Refreshing

Daily
in God’s Word
Emphasis on

Do You Know
 Did You Know About April
Fool’s Day?
April 1

 Bible Reading: Psalm 14

 Key Verse: Verse 1 - “The fool hath said in his heart,
there is no God. They are corrupt, they have done
abominable works, there is none that doeth good.”
Key Words: The fool hath said in his heart

April Fool’s Day, also known as All Fool’s Day, is

celebrated on April 1. Some believe the tradition of April
Fool’s Day began with the adoption of a new calendar in 1582.
The calendar was ordered to be used by Pope Gregory XIII.
The calendar changed the beginning of a new year from April
1 to January 1 which many thought was foolish. Thus we
have, according to some, the beginning of what is now April
Fool’s Day.
The greatest fool of all is the atheist who says there is
no God.
George Bernard Shaw, who proclaimed himself to be
an atheist, said in his last writings, “The science to which I
pinned my faith is bankrupt. Its counsels, which should have
established the millennium, led, instead, directly to the
suicide of Europe. I believed them once. In their name I
helped to destroy the faith of millions of worshipers in the
temples of a thousand creeds. And now they look at me and
witness the great tragedy of an atheist who has lost his faith.”
“The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.”
What a shame!!
What to do:
✞Atheism is a one-way street to hell. Stay away from
it.
Do You Know Who The First
Professional Baseball Player
Was?
April 2

 Bible Reading: Mark 8:31-38

 Key Verse: Verse 36 – “For what shall it profit a man,
if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own
soul?”
Key Words: For what shall it profit a man

Al Reach was baseball’s first pro player. In 1864,

hard-hitting second baseman Al Reach left the Brooklyn
Atlantics for the Philadelphia Athletics so that he could earn
$25 a week. Fans objected to a player taking money for the
privilege of batting a horsehide sphere with a wooden stick.
But Reach set a precedent: He became the first salaried
baseball player, thereby transforming an amateur sport into a
professional one. Before Reach joined the A’s, outstanding
athletes had been given money under the table – shares of
gate receipts, gifts, and promises of political favor. By the end
of the decade, baseball players were openly earning as much
as $1,400 a year. Now, while $1,400 doesn’t seem like a lot by
today’s standards, it was a great amount in the 1800’s. But
whether you are making millions a year or fourteen hundred,
it really doesn’t matter what one gains on this earth if they
haven’t gained Jesus Christ!
What to do:
✞Richness of Christ or richness of the world…which
do you choose?

Do You Know About Betty

Crocker?
April 3

 Bible Reading: Mark 8:22-30

 Key Verse: Verse 29 – “And he saith unto them, But
whom say ye that I am? And Peter answereth and
saith unto him, Thou art the Christ.”
Key Words: art the Christ

"How do you make a one-crust pie?" "What's a good

recipe for apple dumplings?" In 1921, when the Washburn
Crosby Company, makers of Gold Medal Flour, needed a
name to sign replies to the questions contained in an
avalanche of customer mail, they invented Betty Crocker.
The surname belonged to William Crocker, a director
of the company, and Betty was a popular nickname at the
time. Today, as the General Mills trademark, Betty Crocker
still stands for the positive attitude in homemaking. Indeed,
she became “the eternal and supreme housewife, all-wise,
generous of time, advice, sympathy.”
Now, I’m really glad I got to know Betty Crocker. I’ve
really enjoyed her sweet treats over the years; but I’m really
overjoyed to tell you that I know who Jesus is on a personal
basis. For over 59 years I have been a child of the Lord and
the relationship grows “sweeter” every day. How about you?

What to do:
 ✞It’s not important you know Betty Crocker but it is
imperative that you know Jesus Christ as your Savior.
Do you?

Do You Know About “Cops?”

April 4

 Bible Reading: Acts 11:22-30

 Key Verse: 26 – “And when he had found him, he
brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a
whole year they assembled themselves with the
church, and taught much people. And the disciples
were called Christians first in Antioch.”
Key Words: And the disciples were called
Christians first in Antioch

In the early 1840s, New York City’s population was

about 350,000. Criminals of all kinds operated openly, and
the recent influx of immigrants had turned many of the city’s
neighborhoods into ethnic battlegrounds. In 1845, New York
formed a peacekeeping force of 800 men. Each wore a copper
star, giving rise to the inevitable nickname “cops.”
Just as “cops” got their name from peacekeeping,
Christians got their names from faithful church attendance.
The name Christian comes from two words, Christ and the
suffix ian meaning to resemble. So a Christian is one who
resembles Jesus Christ.
Being born again means you are bound for heaven.
Being a Christian means that heaven lives in you. So let me
challenge every born-again believer to also be a Christian and
resemble Christ in all you do.
What to do:
✞Be a Christian.

