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
August 1
“All power is given to Me in heaven and earth” (Mt 28:18). The word power (exousia) is also translated authority, right, liberty, jurisdiction, and strength. It includes the ideas of the liberty of doing as one pleases; physical and mental power; influence and privilege; the power of government, of judicial decisions and the authority to manage affairs. This is the One who sends us forth. He proved His power over winds and waves, over demons and death, over friend and foe. And yet He is described by the words, “the meekness and gentleness of Christ” (2 Cor 10:1). H. L. Hastings writes: “An inch of rain falling on a square mile involves some 60,000 tons of water, and all that power poured out so gently that we do not notice it. We don’t understand it. We think nothing is going on. We call it a shower.” Thus every day around the world does the blessing of Christ come down on the human race, hardly noticed, but bringing life and growth and refreshment to millions.
Today’s Reading: Isaiah 20-22 Memorize: John 14:27July 31
“…sinners, of whom I am chief” (1 Tim 1:15). We were preaching at 6 a.m., in Exeter, England, near the castle. A young woman was passing by and just heard the sentence, “The greatest sinner in Exeter is welcome to the Lord Jesus Christ.” It was a message from God to her soul. She went home, knelt by her bed, and sobbed out, “Lord, I’m the greatest sinner in Exeter! Am I welcome to You?” Some months after, a Christian friend was asked to see a dying woman. He expected to find someone about to pass into eternity without hope. He was surprised to see a face radiant with heavenly peace. “What has made you so happy? Has anyone been to see you?” “No,” she said, “I’ve been here alone—with Jesus.” She related the one sentence she heard at six o’clock one morning, how she kneeled by her bed, and the everlasting welcome she had found in His infinite love. It is a welcome available to all willing to be honest with God. — C. Stanley, Incidents in Gospel Work, pp 73-74
Today’s Reading: Isaiah 17-19 Memorize: John 14:6July 30
George Goodman writes: “The gospel must be preached with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven (1 Pet 1:12). This is why such blessing attended the preaching of Peter on the day of Pentecost. He was filled with the Spirit and spoke as the Spirit gave him utterance (Acts 2:4). The preacher must be one in whom the Spirit of God is not grieved. If he is conscious of unjudged sin, of disobedience of heart, of deceit in his life, let him stop preaching. He is a fruitless branch (Jn 15:4-6). He must also be ‘in the Spirit’ when he preaches. To go unprepared in heart, without exercise before God, is to go and fail. He must get both the message and the grace to deliver it from his Lord. The spirit of discernment is needed to speak a ‘word in season’ (Isa 50:4). In the end the words must be empowered. The apostle could say, ‘My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power’ (1 Cor 2:4).”
Today’s Reading: Isaiah 12-16 Memorize: John 14:1-3
July 29
“I have more understanding than all my teachers: for Your testimonies are my meditation” (Ps 119:99). “Moral relativism is a philosophical failure,” Francis Beckwith explains with a true story: “The teacher instructs her class, ‘This is the first day of class, and so I want to lay down some ground rules. First, since no one has the truth about morality, you should be open-minded to the opinions of your fellow students.’ The teacher recognizes the raised hand of Elizabeth: ‘If nobody has the truth, isn’t that a good reason for me not to listen to my fellow students? After all, if nobody has the truth, why should I waste my time listening to other people?…Only if somebody has the truth does it make sense to be open-minded.…If I have good reason to believe I do know the truth and would like to share it with you, why wouldn’t you listen? I thought we were supposed to listen to everyone’s opinion.’ ‘This should prove to be an interesting semester,’” the teacher replies. Indeed!
Today’s Reading: Isaiah 8-11 Memorize: John 12:47-48July 28
Paul speaks of men “who suppress the truth” (Rom 1:18). John Blanchard writes: “Although countless scientists today hold to divine creation, Colin Patterson is right to claim that in many cases, ‘post-Darwinian biology is being carried out by people whose faith is in, almost, the deity of Darwin.’ If God is a non-starter, evolution seems to be the only show in town, and all scientific data must somehow be made to support it, even if the usual rules of assessment have to be suspended. Harvard geneticist Richard Lewontin is perfectly frank about this: ‘We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs…because we have a prior commitment to materialism…Moreover, that materialism is absolute for we cannot allow a Divine foot in the door.’ The University of Chicago’s L.T. More makes the same connection: ‘Our faith in evolution depends on our reluctance to accept the antagonistic doctrine of special creation.’” — Evolution, Fact or Fiction? p 12
Today’s Reading: Isaiah 5-7 Memorize: John 11:25-26July 27
J. Hudson Taylor, gospel pioneer to China, though raised in a Christian home, remained ignorant of what it meant to become a true believer. He tried to “make” himself a Christian, but after failing in his attempts, he grew skeptical. He writes: “The inconsistencies of Christian people, who, while professing to believe their Bibles, were yet content to live just as they would if there were no such Book, had been one of the strongest arguments of my skeptical companions.” At age seventeen, to fill a boring afternoon, Taylor read a gospel tract that opened his eyes to see the finished work of Christ. He says: “Then came the thought, ‘If the whole work was finished and the whole debt paid, what is there left for me to do?’ And with this dawned the joyful conviction, as light was flashed into my soul by the Holy Spirit, that there was nothing in the world to be done but to fall down on one’s knees, and, accepting this Savior and His salvation, to praise Him forevermore.”
Today’s Reading: Song of Solomon 8; Isaiah 1-4 Memorize: John 10:27-28July 26
Educator John Dewey (1859-1952), co-author of the Humanist Manifesto I, declared, “There is no God and there is no soul. Hence, there are no needs for the props of traditional religion. With dogma and creed excluded, then immutable truth is also dead and buried. There is no room for fixed, natural law or moral absolutes.” But you can’t logically argue against the existence of absolute truth. To argue against something is to establish that a truth exists. When he says, “There is no room for…moral absolutes” he wants to convince us that there are absolutely no absolutes, an utter nonsense. So with morality: “There’s nothing right, and nothing wrong!” Is that statement right or wrong? But how can we, with finite minds, know something absolutely? Paul explains that the gospel has come by revelation, “…now made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith” (Rom 16:25-26).
Today’s Reading: Song of Solomon 5-7 Memorize: John 10:9-11