Podcast: 365 Christian Men

February 13. Alexander Duff. Just when Duff was finishing his education, the Church of Scotland was preparing its first mission, which would be based on education, and they appointed him superintendent of a new mission school at Calcutta. 

Writing about whether he ought to go India or stay in Scotland, Duff said: “with the Bible in my hands, I cannot see how her soul in Scotland can be intrinsically more precious to the Savior than a soul in Greenland … or in Hindostan.…” 

On this date in 1830, Duff was shipwrecked on the way to India. He did finally arrive in Calcutta that year—after he had been shipwrecked—twice. 

His plan was to produce a group of thinking people who—having Christian thought patterns and value systems—would influence Hindu society as a whole. Duff created a complete education in English with Christian philosophy and constant use of the Bible. To reach more people, Duff published a magazine, debated scholars, and wrote books. The only times he went back to Scotland were to recuperate from illness or to work to strengthen the mission’s funding. 

Today’s story takes place on yet another ship. Here’s what happened. 

Stay or turn back. The choice demands a decision. 

Stay or turn back. Stay or turn back. By ten o’clock, the ship’s captain would have to decide. Could he safely stop for the night on the sandbank, or should he turn back to sea? Minutes ticked by. 

Finally, the bells announced the turn of the hour, and the captain got up to order the crew to turn back, but the ship lurched violently. 

The words never left the captain’s mouth. 

The ship crashed on the rocks, and her frame splintered. Water gushed in. 

Passengers in various states of undress rushed from their beds toward the commotion, and missionary Duff arrived on deck just in time to hear the captain cry out, “Oh, she’s gone, she’s gone!” 

The ship was going down. 

The crew scrambled to salvage a means of escape, and the passengers congregated in one of the cabins, their faces hardly masking their fear and distress. 

They each dealt with the sudden shock in a different way, but Duff suggested they gather together in prayer. 

They agreed, and in all the noise and turmoil, Duff lifted his voice to God. Each member of the group clung to anything that would steady him in the violent rocking as the ship pitched one way, then another. 

For three hours, the ship jerked like a bull trying to toss its rider. And the waves pounded angrily at the deck. 

A small group of sailors, who had gone out in small gig boats to scout for land, returned with reports of a small shore not too far away. Driven by desperation, the crew struggled to secure the longboat and started ferrying passengers to shore. 

But the boat could only carry about a third of the group at a time. At the insistence of the single women, married women and their spouses went first. 

No one knew if the longboat would be able to make three trips in time. However, just before daybreak, the last boatful of passengers made it safely to shore. Exhausted. Wet. Frightened. 

But there was no time to rest. Everyone had to turn his attention to survival. One sailor, who had attended each of Duff’s meetings and paid rapt attention to his words, strode off along the beach. As he walked, he noticed something had washed up on shore, and when he got closer, he found that there were two books wrapped in chamois leather: a copy of the Bible and a Scotch Psalm book, both with Duff’s name still visible on the tattered covers. 

Suddenly overjoyed, the sailor snatched up the books, which had been stored along with hundreds of others that were nowhere to be found. 

Glowing, he brought them back to Duff, who gathered the people once again, their souls full of hope this time. He turned to Psalm 107 and read: 

“Those who go down to the sea in ships, who do business on great waters; they have seen the works of the LORD, and His wonders in the deep. For He spoke and raised up a stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea. They rose up to the heavens, they went down to the depths; their soul melted away in their misery. 

“They reeled and staggered like a drunken man, and were at their wits’ end. Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and He brought them out of their distresses. He caused the storm to be still, so that the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad because they were quiet, so He guided them to their desired haven. Let them give thanks to the LORD for His lovingkindness, and for His wonders to the sons of men!” (Psalm 107:23–31 NASB). 

Everyone lifted his face upward and gave thanks to God. Duff challenged them to hope in the middle of chaos and to be thankful in the middle of favor. Though he couldn’t save his fellow voyagers from the storm, he could turn their attention toward the One who is able, and that was enough to restore their faith. 

Today do you need to call on God? Can you lead others to do this, as well? Stay or turn back. The choice demands a decision. 

Paton, William. Alexander Duff: Pioneer of Missionary Education. London: Student Christian Movement, 1923. 

Smith, George. The Life of Alexander Duff, D.D., LL.D. New York: A. C. Armstrong & Son, 1879. Internet Archive, https://​archive.org/​details/​lifeofalexanderd01smit/​page/​n8. 