Did You Know About The Cherry

Sisters?
April 5

 Bible Reading: Exodus 32:15-24

 Key Verse: Verse 18 “And he said, It is not the voice of
them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of
them that cry for being overcome: but the noise of
them that sing do I hear.”
Key Words: the noise of them that sing

The Cherry Sisters burst upon an unsuspecting public

in 1893, performing an act so awful that it became a hit –
people flocked to see them so they could heckle them and
throw things at the stage. When the Des Moines Leader
carried a review calling one sister a “capering monstrosity”
and described their sound as “like the wailings of depraved
souls,” the “capering monstrosity” sister sued. After the
sisters performed their act in court, the Leader won the suit.
The Iowa Supreme Court decided that “Freedom of discussion
is guaranteed by our fundamental law.” Today the standard
textbooks on First Amendment law cite the Cherry Sisters’
case.
I would imagine the Cherry Sisters’ music would fit in
today’s society since much of all we hear is “noise” and a
“capering monstrosity” some call singing.
In Israel’s false worship Moses called their singing
“noise.” Now someone is going to bring up that the psalmist
tells us to make a joyful noise unto the Lord, but the noise in
Exodus and the word noise in Psalms has two different
meanings. In Exodus the word means frivolity (silliness,
light-heartedness, not serious), while the word in Psalm 100
means just the opposite (serious shout).
So let’s be serious about praising God with our music
rather than the silliness of the world’s music.

What to do:
✞Make a joyful noise unto the Lord.

********************
Did You Know Typhoid Mary?
April 6

 Bible Reading: Proverbs 22:1-10

 Key Verse: Verse 10 – “Cast out the scorner, and
contention shall go out; yea, strife and reproach shall
cease.”
Key Words: Cast out the scorner

Her name was Mary Mallon; she was a cook but not a
criminal. After a wealthy New York family hired her in 1906,
six people in the family came down with typhoid fever.
George A. Soper, a Department of Health sanitary engineer,
traced her work history and discovered she had fled typhoid
outbreaks in at least five other homes. Mallon was tracked
down and determined to be a breeder and carrier of the
deadly Salmonella typhosa bacteria. She was isolated in a
hospital for two years and released on the condition that she
find another occupation.
Against orders, Mallon went back to cooking and was
recaptured after five years on the lam. She was confined to a
hospital for the rest of her life; she died of a stroke in 1938, at
age 70. Though “Typhoid Mary” was herself immune from the
deadly disease she carried, she infected at least 57 people and
caused three deaths…that we know of.
While Mary was a carrier of typhoid, there are those
who in the spiritual realm are carriers of a spiritual disease of
mocking and contentions. This sin disease is called
scornfulness. Just as Mary had to be isolated or she would
infect others so it is with the scorner if they are not cast out.
You cleanse your business, your home, or it will be full of
deadly mockings and contentions.

What to do:
✞Cast out the scorner and contention will cease.

********************
Did You Know About Joe
Knowles?
April 7

 Bible Reading: Luke 14:12-24

 Key Verse: Verse 23 – “And the lord said unto the
servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and
compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.”
Key Words: compel them to come in

I love the thought of being an outdoorsman; a pioneer

for some reason excites me, which brings me to Joe Knowles.
“I shall be entirely independent of the rest of
humanity,” Joe Knowles declared on a rainy August morning
in 1913. At that point, he stripped down to a loincloth and
moved into the Maine woods. Urban life had spawned a
strong back-t0-nature movement, and Knowles decided to
spend two months alone to prove that man could still survive
the simple life. His notes to the outside world, written on
bark with burnt sticks, were picked up by a Boston reporter.
Circulation soared as readers followed Knowles’ progress.
Despite certain discrepancies in his back-to-nature tales –
was his fur cloak actually a bearskin he’d purchased for $12 –
thousands cheered the “modern primitive man” when he
emerged. As it turned out, Knowles’ survival skills in the
business world were just as keen as they were in the wild: His
book, Alone in the Wilderness, became an instant best-seller.
 The problem with being independent from humanity
is that it opposed God’s Word. We are not commanded to be
isolationists but rather to be involved in the lives of people
compelling them to turn to Jesus; and I say God’s “business is
the people business.” So let’s be about God’s business.

