Church guide

Today in Christian History: DAVID HYND’S EXTRAORDINARY ACCOMPLISHMENT IN SWAZILAND DAVID HYND'S COMMITMENT TO SWAZILAND began when his mother-in-law read a mission paper aloud that commented that Swaziland had not even one doctor. She turned to David and asked him point blank to become that doctor. David was dumbfounded. At the time he was serving in the British military. World War I was winding down but his interest was more mathematical than medical. After thought and prayer, however, he and his wife Kanema became convinced God intended them to get medical training to work in Africa. David changed his focus, working odd jobs while he put himself through the University of Glasgow. When funds were low and it appeared he would have to drop out of school, an official letter informed him he was eligible for student aid because of his military service. He also won scholarships. After completing his regular medical training, he studied tropical diseases in London for a year. People recognized his brilliance and intensity and tried to lure him into more lucrative medical fields. Turning down their tempting offers, he stuck to his goal. In June 1925, he finally arrived in Swaziland. Almost immediately it appeared he had mistaken the Lord’s call. He was struck down with a severe illness and his life was almost despaired of. However, he prayed earnestly to live and began to mend. Shortly after recovering, Hynd tended a young boy whose leg had been crushed in an accident. His kindness, kneeling beside the child, touched the hearts of the African family. The boy’s influential uncle invited David to speak at his kraal (village). On this day, 31 August 1925, Hynd preached for the first time to Swazis. More and more Africans came to hear him as he spoke each week. Kenema’s father was one of the first Nazarene preachers in Britain and the Nazarene Church sponsored David’s work. He established a Church of the Nazarene in Manzini (Bremersdorp); Swaziland’s first successful hospital (Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital, 1927, named after the deceased son of a donor, and later renamed for Hynd); outpatient clinics; a nurses’ training college; and Swaziland’s first branch of the Red Cross. David also had a hand in establishing a leprosy treatment center, a teacher’s training college, and several primary and secondary schools. The latter grew out of work begun by Kanema, who taught students at her kitchen table. One day, David had to perform an emergency amputation on a young man. Kanema, a trained nurse, administered the anesthetic, but another set of hands was needed to assist with the surgery. David called Kelina Shongwe, a young woman who helped with kitchen and garden work. She fainted when given the amputated leg in a pan, but became the first nurse he trained. The training program he started at that moment would eventually prepare thousands of nurses and midwives, many of whom functioned as de facto doctors in the medically needy country. British and Swazi rulers awarded David high honors. The Hynds’ daughter Isobel and son Samuel also served as notable medical missionaries in Swaziland, carrying on the work begun by their parents.

Today in Christian History: Native American Believer Samson Occom Is Ordained THE GREAT AWAKENING swept America in the 18th century and Native Americans were not immune to its influence. Samson Occom described its effect on him: “There was a great stir of religion in these parts of the world both amongst the Indians as well as the English, and about this time I began to think about the Christian religion, and was under great trouble of mind for some time.” The upshot was that this sixteen-year-old grandson of a Mohegan chief put his faith in Christ. Following his conversion, Occom immediately began to share the gospel with other Native Americans. He did not yet know how to read, but longed to study the Bible for himself, so at twenty he went to study with Rev. Eleazar Wheelock in Connecticut. Despite poor eyesight, he learned to read English and Hebrew. He seems to have been the first Native American to publish in English. Wheelock was impressed with his pupil and thought that if more Indians could be trained like Occom, they could carry the Gospel to their own people. He invited Native Americans to his school. Meanwhile, Occom continued his efforts to win his people to Christ. He founded a school and took about thirty pupils. Impressed by his efforts, the Presbyterian leaders of Long Island, New York ordained him on this day, 30 August 1759, to be a missionary to his own people. He worked in deep poverty, supporting himself in part through bookbinding and carving, because the mission paid him only a fraction of what it paid its white ministers. Meanwhile, Rev. Wheelock developed a design to found a college for Native American students. Realizing that he would never be able raise adequate funding from American contributions, given the antipathy toward Indians, he asked Samson Occom and Nathaniel Whitaker to raise funds in England. They sailed in 1765. Occom drew large crowds wherever he spoke, preaching three hundred sermons in the course of two years. He raised twelve thousand pounds for the school. Wheelock moved the school to New Hampshire and named it Dartmouth. Finding it hard to attract Native Americans and seeing that most who did enroll showed little or no Christian spirit, he diverted the money to train “English” students. Occom felt betrayed, not only for this but because Wheelock had gone back on a promise to care for his family while Occom was in England. Occom believed Wheelock treated him not as an equal in Christ, but as a performing exhibit. To the end of his life, Occom preached and taught among the Native American tribes and employed his knowledge of “English” ways to defend their rights and privileges. On 14 July 1792 his wife found him dead. A hymn by him titled “Christ’s Sufferings” appeared in Smith and Sleeper’s Divine Hymns (1794). It closes with the appeal: Shout, brethren, shout with songs divine, He drank the gall to give us wine.

