July 9

If You Seek Him, He Will Be Found

And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever.

1 Chronicles 28:9

Gipsy Smith, the well-known evangelist of a generation ago, was fortunate to be reared by a father who was determined to search for God, fearing that if he forsook God, he would be rejected forever. Gypsy tradition confirmed this because they believe they are descended from Judas Iscariot and are thus cursed.

For Cornelius Smith, that search began just before his wife died, leaving him with four little children to raise. He had one time asked his wife if she ever thought about God and if she ever prayed. “I try,” she responded. “But a black hand comes before me and reminds me of all the wrongs I have done, and something says that there is no mercy for me.”

Just before she died, however, he heard her singing in the tent where they lived. It was an old chorus she had learned as a child: “I have a father in the promised land, and I must go to meet him in the promised land.” That song reminded him of a gospel message he had heard while he had been imprisoned, and after she died, he vowed he would find God.

He did not forget that vow despite the sorrow and turmoil surrounding her death. “The authorities would permit the funeral to be held only at night. Cornelius was the sole mourner . . . Earlier that day their tent had caught fire . . . It was a dark day, indeed.”

Cornelius inquired of various people about God, and finally was told that there was a meeting that would be held that very night at a city mission. “I will not come home again,” he warned his children as he left for the meeting, “until I am converted.”

The children were fearful, not knowing what he meant nor whether they would ever see him again. There at the meeting, while a hymn was being sung, Cornelius fell to the floor in agony before God. Little Rodney, who later became known as "Gipsy,” feared his father was dying. He had followed his father to the meeting and was distressed by what he saw.

Up from the floor, Cornelius jumped and shouted, “I am converted.” His brother was also converted at that meeting, and later that night his brother’s wife also professed her faith in Christ. The following morning the two brothers began sharing their witness to the other gypsies at the camp, and fourteen of them were converted.

They also witnessed to their other brother, and he too was converted. “They became evangelists,” writes David Lazell, “and you always had to take three—as long as they were all alive . . . Many were brought to Christ through that ministry.” Cornelius had searched for God, found him, and served him with wholehearted devotion. ⁹

July 8

I Bring You Down, Declares The Lord

The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself, Who can bring me down to the ground? Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down, declares the Lord . . . All your allies will force you to the border; your friends will deceive and overpower you; those who eat your bread will set a trap for you, but you will not detect it.

Obadiah 3-4 and 7

It was the peak of the hippie era in the 1960s when Tom Mahairas was soaring high in New York City as the leader of a rock band. “By the time I was eighteen,” he recalls, “I had cut some records and was ready to sign a recording contract. Some people would say I had everything, but deep down I was not happy.” Like so many around him, he was deep into the drug scene.

“If I wasn’t high, I wasn’t happy”—but his highs only brought more lows, and his friends became his enemies. He lived with his girlfriend, Vicky, but his thinking had become so distorted that he became convinced she was the devil trying to trick him. Finally, he realized how low he actually was as he pondered his situation one summer day in Central Park.

"I was sitting by Bethesda Fountain high on LSD. In front of me were a group of Hare Krishnas chanting. To the left some hippies were tossing a Frisbee, and on my right an Indian guru sat surrounded by his followers. I looked at the scene like I was in the future; I disassociated myself from it. I watched and thought, ‘Man, I’m not going to do this for the rest of my life!’ So I walked over to the West Side Highway and hitched a ride upstate to Lake George. By this time, I thought I was the reincarnation of Christ, and I wanted to be in touch with something higher.”

After Tom arrived at Lake George, he met a young man on an evangelism outing from Word of Life Island in nearby Schroon Lake, who invited him to visit that youth retreat and to meet with its founder Jack Wyrtzen.

That memorable day in July of 1966 was the beginning of a new life for him. He committed his life to Christ and immediately called Vicky to share the news with her. She was initially skeptical “because under the influence of LSD he had already seen Krishna, Buddha and Allah” but as soon as he poured out his testimony she knew he was sincere and she too believed.

In 1971, he and Vicky were married, and in the years since they have pioneered a far-reaching ministry in New York City. Their ministry is associated with the church they founded, the Manhattan Bible Church, which began in their living room and has since grown to over seven hundred people.

Reaching out into the largely Hispanic neighborhoods, the ministry sponsors a Christian Academy, a Gospel Outreach program, a Love Kitchen offering meals to the homeless five days a week, and a Transformation Life Center, a drug rehabilitation program that ministers to young men, many of whom, like Tom, go on to lead productive Christian lives. ⁸

July 7

The Spirit Of The Lord Came Upon Gideon

But Joash replied to the hostile crowd around him, Are you going to plead Baal’s cause? Are you trying to save him? Whoever fights for him shall be put to death by morning! If Baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar. So that day they called Gideon “Jerub-Baal,” saying, Let Baal contend with him, because he broke down Baal’s altar.