What to do:
✞Be about God’s business.

********************
Did You Know About Miss
America?
April 8

 Bible Reading: I Peter 3:1-6

 Key Verse: Verse 4 – “But let it be the hidden man of
the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the
ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the
sight of God of great price.”
Key Words: let it be the hidden man of the heart

Today much of the emphasis of society is on outer

beauty; but what about the inner beauty of a person? Let me
ask, Do you know who won the first Miss America pageant? It
was a 16 year-old schoolgirl named Margaret Gorman. She
was the first to win the Miss America title. The pageant began
in 1921, when Atlantic City merchants found a way to keep
tourists in town after Labor Day. An area reporter coined the
magic phrase Miss America. As Miss Washington, DC,
Gorman vied with other “civic beauties,” all clad in short, wool
bathing dresses, for the newly created crown. Her trophy was
a golden statue of a mermaid. Returning as Queen of the
Pageant to compete in the even bigger 1922 contest, she lost
to Miss Columbus, Ohio. In 1923 she tried again, this time
wearing a tanksuit. Then Gorman went home and married a
real estate agent.
 Life is not about outer beauty, it’s about inner beauty
which comes through knowing Christ as Savior and an abiding
life with Him. Oh, if parents would only teach that.

What to do:
✞ Outer beauty will get a man; inner beauty will keep
him.

********************
Did You Know About Paying
Attention?
April 9

 Bible Reading: I Corinthians 10:1-13

 Key Verse: Verse 12 – “Wherefore let him that
thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”
Key Words: take heed lest he fall

During the filming of the 1930 film, The King of Jazz,

Bing Crosby had a minor car accident after leaving a
Hollywood bash one night. A policeman smelled liquor on the
crooner’s breath and took him in. When, two weeks later,
Crosby found himself in court, the judge asked: “Don’t you
know that there’s a Prohibition law in the United States and
liquor is forbidden?”
“Yes,” Crosby replied, “but nobody pays any attention
to that!”
“You’ll have 30 days to pay some attention to it!” said
the judge. Crosby went to the clink.
Bing Crosby’s words ring true today for America. We
are in the condition we are with LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi-sexual,
transgender), abortion and other sins because when it comes
to God’s Word, nobody is paying attention to it. What a
shame!
What to do:
✞Pay attention to God’s Word.

Did You Know About A

President And UFOs?
April 10

 Bible Reading: Acts 1:1-11

 Key Verse: Verse 11 - “Which also said, Ye men of
Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this
same Jesus, which is taken up from you into
heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have
seen him go into heaven.”
Key Words: shall so come

Just after dark on a clear January 1969 evening,

several members of the Lions Club of Leary, Georgia, had
gathered outdoors before a meeting. Suddenly, a UFO
appeared on the horizon. What was unusual about this
sighting was that one of the witnesses was a future president:
Jimmy Carter.
Carter, the scheduled speaker, wrote in his official
report that an object “at one time, as bright as the moon” was
sighted in the western sky. The men watched the
phenomenon for about ten minutes. It “seemed to move
toward us from a distance,” Carter continued, before it
eventually departed.
He described it as “bluish at first, then reddish,
luminous, not solid.” Although later investigation concluded
that it was probably the planet Venus (a common mistake in
UFO sightings), Carter subsequently declared: “I’ll never
make fun of people who say they’ve seen unidentified objects
in the sky.”
I have my opinions about UFOs which I’ll keep to
myself for now, but I do know that one day (and I believe
soon) there will be an unidentified Savior coming out of the
heavens. So I’m not looking for UFOs, I’m looking for the
return of the King of Kings and Lord of
Lords.

What to do:
✞Be looking upward, not for UFOs, but for the Lord’s
return.

********************
Did You Know About
Cabbage Patch?
April 11

 Bible Reading: II Kings 10:1-17

 Key Verse: Verse 16 – “And he said, Come with me,
and see my zeal for the LORD. So they made him
ride in his chariot.”
Key Words: Come with me, and see my zeal for the
LORD.