Today in Christian History: John the Baptist Beheaded HEROD ANTIPAS, ruler of Galilee and Perea, was a sensual man. Visiting his half-brother Philip, he became attracted to his wife, Herodias. The two agreed to marry, and apparently did so before Philip’s death. Herodias was also Herod’s niece. Herod’s lust led directly to a showdown with the leading Jewish prophet when John the Baptist denounced his scandalous behavior. Herodias was furious and demanded that Herod punish John. Unwilling to kill the prophet, Herod imprisoned him in the fortress of Machaerus and allowed John’s disciples to visit him. Herod found John interesting and conversed with him. John's message of holiness baffled and intrigued him. One night the tyrant threw a party. Herodias had a daughter, whom tradition names Salome. She danced for the assembled guests. In return, Herod promised Salome whatever she asked, up to half his kingdom. He confirmed the offer with a great oath. Salome did not know what to ask and consulted her mother, who coached her reply. Salome returned to the king. No doubt he awaited her answer with some anxiety: what if she did ask for half his kingdom? The guests may have supposed she would want some fabulous jewel, a dowry, or a pleasant house. Her reply was shocking: “Give me, right now, the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” Herod was unhappy. The mood of a moment was costing him more dearly than he had anticipated. Accustomed to treating people as property, and afraid to appear an oath breaker, he ordered John's execution. According to a tradition that goes back at least to the fifth century, Herod beheaded John the Baptist on this day, 29 August ca. 30. John’s disciples took his body and buried it. Tradition also says that later some of his remains were carried to Alexandria, Egypt where Christians placed them in a church specially built to honor the forerunner of Jesus. When the news of John’s martyrdom reached Jesus, he went apart to be alone (Matthew 14:13). His cousin John had introduced his ministry, given him his first disciples, and baptized him. Hearing of Jesus’ miracles, Herod superstitiously thought he was the reincarnation of John. History does not tell us what became of Salome. As for Herod Antipas, his divorce from his first wife to marry Herodias led him into a war from which he emerged seriously weakened. He would later encounter Jesus and mock him. Finally he disappeared from history with Herodias at his side when the Romans forced him into exile.

Today in Christian History: Bill and Vonette Bright Incorporate Campus Crusade ON THIS DAY, 28 August 1953, Campus Crusade for Christ was incorporated in Los Angeles. The founders of the organization were Bill and Vonette Bright. The concept behind their campus ministry was to “win the campus today and change the world tomorrow.” Today, Campus Crusade for Christ is known as just “Cru.” It trains Christian leaders in over ninety countries around the world and works on over one thousand campuses. Bill Bright was born on a farm in Coweta, Oklahoma, 19 October 1921. A good student, he overcame shyness to win a Future Farmers of America oration contest in high school. Vonette also grew up in Coweta. Following his graduation from Northeastern State University (Tahlequah, Oklahoma), Bright moved to Los Angeles and opened a catering business. While attending a Presbyterian church service in 1945, he realized that he needed Christ as the focus of his life. His heart changed and he was filled with enthusiasm for Christian witness. He was already engaged to Vonette; at first she accused him of fanaticism and considered breaking their engagement. Instead, she joined him in following Christ. A few years later, Bright had entered seminary and was in the final semester of his senior year when “Suddenly, without warning or without indication of what was going to happen, I sensed the presence of God in a way I had never known before.” He felt the Lord was telling him to drop out of school. Although so near the finish line, he obeyed. Later he wrote that it proved to be the right move. As a layperson, he had a freedom he would not have had as an ordained minister. In 1951 Bill and Vonette wrote a contract with God promising to use their lives in whatever way God wished. They began working with intellectuals in Los Angeles, the work which became Campus Crusade. Fourteen years later, Bill wrote the tract the Four Spiritual Laws which became one of the most widely used Protestant evangelistic tools of the twentieth century. Another major ministry he spearheaded was the Jesus Film Project. It has distributed and shown a docu-drama of the Gospel of Luke in hundreds of languages, winning untold numbers to Christ. Vonette founded the Great Commission Prayer Crusade in 1972, served as chair of the National Day of Prayer task force, launched a radio program known as Women Today, and authored or co-authored a number of Christian books.

Today in Christian History: FROM HINDU TO CHRISTIAN: THE PROGRESS OF GANGA NARAYAN SIL GANGA NARAYAN SIL was born a Hindu but died a Christian. His path to conversion was slow and convoluted. But when he finally encountered the living Christ, he became a passionate soul-winner. Sil’s first contact with Christianity was through the Chitpore mission school at Calcutta. He attended there two years before the school’s religious instruction sank into his mind. Then he recognized his guilt before his Creator and his need of a savior. Examining Hindu teachings, he decided they were insufficient for his need. He also examined Islam and found it unsatisfying. Convinced Christianity was the truth, he attempted to live by its precepts and published an article contrasting it with Hinduism. This brought reproach upon him from his family and other Indians. About this time he came across infidel writings that cast doubt on the divinity of Christ and other Christian doctrines. He scrapped all faith and plunged into sin. He went further and tried to refute Christianity, but found he could not. Scripture warnings came to his mind, especially “Whoever remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed—without remedy,” and he found himself uneasily contemplating eternity. At that point he read Philip Doddridge’s Rise and Progress of Religion in the Souland it deeply affected him. Still he resisted conversion. What finally set him back on the road to embracing Christianity was the observation that several great scientists and philosophers, such as Sir Isaac Newton and Francis Bacon, had found Christianity worthy of consideration. He had also read of the deathbed terrors of infidels such as Voltaire and Thomas Paine, and saw that their defiance of biblical truths did not end well. Returning to study of the Bible, he opened his heart to Christ. On this day, 27 August 1837, Ganga Narayan Sil was baptized at the Baptist mission in Calcutta. Thereafter he was a close student of Scripture and went out several times a week to preach in the Bengali language at local chapels, in parks, and on the streets. Because of his intellect, humility, and patience, many Indians sought him out for advice on their religious questions. Sil’s ministry lasted not quite seven years after his baptism because he died of cholera after a short illness in August 1843. He was just twenty-seven years old. While he was dying, his mother entreated him to call on his childhood gods but he clung to Christ alone as his righteousness.