Story read by Nathan Walker 

February 11. John Clough. On this date in 1858, Clough was baptized into the family of Christ. He grew up to be an American scholar and farmer and then a missionary to South India. 

In 1877 and 1878 Clough worked tirelessly in famine-relief work and with the Ongole mass movement—a welcoming into the body of Christ of people who have been outrageously oppressed by the religious, social, economic, and·moral standards and customs of India. These are outcasts, who are not allowed to enter the village, nor to worship in the village temple, nor to send their children to the village school. They are not even allowed to drink from the village well. 

During one six-week period in 1878, Clough and his assistants baptized nearly 9,000 members of the Madiga community. He focused on villages and encouraged people ready to convert to Christianity to wait until some friends or a family member were ready to come too, that they might go through life as Christians in a community of Christians, though small. The churches he planted were served by pastors from among the native people, and Clough did all he could to provide ongoing support for the many, many new believers. 

When God wants to free a people, a famine may be the way out. 

In 1865, Clough and his family arrived in Nellore, South India. Clough—charismatic and friendly—soon befriended the Brahmin, the highest-ranking members of Telegu society. 

The Brahmin included priests and scholars of their religious texts, and they had vowed never to kill a living thing. Soon one priest was baptized a Christian, and Clough hoped to lead many more to Jesus. 

In the area lived another group of people: the Madiga—poor, aboriginal outcasts of Telegu society and leather workers by trade. The Brahmins despised them. 

But now the Madiga were coming to Clough, and they too wanted to be baptized as followers of Jesus. But the Brahmin gave Clough an ultimatum. If he baptized the despicable Madiga, the Brahmins would no longer associate with him. 

Clough didn’t want to offend the Brahmins, nor could he turn away the Madiga. He prayed about the dilemma for a long time. 

The Lord spoke to him from 1 Corinthians 1:27: “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong” (NIV). 

Clough recognized that the Madiga were those “foolish things” and that God had chosen them for his own purposes. So he baptized the Madiga. 

Deeply offended, the Brahmins wanted nothing to do with the God Clough preached. 

Over the next ten years, Clough devoted himself to telling the Madiga about Jesus. He planted churches, built schools, and raised up Madiga believers as preachers and evangelists. Through Clough’s labors, several thousand Madiga believed in Jesus. The work was going well—until 1876, when the Great Famine struck. 

A severe drought in the Deccan Plateau ruined most of the crops that fed South India, and now millions of Indians were starving. To get food supplies across South India faster, the British government decided to extend the Buckingham Canal by another five miles. A huge workforce was needed, and their salaries would be paid in food rations. 

At this point, Clough could have given up and gone home to America. But instead, he accepted a contract from the British government to build a three-mile section of the canal. To accomplish this, Clough recruited thousands of starving Madiga. In return for their hard labor, he paid them in grain, ensuring their survival. 

Clough employed thirty of his Madiga preachers as overseers for the canal workforce, each man responsible for a hundred workers. Whenever the Madiga laborers sat down for a break, the Madiga overseer preachers shared about Jesus with them. 

As a result, the gospel of Jesus quickly spread through the worker groups, and in a short time, hundreds of Madiga were asking to be baptized. Clough told them to wait. He didn’t want fear of starvation or cholera to be their motivation for surrendering their lives to Jesus. 

Two years later, when the famine ended, Clough summoned his workforce to meet him at a rest house in Vellumpilly, so he might reorganize them for their next task. But when he arrived, he found a vast number of Madiga who still wanted to be baptized. This time he could not refuse them. 

On July 2, 1978, 3,536 Madiga were baptized. That year, Clough and his companions baptized 9,666 Madiga. 

The Madiga community was turned upside down. They abandoned their old gods. And before he knew it, Clough’s church had 21,000 Madiga members. 

Take a look at the hard things you’re facing right now. Could there be an assignment from God for you? When God wants to free a people, a famine may be the way out. 

Carr, Floyd L., and Herbert Waldo Hines. John E. Clough: Kingdom Builder in South India. New York: Baptist Board of Education, 1929. 

Rauschenbusch-Clough, Emma. John E. Clough, Missionary to the Telegus of South India: a Sketch. Boston: American Baptist Missionary Union, 1902. 

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

February 9. Olaudah Equiano. As a child, Equiano was sold into slavery to a captain in the British Empire’s Royal Navy. Later, a Quaker trader bought him. Equiano became the man’s clerk, and he learned about Jesus. On this date in 1759, Equiano was converted to Christianity and was baptized. 