In 1983, to the utter dismay of marketers everywhere,

a national craze erupted for a new line of homely dolls that
didn't talk, cry, or wet their pants. Xavier Roberts, a young
man from Georgia who was experimenting with soft
sculpture, had drawn on Appalachian folk tradition to make
his handmade dolls with yarn for hair – the antithesis of
modern, high-tech toys. Roberts approached toy companies
to discuss large-scale production. Coleco was interested.
Coleco’s Cabbage Patch Kids were a monumental hit.
Each Kid or Baby (the makers didn’t call them “dolls”) was
unique, but all had Roberts’s signature imprinted on their
bottoms. “Adopted” by a child “parent,” each arrived with
adoption papers from the “hospital” in Cleveland, Georgia,
after it had been “born” in a Cabbage Patch. Demand greatly
exceeded supply, and tales of parents rioting at toy stores to
get dolls were headline news in the early 1980s.
Wouldn’t it be great if we as believers were as zealous
for the Lord as others were for a Cabbage Patch doll?

What to do:
✞Be zealous for the Lord.

********************
Did You Know About Columbus’
Findings?
April 12

 Bible Reading: Jeremiah 29:10-19

 Key Verse: Verse 13 – “And ye shall seek me, and find
me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”
Key Words: And ye shall seek me, and find me

Much has been gleaned about Columbus’ voyages from

Bartolome’ de las Casas, the 16th-century priest who
chronicled Spanish exploration. He told the world about
hammocks (“very restful to sleep in”) and tobacco. But it was
the admiral himself who recorded the most vivid impressions
of his surroundings on these shores so far from home. “Here
the fishes are so unlike ours that it is marvelous,” Columbus
wrote. “And all the trees…as different from ours as day from
night, and so the fruits, the herbage, the rocks, and all things.”
His descriptions set European naturalists aquiver. Among his
discoveries was the delicious “pine of the Indies” – the
pineapple.
It is wonderful that there are those who have come
upon so many of God’s wonderful creations; but the greatest
find of all is to find God, to come to know the Lord Jesus as
one’s personal Savior. To God be the glory for that great
“find” in my life.

What to do:
✞If you have found Jesus as your Savior, you have
found the greatest gift of all! Have you found Him?
Did You Know About Wind
Wagons?
April 13

 Bible Reading: 2 Timothy 4:1-10

 Key Verse: Verse 7 – “I have fought a good fight, I
have finished my course, I have kept the faith:”
Key Words: I have finished my course

In 1830, a wind-driven car set sail on the Baltimore &

Ohio Railroad. Doomed to failure, the Aeolus proved how
difficult it was to handle when it sailed off the end of the track,
smack into an embankment.
In 1853, Tom “Windwagon” Smith was confident that
his vehicle could “fly over the plains.” But his enormous
Conestoga-style wagon, complete with a 20-foot mast flying
over a huge sail, got caught in the crosswind and careened in a
circle – and his investors abandoned ship.
On a sunny spring day in 1860, as a wind wagon sailed
into Denver, “everyone crossed the street to get a sight of this
new-fangled frigate.” Who made this particular wagon?
We’re not absolutely certain, but evidence points to A. J.
“Andy” Dawson, from Oskaloosa, Kansas. His contraption
had a boat-like mast and sail and had a crank, so the vehicle
could be propelled, if need be. The wind wagon was alleged to
have arrived in Denver from Kansas in about 20 days.
Just as there are those determined to succeed with
their “inventions,” Paul was driven as well. He was driven to
finish the course that God had given him. May each of us be
able to say that we have fought a good fight, we have finished
our course and we have kept the faith.

What to do:
✞Finish the course to which God has called you.
Did You Know About These
Dates?
April 14
 Bible Reading: Revelation 21:18-27
 Key Verse: Verse 27 - “And there shall in no wise enter
into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever
worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they
which are written in the Lamb's book of life.”
Key Words: written in the Lamb’s book of life

Since the mid-1800s, America has been making

significant strides in medicine. Here are a few medical
milestones that show just how far we’ve come in
approximately 170 years.

1842 Dr. Crawford Long uses ether as a surgical

anesthetic for the first time.

1844 The American Psychiatric Association is

founded.

1847 The American Medical Association is

established.

1855 The nation’s first permanent state board of

health is created in Louisiana.

1890 Dr. William Stewart Halsted uses rubber gloves

in surgery for the first time.
 1893 Dr. Daniel Hale Williams performs the world’s
first open-heart surgery.

1902 Surgeon Alexis Carrel develops sutures to close

incisions in blood vessels, thus aiding healing and helping to
prevent infection.

1912 Casimir Funk suggests that certain diseases,

such as scurvy and rickets, are due to dietary deficiencies in
nutrients that he called “vitamines.”

