365 Christian Men | 365 Christian Men

August 30. Christopher Todd. On this date in 1995, Christopher began a spiritual-healing program, a long struggle from darkness to light.

The place beyond God’s love doesn’t exist.

At twelve-years-old, Christopher struggled with conflicting realities. In church, he was taught that God could not remain in the presence of sin. But Christopher had a secret he believed was sin. He was attracted to guys.

Through his teens, Christopher lived a double life. He had a girlfriend—and privately—a boyfriend. He hated his secret, but he didn’t know what to do. He even considered suicide. It wasn’t safe to talk about this issue at church, so eventually, he quit going. He wondered if God even cared.

When Christopher was nineteen, he went back to church, had a powerful encounter with God, and got baptized. He prayed and prayed that God would take away his attraction to men. But God didn’t.

At 23, certain God would fulfill his needs through the union, Christopher married a beautiful Christian woman. But his desire for men persisted. And the rules taught at church didn’t empower him to change. He was also told, whether or not he acted on them, his feelings were wrong. So he was consumed with shame, condemnation, and failure.

Under the pressure, Christopher caved and acted on his desire. His wife’s trust shattered like a dropped pane of glass. For more than a year, he worked hard to piece it back together. They attended a spiritual-healing program, and Christopher began to have hope. But then the ministry abruptly and harshly fell apart. Confused, Christopher doubted all he had learned there. As he questioned, the desire for men grew.

Then his dad came for a visit. They attended a Promise Keeper’s event and had a miraculous, healing conversation. Both of them admitted regret and processed forgiveness. But even in a stadium full of Christian men, Christopher fought temptation.

Christopher’s dad flew back home. In an automobile accident two days later, he died. Color left Christopher’s world. He grieved, battled his desire for men, and wondered where God was. He felt like Job. How could he trust God when everything hurt? He just wanted to be held. His wife held him, but it didn’t help. He wanted to be held by the masculine.

Lost in the grayscale world, Christopher was done. God had not answered his cries of desperation, so he decided to meet his own needs. Since he believed God could not follow where he was going, he disconnected. Like pushing “End” on a cell phone, he “hung up” on God.

Christopher chose to engage in anonymous sex with a male partner. But suddenly, right there in the dark room, God revealed Himself. It was as if the most loving, non-judgmental, compassionate father walked into the room. God’s Presence shattered the lies Christopher had believed: That God wouldn’t take care of him. That God didn’t go into the dark places. That God abandoned him when he sinned.

Christopher stood, walked through the door, and stepped outside. When he did, color returned to his world.

For years Christopher’s shame had kept him in bondage. Now he understood the truth. “There is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1 NLT).

When Jesus died on the cross, he took the sins Christopher had done, was doing, and would do. Forgiveness was a complete package—and God accepted Christopher even in failure. Finally, Christopher had the freedom to move forward. He was empowered to face the battle, love others, and become more like Jesus—whether or not his attraction to men ever changed.

Does moral failure make you feel alone, ashamed, and powerless? Or do you hold onto the truth you are fully forgiven, loved, and accepted? The place beyond God’s love doesn’t exist.

*Christopher is a pseudonym. Now nearly 50, he is still married to his first wife and raising two wonderful sons to love Jesus. He believes all healing happens in the context of healthy relationships and walks in compassion with people as they face life’s challenges.

Based on an interview with “Christopher” Todd, 2019.

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 29. Fred Luter Jr. Luter was a young man when he crashed his motorcycle and met the Lord Jesus. He called the crash his “Road to Damascus moment.”

He went on to become a powerful Christian pastor, and he enjoyed success until—on this day in 2005, Hurricane Katrina flooded the church and forced the congregation to disperse across the nation.

Seven years later, Luter became the first African American to be elected Southern Baptist Convention President.

Even if we lose everything, God is with us.

Luter sat quietly in his daughter’s Birmingham, Alabama apartment, sipped an iced tea, and stared angrily at the television newscast. Days after Hurricane Katrina had slammed the Gulf Coast, the city he loved—his hometown, New Orleans—was under water.

Begging to be saved, frightened residents stood on rooftops. Others gathered at the convention center, searching for food. Hundreds were dead. Hundreds more were missing.

A string of thoughts swirled through Luter’s head: The city shouldn’t have flooded. People shouldn’t have been stranded. It shouldn’t be this way. Not in 2005. Not in the most powerful nation on the planet. Not in the United States.

Days earlier, Luter and his wife had evacuated from New Orleans to Birmingham, assuming their stay would be short. But New Orleans now was uninhabitable. They couldn’t go back. Their house was flooded. Their neighborhood too. And their beloved church, Franklin Avenue Baptist—which he had built from 65 members in 1986 to more than 7,000 two decades later—had taken on 10 feet of water.

New Orleans had survived the hurricane’s winds, only to succumb to floodwaters when the levees broke. Luter was mad at the Mayor and the Governor and the President. He even was mad at God.

