Podcast: 365 Christian Men

October 7. Daniel James Draper. On this date in 1835, Draper was ordained a minister, and after a few years pastoring at a local church, for the next thirty years, he served in Australia. 

At various places in Australia, Draper built churches and schools and worked to make sure the people were cared for. When he was in charge of the South Australian district, he built 30 new chapels and increased church membership by 1,300 and Sunday school attendance by 2,000. The number of people at public worship increased by 7,000. 

In 1855, when a lot of the men were gone to goldfields, Draper arranged for them to have pastoral care there. He visited the goldfields and rural communities often and encouraged them to build chapels. Today’s story takes place after Draper and his wife had gone back to England for a short visit. 

Desperation can defeat you or drive you to a decision. 

On January 5, 1865, after a brief visit to England, Pastor Draper, his wife, and more than 200 other passengers boarded the London steamer on a return trip to Australia. The uncertainty of what lay ahead and the heartache of leaving his father and mother again caused Draper to seriously consider the cost of traveling to a foreign country to share the gospel. But he was convinced this was what God had called him to do. 

A day after they set sail, fierce winds howled throughout the night. Two days into the voyage, mountainous waves engulfed the ship, and some of the passengers got severely anxious. 

The captain frantically fought against the waves, but the ship thrust forward, and the waves crashed against the deck. 

The following night, in deep distress, Draper realized how serious the situation was. Now more than ever, he understood what Jesus had said: “As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work” (John 9:4 NIV). 

Draper might not get the chance to share the gospel again. 

As the storm raged on, he led the passengers in prayer and comforted them throughout the night. They read the Scriptures together. 

Early the next morning, the captain tried to navigate back to Plymouth, but the storm increased in fury. Sea gales angrily erupted and stripped the lifeboat from the ship. The masts were frozen, and the deck pulled apart. 

Three days into the voyage, water flooded the engine room. The passengers and crew worked incessantly to remove the water. But it rapidly rose and put out the engine fires—and the engine died. 

All that could have been done had been done. The captain said, “You may now say your prayers, boys.” Then he headed to the saloon, where the women and children had gathered. “Ladies, there is no hope for us.” 

It was then Draper resolved, “Happy if with my latest breath I may but gasp His name; Preach Him to all, and cry in death, ‘Behold, behold, the Lamb!’” 

Draper stood stern on the deck with his wife by his side and calmly said, “My friends, our captain tells us there is no hope, but the great Captain above tells us that there is hope, and that we may all get safe to heaven.” In response many cried out, “Pray for me, Mr. Draper; pray for me!” 

Draper urged them all to flee for refuge and take hold of the hope set before them. On January 11, 1865, Draper lived out his soul’s deepest longing. With his last breath, he spoke of Jesus and pleaded with the passengers and crew to prepare to “Behold, behold, the Lamb of God!” As Draper’s prayers ascended to heaven, a peaceful resignation filled the air, and the vessel sank into the murky sea. A nearby boat rescued nineteen passengers left alive to tell the story. 

Are you hesitant to go where God is calling? If you obey, He may use you to provide hope for others who have lost all hope. Desperation can defeat you or drive you to a decision. 

Symons, John C. The Life of Daniel James Draper. Melbourne: Wesleyan Book Depot, 1870. 

Blacket, Rev. John. “A Thrilling Story.” Trove. Published May 23, 1924. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/214084209?searchTerm=Rev%20John%20Blacket%2C%20Daniel%20Draper. 

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

Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter 

Audio production: Joel Carpenter 

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

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

Project manager: Blake Mattocks 

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

October 6. William Tyndale. Tyndale was an English scholar, who graduated from Oxford and had mastered seven languages. He became convinced that all people needed and deserved to be able to read the Bible in their own languages. 

But translating the Bible into English was punishable by death. While Tyndale worked away at his translation into English, in one day the government executed one woman and six men by burning them at the stake. Their crime was teaching their children the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer in English. But Tyndale kept on. 

In 1526, when Tyndale was 32, he translated and published the first mechanically printed New Testament in English. 

