April 27
Eric Liddell, the winner of the 400-metre race at the 1924 Paris Olympics, was a consecrated Christian. The film *Chariots of Fire* accurately recounts his refusal to run his best event, the 100-metre race, because it was on the Lord’s Day, and that someone slipped a paper to him as he stood at the starting blocks. It read, “Them that honour Me I will honour” (1 Sam 2:30). Having been born in China to missionary parents, he left Scotland in 1925 and returned to China to serve the Lord. A huge crowd gathered at Waverly Station to bid him farewell. He addressed them, saying, “Let our motto be...
Read MoreApril 26
If the Bible is rooted in history, that presents a problem: how can you trust the accounts of Jesus when we now know that history is simply propaganda written by the winners? This is an increasingly popular view, especially in academia. Postmodernist historian Greg Dening argues: “History is something we make rather than something we learn…I want to persuade [my students] that any history they make will be fiction.” The argument quickly grows less robust when the Holocaust is mentioned. Do we not have evidence galore for it’s reality? Yet less than a generation later, Holocaust deniers...
Read MoreApril 25
Ira Sankey tells of an incident in Brooklyn, NY. “A fine-looking young man came into the inquiry room. I asked him if he was willing to accept Christ as his Savior. He bowed his head in his hands, while his whole frame shook: “Jesus will not accept me.” “Why not?” “For the last eight years I have traveled the world, speaking against Him.” He explained that his Christian mother in Scotland had made him promise to attend when Moody came to the city. “Do you want Him to forgive you?” I asked. “Yield to Christ and he will receive you.” He bowed his head, his trembling form telling how deeply he...
Read MoreApril 24
If God made everything, who made God? John Lennox responds: “One of the central arguments of The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins’ book, is the famous school-boy argument, ‘If we believe in a Creator, we’ll have to ask: Who created the Creator?’ But if you ask, ‘Who created God?’ you are thinking of created gods. Now the ancient world knew all about created gods; we call them idols. If Richard Dawkins thinks he is demolishing belief in created gods, then good for him! But he could have written a far shorter book, because millions of us don’t need any convincing that created gods are a delusion....
Read MoreApril 23
William Haslam (1817-1905), an Anglo-Catholic vicar, on hearing many conversion testimonies, came under deep conviction. He felt he could no longer preach. “The thought came to me that I would go to church and read the morning prayers and after that dismiss the people…The psalms and hymns were especially applicable to my case…So I gave out my text: ‘What think ye of Christ?’ Something was telling me, ‘You are no better than the Pharisees. You do not believe that He has come to save you.’ I do not remember all I said, but a wonderful light and joy came into my soul. I was seeing what the...
Read MoreApril 22
It is natural that we should turn to the Acts of the Apostles to see how the first preachers proclaimed the gospel. We have ample evidence to go on, for no less than twenty-two sermons or speeches are recorded in that book. Of these, nine are by Peter (Acts 1:15ff; 2:14ff; 3:12ff; 4:8ff; 5:29ff; 8:20ff; 10:34ff; 11:4ff; 15:7ff). Nine are by Paul (13:16ff; 13:46ff; 14:13ff; 17:16ff; 20:17ff; 22:1ff; 24:10ff; 26:1ff; 28:25ff). Others are as follows: Stephen at his stoning (7:1ff); Philip to the eunuch (8:30ff); James at the council (15:13ff); and Ananias to Saul (22:12ff). What a wealth of...
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