365 Christian Men | 365 Christian Men

September 2. Deano Sargent. Deano was a man who loved God, loved his neighbor, and loved to farm. He was a faithful man. A faithful man who did the job at hand, cared for the people at hand, and didn’t worry himself about getting to the top. Here’s his story.

When you value God’s people, they begin to see their worth.

The tractor motor roared, and Deano kept a steady eye on the horizon, a wake of heartland dust rising behind him. His heart overflowed with gratitude. How could simply serving God and loving others have led him here?

For as long as he could remember, Deano had always hoped of being a farmer, and now he was living the dream.

As a new resident of a small-farming town and rookie farmer, Deano decided to meet his neighbors. Rejecting the scuttlebutt about the “odd” couple who lived in the little red farmhouse, one day Deano showed up on their front porch—with a firm knock and a friendly smile.

The door opened, and a committee greeted him: there was Floyd and Mary and a heap of cats. Deano took Floyd’s leathery hand and pumped. And a unique friendship began.

Deano soon learned that this elderly couple had no children and no one to help them out in their time of need. And Floyd and Mary’s concerns became Deano’s to-do list.

“Everyone has a story, and their story deserves to be heard,” Deano often said.

From then on, Floyd regularly invited Deano to help on the farm. And Deano was happy to serve. He figured that was what God had created him for—and why God had put this love of farming in his soul.

But, in Floyd, Deano also found a farming mentor. And the two men enjoyed a growing bond around their shared love of farming.

One chilly spring morning, Deano got up before the sun made its appearance, and he hopped in his truck. He rumbled down the old gravel road to Floyd and Mary’s farm, and his coffee sloshed in the cupholder.

As he stepped out of his truck, Deano smiled and thought it was a beautiful morning. Without being asked, he had stopped by to spray Floyd’s fields for weeds before he went to work.

From the farmhouse, Floyd had heard the truck pull up and hurried out to see who was there. Surprised to see Deano, especially at this hour, Floyd walked out to the field and said, “Deano, I want you to do something for me. I want you to tell me you will take care of Mary if anything should happen to me.”

Deano was surprised. And with a compassionate smile said, “Sure, Floyd. You bet.” That was it. A short conversation, and they got on with the business of spraying weeds.

In the days ahead, Deano invited Floyd to Stiles Christian Church, where Deano served as an elder. Floyd gave his heart to Christ there, and was thrilled to have finally found a church family who accepted him and loved him like Deano.

And it was this same church family who wrapped their arms around Mary, when Floyd unexpectedly passed away.

From that day on, Deano visited Mary nearly every night, and he brought along caring conversation and a few jokes to brighten her day. He became the son she never had.

Whether taking her for Sunday drives around the farm, or attending special events at her nursing home, he was doing what he did best, planting seeds of love—in God’s creation.

On one of their many drives around the farmland, Mary said to him, “Deano, I want you to have all of this when I’m gone. All 600 acres.” And when she joined Floyd in heaven, she made that happen.

To anyone who would listen, Deano would say, “J.O.Y.—surely means Jesus first, yourself last and others in between.”

“Plant the good seeds of righteousness, and you will harvest a crop of love” (Hosea 10:12 NLT).

Is there someone in your life who needs to be reminded of their value? When you value God’s people, they begin to see their worth.

Based on an interview with Sandy Sargent and Melinda Sargent Bray, August 4, 2019.

Story read by: Chuck Stecker

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

Leave a Comment

September 1. Alok. Alok was a young man in India—a young man who faced addiction and deception and thought running away was his only choice. But one day, during Alok’s private devotions, God spoke to him and sent him on a whole new adventure.

God gave Alok a new life of purpose. Now Alok leads a group dedicated to planting churches in northern India, where both Hinduism and Buddhism began. When Alok started preaching, not even one percent of the people there were Christians, but today there are more than a million Christians and 22,000 churches!

Running from God? He has a rescue plan.

When Alok was in his teens, too often he had watched his parents crying and begging the gods to help him. I cannot be a good man, thought Alok.

Alok wanted to be a good man. He wanted to please his parents. And he wanted to please the three-eyed Hindu god, Shiva.

Because Shiva loved marijuana, Alok smoked it. This would help Alok build a relationship with him. Instead Alok was trapped. Powerless to break his addiction to marijuana, drugs, and alcohol, he left home and planned to kill himself. Maybe they will be sad one or two days, thought Alok. But then their suffering will be over.

Now, far from home, Alok stared at the nearby railroad tracks. He would try to please Shiva one last time. If the god didn’t communicate, Alok would lie on the shining metal. Smoking marijuana and drinking, he refused to sleep or eat, but he chanted all night and all day. The gods required Alok to chant his mantra 108,000 times. It was impossible to count, but surely two days of chanting would get Shiva’s attention.

Nothing happened.

“There is no god,” Alok said. “Just darkness and death, so I must go and die.”

Indulging in one last alcoholic binge, Alok stared toward the railroad tracks when a painter caught his attention. A new message gleamed on the building across the street. It read: “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23 NIV).

In a drunken stupor Alok danced and sang out, “Jesus, if it is true, please save me because I’m going to die!” Then he passed out.