The government was so desperate to wipe out the English New Testament that they spent several thousand dollars buying up all the copies and burning them. And they did it twice. But their efforts failed largely because the funds they had spent got funneled back to Tyndale, so he could continue his work. Finally, on this date in 1536, Tyndale was executed by strangling and then publicly burned. 

Use frustration to fuel extraordinary acts of courage. 

It was the 1500s in Europe, and thanks to the Reformation, people were no longer content to let the corrupt Church and state control them with fear and lies. 

Tensions were high in this gathering storm, and late one evening, the dinner table of Sir John and Lady Ann Walsh in Gloucestershire, England, was heaped with exquisite food and surrounded with distinguished guests. 

The dinner had begun hours ago, but the guests’ plates were still full. The clergymen in attendance sat with clenched jaws. Again and again, they argued and tried to defend what the Church was doing. But every argument was soundly defeated by the Walsh children’s tutor, Tyndale. 

But whatever anger the guests felt toward him, it did not compare with the frustration Tyndale felt. He was an Oxford graduate with two degrees, trained in logic, an ordained priest, and well-read in the Holy Scriptures. He had returned to his native city to tutor the two children of a prominent family. 

The concepts he was arguing were plain to see, laid right out in the Bible. 

The clergy were the only ones allowed access to the Bible, yet most of them did not even take advantage of this privilege. 

“I suffer because the priests be unlearned … yet many of them can scarcely read,” Tyndale wrote. 

Why couldn’t they understand? Why didn’t they even want to understand? After all, they were supposed to God’s priests! 

The evening did not end well. The guests left still angry, and Lady Walsh had been embarrassed. 

She and Sir John reproved Tyndale for his combativeness. The men at their table had many years of clergy experience and were well respected; Tyndale was merely a recently graduated tutor. 

Irritated and now discouraged, Tyndale retreated to his room. Even Sir John and Lady Ann couldn’t see his side. They, too, were blinded by titles and prestige. 

He sat at his desk, which was covered with the children’s Latin lessons and writing projects. 

If only his employers—whom he counted as friends—could understand the true gospel. 

He glanced at his copy of Erasmus’s translation of the Greek New Testament. Lady Ann was a great admirer of Erasmus. Tyndale was not. But right there in the preface, Erasmus said of the Scriptures, “And I wish they were translated into all the languages of all people, that they might be read and known.” 

Tyndale walked across the room to the fireplace. Using tongs, he gathered the still-hot coals together and added some kindling. Flames shot up. Excitement replaced his frustration, though he knew Lady Ann would never accept an English translation of a Bible passage. 

At that time, reading the Bible in English was illegal, but a work by Erasmus—that was something she would read. He would translate Erasmus’s book into English. It would be: Handbook of the Christian Soldier. 

Tyndale soon presented the little book, now translated into English, to Lady Ann. As he hoped, she was not only convinced of his translation skills, but also of the words written in the book. The Walshes became life-long supporters of Tyndale and his great Bible-translation project. 

At another evening meal, once again, the dinner table atmosphere was strained. Tyndale had made some remarks and infuriated a high-ranking member of the clergy. Tyndale always pointed back to the Scriptures to prove his point. And they were Scriptures the church leader should know, but didn’t. 

“We were better to be without God’s law than [to be without] the Pope’s!” the exasperated leader finally shouted and pounded his fist on the table. The leader’s anger had caused him to reveal his true belief. 

And Tyndale would not let this blasphemy go. The outburst had cleared away a lot of the religious smoke the clergy had been spouting. 

Out of the corner of his eye, Tyndale saw Lady Ann give him a slight nod. 

In a loud, firm voice, Tyndale told the blaspheming leader, “I defy the Pope and all his laws, and if God spare my life ere many years, I will cause a boy that driveth the plow, shall know more of the Scripture than thou dost.” 

And in that heightened moment of frustration and anger, Tyndale’s resolve to write an English translation of the Bible put on work boots. 