Now all the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples joined forces and crossed over the Jordan and camped in the Valley of Jezreel. Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, summoning the Abiezrites to follow him.

Judges 6:31-34    

Samuel Chadwick was one of England’s great Methodist preachers. His success, he was convinced, was due to his dependence on the Holy Spirit. Early in his ministry, when he was serving as a lay evangelist, he preached fifteen sermons with no spiritual response from the people. They were unmoved by what he said.

Was it them, or was it him? Samuel concluded that the problem lay with him. “He realized that God must be in control of everything. Then came surrender which brought him a realization of Christ’s full salvation, a fresh vision of the Almighty, and a heart-felt yearning to see people saved. By the next day God had given him the joy of leading seven people to Christ. Peace, joy, and power were now his through the Spirit.”

This prompted Chadwick to seek the Spirit’s power even more. He was persuaded that the Holy Spirit was the key to any spiritual victories—a conviction that was reinforced one day when he was reading from the book of Judges about Gideon’s power from above.

It was the Spirit of the Lord that came upon him, and on further examination of the marginal notes, Chadwick learned that, “The Spirit of the Lord clothed itself with Gideon.” It was a pivotal discovery in Chadwick’s life. “My eyes were opened,” he later wrote. “With great daring I crossed out Gideon’s name and put in my own.”

When he accepted a pastorate in Leeds, this Spirit power became evident immediately: “What a time we had!” he wrote. “The revival began on the first Sunday and by the end of September the chapel was full half an hour before the time to begin, and police regulated the crowd.” He filled the coliseum with three thousand people during the two or three winters he preached there. Conversions took place almost every Sunday in or out of the chapel. Chadwick claimed there was hardly a room in his house in which someone had not accepted Christ.

He organized converts into classes, and before he left Leeds, about two thousand people were meeting in those groups. “Whole classes were organized for converted alcoholics. Street urchins were saved; some were to become preachers . . . The great secret of his ministry was the Holy Spirit” ⁷

July 6

Genesis 42:6 and 8-13, Heidi and David Coombs, Cruz Landa of the Quechua people in Peru,

Stories That Don’t Tire The Head

Now Joseph was the governor of the land, the one who sold grain to all its people. So when Joseph’s brothers arrived, they bowed down to him with their faces to the ground . . . Although Joseph recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him. Then he remembered his dreams about them and said to them, You are spies! You have come to see where our land is unprotected?

No, my lord, they answered. Your servants have come to buy food. We are all the sons of one man. Your servants are honest men, not spies.

No! he said to them. You have come to see where our land is unprotected? But they replied, Your servants were twelve brothers, the sons of one man, who lives in the land of Canaan. The youngest is now with our father, and one is no more.

Genesis 42:6 and 8-13

The story of Joseph and his brothers is a simple story to follow. It is simple, that is, if it is told in one’s own language, but very difficult, like other Bible stories, if it is told in a language that is not well-known. This was true for the Quechua people in Peru. Heidi and David Coombs worked closely with Cruz Landa, their language helper, in translating Bible stories for the people, so that they can understand and enjoy them.

Reading Bible stories in the Quechua language was a delight for Cruz because it allowed him to better understand how he ought to live the Christian life. But most of the Quechua believers did not benefit from God’s Word in their own language.

On one occasion when he was attending a baptismal service in a nearby town, he became acutely aware that the people were not fully understanding the meaning of what was being spoken and read in Spanish. He was troubled by the persistence of the churches to continue the use of a “foreign” language. As usual, he had brought along his Quechua Bible story books, and he offered to read from them. He began reading the story of Joseph and his brothers, which was one of the more lengthy Bible stories.

Halfway through, Cruz hesitated, wondering aloud if he should continue on, promising that he would complete the story later. But the people insisted he go on. “‘Our heads aren’t tired! We want to hear to the end.’

“So Cruz went on. Soon he arrived at the part where Joseph’s brothers, not recognizing him as the ruler of Egypt said to him, ‘Our brother died many years ago.’ The crowd burst into laughter. They loved the irony. And when Cruz finished, no one wanted him to leave. He stayed until the next day, teaching Quechua choruses to the people and reading more Scripture.”

For them it was a pleasure not to have to strain to understand, and to be able to catch the more subtle aspects of the stories that had been lost when read in a language that was not their own. ⁶

July 5

She Opens Her Arms To The Poor

She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks. She sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night. In her hand she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers. She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy.

Proverbs 31:17-20      

For Rosalind Goforth and her husband Jonathan, Presbyterian missionaries to China during the early decades of the twentieth century, reaching out to the poor was an everyday matter. Much of their time was spent in itinerant evangelistic work, and everywhere they went they saw poverty. But during the famine of 1920-1921, they suddenly confronted poverty on a massive scale like they had never seen before. Rosalind later described the situation.

