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 1
Charles Darwin wrote: “To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree” (Origin of Species, 1859, p. 186). On July 3, 1881, he wrote: “But then with me the horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of man’s mind, which has been developed from the mind of the lower animals, are of any value or at all trustworthy. Would any one trust in the convictions of a monkey’s mind, if there are any convictions in such a mind?” Darwin acknowledged that if his mind was a mere accident, if in fact everything in the universe is a series of accidents, can you trust it when it comes up with such an idea as evolution? It seems a strange turn of events when one uses his intelligence to try and prove there is no intelligence in the universe.
Today’s Reading: Micah 7; Nahum 1-2 Memorize: 1 Corinthians 6:11September 30
Don’t the following verses teach that all people will ultimately be saved? Col 1:20; Eph 1:10; 1 Tim 2:4-6; 4:10; 1 Cor 15:22-28; Phil 2:9-11. This is the teaching of Universalism. Note that both Col 1:20 and Eph 1:10 speak of reconciliation, but only of things in heaven and earth, not things under the earth. Phil 2 includes the things under the earth, but is speaking of subjection, not reconciliation, as does 1 Cor 15. Thank God, every knee will bow to the Lord, including those who will be made His footstool (Heb 10:13) but they are referred to as “His enemies.” As to 1 Tim 2, we rejoice that Christ gave Himself a ransom for all (v. 6), and that God desires all to be saved (v. 4). To this end, we pray for all (v. 1) but sadly all will not be saved. “You will not come to Me, that you might have life” (Jn 5:40), said our Lord. So is He is “the Savior of all men, specially of those that believe” (1 Tim 4:10)? Yes, in time, God cares for all humanity, but His special and eternal care is for His own.
Today’s Reading: Micah 4-6 Memorize: 1 Corinthians 1:21September 29
It is indifference, not honest opposition, that is the enemy of salvation. Multitudes who have taken God’s Word in hand to disprove it have been won by its winsome power and light. One example is Christian Gerson (1569-1622), a Jewish scholar who bought a copy of Luther’s translation of the New Testament for eight schillings. He and his brothers-in-law were curious as to how this “grave mistake” could have conquered hundreds of thousands of hearts during the Reformation. But, as Risto Santala tells the story, “The gospel message shook him so much that he had to go on reading it alone, in secret. He compared its message with that of the OT and his own Jewish sources, and so,” according to the preface of his 700-page apology, Der Juden Talmud, “through the written Word he came to a personal faith in Jesus. At first his family and friends rejected him.…Soon, however, his wife and children followed.” Jesus has a wonderful way of turning enemies into friends!
Today’s Reading: Micah 1-3 Memorize: 1 Corinthians 1:18September 28
“All things were created by Him, and for Him” (Col 1:16). Albert Einstein recognized the impossibility of a non-created universe: “I want to know how God created this world. I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His thoughts—the rest are details.” Robert Jastrow, founder of NASA’s Goddard Institute, expressed it this way: “For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.” Alan Sandage (professor of physics at Johns Hopkins; discoverer of quasars): “I find it quite improbable that such order came out of chaos. There has to be some organizing principle. God to me is a mystery but is the explanation for the miracle of existence, why there is something instead of nothing.”
Today’s Reading: Jonah 2-4 Memorize: Romans 14:12September 27
Lionel Fletcher tells of gospel work at 20 years old. One night a blacksmith came to cause trouble. Toward the end, he made his move, “strode to the front, threw himself on his knees, and for the first time in my life I saw a man in the grip of deep conviction of sin.” The man’s wailing drowned out the believers’ prayers but they began to sing, “O happy day when Jesus washed my sins away!” Suddenly the blacksmith rose to his feet, radiant, gloriously saved. After, an old man took the preacher by the arm, “That’s my son-in-law. Will you come home with us? My daughter will be waiting.” When they arrived, the door opened a crack to show the terrified face of a woman used to awful abuse. The father whispered, “Mary, Jim was converted tonight.” “She fastened those pathetic eyes on her husband. He stood, head bowed, sobs shaking him. She put out her arms; he picked her up and smothered her face with kisses.” Writes Fletcher, “We had peeped into heaven, and it awed us.”
Today’s Reading: Amos 7-9; Obadiah; Jonah 1 Memorize: Romans 12:1-2September 26
“For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord” (2 Cor 4:5). Charles Spurgeon revealed the secret of his effectiveness: “I believe that those sermons which are fullest of Christ are the most likely to be blessed to the conversion of the hearers. Let your sermons be full of Christ, from beginning to end crammed full of the gospel. As for myself, brethren, I cannot preach anything else but Christ and His cross, for I know nothing else, and long ago, like the apostle Paul, I determined not to know anything else save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. People have often asked me, ‘What is the secret of your success?’ I always answer that I have no other secret but this, that I have preached the gospel—not about the gospel, but the gospel—the full, free, glorious gospel of the living Christ who is the incarnation of the good news. Preach Jesus Christ, brethren, always and everywhere; and every time you preach be sure to have much of Jesus Christ in the sermon.”
Today’s Reading: Amos 4-6 Memorize: Romans 11:33September 25
When Jim and Lil Dickson arrived in Taiwan (then Formosa) in 1927, .there was one unreached tribe of headhunters known as the Tyal (or Atayal) living in the mountains. Chi-oang, an elderly woman, was the first convert. Some objected to enrolling her in Bible school. What could this old woman do? But she persisted. The Japanese ruled the island from 1895 until 1945. But the elusive Tyal remained impervious to all attempts at Japanese control. Missionaries were forbidden to visit the Tyals and when Chi-oang began to travel with the gospel to her own people, they did everything they could to stop her, confiscating Bibles, and arresting those who listened to her. The missionaries were forced out at the start of WWII, but when they returned in 1946, they discovered 4,000 Tyal believers! When asked, “Who brought you the gospel?” they answered, “Chi-oang!” Young people had carried “the helpless old woman” from village to village with the good news of the Savior’s love.
Today’s Reading: Amos 1-3 Memorize: Romans 11:6