Alok awoke in a bed and tried to get up, but he had a fever and was vomiting. He slept fitfully throughout the day. About five o’clock, he heard someone say, “Alok, get up.”

Where had the voice come from? Weak, he crept from bed, looked beneath it and all around the empty room. There was no one there. He got back into bed, fully awake, and Someone touched his back.

He jumped.

“Alok, get up.” The voice was sweet and soft, like a father calling his son, but Alok saw no one.

Terrified, Alok clambered out of the bed, and he ran. He ran out of the building.

Outside, the falling rain streaked his face, and the wind whipped about him. He stared across the street, and a song floated from a building over there. “Jesus is calling you,” sang a chorus of voices.

A presence propelled Alok forward. As he reached the building, his bones began cracking, and a black shadow came out of his body!

“You have come to a good place, my friend,” the people in the building said. “God loves you.”

A god loved him?

A man in the front of the room talked about Jesus, and then Alok knew where the voice had come from. Somebody loved him. Somebody had died for him! Alok rushed forward. “I want to know Jesus!” Falling on the floor, he rolled around and cried for a half hour.

A few days later Alok returned to his parents. “Your son has now changed,” he told them. “He has become a good boy.”

Maybe, like Alok, you have felt the hopelessness of sin and the weight of deception or addiction. Running from God? He has a rescue plan. Run to him.

Based on an interview with Alok in 2018.

Would You Like to Learn More About This Man?

You can also read more of the story in Treasures in Dark Places by Leanna Cinquanta, published by Chosen Books, a Division of Baker Publishing, 2017.

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

Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter

Audio production: Joel Carpenter

Story written by: John Mandeville, https://www.johnmandeville.com/

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

Project manager: Blake Mattocks

Leave a Comment

August 31. Andy Kellywood. Andy was the maintenance man for Navajo Ministries. And he was eager to help boys who needed help.

The director had his hands full with three particular boys, ages nine to fifteen. They ran together, sneaked out at night, and caused trouble. So the director assigned the boys to work for Andy every morning that summer. Here’s what happened.

When you trust an untested man, he can grow to pass the test.

The first day Andy had the three troublemakers on his maintenance crew, he lined them up and pointed to a patch of weeds. The day was over 90 degrees. The work was dusty, monotonous, and back-breaking. The boys wiped sweat on their shirt sleeves, but not once did they complain. For a whole week, they persevered. At first, Andy stayed close. As they proved themselves, he left periodically to show they had earned his trust.

The next week Andy introduced the boys to the push mower, used to care for more than an acre of lawn. He taught them to check the oil and gas, explained the mowing pattern, and then pulled the cord. The engine rumbled to life.

The boys took turns. When grass clippings filled the bag, he showed them how to empty them into the front-end bucket on the blue tractor. Then he drove the tractor to the dumpster, deposited the clippings, and taught the boys to reattach the bag. After the lawn was finished, he told them to refill the mower’s gas tank.

The boys seemed more engaged. But the day he led them to the blue tractor really drew them in. “Do you wanna drive?”

Their eyes widened in shock. He was trusting them with the tractor? Fear and excitement flitted across their faces.

Andy invited Casey to climb onto the driver’s seat and showed him where to place his hands and feet. The others watched as he taught Casey to turn on the tractor and put it into the low-low gear.

The chug-chug of the engine matched the slow speed of Casey’s first drive. And Andy walked right next to him.

Once Casey had control, Andy put the tractor in a higher gear. As Andy repeated the process with the others, eagerness shone in their eyes. They became proficient. Their grins widened.

Then they learned their favorite part—how to release the bucket, so the clippings fell into the dumpster.

As summer progressed, Andy gave them more responsibility. When one task was finished, they asked what else needed to be done—and they stayed past their mandatory work hours. The boys took ownership of their work.

When water lines broke, they put their backs into digging through the hard earth—even breaking concrete—to help with repairs.

Andy knew their work was not only an investment in Navajo Ministries but also in the boys’ futures. He watched for opportunities to teach them new skills. They changed oil, brakes, and rotors on the ministries’ vehicles. And when it was time for new tires, he taught them to shop for the best price so no one would overcharge them. “If you ever get a car, then you know what to do,” he said.

Once summer was over, the boys found Andy after school and asked if they could help. “They are standing taller,” said Andy.

Half Navajo and half Laguna Pueblo, Andy knew what it was like to struggle to grow up, navigate multiple cultures, and get into trouble. When he blew it, he had no one to talk to. But it’s different for these boys—they talk to him. Andy loves planting good into their futures, and “to plant that one little seed” has Andy standing taller too.

“But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred” (Mark 4:8 NKJV).

Whose life can you seed into? When you trust an untested man, he can grow to pass the test.

Based on an interview with Andy Kellywood, September 10, 2019.

*Names of minors have been changed.

Story read by: Joel Carpenter

Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter

Audio production: Joel Carpenter

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

Project Manager: Blake Mattocks

Leave a Comment

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

Leave a Comment

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

Leave a Comment

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

Leave a Comment

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

Leave a Comment

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

Leave a Comment

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

Leave a Comment

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

Leave a Comment

Inspirational Stories Of Real Men

SPONSOR

Spotlight Podcast:
Samuel Cathy, U.S., Businessman

Podcast: 365 Christian Men