“I was unable, because of illness, to accompany my husband as he left our home on Kikungshan Mountain in the late summer of 1920. The news of the great famine reached me there in a letter from a coworker in Changte. The letter described vividly some of the awful conditions prevailing throughout our whole field, which was in the center of a vast area affecting, it was said, from thirty to forty millions of people . . .

“Crushed at the thought of what hundreds of those who looked upon us as mother and father were passing through, I cried aloud in agony of soul, ‘O God, is there not something I can do? Oh, show me!’” The answer to her plea was direct and simple: “Use your pen!”

She hastened to her desk and began to write, praying as she wrote, “Lord use my pen!” In a letter describing the anguish of these famine-stricken people, she poured out her heart. Then she went around the compound to other missionaries from various countries, and had her letter translated into their languages. “Within twenty-four hours of the writing of the appeal it was translated into several languages and on its way throughout the world!”

Her next step was to obtain permission from authorities to collect famine relief, and in the months that followed she collected more than one hundred and twenty thousand dollars and distributed it where it was most needed. “I kept close touch with several relief centers, and to these I sent checks as needed. Many were the thrills that came that winter as appeals reached me, and I was able to write checks off the Famine Relief Fund for amounts of $5,000 or even $10,000.”

The following year Rosalind was able to leave the compound and accompany her husband on his revival tour to the famine-stricken area. “The experience was wonderful,” she later recalled. “Everywhere hearts were opened to the Gospel message as a result of the splendidly organized famine relief carried on all through the previous winter by the hand of faithful missionaries in Changte, often at the risk of their lives.” ⁵

July 4

The Cords Of The Grave Coiled Around Me

The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation. He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior—from violent men you save me. I call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies.

The waves of death swirled about me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called to the Lord; I called out to my God. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came to his ears.

2 Samuel 22:2-7

Life often takes on new meaning after near-death encounters. There is a sense of urgency to live life to the fullest. For believers, it is often a time of recommitment to God and a time for reassessment and redirection of ministry. This was true in the life of Dr. V. Raymond Edman, who is remembered most for his twenty-five years as president of Wheaton College.

In 1923, Edman began what he thought would be lifelong missionary service with the Christian and Missionary Alliance to work among Ecuador’s Quechua Indians. His fiancée joined him the following year, and after their wedding they set out on a two-day ride on horseback to their mission outpost. Their ministry, however, was suddenly interrupted the following summer. Edman was stricken with typhoid fever. “He eventually sank into a coma and was deemed to be dead. A coffin draped in black was ordered, and the funeral service announced for Saturday afternoon, July 4, 1925. Mrs. Edman had her wedding dress dyed black for the service.

“At that very time, far away in Attleboro, Massachusetts, the people attending the Alliance’s Camp Hebron, without any knowledge of the situation, felt a compelling urge to go to prayer for Edman. After two hours of burdened praying, the day’s schedule of services was resumed.” Edman recovered from that near-death encounter, and after a time of recuperation back in the United States, returned to Ecuador to serve as the director of a training school which is today Guayaquil Seminary of the Alliance. His missionary service, however, came to an end in 1928, when he was faced with a second near-fatal illness.

Back home in Massachusetts, Edman served as the pastor of an Alliance church while he took graduate studies culminating in a doctoral degree in American History. He lived a disciplined life. “He never rose later than 5 am . . . for reading the Bible and prayer.” He was a scholar and a writer, and “a man who could converse, teach and preach in Swedish, German, Spanish, French, and Quechua.” His mind was “saturated with reams of memorized Scripture” and with names of students.

After three more close encounters with death, Edman died following a Wheaton chapel message in 1967, entitled “In the Presence of the King.” ⁴

July 3

Taking Up The Cross Of Christ

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.

Mark 8:34-38

A life centered around religion can be a frustrating one for a young person, especially if it involves lengthy daily rituals that become boring and meaningless. That was the attitude of A. Stephen as he grew up in a devout Hindu home in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu State, India. Religious faith was everything to his family—so much so that his father built his own temple in the village where they lived.

But young Stephen began to have doubts. “My parents taught me how to do ‘pujas’ and offer sacrifices to the idol gods,” he later recalled. “We made many pilgrimages and performed many good works, but still my life was empty.”

At fifteen, Stephen rebelled. He stole money from the temple and ran away from home. For three months he visited temples and talked with gurus, but still he had no peace. Finally he returned home and there attempted suicide, convinced that there were no answers and that life was not worth living. As he “sat in his room with a rope tied around his neck,” he began to call out for God. “Just then,” he writes, “I heard a voice saying, ‘My son, there is a peace for you . . . my son, there is a peace for you.’

“I went out and started walking along the street. A happy-looking young man came out of the night. He stopped and asked me why I was so sad. He said, “I want to help you.” In the minutes that followed, Stephen heard the gospel for the first time and professed faith in Christ.

