This perpetual calendar includes:
- Remarkable testimonies of souls won to the Savior
- Explanations of gospel concepts
- Answers to frequently-asked questions
- Stories of real-life witnessing opportunities
- Encouragements and tips for sharing the glorious gospel
October 15
To some the mental image of God is a blur of disappointment. “Here,” they say resentfully, “is One whom I trusted, but He let me down.” The rest of their lives is shadowed by this letdown…God is a Disappointment. Some, of course, rather enjoy this never-failing well of grievance. The years by no means diminish the details of the Prayer that was Unanswered or the Disaster that was Undeserved…finding this the best possible excuse for those who do not wish to be involved in any moral responsibility.…People who feel that God is a Disappointment are wanting a world in which good is rewarded and evil is punished—as in a well-run kindergarten. But they misunderstand the conditions of this present temporary life in which God withholds His hand, so to speak, to allow room for His plan of free will to work itself out. Justice will be fully vindicated when the curtain falls on the present stage, the house lights go on, and we go out into the Real World. — J.B. Phillips, Your God is Too Small, pp. 48-50
Today’s Reading: Matthew 17-19 Memorize: Galatians 3:10-11October 14
Ray Comfort tells about a poster promoting atheism. It features pictures of Darwin, Jefferson and Lincoln, Ben Franklin, Einstein, Carl Sagan and Ernest Hemingway. “Atheism:” it says, “good enough for these idiots.” But is that true? Franklin wrote: “It is that particular wise and good God…that I propose for the object of my praise and adoration.” Einstein said, “There are yet people who say there is no God. But what makes me really angry is that they quote me for support of such views.” Darwin said he was compelled to look for an intelligent mind behind the universe “and I deserve to be called a Theist.” Jefferson was a Deist, not an atheist. Lincoln clearly believed in the Bible’s God. Carl Sagan said he didn’t know if there was a God or not, and settled for being an agnostic (the Greek form of the Latin ignorant). Only Ernest Hemingway—novelist, drunkard, suicide—fully qualifies on all counts. Not an idiot, but sadly called by God a fool for rejecting the display of His glory (Ps 14:1).
Today’s Reading: Matthew 14-16 Memorize: Galatians 2:16October 13
Hypocrisy is the great impediment in evangelism. Our Lord prayed that His people might be marked by reality. “Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth” (Jn 17:17). A.W. Tozer writes: Truth, to be understood, must be lived. Bible doctrine is wholly ineffective until it has been digested and assimilated by the total life. The essence of my belief is that there is a difference, a vast difference, between fact and truth. Truth in the Scriptures is more than a fact. A fact may be detached, impersonal, cold and totally disassociated from life. Truth, on the other hand, is warm, living, and spiritual. A theological fact may be held in the mind for a lifetime without it having any positive effect upon the moral character, but truth is creative, saving, transforming, and it always changes the one who receives it into a humbler and holier person. At what point, then, does a theological fact become for the one who holds it a life-giving truth? At that point where obedience begins.
Today’s Reading: Matthew 11-13 Memorize: Galatians 1:8October 12
Peter Waldo (c. 1140 – c. 1218) lived in the darkest days of the Dark Ages. A wealthy merchant of Lyon, Waldo was enjoying dinner with friends one evening when one of them suddenly fell lifeless to the floor. This was such a shock that he abandoned his occupation, giving his attention completely to the salvation of his soul. The priests were no help. He knew no one who understood the gospel so he turned to the Scriptures and there discovered God’s way of salvation. Immediately he began to distribute his wealth to the poor, paid for the translation of the Bible into the Romance languages, and printed and, with others of like passion, distributed the Word of God widely, preaching as they went. This brought down the anathema of the pope, driving Peter and “the Waldenses” or “Vadois” as they became known, into the valleys of the Piedmont. He eventually settled in Bohemia, where in the 14th century, as many as 80,000 believers were put to death for Christ.
Today’s Reading: Matthew 8-10 Memorize: Galatians 1:3-4October 11
Confucianism: The insistence that human beings are perfectible through personal and communal endeavor. The main religious belief of China looks back to Confucius (the anglicized form of Kunk Fu-tzu, or Kung the Master) about 1000 years after Moses. Confucianism is an optimistic humanism that assumes man is basically good, being opposed to the biblical doctrine that man is sinful by birth, inclination, and practice. Due to this fatal flaw, there is thought to be no need of a Savior. Confucian teachings include filial piety (devotion of younger to elder family members), benevolence, loyalty to one’s true nature, sincerity and graciousness. It is not really a religion, since there is no thought of God or an afterlife. While the ethical standards are commendable, since there is no consideration of the supernatural, man is left to his own resources, leaving him as “having no hope, and without God in the world” (Eph 2:12). Pray for one-sixth of the world’s population still in this state.
Today’s Reading: Matthew 3-7 Memorize: 2 Corinthians 12:9October 10
Hy Pickering, born in Newcastle-on-Tyne, was raised in a religious home, but after being christened and confirmed, found he had not been converted. Not far from where he lived, some meeting began in a barn. He said the preacher “made no pretense at eloquence, wore no surplice, used no notes, and feared no man. The first night he preached on the text, ‘The wicked shall be turned into hell’ (Ps 9:17). It was resented. Yet my conscience answered, ‘It is true of you.’ Realizing I had religion without the Redeemer, I sat a hopeless, helpless sinner, anxious to be saved. The preacher pled, ‘Say in your heart, “The Son of God loved me, and gave Himself for me.”’ Acting on the advice, in desperate earnestness, I closed my eyes, clenched my fists, and from my heart said, ‘Sink or swim, just now my heart will trust Him.’ There and then, sitting on a wooden plank in a cold barn, John 5:24 became my birthday text. I had heard and believed and passed from death unto life.”
Today’s Reading: Malachi 4; Matthew 1-2 Memorize: 2 Corinthians 6:2October 9
It was Blaise Pascal who said: “Not only do we not know God except through Jesus Christ; we do not even know ourselves except through Jesus Christ.” At the Cross we find both revealed. God’s love, mercy and justice respond to the sinner and his sin. Look at what Christ did to reconcile us to God: “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures” (1 Cor 15:3). “And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins” (1 Jn 3:5). “When He had by Himself purged our sins, [He] sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb 1:3). “God…sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 Jn 4:10). “For He has made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin” (2 Cor 5:21). “Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree” (1 Pet 2:24). “Unto Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood” (Rev 1:5). “Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age” (Gal 1:4). No wonder He could cry, “It is finished!” Hallelujah!
Today’s Reading: Malachi 1-3 Memorize: 2 Corinthians 5:21