1923 George N. Papanicolaou develops the Pap test, a

lifesaving procedure for the early detection of uterine cancer.

1943 Biologist Selman A. Waksman discovers the

antibiotic streptomycin, which helps eradicate tuberculosis.

1953 American James D. Watson and Briton Francis

H. Crick decode the structure of the genetic material DNA.

1954 John F. Enders, a virologist, and Thomas

Peebles, a pediatrician, develop a vaccine to prevent measles.

1957 Clarence W. Lillehei, a physician, builds the first

pace-maker to stabilize an irregular heartbeat.

1973 Michael S. Brown and Joseph L. Goldstein

discover how cholesterol is transported through the body,
advancing the treatment of cardiovascular diseases.

1981 The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention first recognizes AIDS.

2003 The Human Genome Project is completed in

the United States, mapping out all the genes in human DNA.

2006 The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine,

developed by researchers in the United States and Australia, is
approved to prevent certain sexually transmitted diseases that
can cause cervical cancer.

But the most important date is the day you accepted

Christ and your name was written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

What to do:
✞Know for sure you are born again.

********************
Did You Know About
Investments?
April 15

 Bible Reading: Matthew 6:19-25

 Key Verse: Verse 20 - “But lay up for yourselves
treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust
doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through
nor steal:”
Key Words: lay up for yourselves treasures in
heaven

America’s foremost humorist was a bit of a sucker

when it came to investing in other people’s inventions, but he
somehow managed to turn down a stock offering in the
telephone from Alexander Graham Bell. Twain wrote: “I said
I didn’t want anything more to do with wildcat speculation.
Then he (Bell) offered the stock to me at twenty-five. I said I
didn’t want it at any price. He became eager; insisted that I
take five hundred dollars’ worth. He said he would sell me as
much as I wanted for five hundred dollars. But I was the
burnt child, and I resisted all those temptations, resisted them
easily; went off with my check intact, and next day lent five
thousand of it, on an unendorsed note, to a friend who was
going to go bankrupt three days later.” The small investment
Bell was seeking would have earned Twain $190,000. That
would be equivalent to several million dollars today.
But there is a greater investment and that is investing
our lives and our finances into God’s “heavenly work.” One
day we will get our “investment check” which will be far
greater than any earthly investment.

What to do:
✞Those who invest in the heavenly will receive a
“higher” return on their investment.

********************
Do You Know About The First
Fatal Air Crash?
April 16

 Bible Reading: II Timothy 4:1-10

 Key Verse: Verse 10 - “For Demas hath forsaken me,
having loved this present world, and is departed unto
Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto
Dalmatia.”
Key Words: Demas hath forsaken me, having
loved this present world

As 2,000 people watched, Orville Wright and

Lieutenant Thomas E. Selfridge soared 150 feet over Fort
Myer, Virginia. It was September 17, 1908. Wright was
demonstrating his latest airplane for the army as Selfridge ,
cofounder of the Aerial Experiment Association, assessed its
military value. During the fourth and final lap, a guy wire
broke loose and fouled a propeller. The plane, said one
eyewitness, “came down like a bird shot dead in full flight.”
Orville’s left leg and hip were smashed; Selfridge, his skull
fractured, died that night.
While Orville’s injuries and Thomas’ death were both
tragic, one of the greatest tragedies that I endure as a pastor is
watching one suffer and struggle because they have fallen out
of love with God and in love with the world.

What to do:
✞Remember a falling out with God is worse than
falling from the sky.
Do You Know About Ivory Soap?
April 17

 Bible Reading: Psalm 45:1-8

 Key Verse: Verse 8 - “All thy garments smell of
myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory
palaces, whereby they have made thee glad.”
Key Words: out of the ivory palaces

Harley Proctor was proud. In 1878, his company had

come up with a soap bar as fine as the finest imported castile
soaps but much less expensive. Indeed, a chemist’s report
confirmed that Proctor & Gamble ‘s White Soap (the original
name for what later became known as Ivory soap) was 99 and
44/100 percent pure. It was only by sheer accident that the
soap acquired its most singular feature.
One day, a factory worker forgot to shut off the soap-
making machine when he went out to lunch. While he was
away, so much air was worked into the mixture that it turned
light and frothy. The worker decided not to discard the soap
and shipped it out anyway. After all, the ingredients were the
same. Who’d notice?
Well, customers did – and deluged the company with
requests for its unique “soap that floats.” After some hasty
detective work, Proctor found out that P&G had inadvertently
created a floating gold mine.
The soap boasted of its purity and lightness well into
the 20th century with the familiar slogan,”Ivory:99 and
44/100% pure – it floats.”
An early advertisement for the soap Harley Proctor
was inspired to name after Psalms 45:8: “All thy garments
smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory places,
whereby they have made thee glad.”
As a born-again child of God, I can only "smell" of
righteousness as I draw near to God. Just as Ivory soap cleans
us physically, it's God's Word that cleans us spiritually.