The news of his conversion was upsetting to his family. “His brothers rejected him. His sister was so overwhelmed by shame at his new faith that she killed herself. And his father finally disavowed him and sent him away.” For the next years Stephen wandered without a home with the Bible as his only real friend. He had taken up his cross to follow Christ and willingly suffered the consequences.

But as he wandered, he began sharing his faith, and in 1971, at the age of twenty, he founded Cornerstone World Challenge. In the years that followed he established more than fifteen churches, and recruited other workers to join with him in an itinerant ministry of distributing tracts and showing Christian films. Through it all he shares his own testimony of how through losing his life he saved it. ³

July 2

In My Distress I Called To The Lord

From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said: In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry. You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me. I said, I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.

Jonah 2:1 -4 

Jonah’s story is not uncommon; his experience has been replayed in many situations and many cultures throughout the world. After hearing God’s call, he ran away, thinking he could escape the obligation he knew was his. That obligation was to reach out to others with the gospel.

Roy Ahmaogak ran away from the call of God in 1936. Roy’s story begins when he was born in Barrow, Alaska in 1898. His mother was an unmarried Inupiat Eskimo and his father a Portuguese whaler, a man Roy never knew. His mother gave birth, as was the custom, in very trying circumstances: “When I was born,” he later reflected, “our people thought a woman was unclean when she gave birth. So when the time came for my mother to deliver me, she was taken out of her warm sod house and put inside a small snow igloo.”

During the next four days, food and water were handed in through a tiny opening. It was a precarious way to enter the world. Roy’s nine older brothers and sisters had all died very young, so, in his mother’s eyes, Roy was very special.

Presbyterian missionaries had come to Barrow when Roy was a young child and his mother and adoptive father were among the first believers. His mother was a sincere Christian and was certain that God was calling her young son into ministry. Roy recognized this call, but he was far more interested in going on exciting hunts with his dogs.

When an invitation came from a missionary medical doctor for Roy to accompany him and preach the gospel on his distant rounds, Roy shrunk from what he knew to be the voice of the Lord. He “fled to an isolated fish camp on the Beaufort Sea.” Here he could hide from God and enjoy the excitement of an Alaskan seal hunt with his friend. Their dogs carried them far out on the ice, and they were successful in their hunt.

As evening approached they headed home, and suddenly they realized that the wind had changed directions. They were headed into a blinding blizzard, facing the most dreaded terror of all; being caught on an island of ice. Late the next day, “they reached the landward edge of the ice island and found what Roy had feared—open sea.” For the next three days their lives hung in the balance.

Would they drift at sea and freeze to death, or would the wind change direction and bring them to land? It was there on the ice that Roy committed his life to God. The wind changed direction and their lives were spared. Roy went on to be a great preacher among his people and a translator of the Inupiat New Testament. ²

July 1

Unless They Are Sent

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

Romans 10:14-15

The apostle Paul’s list of four rhetorical questions in this passage has been a powerful basis for the world-wide missionary movement. Without faith in Christ, there is no hope of eternal life, and the only way to faith is to hear the gospel that is conveyed by a “sent one”—a missionary.

Helen Roseveare, a missionary medical doctor to Zaire with the Worldwide Evangelization Crusade, tells a story that powerfully illustrates this message. She briefly left her medical post to transport another missionary on emergency leave to Uganda. She made the three hundred mile drive in one day and was exhausted when she arrived late that night. Before daybreak the next morning she began the long trip home and was enjoying the flat, well-paved road, which was a luxury not known in Zaire. But as she sped along the empty highway, she began to nod and knew she must stop to stretch and drink some coffee.

There was no sign of life—no villages for miles around—as she pulled off the road near a bush. But then, out of nowhere, appeared an African man. From where he came she could not imagine, but he was the last person she wanted to see at that hour and at that place. She was savoring her moments alone and she was not in the mood for conversation. Besides, she knew she must be on her way.

She had medical work piling up for her back at the mission station. She could not ignore him, however, and she knew it was her duty to go through the usual African greetings. With that accomplished, he stood silently until she asked him what he wanted. “Are you a sent one?” he asked. She was taken aback. Of course she was, that is what a missionary is, but she asked him what he meant. “Are you a sent one by a great God to tell me about something called Jesus?”

Here she was, out in the middle of nowhere, and an illiterate herdsman had appeared from behind a bush and asked if she was a sent one? Though he spoke East African Swahili and she West African Swahili, she explained the gospel to him through simple terms, and he accepted it by faith.

Then he explained that some days earlier his brother, a teacher, had come home from school early because classes had been dismissed to let a man speak. The brother was not interested. All he knew was that this man claimed to be sent by a great God to tell about something called Jesus. He had gone out drinking rather than hear the message, but this herdsman could not forget what had been said. The words kept ringing over and over in his mind, and he knew he could not be at peace until he found a “sent one” to tell him about the great God and Jesus. ¹

June 30

Tormented By The Guilt Of Murder

He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.