“I looked up to heaven, and I said, ‘God, why don’t you do something? God, this is America. God, this is not right. People need water. People need food.’ For the first time in my life, my faith was literally shaken like it had never been shaken before.”

There were other problems. Most church members—fleeing the destruction and perhaps looking for a fresh start—were spread across the South. Luter had lost his church building, and he had lost his congregation.

But God provided hope.

Pastors throughout the nation phoned and pledged their help in rebuilding. First Baptist, a sister New Orleans church that had escaped damage, invited the 1,000 remaining members of Luter’s church to hold services there. Luter reconnected with church members in other cities—in Baton Rouge and Birmingham and Houston—and began holding church services in those cities, too.

He became a circuit preacher, traveling thousands of miles each month in his Jeep Cherokee to minister to his flock. They hugged and cried and laughed. It was like a family reunion, and Luter was encouraged.

But God wasn’t finished.

Two and a half years after Katrina, Franklin Avenue’s building reopened, with 4,000 joy-filled members and residents in attendance. The dirty water and smelly sludge was gone, replaced with brand-new carpet and tiles. “We’re baaaaaaaaaaack!” an excited Luter shouted.

“For I am the LORD your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you” (Isaiah 41:13 NIV).

Are you in a storm? Are you confused by life’s trials? Have you lost everything? Do the little things; do the basic things consistently. “I don’t care what you’re going through,” Luter said, years after Katrina. “He’s walking with you. He’s there all the time.” Even if we lose everything, God is with us.

Franklin Avenue Baptist Church. “Pastor Fred Luter, Jr,” Accessed June 22, 2020. http://www.franklinabc.com/pastor.

Chandler, Diana. “Fred Luter’s trailblazing life rich with trials, blessings.” Baptist Press. Posted June 19, 2012. http://www.bpnews.net/38080/fred-luters-trailblazing-life-rich-with-trials-blessings.

Nobts Chapel. “Facing Life’s Storms—Fred Luter.” YouTube video, 33:06. Published March 24, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZE1yXrYydA&feature=youtu.be.

Baker, Shannon. “Katrina calls Fred Luter to ‘one church in three cities.’” Baptist Press. Posted February 21, 2006. http://www.bpnews.net/22695/katrina-calls-fred-luter-to-one-church-in-3-cities.

Willoughby, Karen L. “In New Orleans, joy abounds as congregation returns home.” Baptist Press. Posted April 7, 2008. http://www.bpnews.n.et/27774/in-new-orleans-joy-abounds-as-congregation-returns-home.

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 28. Martin Luther King Jr. King started college when he was 15, and he questioned religion in general. But by the time he became a senior, he had met the Lord Jesus and knew His love and goodness.

King went on to seminary, where the president was outspoken about civil rights in America.

King became a Baptist minister and activist and the most visible leader in the Civil Rights Movement starting in 1955.

On this day in 1963, King delivered a speech in which he said, “I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but the content of their character.”

In 1968, King was brutally assassinated—for telling the truth. Today’s story is about King’s doggedness.

Darkness can cripple a people until one man has the courage to strike a match.

Racism, hatred, and cruelty had grown to a pervasive darkness. It seeped across the United States and poisoned the minds of men and women. In 1963—100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation—political leaders, business people, some clergy, the man on the street, and kids in the schoolyard heaped emotional and physical abuse on American citizens who happened to be African American. King dreamed of an integrated and unified America—where all men are created equal, and they can all use the same public restrooms.

He wrote about how the dark practice of segregation hurt his little daughter. “You suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky.”

In April 1963, King was determined to bring the light to Birmingham, Alabama. He met with three ministers to plan a city-wide protest against segregation laws.The city leaders would fight back. The group of pastors designed a legal protest, and King met with the City Commissioner to request a permit for the march.

But the Commissioner said, “No, you will not get a permit in Birmingham, Alabama to picket. I will picket you over to the county jail.”

Undeterred by the threat, the campaign launched, and throngs of American citizens demonstrated their opposition to segregation. After a week of protests, Judge William Jenkins Jr. issued a court injunction prohibiting any more public protestsalthough the protestors weren’t doing anything illegal.

The injunction came two days before the final march was scheduled to begin. King decided that he was willing to risk being arrested to demonstrate how serious and wrong segregation was. He knew freedom came at a price. The others on the campaign stood firm on King’s decision. The day for the march arrived with a crowd that had gathered at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church ready to go.

As they marched through the city streets, police arrested the campaign leaders near St. Paul Methodist Church.The chief of police arrested King and took him to jail.

They put King in solitary confinement. He was forbidden any communication for the first twenty-four-hours, not even a phone call to his wife, who was recovering from the birth of their fourth child.

Despite the harsh treatment, the fire inside King still burned. So he sat in his cold cell and wrote out the reasons he had risked his life for the people’s freedom. “Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their “thus saith the Lord” far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco-Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.”

The margins of a newspaper and a roll of toilet paper carried the weight of his words.He wrote to light the fire in more and more Americans. “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”

“Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows” (Isaiah 1:17 NLT).