What to do:
✞Take a bath and be clean physically but soak
yourself in God's Word to stay clean spiritually.

********************
Do You Know About This Battle?
April 18

 Bible Reading: Ephesians 6:10-18

 Key Verse: Verses 12 - “For we wrestle not against
flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this
world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
Key Words: against spiritual wickedness in high
places

The author H.G. Wells once said, “If we don’t end war,
war will end us,” and it was an idea so poignant that President
Kennedy paraphrased him a few decades later. But knowing
war’s possible effects hasn’t changed our behavior much.
From the moments that we touched down on these shores,
Americans have been engaged in conflict – for defending our
liberties, our lands, then the liberties and lands of others.
Names like Bull Run, the Alamo, Midway, Pearl
Harbor, Omaha Beach, and Iraq are etched in our minds.
They are just a few of the places where generations of
Americans have served and sacrificed.
But there is a famous battle not mentioned in the
battles mentioned above. It’s the battle for righteousness.
The hymn writer George Duffield said it best when he
wrote “Stand up, stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross;
lift high his royal banner, it must not suffer loss. From victory
unto victory his army shall he lead, till every foe is
vanquished, and Christ is Lord indeed.”

What to do:
✞Fight the good fight of faith.

********************
Do You Know About
Washington Crossing The
Rhine?
April 19

 Bible Reading: John 20: 24-31

 Key Verse: Verses 31 - “But these are written, that ye
might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God;
and that believing ye might have life through his
name.”
Key Words: But these are written, that ye might
believe

The famous depiction of George Washington crossing

the Delaware was actually painted in Germany in 1851 by
Emanuel Leutze, who used American tourists as models but
patterned the river on the Rhine. The boats, the flag, the
dress, and the ice are inaccurate; nonetheless, Leutze vividly
captured the drama of the Christmas 1776 assault.
Only a second version of Leutze’s painting made it to
the United States. The original, which had been damaged by
fire at his studio, hung in Bremen, Germany, until September
5, 1942, when it was destroyed in an Allied bombing raid.
Isn’t it amazing the “lack” of truth we really know
about history? While that may be somewhat serious to be
inaccurate about certain historical “facts”, it is far more
serious to be inaccurate in regard to God’s truth.

What to do:
✞Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of
God.
Do You Know About
Captain Jouett?
April 20

 Bible Reading: II Corinthians 11:23-32

 Key Verse: Verse 30 – “If I must needs glory, I will
glory of the things which concern mine infirmities.”
Key Words: If I must needs glory, I will glory of
the things which concern mine infirmities

Have you heard of Captain Jouett? He brought a

saving message to Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia
Assembly.
On the night of June 3-4, 1781, Jouett, a captain in the
Virginia Militia, saved Thomas Jefferson (and the Virginia
Assembly) from 250 British troops who had been sent to
Charlottesville to capture them. The 27-year-old colonial
spied the red-coated dragoons at Cuckoo Tavern in Louisa
County and took off into the night.
Unlike Revere’s ride along well-traveled roads,
Jouett’s 40-mile trek took him through wilderness, where
riding was slow by day and potentially deadly in darkness.
When the captain reached Jefferson’s home at dawn, his face
was swollen and bleeding from being lashed by branches. By
the time the British arrived, the Americans had fled.
Now while Jouett’s journey was one of peril, Paul’s was
one of peril as well. Jouett saved a group of men from
physical harm. Paul‘s message of salvation through Jesus
Christ saved thousands upon thousands. To God be the glory.
What to do:
✞Be willing to endure some inconvenience if you are
to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Do You Know About The Tomb

Of The Unknown Soldier?
April 21

 Bible Reading: John 10:22-30

 Key Verse: Verse 27 - “My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and they follow me:”
Key Words: and I know them