Blessed is the man who always fears the Lord, but he who hardens his heart falls into trouble.

Like a roaring lion or a charging bear is a wicked man ruling over a helpless people.

A tyrannical ruler lacks judgment, but he who hates ill-gotten gain will enjoy a long life.

A man tormented by the guilt of murder will be a fugitive till death; let no one support him.

Proverbs 28:13-17      

Described as a modern Joan of Arc, Eunice Morago led warring braves from her Pima Indian tribe on an attack against the Apaches. When she was sixteen years old, her father had been killed by the Apaches, and she vowed that she would avenge that murder one day. “She called the Pima braves together and organized them for battle. She asked them to follow her into the Apache country, where they would kill the first Apache they could lay hands on. Astride a buckskin pony, she led her tribesmen, armed with Indian war clubs, bows and arrows.

“Many miles from home, they caught an Apache on the open desert. Two Pima braves held him; Eunice put spurs to her horse, rode full tilt, smashed him with her war club and killed him. At home again, she went through the traditional purification rites. But they brought her no peace. Sleep abandoned her. Her mind was in turmoil.”

It was during this period of turmoil that Eunice visited the little adobe church started by Charles Cook. He was a missionary who supported himself by teaching and operating a store, with partial support from the Presbyterian Mission Board. The response to his ministry had been slow. Indeed, after his arrival in 1870, he spent fifteen years in evangelistic work before he had one convert. His faithfulness paid off, however, and by the end of his forty year ministry, he had baptized more than one thousand Indians.

One of those converts was Eunice. The sermon she heard on the day she stood in the doorway of that little church was on forgiveness. It was a message of hope, and she sought out the elderly missionary-pastor to find out if what he said could apply to her. She explained that she had killed a man, and that she was convinced that God could not truly forgive her. Charles Cook explained otherwise.

“It was a wonderful moment, peace came back to her. Eunice was baptized and taken into the church, becoming a faithful member of the Missionary Society. Last time I talked to her,” writes George Walker, another missionary to the Pima, “she was well past 80, and did not have long to live. She repeated to me that the greatest thing that had ever happened to her in her long life was the forgiveness of God.” Her torment over the guilt was removed, and she no longer was doomed to be “a fugitive till death.” ³⁰

June 29

A Woman’s Love

Sing, O barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband,” says the Lord.

Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities.

Isaiah 54:1-3

This passage in Isaiah has been a source of comfort to women, married and single, who have not experienced the joy of having children. Though written for the nation of Israel and not expressly for a woman, the verses nevertheless offer consolation to barren women who can joyfully lengthen their tent cords and strengthen their stakes and serve the Lord faithfully.

Kathryn Kuhlman was a well-known healing evangelist who captured the hearts of millions of followers from the 1940s to the 1970s. She was a woman of deep emotion. Her healing ministry was not one that focused on herself but on others as she compassionately bent over them, seeking to alleviate their pain. It was this ministry that allowed her “to spread out to the right and to the left” and to have “descendants” in all nations.

Her biographer, Jamie Buckingham, poignantly describes the love that was evident in her ministry: “I saw her, on dozens of occasions, take a child that was lame, maybe paralyzed from birth, and hug that child to her breast with the love of a mother. I am convinced she would have, at any moment required of her, given her life in exchange for that child’s healing. She would hug bleary-eyed alcoholics and mix her tears with theirs. And the prostitutes who came to her meetings, with tears smearing their mascara, knew that if they could but touch her they would have touched the love of God. And those little old women, hobbling along on canes and crutches, some of whom couldn’t even speak the English language but were drawn by the universal language of love.”

The love she demonstrated was God’s love, but it was also a woman’s love. “No man could have ever loved like that,” writes Buckingham. “It took a woman, bereft of the love of a man, her womb barren, to love as she loved. Out of her emptiness—she gave. To be replenished by the only lover she was allowed to have—the Holy Spirit.” ²⁹

June 28

He Who Has Been Stealing Must Steal No Longer

Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.

Ephesians 4:25-28      

In some societies and under certain circumstances, the negative command not to steal and the positive exhortation to work with one’s hands are mutually exclusive—that is, if the hands have already been cut off as punishment for stealing. Stealing is a grave offense in African societies, and thieves are sometimes punished almost as severely   murderers. Mika Banzako of Zaire, was one of those who experienced the harsh penalty of being branded a thief.

Mika was a compulsive thief who had been apprehended and imprisoned for his crimes, but in prison he stole from other prisoners and the guards. Local authorities did not know how to stop him. The only solution, the local magistrate insisted, was to cut off his arm, a punishment more severe than the old, now outlawed, practice of cutting off the hand. Chloroform was used to deaden the pain, and male nurses were ordered to perform the mutilation of amputating Mika’s left arm at the shoulder.