Eventually, in 1766, by skillful trading and saving all he earned, he purchased his own freedom. In time he partnered with the same man who had once owned him. 

He wrote and published his autobiography: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, and during his life, it went through one American and eight British editions. This gave him a platform from which to fight for the abolition of slave trading. Today’s story gives us a glimpse into the way Equiano thought. 

When terror grips your soul, trust in the God who will not let you go. 

In his memoirs, Equiano wrote that he considered himself “a particular favorite of heaven.” That revealed a lot about the character of the man. He was born in Africa and “had never heard of white men or Europeans, nor of the sea.” 

But when Equiano was eleven, he was kidnapped and sold into slavery. Of the many jobs he learned, he became skilled on a ship. He bought his freedom more than once, and became a businessman in his own right. 

At the end of one business trip in the West Indies, Equiano was ready to return to England. But Robert King, his business partner, begged Equiano to make another trade voyage to Atlanta, Georgia in the New World. He agreed and boarded the King’s ship, the Nancy. 

Soon after the ship departed, Equiano had a dream. The same dream haunted him again the following night. And the next. “I dreamt the ship was wrecked amidst the rocks, and that I was the means of saving everyone on board.” 

That third night, Equiano took the midnight watch on deck, and the helmsman immediately alerted him to a large fish swimming close to the bow. Equiano saw at once it was no fish. He was horrified. It was an enormous rock. Desperate to save the ship, he woke the slumbering captain and advised him to change direction, but by the time the captain arrived on deck, it was too late. 

The vessel struck the rock. 

Wave after wave slammed the ship against the rock and gashed the hull. 

The terrified crew “abandoned all care of the ship, fell to drinking and lay about like pigs.” But Equiano thought about the Lord. He called to mind the many mercies the Lord had shown him in times past. 

He sprang into action and devised an ingenious way to repair the boat: “We had no materials to mend our boat. I took some pump leather and nailed it over the hole and plastered it over with tallow-grease.” 

His repairs held, and the next morning, Equiano and the four members of the crew who had remained sober spotted an island about six miles away—the perfect place to repair their ship. But the ship couldn’t cross the shallow reef that surrounded the island. 

Equiano, an African who had suffered much at the hands of white men, could have chosen to abandon the white, drunken, unconscious sailors. But he could not help thinking that if any of those people had been lost, God would charge him with their lives. 

So Equiano and his skeleton crew of four loaded the twenty-eight other survivors into a rowboat, a few at a time, and rowed them to the island. It took them six trips to deliver everyone to the island, lifting the boat over the reef each time, and by the end of their labor, their legs were cut and torn, and the skin was stripped entirely from their hands. 

It was another eleven days before they managed to repair the boat, and Equiano became the leader of all the survivors. 

Just like the Apostle Paul on his voyage to Rome, God spoke to Equiano and reassured him that not one person would be lost. And just like the Apostle Paul, Equiano refused to let fear paralyze him. 

“The righteous person may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all” (Psalm 34:19 NIV). 

Which fear do you need to conquer with God’s help today? When terror grips your soul, trust in the God who will not let you go. 

Walvin, James. An African’s Life: The Life and Times of Olaudah Equiano, 1745–1797. London: A & C Black, 2000. 

Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1789. 

Story read by Daniel Carpenter 

February 7. Tony Dungy. On this date in 2007, Tony became the first Black head coach to win the Super Bowl: the Indianapolis Colts versus the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI. 

The same year, Tony released his memoir: Quiet Strength: The Principles, Practices, and Priorities of a Winning Life, and it reached number one on the hardcover nonfiction section of the New York Times Best Seller list. Today’s story gives us a look at some of Tony’s priority-setting. 

Learning to put God first starts with a decision but takes a lifetime. 

When Tony first started playing in the NFL with the Pittsburgh Steelers, he was young and ready to win, but he had a problem keeping his cool. 

When he was in school, he was known for losing his temper, and on the basketball court, he earned technical fouls. 

His dad scolded him about it, but Tony brushed it off. Venting helped him focus. But when he was vying for a permanent place on the Steelers’ roster, things started to change. 

The change started with the Steelers’ Bible study. 

Tony believed in God, and he knew he was a Christian. But until he went to the Bible study, he never realized he wasn’t putting God first in all that he did. 

His teammates were often known for being the biggest and toughest guys around. So when Tony saw them praying together and studying the Word, he realized their faith wasn’t weakness, but true strength. Strength they drew from God. He wanted to be strong in the faith like that too. 