“And I am praying that you will put into action the generosity that comes from your faith as you understand and experience all the good things we have in Christ” (Philemon 1:6 NLT). 

What situations or people frustrate you? Ask God how you can turn that frustration into something of value that brings life and love. Use frustration to fuel extraordinary acts of courage. 

Teems, David Tyndale, The Man Who Gave God an English Voice. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2012. 

Tyndale, William. Doctrinal Treatises and Introductions to Different Portions of the Holy Scriptures. Cambridge: The University Press, 1843. 

Foxe, John. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. New Kensington: Whitaker House, 1981. 

Story read by: Blake Mattocks 

Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter 

Audio production: Joel Carpenter 

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

Project manager: Blake Mattocks 

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

October 5. Asahel Nettleton. Nettleton was an American theologian and evangelist from Connecticut and a key figure during the Second Great Awakening. He had studied the writings of his predecessor Jonathon Edwards. 

Nettleton preached three times every Sunday and two or three times during the week, plus he preached to small groups who were interested in revival. At this time, thousands of people turned to the Lord. 

A prideful man can be seduced by lies, but a man of humility can see the truth. 

On Thanksgiving night in the year 1800, seventeen-year-old Nettleton had gone to a ball with his friends. And the next morning, he had a good time thinking about the dance and his plans for later that day, when he would see his friends again. 

Out of nowhere, the thought overtook him: “We must all die, and go to the judgment; and with what feelings shall we then reflect upon these scenes?”—all the dancing and hanging out with his friends. All his looking forward to fun vanished. And he hid these feelings from his friends, but he couldn’t escape from them. 

His friends were planning to open a dancing school, and they expected his help, but he refused to have anything to do with it. “The world had lost its charms. All those amusements in which he had taken delight were overcast with gloom.” He often thought about death, judgment, and eternity. “He had a general vague idea that he was a sinner; but he [didn’t see] the fountain of iniquity within him.” 

So he decided he would get himself saved. “I read, I prayed, and strove in every possible way to prepare myself to go to God, that I might be saved from His wrath.” But the more he tried, the worse he felt. “He sometimes spent a large part of the night in prayer. In this way he expected to obtain the forgiveness of his sins and the peace and consolation which God has promised to His people.” But it seemed like God just refused to hear his prayers. 

Nettleton really wished that some of his friends would set out with him in pursuit of religion, but he was too proud to talk with them openly. When he did talk about wanting to avoid open sin, they treated him with contempt. 

Next, seeing that God didn’t respond to all Nettleton’s effort, he complained about God. In fact, he grew to hate the idea of a God who would choose not to answer his prayers. God probably didn’t even exist. Nettleton “searched the Scriptures on purpose to find contradictions in them”—but the Scriptures continued to convict him. 

He wished the Bible were false. But he thought, “What if the Bible should prove to be true? Then I am lost forever.” 

Finally, Nettleton saw “the plague of his own heart.” He realized that he had never asked and sought as God requires. That God looked at a man’s heart. That He required His creatures to serve Him. Nettleton saw all his own praying and studying had been prompted by selfish motives. He had not loved God, nor had he cared for His glory. Nettleton had only promoted his own interest and happiness. 

Nettleton “had not hated sin because it was committed against God, but had merely dreaded its consequences.” 

About ten months after that turning-point Thanksgiving-Day ball, Nettleton noticed that his attitude had changed. The Scriptures he had feared now seemed full of life and hope. He gladly prayed often. He saw that Jesus Christ was an intelligent, courageous man bent on loving people, and Nettleton wanted to spend time with him. And Nettleton knew Jesus was eternal God. Somehow by God’s doing, Nettleton had become a Christian. He knew peace and great joy. 

“It is because of [God] that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30 NIV). 

Are you struggling to trust Jesus with your life? Prideful, a man believes lies, but humbled, he can see the truth. 

Tyler, Bennet, and Andrew Bonar. The Life and Labours of Asahel Nettleton. Carlisle PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1975, p. 20. 