Today in Christian History: MAUD BALLINGTON BOOTH AND THE VOLUNTEERS OF AMERICA MAUD ELIZABETH CHARLESWORTH became interested in social work as a young girl. Her pastor father and her mother were active in helping the poor in a London slum. When Maud grew older she joined the Salvation Army. In 1882 she helped Catherine Booth, daughter of William Booth, and two other “Salvation lassies” to organize a branch of the Salvation Army in Paris. In 1883 the team attempted to do the same in Geneva but were arrested and expelled. Against the objections of her father, Maud married General Booth’s second son, Ballington, taking both his first and last name. General William Booth sent the pair to America in 1888 to reorganize the New York work which was in financial difficulty. Although they sailed across the Atlantic as second-class passengers, Maud and Ballington became acquainted with a number of wealthy Americans in first class. These contacts would prove advantageous in their future fund-raising efforts. In response to their efforts, the New York branch soon was out of debt. In 1895 Maud and Ballington became United States citizens. The following year, the pair resigned from the Salvation Army and co-founded the Volunteers of America. On a visit to America in 1894, General William Booth had been impressed by the quality of work the pair did. However, he was unhappy that they displayed American flags and eagles at their meetings, and he insisted that they share money raised in America with the worldwide Salvation Army. Ballington Booth refused, saying to do so would violate agreements with donors. Booth ordered his son and Maud back to England but rather than leave their adopted country, they left the Salvation Army. On 8 March 1896, they drew up a constitution for the Volunteers of America. Their goal was to “uplift all people and bring them to the immediate knowledge and active service of God.” The new organization gave equality to men and women. For months, Maud and Ballington traveled in separate directions to raise support and develop the work of the Volunteers. Within six months they had established one hundred and forty posts in Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Wherever they saw a need, they tried to help. Consequently Maud found herself creating the Parent-Teacher Association and also deeply engaged in prison work. She wrote letters, books, and pamphlets. These always pointed to Christ as the answer to personal and societal problems. In her pamphlet Look Up, she wrote, The Christ of Easter was also the Christ of Calvary. Think of the dark side of the picture: the night of agony in Gethsemane, alone, suffering, forsaken, and betrayed; the trial in which the divine defendant stood arraigned before unjust judge and bitter enemies; sworn against falsely, insulted, condemned amid the acclamations of an incensed mob. Christ the convict bears his cross up Calvary, bowed with a grief no one can estimate. Christ the savior dies in agony, and darkness reigns upon the scene! The greatest darkness often comes before the dawn, and so the dawn of the first Easter, after the awful scene of Calvary brought to the world the brightest day-dawn of hope that ever could have come to man. Maud often spoke to groups of prisoners, offering them new life and hope, and she lectured around America, successfully calling for prison reforms, including the establishment of a parole system. (One of her books was After Prison, What?) Following the death of her husband in 1940, she was elected general of the Volunteers of America, a post she held for the remainder of her life. On this day 26 August 1948, Maud Ballington Booth died in Great Neck, New York.

Sunday, August 25, 2019 message titled: "On the Road to Damascus" by Rev. Rich McIntyre, Interim Pastor was published to ledgewoodbaptist.sermon.net https://ledgewoodbaptist.sermon.net/21442133