Tony made the team, but during his second season, he got sick with mononucleosis. And he wasn’t allowed to take the field until his white-blood-cell count normalized. 

Three weeks passed, and he still wasn’t up to par, nor was he allowed to practice with the rest of the team during their pre-season camp. Tony felt his old temper and frustrations coming back. His inability to train and condition could leave his spot on the team open for anyone to take. He told Donnie, one of the Christians on the team, about how he felt. “This is just not going according to plan,” Tony said. 

Donnie understood Tony’s frustrations but helped him put the situation in perspective. “You profess to be a Christian, and you tell everybody that God has first place in your life. Now, when your career looks like it’s teetering, we’re getting a chance to see what really is in first place for you.” 

Tony agreed. He had been learning about how to put God first more and trust Him. “I’m trying to understand what you guys have. But all of a sudden, I come to a crisis point, and I begin to panic. My thoughts turn to: ‘What am I going to do?’” 

Donnie’s answer was clear. “All the Lord is trying to do is find out what’s in first place in your life, and right now, it looks like football is.” 

What Donnie said made an impact on Tony. Donnie was telling it straight. Tony knew he needed to change more. 

Football was something God allowed him to do, but it didn’t have to define him. His identity needed to be in God. Tony made a decision right then and there to keep God first no matter what happened. Whether he was benched, healed, or cut from the team, God would still be number one. 

Two weeks passed, and Tony got better, just in time for the first pre-season game. He was able to return to practice with his team. The Steelers that year won fourteen games and lost two and later won the Super Bowl against Dallas with a score of 35–31. 

Tony led the team in interceptions and tied in tenth place in the entire NFL. But despite his success as a player and later on as a coach, Tony never forgot the most important achievement of his life: learning to put God first. 

When he was eventually traded and then saw his career on the verge of collapse, he knew from experience that as long as he kept God first, God would handle things. The door shut on his playing football, but an even bigger door opened for him to become one of the most famous coaches of all time. 

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33 NIV). 

What might be holding you back from putting God first in your life? Learning to put God first starts with a decision but takes a lifetime. 

Dungy, Tony, and Nathan Whitaker. Quiet Strength: A Memoir. Carol Stream: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2007. 

“TONY DUNGY, INDIANAPOLIS COLTS AND TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS.” Accessed September 26, 2020. PRO FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME. https://www.profootballhof.com/players/tony-dungy/. 

Story read by Chuck Stecker 

February 6. Lou Bloss. Lou is a man with wide-ranging experience. He is a US Army veteran and an award-winning journalist, who has published everywhere from minor-league baseball news to Christian devotionals to a how-to-write textbook. Lou owns Lou Bloss Media, which provides marketing, advertising, and publishing for the restaurant industry. 

And Lou is a man with a great sense of humor. He can keep a straight face while he boasts about his bowling average of 132. That sense of humor doesn’t mean life has been all ponies and firecrackers. Here’s his story. 

Real courage calls you to stay the course; answers will come. 

Early morning sun shone weakly through the windows, blanching the pages of the open Bible. The young father sat motionless. Upstairs, his daughters slept, too young to understand the gaping hole left in cancer’s wake. Who was he now? Widower. Single father. One half of a shattered whole. 

He skimmed the page, a story he had read many times. But this time, the words spoke to him with new meaning: 

“And as [Rachel] was having great difficulty in childbirth, the midwife said to her, ‘Don’t despair, for you have another son.’ … So Rachel died.… Over her tomb Jacob set up a pillar, and to this day that pillar marks Rachel’s tomb. Israel moved on again and pitched his tent beyond Migdal Eder” (Genesis 35:17, 19–21 NIV). 

He pulled his Bible closer and saw with an understanding that had seemed impossible, even moments before. 

Lou and Terrie Bloss had looked forward to the birth of their second daughter. With only three years between them, their girls would grow up close—friends, as well as sisters. Lou and Terri had spent the last months of the pregnancy doing typical things: they got the nursery ready, talked with their firstborn about becoming a big sister, and made plans for their future. 

But a rare form of cancer was silently spreading throughout Terrie’s body. Within four months of their daughter’s birth, Terrie was gone. 

“I had these expectations of happily ever after,” Lou said. “Life didn’t work that way.” 

The months following Terrie’s death were the most difficult of Lou’s life. “Everything felt hard. Just getting up felt hard. I knew I had to get my head together—I had two young daughters depending on me—but I had the same question anyone else would: How?” 