Ehrhard, Jim. “Asahel Nettleton: The Forgotten Evangelist.” oChristian.com. Accessed July 18, 2020. http://articles.ochristian.com/article3096.shtml. 

Story read by: Daniel Carpenter 

Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter 

Audio production: Joel Carpenter 

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

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

Project manager: Blake Mattocks 

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

October 4. Miles Coverdale. Coverdale realized the common people needed a Bible they could read and understand in their own language. So he made it his life’s ambition to produce an entire Bible in English. 

He started as an Augustinian friar at Cambridge, then he became a priest and was influenced by his supervisor in the monastery—an active Lutheran—who was later executed by Henry VIII for heresy. This caused Coverdale to give up being a monk and then to leave England for safer parts. 

By 1529, he lived in Germany and helped William Tyndale with his English translation of the Scriptures. Next, a merchant commissioned Coverdale to translate the Bible, and on this date in 1535, he completed the first Bible translated into English and printed. However, it did not pass standards that would make it the official translation. 

So Thomas Cromwell hired Coverdale to work in England on a new version based on Tyndale’s Matthew’s Bible. In 1539, Coverdale finished the Great Bible, which was approved by Henry VIII. 

But when Queen Mary took the throne, she took away all Coverdale’s religious authority. Most people believe he would be executed but that the King of Denmark persuaded Mary to send Coverdale to Denmark instead of killing him. 

God’s rule over us is demonstrated by how well we rule ourselves. 

Although he was a priest, around 1527, Coverdale broke with Roman Catholic beliefs and became an earnest Reformer of the Church. When he heard about some people hungry for Christ, he jumped at the opportunity to preach the gospel in a church at Bumpstead. 

When Coverdale stepped into the pulpit, a rapt audience listened to him preach the gospel of Christ, some for the first time. And God worked mightily. 

At the end of the service, the interim pastor of the church, a monk named Topley, cried out, “Oh my sins, my sins!” Topley was coming to Coverdale for absolution! 

But Coverdale advised the man to confess his sins to God and not to a priest. 

Topley believed Coverdale and accepted God’s forgiveness. Afterward, he dedicated himself to the work of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. Topley was beginning to understand the true nature of Christ’s rule over the believer. And he realized that a believer is one who shares the gospel of Jesus and works under His authority to bless others. 

Coverdale wasn’t putting down the priesthood as it is described in the New Testament. He was only steering the monk away from putting his trust in the religious institution of the priest instead of putting his trust in the living Christ. 

One historian put it this way: “The clergy had made religion their business, and the Reformation was restoring [religion] to the people. Nothing offended the priests so much as that laymen should claim the right to believe without [the priests’] intervention, and even to propagate their faith.” 

But the Reformers believed in the priesthood of all believers, as did the Apostle Peter when he wrote to the church: “And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:45 NASB). 

And Cloverdale hoped Topley would now believe in the priesthood of all believers. 

Are you working under the authority of Jesus? Do you recognize God working in your life? God’s rule over us is demonstrated by how well we rule ourselves. 

D’Aubigne, J.H. Merle. The Reformation in England, Vol. I. Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1853, reprinted 1977, page 352. 

Ford, David Nash. “Miles Coverdale (1488-1569).” Royal Berkshire History. Published 2003. http://www.berkshirehistory.com/bios/mcoverdale.html. 

The Reformation. “Miles Coverdale (1486-1568).” Accessed July 11, 2020. https://www.thereformation.info/miles_coverdale/. 

Bible Manuscript Society. “1535 Coverdale Bible.” Accessed July 11, 2020. https://biblemanuscriptsociety.com/Bible-resources/English-Bible-History/Coverdale-Bible. 

“Miles Coverdale.” English Bible History. Accessed July 11, 2020. https://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/myles-coverdale.html. 

Simkin, John. “Miles Coverdale.” Spartacus Educational. September 1997. https://spartacus-educational.com/Miles_Coverdale.htm. 

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

Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter 

Audio production: Joel Carpenter 

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

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

Project manager: Blake Mattocks 

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

October 3. Drew Brees. Drew appears in the top five of many all-time greatest pro quarterback lists. He led the NFL in passing yards seven times and has 541 career-touchdown passes. 