The loss of an arm did not deter Mika. His old ways continued until he was caught breaking into the home of a government official. Again he was imprisoned, and this time warned that if he was caught stealing, his right arm would also be cut off. Fear gripped Mika, and for a time he controlled his urge to steal, but soon he was back to his old ways. The threatened punishment became reality, and Mika was forced to endure the agony of having his remaining arm amputated.

Amazingly, Mika adapted. He learned to eat and dress himself, using wires held in his mouth. He also learned to steal with his mouth. One night he was in a chicken house stealing eggs when the householder discovered him. He outran his pursuers, but a sense of failure overwhelmed him. What was the use of living? He contemplated suicide.

As he approached a nearby town, he heard singing and saw great crowds of people surrounding a platform. Curiosity brought him closer until he could hear the voice of John Makanza, the country’s most well-known evangelist. At the close of his message, John made an appeal to those who wanted to turn their lives around—to make a completely fresh start—and commit their lives to Christ. It was the message Mika needed. He was ready for a drastic change, but how could he make that known? The evangelist was asking people to raise their hands. But suddenly he looked Mika in the eye, and asked him directly, if he wanted to receive Christ as his Savior. Mika nodded, and he went on to live a changed life. ²⁸

June 27

Multiplying The Bread Of Life

Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties.

Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all.

They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.

Mark 6:39-44

Ken Taylor, who has become famous for his best-selling paraphrased version of Scripture, The Living Bible, confronted one rejection after another when he initially sought to have his paraphrase of Paul’s epistles published. Finally he and his wife decided that they would finance the project themselves and hire a friend to do the printing. He had been prompted to simplify the Bible at the urging of his ten children as they were growing up and struggling with the meaning of the King James Version. Thus the project had deep personal meaning.

Taylor was in Jerusalem when he received the galley proofs for final checking, and he walked to the Mount of Olives where he read them through. “When I came to the end, I lingered for a time of prayer and reflection,” he writes. “I sat less than 100 miles from where Jesus had fed more than 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish. I held in my hands what would become 2,000 copies of Living Letters, and I thought of these copies as 2,000 loaves for feeding God’s people.”

How many people could his “loaves” feed? “I pondered a simple mathematical equation: If five loaves fed 5,000 people, how many would 2,000 feed? I pulled out a pencil and found the answer: 2 million. An incredible number. Nevertheless, I bowed my head and prayed that someday 2 million copies of Living Letters would be in print.”

The sales were initially very slow. For one four-month period there were no new orders. Soon, however, word spread, and before long the sales were in the hundreds of thousands, and appeals were being made to Taylor to complete the Bible. In 1972 and 1973 The Living Bible was the nation’s best-seller, and by 1988 it had sold more than 33 million copies. The entire volume has been translated into ten languages and The Living New Testament has been translated into fifty.

This had been a dream fulfilled for Taylor who read Borden of Yale while studying at Wheaton. It is the story of a wealthy young man who gave up his inheritance to follow God’s call to Egypt, where he served only a short time before his untimely death. Taylor, at that time, prayed that God would use him in a similar way—never realizing how greatly God would multiply his humble offering of 2,000 loaves. ²⁷

June 26

Worthy Of Greater Honor

Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess. He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house.

Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.

Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, testifying to what would be said in the future. But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.

Hebrews 3:1-6     

The problem of who should be in authority and who should receive honor is an age-old struggle. As this passage indicates, the one who comes after—Jesus, in this case—receives more honor than the one who was faithful in the foundational work—as was Moses. But “Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, testifying to what would be said in the future.” In many ways missionaries represent the task that belonged to Moses, that of a servant, testifying to what will come in the future. Missionaries who do foundational evangelistic work must expect that the future will not belong to them, but rather to the leaders of the local churches they establish.

This was true in Nigeria where W. Harold Fuller served as a missionary with the Sudan Interior Mission. He illustrates this from his own observation of the partnership between missionaries and Africans. “A while ago I was riding in the back seat of the ECWA (Evangelical Churches of West Africa) General Secretary Simon Ibrahim’s car. He was at the wheel. Sudan Interior Mission missionary Gordon Beacham sat beside him.

“I thought about the fathers of those two men. Gordon’s father had been a pioneer SIM missionary among the Tangale people of Nigeria. Simon’s father had been one of the first Tangale preachers. They often traveled together in the missionary’s car. Gordon’s father sat at the wheel; Simon’s father sat beside him.

“That’s the way it was in the work, too. Of necessity at that time, Gordon’s father was the driver. Today, their sons have changed places. The church is in the driver’s seat, and the mission sits alongside.

“That’s what has happened in the transfer of responsibility. The team members are still the same; they’re still traveling together to the same destination, but ECWA is now behind the wheel . . . Taking over responsibility means taking over leadership. It doesn’t mean suddenly being able to finish the task all by oneself. It’s a change of leadership, of authority, of responsibility, but it’s not the completion of the work.” ²⁶

June 25

Desires That Plunge Men Into Ruin

Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced  themselves with many griefs.

