One of my all-time favorite devotionals is the classic My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. Oswald was born on July 24, 1874 in Aberdeen, Scotland and struggled for the first 29 years of his life trying to figure out what service God would have him do. He eventually was commissioned as a chaplain through the YMCA to Egypt …
On July 23, 1945, at Winona Lake, Indiana forty-two delegates formed Youth for Christ International which is still active today. The delegates elected Torrey Johnson as president who in turn recruits a full-time evangelist by name of Billy Graham.
Too few Americans talk about our Christian heritage but the truth is doctrinal issues drove the Pilgrims to the New World. They were refugees – running from oppression by the Church of England because they felt the Church had lost it’s focus on the supremacy of Scripture. Branded as “separatists” they boarded the ship Mayflower on July 22, 1620 and …
Albert Schweitzer is best known for his work in establishing and running a hospital in Africa where he died. Born on the French-German border, he was licensed to the ministry on July 21, 1900 in the Lutheran church and even wrote a biography of Bach (he was an excellent organist). His views on Jesus were not in line with most …
Many recall the first moon landing by Buzz Aldrin happened on July 20, 1969 but were you aware right before Aldrin took his walk he had the Lord’s Supper? As a Presbyterian elder in Houston, TX, Aldrin had his church help him with a small chalice, some wine and bread and said back to Mission Control: “This is the LM …
The first time I learned of Emperor Nero fiddling while Rome burned was from a Bugs Bunny cartoon (which is also where I first heard classical music!). What I didn’t know was this was the very beginning of Roman persecution of Christians that would not end for almost 250 years until Constantine came to power. July 19, 64 is when …
Literature enthusiasts would surely place Jane Austen in the Top 10 list of British authors. Austen, who died of Addison’s disease on July 18, 1817, was the daughter of a Church of England minister and her brothers were also ministers. Her classics like, Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, are full of characters who show their Christian principles and …
As the early church grew it became more and more common for church councils to decide issues of theology and doctrine. The Council of Ephesus was well underway on July 17, 431, when it excommunicated a bishop named John of Antioch. John, along with other bishops, held to the idea Mary the mother of Jesus could be known as “the …
Remember Jesus never gave us a 3-ring binder on how to set up the church, and even with Paul’s exhortation in his letters, Christians will differ on points of theology which can lead to deep divisions. The first major church division is known as “the Great Schism” and happened on July 16, 1054 when the churches of Rome and Constantinople …
Is Mamma in her kerchief and you in your cap? Many of us have the Christmas eve tradition of reading Clement C. Moore’s classic A Visit from St. Nicholas that we call “’Twas the Night Before Christmas”. Clement Moore, who was born on July 15, 1779, was a professor at the General Theological Seminary in New York City and lectured …