Today in Christian History: John Henry Jowett Arrives ON THIS DAY, 25 August 1864, John Henry Jowett was born in Halifax, England. “I was blessed with the priceless privilege of a Christian home,” he later remarked. He said he gained his sweetest inspirations from his devout mother and, “Whenever I wish to think of a Christian man, I think of my father.” Jowett’s father wanted his son to become a lawyer, and Jowett willingly prepared along those lines. However, his Sunday school teacher said one day, “I had always hoped you would go into the ministry.” The words electrified Jowett. Following his ministerial training, he accepted a call to St. James Congregational Church in Newcastle on Tyne, preaching to audiences of hundreds from the start. The depth of his sermons combined with his holy life made an impact wherever he went. He rose every day to study, at the same time as workmen on their way to earn their daily bread, saying, “Shall their minister be behind them in his quest of the bread of life?” After six years at St. James, he was called to Carr’s Lane Church in Birmingham, England where his preaching resulted in a notable dip in the city’s rates of crime and drunkenness. There he also oversaw a ministry to poor children. James McGraw said of Jowett, “He preached like one who believed with all his heart that his message was the only hope of his time.” Jowett himself described his message as Gospel-focused: “This gospel of redeeming grace is the cardinal necessity of our time.” Typical of his teaching is this opening to a devotional: “‘Doth our law judge a man except it first hear from himself and know what he doeth?’ But that is Christ’s fate every day and all the days. He is judged from hearsay. Men will not come face to face with Him and ‘know what he doeth.’” In 1911, after repeated requests, Jowett accepted an invitation to come to the United States and pastor the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City. Every Sunday, crowds had to be turned away. Never at ease in America, Jowett was happy to return to England in 1917 as pastor of the famed Westminster Chapel, where he succeeded G. Campbell Morgan. He preached there until his retirement in 1922, forced by pernicious anemia. Jowett died in 1923. Among his many books was The School of Calvary.

Today in Christian History: Rome Fell but "The City of God" Arose ON THIS DAY, 24 August 410, Alaric and his Visigoth armies sacked Rome. The fall of the imperial city sent shock waves around the Mediterranean. It seemed the world could never be the same again. The Biblical scholar Jerome summed up the feelings of many when he wrote, “My voice sticks in my throat; and, as I dictate, sobs choke my utterance. The city which had taken the whole world was itself taken...” Afterward, pagans blamed Christian virtues of humility and non-resistance for the debacle. They also said the fall of Rome proved Christianity false because Christians had died alongside pagans. Furthermore, the supposedly Christian Visigoths had raped Christian and pagan women indiscriminately. Why didn’t God protect the Christians? Another pagan argument was: According to Genesis, God would have spared Sodom if there had been just ten righteous souls in it. Yet Rome was a major church center with thousands of Christians—yet God allowed it to be ravaged. Stung by such taunts and allegations, Augustine, bishop of Hippo in North Africa, responded by writing his masterpiece, The City of God and the City of Man. Like so much of Augustine’s work this book broke new ground. It was the world’s first teleological history (a history showing that events have purpose and final destiny). Augustine retorted that the barbarian invaders had spared most of Rome’s churches. Even pagans had found refuge in the Christian places of worship. God had indeed protected people. At any rate, Christians had always suffered and would continue to suffer in this world, he said. Christians had no special immunity from pain or sorrow. To the charge that Christian non-retaliation was to blame for Rome’s fall, Augustine retorted that the best pagans had held virtue in high esteem. The real cause of imperial weakness, he said, was pagan immorality. “Why were the gods so negligent as to allow the morals of their worshippers to sink to so low a depth?... why did not those gods ... lay down moral precepts that would help their devotees to lead a decent life?” As he saw it, the sack of Rome was but an episode in a great war between God’s kingdom and humanity’s—the rival cities of God and man. It was a war which would last until the end of the world. God’s city consisted of those who love him and his things. That such a city was not as clearly defined now as it should be, he wrote, was because many who claim to be Christians are not. Humanity’s city was the realm of those who hate God and love their appetites. It took Augustine fourteen years to finish his universal history. But after The City of God, history would never be the same again.

Today in Christian History: French Court Instigates Huguenot Massacre DURING THE SIXTEENTH-CENTURY Reformation in Europe, Calvinism spread into France. The Roman Catholic establishment persecuted these Protestants, known as Huguenots. Led by French nobles, the Protestants rose to defend themselves. Three religious wars followed in quick succession. On 22 August 1572, Catherine de Medici tried to end the conflict with one blow by arranging the assassination of the Huguenot leader Admiral de Coligny. Coligny survived the attempt and King Charles IX, Catherine’s son, promised him protection. Angry Huguenot leaders threatened to march on Paris. Infuriated, Catherine bent all her energy to convincing her son to massacre the Huguenot leaders. Late in the evening of this day 23 August 1572, Charles gave the order. In the early hours of 24 August, St. Bartholomew’s Day, the massacre began. Catholic historian Jacques-Auguste De Thou, son and grandson of French politicans and an eyewitness to some of the events, described what happened: “Coligny awoke and recognized from the noise that a riot was taking place. Nevertheless he ... believed the populace had been stirred up by the Guises [a French ducal family opposed to the Huguenots], and that quiet would be restored as soon as it was seen that soldiers of the guard, under the command of Cosseins, had been detailed to protect him and guard his property. “But when he perceived that the noise increased and that some one had fired an arquebus [an early muzzle-loading gun] in the courtyard of his dwelling, then at length, conjecturing what it might be, but too late, he arose from his bed and having put on his dressing gown he said his prayers, leaning against the wall.” Swiss mercenaries entered his house and forced their way to his room. A German, who had been brought up in the home of the Duke of Guise, stabbed Coligny to death. The assassins threw his body from a window, then abused, mutilated, and decapitated the corpse. Meanwhile an official named Marcel led the Catholic masses of Paris into the city, where they slaughtered Parisian Huguenots all that day. Massacres in outlying regions continued until 3 October. Perhaps seventy thousand Huguenots perished. Many fled to fortified cities and fought back. Huguenots called their movement La Cause (The Cause) and Catholics referred to themselves as La Sainte Ligue (The Holy League). Although Charles IX took credit for ordering the massacre, most historians believe Catherine was the principle instigator. She had desired something like this for at least a decade and Philip II of Spain had also urged it. Following the massacre, the French court tried to spin the outrage as legitimate self-defense against a Huguenot plot; Pope Gregory XIII even struck a special medallion. In general, however, European nations were appalled. France’s religious civil wars continued until King Henry IV issued the Edict of Nantes giving Huguenots a number of rights. Later kings eroded these until Louis XIV revoked the edict entirely in 1685. Four hundred thousand Huguenots then fled France, ending any significant Huguenot presence there.