On October 22, 1921, four bodies were exhumed at

four cemeteries in France, near sites where American soldiers
were known to have fallen in the War to End All Wars.
Those selecting the remains had to make sure they
were indeed Americans but were otherwise truly
unidentifiable, with no clues as to name, rank, or service. For
evidence they relied upon location of the original burial,
gunshot wounds, and fragments of uniform. The bodies were
embalmed, placed in similar coffins, and taken to the city hall
at Chalons-sur-Marne.
In a simple ceremony on the morning of October 24,
Sergeant Edward S. Younger, a soldier decorated for heroism
in the war, entered the chapel, circled the four caskets, and
choosing at random placed a spray of white roses on the
second from the right. The chosen soldier was interred at
Arlington National Cemetery on Armistice Day. On his white
marble tomb appears this inscription: “Here Rests in Honored
Glory an American Soldier Known but to God.”
Are you glad that Jesus knows you? Why he even
knows the name of the soldier in the tomb of the unknown.
We do serve a wonderful God who knows all about us.
It matters little to me what others say about me, because in
reality most of our critics know little about us; it does matter
though what Jesus knows about me! Now that matters to me.

What to do:
✞Know with certainty that Jesus knows who you are. The
question is do you know Him?

********************
Do You Know About These
Heroes?
April 22

 Bible Reading: Hebrews 11:32-40

 Key Verse: Verse 38 - “(Of whom the world was not
worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in
mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.”
Key Words: Of whom the world was not worthy

One of my favorite World War I stories is about The

Lost Battalion. Someone has written:
“Neither lost nor a battalion, they were 550 stalwart
soldiers, the tattered remnants of New York’s famed 77 th
‘Statue of Liberty’ Division, fighting their way through France.
Commanding them was a bespectacled Wall Street lawyer,
Major Charles Whittlesey, who won the Medal of Honor for
his deeds.
“When Allied forces began the 1918 drive that would
end World War I, the 77th faced the Argonne Forest, a
formidable German stronghold. Whittlesey’s exhausted
troops had been fighting steadily for weeks; nonetheless,
General John J. ‘Black Jack’ Pershing ordered the Americans
to advance ‘without regard of losses.’ When the major’s
protest was refused, he responded: ‘I’ll attack, but whether
you’ll hear from me again, I don’t know.’”
 One hundred and ninety four of the battalion did
survive and until their deaths they were modern day heroes.
Now they are deceased heroes.
In Hebrews 11 there are thirty-two heroes, not heroes
from a physical world war, but a spiritual world war that has
gone on for years between the Lord and Satan. Well, I’ve read
the last chapter – the good guys win. Now it is men and
women such as those who are mentioned in Hebrews 11 that
should be our heroes. Amen and amen.

What to do:
✞Be thankful for, not just your physical heroes, but
your spiritual ones as well.

********************
Do You Know About
Louis Adamic?
April 23

 Bible Reading: Joshua 24:14-28

 Key Verse: Verse 15 - “And if it seem evil unto you to
serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will
serve; whether the gods which your fathers served
that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of
the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me
and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
Key Words: choose you this day whom ye will
serve

Joshua, chapter twenty-four, the leader of Israel has

gathered all of Israel together and reminds them of all that
God has done for them. He cautions them about all the false
gods in the land, and tells them that they must choose which
god they are going to serve. Divided loyalty never works!!
 Louis Adamic, a Yugoslavian boy, came to the United
States at the age of fourteen. He had a great love for writing.
His first book, Dynamite, was a history of the American Labor
Conflict. His second book, The Natives Return, was the book
that made Adamic famous. He wrote this book from a visit to
the land of his birth. From that time on, his allegiance was
divided. He wanted to do something for Yugoslavia. Adamic
thought that Stalin was Yugoslavia’s friend. So he abandoned
his American wages and began to get involved with the
politics in the region of the Balkans. Adamic then renounced
his American citizenship and became a citizen of both the
Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. This made both Stalin, the
Soviet Union leader, and Tito, the Yugoslavian leader, upset
with Adamic. Some months later Adamic was found dead in
his home in Yugoslavia.
After a thorough investigation, Adamic’s death was
announced as a murder. No one really knows, but his death is
believed to be the result of divided loyalty, between Stalin and
Tito. One newspaper wrote, “The moral of Adamic’s death is
clear: divided loyalty will lead to tragedy.”
The spiritual analogy is just as clear. We cannot be
loyal to the world and God. In the words of Joshua, “Choose
you this day whom you will serve.”

What to do:
✞Write down your top priorities for life and see how
many are Godly.