In lots of ways, darkness still spreads. What can you do today to shine a light on it? Darkness can cripple a people until one man has the courage to strike a match.

National Archives. “The Emancipation Proclamation.” Reviewed April 17, 2019. www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/emancipation-proclamation.

King, Martin Luther Jr. African Studies Center. “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” Accessed June 24, 2020. www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html.

Birmingham Times. “The Momentous Events Leading to Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail.’” Published January 12, 2017. www.birminghamtimes.com/2017/01/the-momentous-events-leading-to-martin-luther-kings-letter-from-birmingham-jail/.

Roy, Deborah A. SCOTUSblog. “The Good Friday parade: Birmingham—April 12, 1963.” Posted August 28, 2013. https://www.scotusblog.com/2013/08/the-good-friday-parade-birmingham-april-12-1963/.

Jeffries, Hasan Kwame. Encyclopedia of Alabama. “Modern Civil Rights Movement in Alabama.” Updated March 31, 2017. www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1580.

Wright, Barnett. “1963 In Birmingham, Alabama: A timeline of events.” Posted January 1, 2013. blog.al.com/spotnews/2013/01/1963_in_birmingham_alabama_a_t.html.

Los Angeles Times. “Jack Warren; Policeman Involved in Martin Luther King Jr. Arrest.” Posted March 18, 1991. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-03-18-mn-288-story.html.

Fuller, John, and Kathryn Whitbourne. How the Civil Rights Movement Worked. “Jim Crow Laws.” Accessed June 24, 2020. https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-events/civil-rights-movement1.htm.

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 27. Henry Dunster. Dunster was an English Puritan and a preacher who looked for religious freedom in the New World.

Three weeks after he arrived in Boston, the Harvard search committee offered Dunster a job. On this day in 1640, Dunster became the first president of Harvard.

During his tenure, the first Harvard buildings were built, and the motto Veritas was proposed. By marrying Elizabeth Glover, Dunster came to own the first printing press in England’s American colonies.

Our life’s work may not yield fast results, but the results can last lifetimes.

Taking in the sight of the school, Dunster walked the grounds of Harvard College—which was nothing like his alma mater back in England. It was smaller, filled with fewer books, and more rural. There were barely enough students here to even fill a class back at Cambridge.

But despite Harvard’s humble beginnings, Dunster knew he could take the struggling school and make it into a great university. With hard work, dedication, and God’s help, he would make Harvard a worthy institution of education.

When classes first began, Dunster had to contend with hard memories of the school’s previous headmaster, Nathaniel Eaton. He had been a cruel man, who was removed from leadership early because he beat his usher.

To some people, Dunster was a welcome reprieve. But to others, he was another possible tyrant come to wreak havoc on the learning. But Dunster didn’t let what happened in the past affect the future. Harvard was going to change and move forward—even if it took years.

He started by taking matters into his own hands. Dunster knew he couldn’t run a school from behind a desk. He had to know what the students were learning, and he had to be familiar with how it was being taught. He stepped into the classroom, teaching the entire curriculum—all subjects—himself. To make Harvard more academically credible in Biblical Studies, he added Semitic languages to the curriculum. To help his students’ education even further, he established a four-year studies program, which eventually became the typical liberal arts course that American universities use today. For Dunster, learning was important, and if his students were going to be prepared for the world, they had to be educated mentally and spiritually.

“Let every student be plainly instructed,” Dunster said in the Dunster Code, “and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, and therefore to lay Christ at the bottom, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning.”

Dunster knew curriculum alone wasn’t enough to build up a school. As its president, there were administrative duties to attend to, as well, such as student billing and accounting. He also created a code of law and admission guidelines. But there was another problem. If Harvard was to grow like Dunster wanted, it needed physical space. Land was needed and new buildings.

Yet money was scarce. Living in the American colonies was more of a guarantee to poverty than wealth. How would he get the school land when people wanted land for their own homes and farming?

Dunster knew poverty himself. He barely had enough money to provide for his family. But he believed in the future of Harvard, a seed planted in the ground that would eventually grow into a mighty tree. Harvard needed land, and he would provide it. Taking out paper and ink, he signed a donation of a hundred acres of his own property to the school.

Months turned to years. Years turned to decades. There was growth, and Harvard was no longer the struggling school that had nearly gone under. But even after Dunster’s departure and death, Harvard continued with what he had established.

Like a seed planted in the ground, it grew to become mighty. Dunster didn’t live long enough to see his college become one of the most prominent universities in the world, but he had envisioned what it could become with hard work and dedication. The lives of his students and the students who came after them, were impacted by his legacy.

“Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and he will establish your plans” (Proverbs 16:3 NIV).

What kind of legacy will your work leave? Our life’s work may not yield fast results, but the results can last lifetimes.

Youngs, Bill. “Dunster, Henry.” Accessed June 22, 2020. http://www.americanrealities.com/dunster-henry.html.

Story read by: Daniel Carpenter

Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter

Audio production: Joel Carpenter

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

Project Manager: Blake Mattocks

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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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