Today in Christian History: Emergence of the World Council of Churches THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES began on this day, 22 August 1948, with a noble idea: to glorify Christ by restoring Christian unity. The Nicene Creed declares there is “one holy catholic (i.e. universal) and apostolic church.” The visible church hardly matches that description, with an abundance of denominations, sects, and schisms. Two of the most common reasons for splits in the church have been irreconcilable differences in doctrine and unacceptable levels of corruption. Montanists, Donatists, Nestorians, Waldensians, Hussites and others withdrew from fellowship or were ousted over such issues. In addition, splits have occurred because of personal rivalries and political boundaries. While the first 1500 years of Christianity saw various groups leave the mainstream, and brought the great split between East and West in the eleventh century, following the Reformation, divisions multiplied greatly. So did calls for reunification. Martin Bucer, Hugo Grotius, and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz were among notable Christians who proposed formulas to reconcile these factions. The movement toward cooperation and reunification picked up speed early in the twentieth century. Methodist leader John R. Mott organized the 1910 International Missionary Conference of Edinburgh, which inspired the International Missionary Council of 1921. Episcopalian bishop Charles Brent pushed for the World Conference of Faith and Order which emerged in 1927 at Lausanne and Nathan Söderblom of Uppsala, archbishop in the Church of Sweden, spearheaded a drive to bring Christians to Stockholm to rebuild after World War I. In 1938 the Brent and Söderblom movements merged at Utrecht and called for a World Council of Churches. Roman Catholics and Russian Orthodox both considered that to join would be to diminish their respective claims to primacy. Some Greek Orthodox sent observers. The unifiers hoped to meet soon, but World War II intervened. Three years after the end of the war, on this day, 22 August 1948, the World Council of Churches was born in Amsterdam. In the years that followed, the Catholic Church did begin to participate by sending observers. Many churches from the global South became members. Unfortunately, some of the council’s official pronouncements and financial contributions (such as one to the Patriotic Front of Zimbabwe, a Communist organization), led conservative Christians to complain that it had developed a left-leaning political agenda (and some, such as New Jersey fundamentalist Carl MacIntire, even founded competing organizations). Others wondered if ecumenism was better sought through bottom-up grassroots cooperation. The WCC today remains both active and controversial.

Today in Christian History: Alexander of Hales’s Fateful Turn ON THIS DAY, 21 August 1245, Alexander of Hales died. He was 59, and had been a brilliant scholar. Contemporaries referred to him as the “unanswerable doctor” and “king of theology.” Born in Hales, Shropshire, England, Alexander studied and taught in Paris. We know little about his life and much of what we do know comes from his critic Roger Bacon, who thought Alexander received too much credit for merely combining and passing on the ideas of others. Alexander was the first scholastic philosopher to summarize Christian theology—in his Summa universae theologiae—using newly discovered writings of Aristotle as his key authority. He combined these with Arabic, neo-Platonic, and Augustinian ideas. His theology was influenced by the Franciscan Bonaventura and in turn he powerfully influenced the Franciscans after he became one of them. Although Alexander looked back to ancient authority, he was an innovator within the scholastic system. A decisive, even fatal, moment in the development of scholastic theology arrived when he substituted Peter Lombard’s Sentences in place of the Bible as his basic text. Nonetheless, Thomas Aquinas admired his work and closely followed the outline of the Summa universae theologiae when he prepared his more famous Summa theologica. Alexander was active in the church of his day. He attended the Council of Lyons in 1245, dying shortly afterward. Aquinas eclipsed him, and today his writings are mainly studied by scholars.

