1557 HT: Christian History Institute When Cicely Ormes of St. Lawrence, Norwich, England, was twenty-one years old, she recanted her Protestant beliefs under pressure from a Catholic magistrate. Miserable at her apostasy, she then wrote a letter repudiating her recantation. Arrested a year later, the magistrate said she might go free if she would promise…
In the light of the devastating news about Steve Lawson – a man I got to know quite well, with whom I enjoyed some warm personal fellowship, and whose bold preaching richly blessed my heart – I simply have three comments to make: 1. Men will often fail – God will never fail. 2. There are no great men – only a…
1871 HT: Dan Graves The Swiss evangelist and hymn writer Cesar Malan always liked to speak a word for Jesus. One day, while visiting England, he spoke to a young women at his table, saying that he hoped she was a Christian. Charlotte Elliott bristled. She would rather not discuss that question, she said. Malan…
1816 HT: Christian History Institute David Nasmith is famous as the founder of the first Protestant city missions. Here is the first extant letter in which he indicated his desire to be of use for God’s kingdom. It was written on this day 21 September 1816 when he was seventeen years old. “May He who has the hearts…
I recently had the immense pleasure and privilege of attending a reunion of former students of the Bible Training Institute in Glasgow, where I studied between 1978 and 1981. It was such a joy to meet up with folk I hadn’t seen for over 40 years and hear testimonies of God’s faithfulness and enabling in…
Last Sunday I began a new series of sermons in the book of Esther, a book I have never tackled before, and I still get as excited about a new preaching series as I did when I first started preaching 50 years ago. You can find the first two sermons in the series here.