October 25
The story is told of some missionaries who were going to New Guinea. As they drew near, the captain of the ship said to the leader of this little band, “Listen, I really feel badly about this. This land is littered with white graves. It’s hopeless! You’ll never get out of this place alive. I’ll tell you what. I’ll take you, no charge, back to England. If you go here, you’re going to die.” The missionary calmly said, “We’re not going to die here.” “How can you be so sure?” “We died before we ever left England.” Take an athlete who has died, one who has lived his life for the roar of the...
Read MoreOctober 24
George Watmough hitchhiked across America, witnessing to thousands. Once leaving Tucson on his way to Phoenix, he was given a ride by a young man who stopped his witnessing by saying, “I was raised in a preacher’s home and have no time for religion.” “Isn’t that strange,” Watmoungh replied, “I don’t have much time for religion either.” Then he explained: “Religion is trying to get to heaven by something you can do, but Christianity is what Christ has done when He shed His precious blood and died as our sin-bearer. Religion says, ‘See what I’m doing.’ Christianity says, ‘See what Christ has...
Read MoreOctober 23
“That in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death” (Php 1:20). In the same spirit, Jim Elliot prayed: “Father, make of me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to decision. Let me not be a milepost on a single road; make me a fork, that men must turn one way or another on facing Christ in me.” He grieved at the theoretical Christianity he saw everywhere; people debating theory but missing the most obvious and plainly-spoken commands of the once-crucified and now triumphant Companion of all those...
Read MoreOctober 22
“I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications…be made for all men…For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior; who will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:1-4). During the English Keswick Week of 1925, Irish evangelist W.P. Nicholson was preaching the gospel in the Market Square. In the audience one night was a missionary on furlough from West Africa. To a man standing beside him, he spoke a word of invitation; the only reply he received was a severe blow on the face. That night, this man’s conversion was earnestly prayed...
Read MoreOctober 21
How important is consistent Christian testimony to effective gospel witness. In Chartist times (a Victorian era workplace reform movement), people often labored in little hovels for a mere pittance. W. Y. Fullerton tells of a Christian in the market town of Kettering, England, who worked his knitting machine in a little lean-to behind a grocer’s shop. He didn’t earn enough to buy sufficient food for his family. Each morning he came, a hungry man, and had to walk down between piles of the food his body longed to have. The shop keeper noticed he walked with clenched fists, muttering to...
Read MoreOctober 20
At meetings being held in the north of England, Lionel Fletcher noticed a rough-looking man showing the ravages of sin on his face. He was the first to rise at the end and rush to the preacher. The story poured out in sobs. His son had trusted Christ shortly before. His father was the worse for drink when Charlie told him he’d been saved. Grabbing his belt, the man began to lash his son, and did so each night he dared attend the meetings. One bitter night, finding his son hiding in the pigsty for warmth, he dragged him out and threw him in the coal cellar, all the while hearing Charlie...
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