Today in Christian History: GEERT DE GROOTE AND THE BRETHREN OF THE COMMON LOT EUROPE at the start of the fourteenth century was prosperous but morals were low. The schools taught a subtle but dry scholasticism. The papacy had reached its height of power but was soon to split along political lines creating two and eventually three rival popes. Ordinary people hungered for authentic Christianity, and several associations had arisen to meet that need, including the persecuted Waldensian movement and the Franciscan and Dominican orders. In the Netherlands the desire for authentic Christianity found expression in mysticism, the attempt to form a direct relationship with God through the spirit. Among its most articulate and exemplary advocates was Jan van Ruysbroeck. However, its most practical expression came through the Brethren of the Common Life (or Common Lot). The Brethren came into being through the combined efforts of Geert de Groote and Florentius Radewyns. Fascinated with science and gifted with the desire to teach, Groote had studied at Paris and Cologne. He emerged foppish and worldly, frittering time on amusements. However, Christian acquaintances appealed to his nobler nature. Groote promised, by God’s aid, to reform. After three years of ascetical contemplation, he obtained a license to preach across the diocese of Utrecht. His earnest appeals, made in Low German, brought conviction to the hearts of many listeners. However, the clergy were infuriated by his exposure of their corruption and got his license revoked. Groote then visited Jan van Ruysbroek and was deeply impressed by his spirituality and by the simplicity of life at his Grunthal monastery. He determined to establish a similar institution. He returned to his native Deventer, where he shared his knowledge and his books with young scholars and provided them an income copying books. A society grew up, devoted to Holy Scripture and to godly writings. This Deventer fraterhuis became the model for several daughter houses. These had no hierarchy and did not require the irrevocable vows monks took. Desirous of living in the manner of early Christians, they shared their goods in common, worked for the general good, and devoted their leisure hours to prayer and works of charity. The Brethren houses were primarily devoted to free education, so that reading and writing were accessible to both rich and poor; and their instruction was without either the superstition of the monasteries or the sophistries of the schools. They emphasized the Gospels, church fathers, and practical skills. Groote had intended to found a convent of regular canons, but died before he could, on this day, 20 August 1384, having contracted plague while tending its victims. To those weeping at his death bed he said, “Lo, I am now summoned by the Lord. The hour of my departure is come. Augustine and Bernhard are knocking at the door. The limit appointed me by God I cannot pass.” Among the famous pupils to emerge from the Brethren schools were Nicholas of Cusa, who became a cardinal known Europe-wide for his originality and learning, and Thomas à Kempis, author of The Imitation of Christ. À Kempis labored all his life at the most famous of the Brethren daughter houses, Mount St. Agnes. Another famous pupil was Erasmus, who fired some of the opening shots of the Reformation. Many monks and friars resented the influence of the Brethren, whom they hated as rivals. About twenty-five years after Groote’s death, they appealed to the Council of Constance to shut down the movement, claiming an exalted status for monks and friars. Jean de Gerson responded that there is but one religion, the religion of Christ, which can be practiced without vows and needs nothing to add to its perfection. The council adopted his answer and Pope Martin V agreed, and the Brethren of the Common Life were subsequently left in peace.

Sunday, August 18, 2019 message titled: "Promptings" by Rev. Rich McIntyre, Interim Pastor was published to ledgewoodbaptist.sermon.net https://ledgewoodbaptist.sermon.net/21438349

Today in Christian History: BAUTISTA SILVA, CHRISTIAN AMONG THE PIAROA IN THE MISTS of Christian history many shapes are vaguely discerned. Writers cite books that now are lost. Churches exist but no one remembers who first brought the gospel to them. People of the kingdom suffer in jails or pass along jungle trails unrecognized on earth, although recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Others are remembered by just a few details that whet our interest. One of these was a Venezuelan, Bautista Silva. Silva was the first Protestant convert in one of the Piaroa villages of Venezuela. Before the coming of Christ, the Piaroa were a people bound by fear of spirits. Shamans sought to placate the malevolent spirits through rituals and all-night chants. It was against that background that Silva, the son of a chief, came to know the liberating gospel of Christ. The Piaroa live in jungles and along rivers, such as the mighty Orinoco River, or on tributaries that feed the even mightier Amazon. They were early noted for trading high quality curare poison for goods provided by neighboring tribes. Traditionally a hunter-gatherer and fishing society that made frequent migrations, they became a more stationary society after the coming of the Spanish and today depend heavily on gardens and even on purchased goods. Among the unusual foods they consume are tarantalla spiders! After his conversion, Silva moved among these people, seeking to win them to Christ. He traveled on foot from village to village, preaching the gospel. He would sit up all night to speak of Jesus. Some anthropologists have touted the alleged non-violence of the Piaroa people, but further study has shown that the Piaroa do practice sorcery against perceived enemies and have warred for resources and to defend themselves against slavers. Silva benefited from their largely pacific behavior, which made it safer to share the gospel among them than it had proven to be among other South American tribes such as the violent Ayore or Woadani. Before the conquest by Spain, the Piaroa did not have reading and writing. Their culture produced pottery, religious masks, and other forms of art, but recorded language was not one of their accomplishments. Missionaries taught them reading and writing and translated the New Testament into their “heart language.” Bautista Silva had a hand in that translation. By the time of his death, fifty local Christian assemblies flourished among the wide-scattered tribe. Bautista Silva died in his sixties. He left behind several children and grandchildren. On this day, 19 August 1992, a day or two after his death, Christians in Tama Tama, Venezuela, honored his life and labors with a memorial service.