He once threw a sixty-two-yard touchdown pass to a rookie receiver. 

Drew has made the Pro Bowl thirteen times, and in 2004, he was the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year. In 2008 and 2011, Drew was named the Offensive Player of the Year, and he was the Most Valuable Player of Super Bowl XLIV. On this date in 2019, Drew spoke up on behalf of children and National Bring Your Bible to School Day. Listen to what happened. 

Don’t let a dirty tackle knock you out of the game. Get back up. 

All-pro quarterback Drew Brees recorded a 22-second-long video in which he quoted his favorite Bible verse. And Drew encouraged Christian kids to take their Bibles to school on Bring Your Bible to School Day. He urged kids to share the love of God with friends. He told them, “You’re not alone.” 1 

He might as well have painted a target on his face. Bring Your Bible to School Day is a positive event in America, and in 2018, 650,000 kids participated. Turns out it was also promoted by Focus on the Family. 

Misleading headlines abounded, such as: “Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints Quarterback Records Video Produced by Anti-Gay Group Focus on the Family,” “Drew Brees is the Biggest Hypocrite in Sports,” and “Drew Brees Needs to Apologize.” The faux news incited a nation-wide Twitter mob. 

Another headline claimed Drew had disavowed his ties to Focus on the Family, which he never said he did. It was a fake-news free-for-all. 

The negative headlines seemed orchestrated to enflame division and group hate. Drew’s “guilt by association” was displayed as an ugly example of a sports hero corrupted by “conservative homophobes” lost to the evils of their own bigotry. 

Drew’s actual message of “share God’s love with friends. You’re not alone” seemed to have evaporated. 

The fact is, Drew recognizes and respects everyone’s right to choose their own path in life. He recognizes the freedoms we celebrate in America, and he doesn’t demonize or “hate” anybody. 

Drew pushed back against accusations and said he lives by two rules: To love the Lord his God with all his heart, soul, and mind, and to love his neighbor as himself (Matthew 22:37, 39). But some people still demanded an official apology for his association with a conservative “anti-gay” group. 

Focus on the Family spokesperson Jim Daly said that the problem was that in the current culture, if you respect someone, but you disagree with them, they label you as hating them. But disagreeing is not hating. They’re not even the same kind of thing. 

Jim said they don’t hate anyone. “Our goal is to say, ‘Jesus loves you, cares about you, no matter who you are—your race, your creed, your sexual orientation. Jesus died for every one of us.’ That’s the message we want to get out.”3 

He noted that he understands the LGBTQ’s stand, and he respects their right to hold that stand. He wishes they would respect people’s rights to hold a different stand too. 

NFL tight end Benjamin Watson said the media’s reaction was “misleading and a mischaracterization of Focus on the Family and of Drew.” He said, “They were slanderous. And so, my response was … stop lying with those sorts of labels.” 

Former quarterback Donovan McNabb explained Drew was actually “sending a good message” 2 that deserved to be heard. And Chris Valletta, a former offensive lineman said: “I think Drew Brees is the model American athlete. … He represents the best. … He’s the type of athlete, especially in today’s professional game, that our kids need to be modeling themselves after. … ” 

“They pushed me hard to make me fall, but the LORD helped me. The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation” (Psalm 118:13–14 CSB). 

What will you do the next time you get blindsided? When your opponent hits you with a dirty tackle, don’t let it knock you out of the game. 

1 Busbee, Jay. “Drew Brees appears in ad for evangelical lobbying group.” Yahoo!sports. September 5, 2019. https://sports.yahoo.com/drew-brees-appears-in-ad-for-evangelical-lobbying-group-151951797.html 

2 Millward, Craig. “Former NFL Stars Defend Saints QB Drew Brees: ‘Model American Athlete;’ ‘Sending a Good Message.’” CNS News. September 9, 2019. https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/craig-millward/former-nfl-stars-defend-saints-qb-drew-brees-model-american-athlete-sending-good. 

