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
May 13
“Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again’” (John 3:7). Ravi Zacharias addresses an increasingly common complaint: “‘Why can’t we leave everybody alone to follow the religion within which they were born? Why all this proclamation and propagation?’ Once again, this demand challenges the very core of the Christian faith, because no one is born a Christian. The relationship a Christian claims is one that comes not by culture but by virtue of a personal choice to follow Jesus Christ. Christian ideas may be inherited within a culture, but the Christian commitment is a personal affirmation. I made that commitment at the age of seventeen. While the moment of my commitment was based on a hunger to know God, the years that have followed have taken me through an intellectual journey. That journey culminated in the conclusion that in Jesus I find not only every hunger of the heart met but also every pursuit of the mind.” — Why I Am a Christian, p 268
Today’s Reading: Esther 8-10 Memorize: Matthew 9:13May 12
John Townsend had been visiting a prisoner on death row. One day he said to his daughter Abbie, “This man will be executed tomorrow. He always welcomes me, but shows no interest in his soul. Would you have the courage to visit him?” Arriving at his cell, Abbie held out her hand, but he did not take it. So she took his hand in hers, trying to speak. Instead, a flood of tears fell on his hand. Mr. Townsend led her away, saying, “Remember, ‘He that goes forth and weeps bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him.’” At 6:30 the next morning a message came from the prison requesting another visit. When they met the man, he said, ‘You may think time spent with me has been in vain, but your daughter’s tears reminded me of my mother as she pled with me to tum to the crucified Lord. I now go to my punishment, but One has signed my pardon with His precious blood.’” “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (Gen 18:14).
Today’s Reading: Esther 5-7 Memorize: Matthew 7:13-14May 11
“For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake” (1 Thess 1:5). What kind of men largely influenced what kind of results came from their gospel efforts—at least Paul thought so. In his seminal book, “Forward Movements of the Last Half Century,” A.T. Pierson writes: “All real advance finds its starting-point, as also its goal, in more conformity to God. Character lies back of conduct; what we are ultimately shapes what we do. Hence the stress of the whole word of God lies upon the transformation of the man himself. His outward acts, his gifts, his prayers, his whole external life, are of little consequence if they are not the expression and exhibition of a renewed spirit, an inner self that partakes of the beauty of the Lord.” What the Church in the West needs is not better arguments or better methods or better programs but better Christians.
Today’s Reading: Nehemiah 13; Esther 1-4 Memorize: Matthew 5:48May 10
I noticed her in the crowd; she looked to me like royalty. When I asked her to tell me her story, she said her father was a drunk and her mother slept to escape. No one cooked or cleaned or cared for the little girl. “One day, a beautiful lady met me on the street and asked, ‘Would you like to come to a place every week where you’ll be loved?’ She started attending her Sunday School class. The first week the teacher noticed she had no Bible, so arranged to take her for one the next day. “She could have just bought me one, but she made an event out of it—took me to a restaurant and bought be a milkshake. I’d had neither. Then we went to the bookstore, and she picked out for me a Bible with a leather cover. It was,” she said, “the turning point in my life. I remember reasoning, She must think there’s a future for me; she must think I’m going to stick around.” Is a soul worth the price of a Bible with a leather cover? Jesus thought you were worth more than the world. —J.
Today’s Reading: Nehemiah 10-12 Memorize: Matthew 5:17-18May 9
Sanctification comes from the same root meaning as holiness. In its primary sense, it means to be different, then to be set apart, then to be wholly for God, and finally that process by which those who have been declared right shall be made right. “By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ” (Heb. 10:10). “Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach” (Heb 13:12-13). There is positional sanctification (Heb 10:14), experiential sanctification (2 Tim 2:21), and ultimate sanctification (1 Thess 5:23). The Word has a role (Jn 17:17), as do the Holy Spirit (1 Pet 1:2), other believers (1 Cor 7:14), and our personal wills (1 Thess 4:3-4). But it is greatly encouraging to know that “of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us…sanctification” (1 Cor. 1:30). In the mind of God, it is a completed fact (see Heb. 10:10, 14).
Today’s Reading: Nehemiah 7-9 Memorize: Matthew 3:16-17May 8
The Reason Why, a gospel booklet written in 1913 by Robert Laidlaw, a New Zealand businessman, 50 years later had reached a worldwide circulation of 16 million copies in 30 languages. Thousands of letters poured into his office from around the world, letters like: “Have read your booklet. Your booklet has given me rebirth. As a result of the war I lost my left arm and my right hand is crippled. Am a refugee from the East and have no parents or relatives so my only hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ my Savior. —E.K.” Or this: “I have been reading The Reason Why which has been lent to me, and have just accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior, after 26 years of church membership and nine years as deacon and officer. It has taken a long time, and I’ve been under conviction for a long time, but now it’s done: ‘I am my Lord’s and He is mine!’ —B. R.” Good tracts, graciously given and well prayed over, continue to be used by the Lord in conviction and salvation.
Today’s Reading: Nehemiah 4-6 Memorize: Matthew 1:23May 7
To a large degree, the gospel will only grip others’ hearts to the measure in which it has gripped our own. Robert Robinson was living a wicked life in London when he and some friends decided to hear George Whitefield preach. That evening he took his text from Matthew 3:7, “When He saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to His baptism, He said to them, ‘Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?’” Bursting into tears, Whitefield cried, “Oh, my hearers! The wrath to come! The wrath to come!” For three long years, those words haunted Robinson until at last he received the Lord on December 10, 1755. Robinson is best remembered for his stirring hymn, “Come Thou Fount.” He wrote: “O to grace how great a debtor Daily I’m constrained to be! Let that grace, Lord, like a fetter, Bind my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love; Here’s my heart, Lord, take and seal it, Seal it for the courts above.” Amen!
Today’s Reading: Nehemiah 1-3 Memorize: Matthew 1:21