tramped four miles from his house toward the Indian village on Nonantum Hill.  

When the Puritans had fled religious persecution in England to establish a church in the New World, they also committed to serve as missionaries to the natives, and John had often dreamed about bringing the truth of the gospel to them. 

But it had taken more than fifteen years for John to establish his own home and learn the native’s language. Finally, today the God-given dream would happen.  

“And don’t forget the many times I clearly told you what was going to happen in the future. For I am God—I only—and there is no other like me who can tell you what is going to happen. All I say will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish,” (Isaiah 46:9–10 TLB). 

John and his friends reached the principal wigwam, and several chief men of the village welcomed the visitors in English. John was honored by how graciously they used the few words of English they knew. Today would test how well he could communicate in their language. 

He stepped into the gloom of a large square room, where multiple fires burned. There were vents through the roof, but pungent smoke filled the air. Men, women, and children lined the walls. 

What a glorious sight! John fought back emotion so he could speak. And he spoke. 

Occasionally he needed the help of an interpreter, but it was obvious his audience wanted to hear the words from his own mouth, so he did his best.  

He explained what God considered right and good. Then he showed how no one could behave perfectly every single day. Then he said that Jesus was the only way to recover from this hopeless inability to please God.  

The people were attentive, and John taught for an hour and a half. Finally, he asked if anyone had questions. 

A man stood. “How may we come to know Jesus Christ?” 

John explained that the story of Jesus was in the Bible, but since the Indians couldn’t read the English words, they should meditate on what he had told them because it was from God’s book. “Do this much and often,” said John.  

He encouraged them to think about it when they lay on mats in their wigwams, when they went into the fields, and when they walked in the woods. Then he told them to pray and say, “Lord, make me to know Jesus Christ for I know him not.” 

Another man said he had tried to pray, but his friend said God couldn’t understand Indian prayers. 

John explained that God made all men—English and Indian. Since he had made them, He could understand them. 

Were “Englishmen … ever … so ignorant of God and Jesus Christ as they were?” asked another. 

John perceived the root of the question. “There are two sorts of Englishmen; some are bad… and live wickedly,” said John. These kinds of Englishmen didn’t know Jesus. But there were “a second sort of Englishmen,” who turned away from wrong behavior and looked to Jesus for help. “They are good men now,” said John, “and know Christ and love Christ and pray to Christ.” 

More than three hours passed! John asked the Indians if they were weary, but they wanted to hear more. John thought it would be good to leave them with a hunger for spiritual things, so he stopped, but promised to come again. 

As John walked home, he praised God that his dream to teach the natives of the New World was finally beginning to unfold. 

What dream has God given you? When dreams are delayed, don’t give up. God will come through. 

Adams, Nehemiah. The Life of John Eliot with an Account of the Early Missionary Efforts Among the Indians of New England. Boston: Massachusetts Sabbath School Society, 1847. 

Moore, Martin, A. M. Memoirs of the Life and Character of Rev. John Eliot, Apostle of the N. A. Indians. Boston: T. Bedlington Flagg and Gould, Printers, 1822. 

Do You Want to Learn More About This Man? 

A fundamental Puritan tenet held that believers ought to be able to read and interpret the Bible for themselves.  

So while he did his full-time pastor’s job, John managed to devise an Algonquian grammar so their language could be written, and then he translated the Old and New Testaments into Algonquin.  

The first Bible printed in America was Mamusse Wunneetupanatamwe Up-Biblum God, an Algonquin translation by John Eliot. It was published in 1663.