Today in Christian History: Death of Helena, Mother of Constantine ON THIS DAY, 18 August 328, the Empress Helena died. Her son, emperor Constantine the Great, was at her side, holding her hands. Early church historian Eusebius, to whom we owe most of our knowledge of Helena, described the scene and added, “to those who rightly discerned the truth, the thrice blessed one seemed not to die, but to experience a real change and transition from an earthly to a heavenly existence, since her soul, remolded as it were into an incorruptible and angelic essence, was received up into her Savior’s presence.” We know little about the young Helena. There is an unfounded British tradition that she was the daughter of the nursery-rhyme character, Old King Cole(King Coel of Colchester), but most scholars think she was born in Asia Minor, at the town that Constantine named Helenopolis, and grew up as an innkeeper’s daughter. Either way, it is unclear where Helena met Constantius, the father of Constantine. After her son’s conversion to Christianity and rise to power, Eusebius says, “he rendered her through his influence so devout a worshiper of God (though she had not previously been such) that she seemed to have been instructed from the first by the Savior of mankind.” Constantine honored her with the title of Augusta (“the great,” a title Roman emperors occasionally conferred on their female relatives) and issued coins with her image. Perhaps this was to compensate for Helena’s earlier disgrace. Constantius, Constantine’s father, had dumped her to marry Theodora, daughter of the emperor Maximian, in a move designed to advance his own career. Helena is also remembered as the first Christian archaeologist. Although an old woman when Constantine united the empire, she traveled to the Holy Land, worshipped in Palestine’s churches, identified possible locations of Christ’s ministry, found pieces of the “true cross,” built churches, and clothed the naked. Her tour became a pattern for Christian pilgrims throughout the Middle Ages. Helena was eighty-four when she died and was buried in the imperial vault of the Church of the Apostles, Constantinople. Her will left all her lands to her famous son and to her grandchildren.

Today in Christian History: V. S. Azariah: India’s Amazing Home-Grown Apostle VEDANAYAGAM SAMUEL AZARIAH was born on this day, 17 August 1874 in Vellalanvilai, Tirunelveli, South India. Few Westerners have heard his name. But not only did Azariah found two successful missionary societies to bring the gospel to India, not only did he help bring about the unification of India’s Protestant churches, but he also grew an impoverished diocese of 8,000 Christians to over 200,000. Azariah’s father was an Anglican evangelist and his mother a devout laywoman. Azariah himself trained for the ministry at Madras Christian College. One evening, while visiting a mission work in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Azariah was deeply moved thinking of India’s lost souls and the little work that its own Christians did among them. He prayed and wept under the stars. Back in India, he organized young churchmen into the India Missionary Society of Tinnevelly. Making an intensive study of the 1901 India census and contacting the leaders of foreign mission societies, he discovered that one hundred million Indians were out of the reach of the Gospel. He invited India’s Protestant denominations to form another mission society. The result was the National Missionary Society of India with Azariah as general secretary. Azariah soon became convinced he should resign his leadership posts and become a missionary himself. His took as his field the small Diocese at Dornakal, one of the poorest regions of India. People lived on an average of five cents a day. When he was appointed bishop, he was the first native-born Anglican bishop in India. His diocese numbered eight thousand Christians, six Indian ministers and one hundred and seventy two laymen coworkers. By his death on 1 January 1945, Dornakal had one hundred and fifty ministers and two hundred and thirty thousand Christians. Despite India’s fundamental hostility to Christianity and the opposition of Gandhi to Christian evangelization efforts, his diocese of Dornakal averaged over three thousand baptized converts a year. Astonished by the “impossible” transformation of outcasts, thousands of higher class Indians in Dornakal also joined the church. Azariah was shocked by the lack of unity among all Christians and the arrogance of Western missionaries toward Indians. “Unity may be theoretically a desirable ideal in Europe and America, but it is vital to the life of the church in the mission field,” he told the 1927 Lausanne ecumenical conference. “The divisions of Christendom may be a source of weakness in Christian countries, but in non-Christian lands they are a sin and a scandal.” In 1919, Azariah organized the Tranquebar Conference. It issued a manifesto which declared: “We believe that the challenge of the present hour...and the present critical situation in India itself, call us to mourn past divisions and turn to our Lord Jesus Christ to seek in Him the unity of the body expressed in one visible Church. We face together the titanic task of winning India for Christ—one-fifth of the human race.” Two years after his death, the Union Church was inaugurated. Truly the birth of Azariah was a blessing to India and to its church.