Until he had answers, Lou simply stayed the course. He showed up at his job every day, even on the days it felt impossible. He continued to go to church, even when he wanted to stay home. And he maintained the friendships he and Terrie had cultivated together, even though it hurt to do it without her. Most importantly, Lou clung desperately to God and looked for answers in the Bible. 

Daily reminders of God’s love—the kindness of his coworkers, the support of his friends—these comforted him, but the strength he needed to survive came from the quiet time he set aside each day to pray and read his Bible. 

One morning, several months after Terrie’s death, he had a breakthrough. “I was reading the story of Jacob in Genesis 35, and it hit me. Jacob was on his path, doing what God told him to do, and his wife, Rachel, died in childbirth. She named their son Benoni, which means ‘son of my sorrow,’ but Jacob renamed him Benjamin, which means ‘son of my right hand.’ 

“He didn’t want to constantly dwell on the sorrow; he wanted to dwell on the good. Jacob buried Rachel. He grieved her and memorialized her, remembered her, but he also moved on and continued with what God had called him to do. I thought that was significant. I knew I couldn’t constantly dwell on what I had lost. I had to move forward. The more I thought about it, I realized moving on with my life was an act of faith.” 

Lou believes this same process—grieving and then moving on in faith—applies to many of life’s difficulties. “For all of us,” he says, “something drops into our lives unexpected. We get fired, get hurt, lose someone. Things happen. Some people get kicked down the hill and don’t get back up. You have to get back up.” 

Are you facing difficulties right now? Take a moment and write out something you could do today to move forward. Real courage calls you to stay the course; answers will come. 

This story is based on an interview with Lou Bloss, 2019. 

Story read by Joel Carpenter 

February 5. John Calvin. Born into a devout Catholic family, Calvin was sent off to study philosophy and law. By the time he was twenty-four, he embraced Protestantism and worked for changes in the Roman Catholic Church. He wrote The Institutes of the Christian Religion, a foundation of Protestant systematic theology. And he wrote commentaries on every book in the New Testament except Revelation and on most books of the Old Testament. He was thoroughly convinced of the majestic sovereignty of God. 

Some people have said that Calvin was cold, unapproachable, unemotional, and reluctant to speak, but those who knew him well understood that façade shielded a man who felt deeply and was especially anxious for the state of the world and of men’s souls. Calvin himself said, “There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice.” 

Our physical weaknesses never have to limit our spiritual strength. 

Calvin’s body was failing him. It had been for a long while now. Even on his best youthful days, Calvin had always leaned toward the frail side. 

Now as an older gentleman closer to the sunset of life rather than the sunrise, just getting out of bed proved difficult. Migraines, lung hemorrhages, gout, and kidney stones had rendered Calvin’s physical condition bleak at best. But his mind was as strong as ever. 

Calvin had been working his way through the entire Bible. He was writing a commentary on nearly every book. When he was no longer able to write, he finished many of these by dictating to his assistants. Ministers throughout the city would come and visit with him with the intent of encouraging a dying leader, but they were often the ones who left inspired. 

When his body provided enough strength to sit up and go out, Calvin went to church in a chair carried by friends and students. But he wasn’t there to sit in the service. He was there to lead. His assistants would place Calvin in his chair behind the pulpit, where he would preach and even conduct baptisms. His faith and determination willed his body into work. 

“But if I say, ‘I will not remember Him or speak anymore in His name,’ then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire shut up in my bones; and I am weary of holding it in, and I cannot endure it” (Jeremiah 20:9 NASB). 

His soon-to-be successor, Theodore Beza said, “It is true that not only ministers, but friends too, urged him not to wear himself out by coming and working like this. But he would make excuses and say that it did him good and that time would hang too heavily on his hands if he stayed indoors all the time.” 

When he was unable to go out to church, he would bring church to himself. Some days, Calvin’s bedroom filled to capacity while he lay in bed and read from the Bible and his notes. 

Even when it was clear that this simple act of reading aloud was deteriorating his condition, no one dared stop him. He was a man on a mission. 

On occasion, friends would voice their worries about the daily regimen’s effect on his health. But his response was always, “What! Would you have the Lord find me idle when He comes?” 

“That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10 NIV). 

How can God use your weakness today to reveal His strength? Our physical weaknesses never have to limit our spiritual strength. 

Gordon, Bruce. Calvin. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009. 

Beza, Theodore. Life of Calvin. Lindenhurst, NY: Great Christian Books, 2012. 

Maseko, Achim Nkosi. Church Schism & Corruption: Book 3 Reformationists. Lulu, 2008. 

Story read by Daniel Carpenter