3 Gaydos, Ryan. “Drew Brees’ former teammate comes to his defense over backlash from Bible video.” Fox News. Published September 9, 2019. https://www.foxnews.com/sports/drew-brees-saints-nfl-ben-watson-bible-video. 

Story read by: Nathan Walker 

Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter 

Audio production: Joel Carpenter 

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

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

Project manager: Blake Mattocks 

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

October 2. Carl Smythe. Carl is not his real name, but Carl is a real man who had to deal with real sin. There was nothing easy about it. Today’s story is a hard one. In 1989, Carl was released from prison. 

Do the hard work. God will do his part. 

Carl stared at the barren cell. How had he gone from a happily married, church-going man to a prisoner? What had he done to himself? 

Depression grew. His pastor had suggested he talk with John, a mental-health professional—and a man of faith. 

The day of John’s first visit to the prison, Carl restlessly went through the protocol required to meet with someone from the outside. Finally, John sat across from him. 

Carl said, “I’ve ruined my life.” 

They talked a while, and then John said that in the Bible, Paul wrote, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief” (1 Timothy 1:15).  

But there in that visiting room, John said he too was the “chief of sinners.” 

Carl scoffed. John wasn’t the one in prison. But as Carl studied John’s steady gaze, he realized John meant it. 

“Carl,” John spoke softly. “If I’m first chief of sinners, you’re second.” 

Carl stood abruptly. He didn’t need another person telling him how bad he was. He shouldn’t have molested his foster child. He had just wanted to help her—but they had become so close! 

“Sit down.” John cleared his throat. “You told me you ruined your life. But what about the life of the girl?” 

Carl felt like he couldn’t breathe. 

“What about your wife?” John said. “Your church? God?” 

Carl looked away. 

“None of us think we’re as bad as we are, Carl.” 

Carl said he wanted to go back to his cell. But he couldn’t escape John’s words. For the first time, instead of thinking about the damage he had done to himself, he faced the damage he had done to the girl—and everyone else. He was a piece of filth. He didn’t deserve to live. 

Days turned into weeks, and Carl dreamed up ways to kill himself. The prison put him on suicide watch. 

But John kept coming. He explained that until Carl faced the reality of his actions, he couldn’t heal. But now that he had, there was hope. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, Carl was forgiven. 

At first Carl rejected the idea. He didn’t deserve forgiveness. John pointed out that Carl was questioning God’s capacity to forgive, heal, and change him. Carl was questioning the ability of the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. 

Eventually Carl understood. What he had done to his foster daughter would never be okay. But no sin was bigger than God’s ability to deal with it. 

Carl focused on receiving God’s forgiveness, and John asked him to answer three questions: How do I grow? How can I help others? How can I help rebuild what I destroyed? 

Carl decided that he could grow by learning more about God, so he took a correspondence course through Moody Bible Institute. Before his imprisonment, he had been a skilled worked. So he helped others by teaching the skill to his fellow inmates. One thing he had destroyed was his marriage. Carl asked John for marriage counseling. 

Then came the big challenge. If Carl took the state’s reprogramming classes, he could be released sooner. But the approach fought pedophilia by hooking offenders on adult pornography. John said you couldn’t fight sin with sin. Carl agreed. Most sexual offenders repeated the behavior. As much as Carl wanted an earlier release from prison, there was something he wanted more: forever change. 

Carl refused the classes and paid the full extent of his time. 

During those long days, Carl continued learning, serving, and rebuilding. When Carl was released, his wife was there, and his marriage was solid. 

When you sin, do you gloss it over or do what it takes to for true change? Do the hard work. God will do his part. 

Based on an interview, 2019. 

Note: Names, dates, and minor details in this story have been changed. 

Story read by: Blake Mattocks 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Story read by: Chuck Stecker 

Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter 

Audio production: Joel Carpenter 

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

Project manager: Blake Mattocks 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Story read by: Joel Carpenter 

Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter 

Audio production: Joel Carpenter 

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

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

Project manager: Blake Mattocks 

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