1 Timothy 6:6-10 

Although Hipolito Alvarez had made a profession of faith and wanted to be identified with the Christian community in Pelechuco, Bolivia, he also wanted to continue his life as a prosperous merchant who traveled from town to town selling various products. He was a capitalistic workaholic, and it was his money that brought him satisfaction.

“I saved every peso I could and my savings grew,” he later recalled. “That made me feel good. I lived right by the church, but Sunday was the best day for my work. So instead of going to meetings, I would sneak around the back and carry on my business.” In order to earn even more money, Hipolito rented six mules. He calculated that he could pay the rental fee from his earnings from one mule, and the earnings from the other five would be his to keep. He was convinced that he would soon become a wealthy man. “I was happy,” he recalls, “expecting to make lots of money.”

The market town where Hipolito could sell his produce for the highest profit was on the other side of a deep canyon with a river below. The only means of crossing the raging river was a narrow swinging bridge. It was treacherous, but he was convinced that he could cross safely if he led one mule at a time, leaving the remaining mules back with his young helper.

“Just past the middle of the bridge the sound of galloping hoofs tore my heart with fear. The bridge began to sway and I looked back. One mule had pushed past my helper and was galloping to catch up with us. I hurried to get across before the bridge gave way. No such luck. Another mule broke loose and came running across. The bridge couldn’t handle the load, just before we reached the end, the cables broke and we plummeted to the river below.”

Miraculously, Hipolito, who could not swim, survived the ordeal. The mules and all his produce were lost, but he recovered from his near-fatal injuries. Some of his friends thought he would be safer if he turned his back on God, but he disagreed: “‘No,’ I answered. ‘Money deceived me. Because of my greed for money I almost lost my life.’ And I told God, ‘I’m not interested in money anymore. I no longer want to get rich. I just want enough to live on each day, and that’s all.’ ” ²⁵

June 24

You Cannot Serve Both God And Money

No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?

Matthew 6:24-25 

One day in 1861, Sarah Dunn, a young school teacher who lived in Waterloo, Iowa, was sitting in her home finishing an elaborate piece of handwork for her home, when she sensed a voice speaking to her, asking, “What are you doing to decorate your heavenly home?”

This question haunted her in the weeks and months that followed. She had professed faith in Christ several years earlier, but she had not been faithful in reaching out to others with the gospel. Now the salvation of lost souls became her life’s goal.

When she moved to Chicago some years later, she saw all around masses of needy people, and she dedicated herself to meeting their physical and spiritual needs. She recruited friends to help in her outreach efforts, and in 1869 organized a mission Sunday school. She was convinced that she had found God’s will in his service.

But, four years later, at the age of thirty eight, her life changed dramatically. She married Colonel George H. Clarke, a wealthy Chicago realtor. She struggled through “four merry years in the fashionable circle to which Colonel Clarke clung despite his Christianity.” Her “conscience was troubling her” because of what she perceived to be “a misuse of God’s time in social functions”

Sarah was convinced that God wanted them to reach out to the poor and establish a mission, but her husband was bent on pursuing his business career and amassing wealth. In his quest for this dream, he traveled to the Rocky Mountains on a lucrative business venture that Sarah feared would ruin any possibility of their mission work together.

While he was gone, she “agonized many hours in prayer.” It was no surprise then that while the colonel laid his plans for riches, the Spirit of God spoke to him with sharp conviction. Alone with God a thousand miles from home, he fell to his knees and consecrated himself to divine service for mission work. He telegraphed his wife of his change of life purposes and added that, “he was returning to Chicago at once to join her in founding a mission.”

In 1877 they founded a mission on South Clark street in Chicago—“the first rescue mission in the Northwest”—the forerunner of the Pacific Garden Mission. Although Colonel Clarke was known as “the poorest preacher that ever tried to expound God’s Word,” he was sustained by his devoted wile. She had a remarkable personal manner with needy people, and together they became instruments in the transformation of countless lives. ²⁴

June 23

Greet One Another With A Holy Kiss

Finally, brothers, good-by. Aim for perfection, listen to my appeal, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.

Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints send their greetings.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

2 Corinthians 13:11-14

Greetings and expressions of love vary from culture to culture, and to someone unfamiliar with the customs these greetings and formalities often seem strange. Four of the New Testament epistles end with the exhortation to give others a holy kiss or a kiss of love. Precisely what this meant is uncertain, but it is not a custom widely practiced among Western Christians today. It is unfortunate that such greetings and expressions of love have been lost, and modern-day Christians, especially from the West, would do well to learn from biblical and non-Western customs.

Todd and Karla Poulter, missionaries to Ghana, learned from their African friends new ways to express love and warmth.

“While returning one afternoon to our home in rural Ghana, we came upon a disabled van. It looked familiar and as we slowed down, we recognized Atiteng, one of the local chief’s sons, standing by the roadside. He’d run out of gas, an easy thing to do since fuel was scarce at the time.”