Today in Christian History: Adolf von Schlatter’s Biblical Scholarship ON THIS DAY, 16 August 1852, Adolf von Schlatter was born in St. Gall, Switzerland, the son of a Pietist preacher. Schlatter always remembered his home fondly, for the faith of his father Stephen and his mother Sarah found its echo in him. Science also was important to the von Schattlers. Their devotional room was stuffed with samples of flora and fauna. The boy was deeply interested in both faith and fauna all his life. Schlatter hesitated to pursue theological studies because he feared that rationalistic schools would undermine his faith, but his sister Lydia encouraged him to meet the challenge boldly. After studying philosophy and theology at Basel and Tübingen, he became a pastor and married. Sadly, his wife Suzanne died young, but not before the couple had five children. When Schlatter applied for his post-doctoral qualification to teach theology, the hiring committee put him through a more rigorous examination than any other candidate, but Schlatter triumphed. As a professor, he clung to the historical Jesus. “The first and to me dearest task was passing along the word of Jesus,” he wrote. Schlatter (who could quote vast portions of scripture in the original languages) said that he stood under, not over Scripture. Although many of his contemporary theologians rejected Christ’s resurrection and his understanding of himself as Messiah, Schlatter insisted that to be consistent, New Testament studies had to retain such articles of faith intact. He wrote, “The knowledge of Jesus is the foremost, indispensable centerpiece of New Testament theology.” Students reported that joy radiated from him during his lectures. Hundreds flocked to hear him. More than thirty of his books are still in print. Among the points Schlatter emphasized was that the origins of the church must be understood in the context of first century Judaism. A decade after his death, the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls vindicated him. In his final work, Do We Know Jesus? written the year he died (1938), Schlatter asked, “Do we know Jesus? If we no longer know him, we no longer know ourselves.” The Nazis were rising in Schlatter’s day, and he spoke against their teachings and those of the so-called “German Christians.” At least two martyrs in Nazi Germany—Paul Schneider and Dietrich Bonhoeffer—were influenced in their faith by Schlatter.

Today in Christian History: Francis Xavier Reaches Japan On this day, 15 August 1549, Francis Xavier landed as a missionary in Kagoshima, Japan. With him were Father Cosme de Torres, Brother Juan Fernández, and an ardent Japanese convert, Han-Sir, who had taken a new name at baptism—Paul of Santa Fe. Xavier wrote, “We were received in the most friendly way by all the people of the city, especially the relations of Paul, the Japanese convert, all of whom had the blessing to receive the light of truth from heaven, and by Paul’s persuasion became Christians.” Xavier and his European companions studied the Japanese language for a year and made translations. Meanwhile, Paul evangelized his own people. When sufficiently fluent in Japanese, Xavier preached across Japan, establishing Christian communities. Leaving the mission in charge of his fellow workers, he returned to his base at Goa, India in 1551. Xavier was in the east in the first place at the request of Portugal’s King John III. Thanks to its daring seafarers, Portugal boasted vast overseas territories, and King John had asked Pope Paul III for missionaries. The pope commanded the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) to assist him and Xavier was designated. Born into a noble family, Xavier showed youthful brilliance. He was a professor at the College of Beauvais when he met Ignatius Loyola, who had recently abandoned the pleasures of a grandee (Spanish noble) to apply himself to wholehearted service for Christ and the Church. Xavier resisted his influence at first, but before long abandoned teaching and bound himself to evangelism, poverty, chastity and obedience. Loyola, Xavier and a handful of friends founded the Jesuits. Upon receiving his assignment to assist the Portuguese, Xavier immediately left Rome for Lisbon. There he met King John, who requested he visit all of his Asian colonies, check on their religious condition, and convert as many lost souls as possible. Xavier reorganized the religious community at Goa, then traveled throughout Asia, preaching the gospel. In eleven years, he traveled nine thousand miles under primitive conditions, sharing the gospel with more than fifty kingdoms. It is estimated he baptized over a million converts. The church he planted in Japan survived three centuries of persecution without Bibles or priests—through parents transmitting the faith to their children. In the nineteenth century, when Japan reopened to the west, there were still thousands of Christians on the islands, some the fruit of his mission, some the fruit of Franciscan missions. Xavier died in 1552, attempting to reintroduce the gospel to China. Historians have nicknamed him “The Apostle of the Indies.”

Today in Christian History: James Strong’s Thirty-Five Year Undertaking JAMES STRONG was born in New York City on this day, 14 August 1822. Despite being troubled much of his life with ill health, he gave the church an extensive body of Biblical works—at least one of which is famous to anyone who has ever looked up anything in Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. Strong’s parents died while he was still a young man. He determined to make his way as a doctor and began his studies while still in his teens. However, physical weakness compelled him to abandon medicine. Following his graduation in 1844 from Wesleyan University, he taught in Vermont until ill health forced him to leave that job as well. He then served as mayor of a city in New York, studied and taught Biblical literature, and organized, built, and managed the Flushing Railroad. Finally, he became a college professor. It took James Strong thirty-five years to compile his concordance. He assigned each Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek root a number which allowed its every use to be tracked through the Bible. This proved invaluable to later scholars. He published this Concordance in 1890 while Professor of Exegetical Theology at Drew Theological Seminary, a Methodist school. His association with Drew spanned two and a half decades. During those years he also published a work of Biblical chronology, a study in the doctrine of future life, and a mathematical study of the wilderness tabernacle. He assisted with the English Revised Version of the KJV (published in America in 1901 as the American Standard Version) and was a key editor for the ten-volume Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature. Perhaps doubly aware of the subject because of the weakness of his own body, Strong once wrote about the Christian’s future glorification based on the evidence of Christ’s glorified appearances: “It is a matter of biblical information and of Christian belief that the body of Jesus took on an additional change in its ascension to heaven beyond what it assumed at its resurrection from the sepulcher, and that it has since existed in what has usually been termed its ‘glorified state’ in the immediate presence of the divine Father.”