Todd siphoned enough gas out of his own tank to get Atiteng to a gas station, and as they parted, he indicated that he would not be paying for the gasoline—at this time. “If I pay you today, I can’t greet you tomorrow,” was his rationale. Todd and Karla went on their way, not thinking about the strange comment.

“The following afternoon,” writes Todd, “we returned from visiting one of our village neighbors to find Atiteng and two young men waiting at the house for us. We all sat down on the porch and went through the traditional Bulsa greetings, which may last up to a full minute. Only after such formalities could he come to the point of his visit.”

Atiteng had brought the Poulters a rooster—worth far more than the gasoline—as an expression of thanks. It was a moving experience for Todd and Karla, as they later recalled. “Our inclination would have been to settle everything right there on the road that afternoon. But to Atiteng his relationship with us meant far more than the gasoline or the money. He saw it as an opportunity not only to express gratefulness, but also to cement our friendship.” ²³

June 22

The Importance Of Genealogies

Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry. He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph, the son of Heli, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melki, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph . . . the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalalel, the son of Kenan, the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

Luke 3:23-24 & 37-38

We often skip over the genealogy lists in the Bible. They are difficult to read, and they offer little for sermon material or devotional inspiration. For a missionary who is struggling to translate the Bible into a new language, the genealogy lists can be drudgery—a necessary chore in order to complete the job. Surely a genealogy list would be of no value for evangelism. Or would it?

When Jo Shetler began working as a Wycliffe Bible Translator among the remote Balangao people of the Philippines in 1962, she found them entirely puzzled as to why she would want to translate God’s Word into their language. In fact, later when she was injured in a helicopter crash, one young woman feared Jo would die because her translation work had angered God. Many of the villagers believed that it was wrong to put God’s Word into new words—especially into their own, such a lowly language.

These were discouraging times for Jo as she worked in the Balangao valley. During her first six years of missionary service, only two Balangaos became Christians. Most people simply were not interested in her concept of God.

One such individual was Canao, who had become a father of sorts to her. “When Juami arrived, I was shocked,” he later recalled. “Didn’t she know it wasn’t safe for girls in our area? Didn’t she realize we were headhunters? So I had to become her ‘father’ and take care of her. I had to be sure people saw her eating at our house so they would know I was protecting her with my life, as is our custom here in Balangao.”

But, Canao was not interested in her God. “Juami always talked about God, but I didn’t like to always talk about Him,” he confessed. “Juami kept telling me about God and how to believe. I already believed there was a god, so I just tried to be polite.”

Then one day Jo showed him some of the translation work she had done and asked him to help her with it. Canao was amazed to find that God’s Word could actually be written in a book and be read in a language he could understand. Most astonishing of all was that it was true. How did he know that? “It actually had a genealogy—absolute proof to a Balangao that it’s true. This one went back to the beginning of time. Through the impact all the genealogy, I really began to understand and believe the truth about Jesus Christ.” ²²

June 21

The Lord Is About To Destroy The City

So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters. He said, “Hurry and get out of this place, because the Lord is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.

With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.”

When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them.

Genesis 19:14-16

Charles C. Finney was the most noted revivalist of the early nineteenth century, partly because he was very controversial. He parted company theologically from the staid Calvinistic Puritans of Colonial New England, and preached sermons that stirred up his listeners to the point of frenzy as they agonized their way to God. Finney’s style was unconventional, to say the least, and he had a reputation for being “a half-crazed fanatic.” Yet, many souls were saved through his preaching.

Early in his ministry he was invited by an old man to speak at a little town in Western New York. “Finney arrived and gave out a hymn, but the singing was so awful—they bawled very loudly and so out of tune—that Finney with his trained musical ear literally put his hands over his ears and got down on his knees and prayed until they had finished.”

As he prayed, “the Lord gave him a text—he had deliberately not chosen his subject, feeling he should wait until he had assessed the congregation. He was not even sure just where the text was to be found which he felt impressed upon his heart, but he stood up and delivered it: ‘Up, get you out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city.’ He knew that it came from the story of Abraham and Lot and the city of Sodom and so he expounded the story in his own way. The more he spoke the more he could see the people looking angry; he then applied the Word to them in a particular and pointed way.”

Gradually a change came over the people. “As he pressed home the truth of God upon this rough crowd of backwoods people they suddenly began to fall from their seats all over the building, crying out for God to have mercy on them . . . He began to deal with some of them individually and as he pointed them to Christ, one after another found peace with God.”

Finney later discovered why the people had initially been upset with his text. “The place was known as Sodom and the only good man in the place was the old man who had invited him and whom they nicknamed Lot! They had thought Finney had deliberately chosen his text because of this, but he was completely ignorant of it all and preached without inhibitions because he knew God had given him the text as he prayed.” ²¹