********************
Do You Know About
Leo Tolstoy?
April 24

 Bible Reading: Mark 11:20-33


 Key Verse: Verse 26 - “But if ye do not forgive, neither
will your Father which is in heaven forgive your
trespasses.”
Key Words: If ye do not forgive

Leo Tolstoy thought he was starting his marriage off

on the right foot when he asked his teenage fiance to read his
diaries, which spelled out in lurid detail all of his sexual
dalliances. He wanted to keep no secrets from Sonya, to begin
marriage with a clean slate, forgiven. Instead, Tolstoy’s
confession sowed the seeds for a marriage that would be held
together by vines of hatred, not love. “When he kisses me I’m
always thinking, ‘I’m not the first woman he has loved,’” wrote
Sonya Tolstoy in her own diary. Some of his adolescent flings
she could forgive, but not his affair with Axinya, a peasant
woman who continued to work on the Tolstoy estate. “One of
these days I shall kill myself with jealousy,” Sonya wrote after
seeing the three-year-old son of the peasant woman, the
spitting image of her husband. “If I could kill him [Tolstoy]
and create a new person exactly the same as he is now, I
would do so happily.” Another diary entry dates from January
14, 1909. “He relishes that peasant wench with her strong
female body and her sunburnt legs, she allures him just as
powerfully now as she did all those years ago…” Sonya wrote
those words when Axinya was a shriveled crone of eighty. For
half a century jealousy and unforgiveness had blinded her, in
the process destroying all love for her husband.
What a shame!

What to do:
✞Forgive those who refuse to forgive you.

Pastor’s Note: Just a piece of pastoral advice: public sins,

public confession; private sins, private confession. Leo should
have confessed to God and lived a pure and clean life from
that point.
 ********************

Do You Know About

Ed And Will Spencer?
April 25

 Bible Reading: II Timothy 2:1-11

 Key Verse: Verse 2 - “And the things that thou hast
heard of me among many witnesses, the same
commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to
teach others also.”
Key Words: commit thou to faithful men

The word faithful literally means trustworthy,

someone you can count on every time.
As Paul is writing Timothy, he exhorts him to commit
the teaching of God’s Word to faithful men. I find that quote
interesting – not scholarly men, or talented men, or even men
of great renown; but God’s Word is to be committed to those
who are faithful.
Solomon warns us in Proverbs 20:6b, “...but a faithful
man who can find?” Faithful men are a rarity.
It is related one fearfully stormy night a boat was
wrecked. As the dawn came, many were seen out in the icy
waters, holding on to anything that would prevent them from
sinking. Ed and Will Spencer came upon the scene. Ed was a
fine swimmer. He swam out and out again until he had
rescued many, and was almost exhausted. He saw a woman
holding on to a piece of board and crying for help. They said,
“Ed, you’d better not go.” But it was too much for him. He
swam out into the icy waters and brought her to shore. Then
he swooned. He was taken to the hospital.
After some hours, he became conscious and said to his
brother, “Will, how many were drowned?”
Will replied, “I do not know.”
Then he said, “How many did I save?”
Will replied, “Ed, you saved seventeen.”
 But Ed sadly said, “Did I do my best?” He would
become unconscious, and every time he asked the same
question when he would revive, “Will, did I do my best?”
We’re only doing our best as we are faithful
(trustworthy, dependable) to God. So let me ask you, are you
doing your best?

What to do:
✞Do your best for God – be faithful in your Bible
study, prayer life, witnessing, church attendance, and
giving.

********************
Do You Know About
Ronald Rood?
April 26

 Bible Reading: III John

 Key Verse: Verse 1 - “The elder unto the wellbeloved
Gaius, whom I love in the truth.”
Key Words: truth

Author Ronald Rood tells of an experience that shows

the power of imagination. He said he had visited a 2nd Grade
class where he gave a slide presentation of a Hawaiian
volcano. The pictures showed molten lava pouring into the
sea and steam rising a mile into the air. The scene was so
graphic that the children could almost hear the roar. Rood
then passed a piece of lava for the youngsters to examine.
After it was handled by two dozen hands, one little boy
brought the rock back to the front. Carefully cradling the
material in his hand, he exclaimed with wide eyes, "Mr. Rood,
it's still warm!"
How good it would be if the Biblical accounts of God's
people could come alive like that to us. That's not to say we
should try to fool ourselves or our children by letting our
imaginations run wild. But somehow we need to realize that
the stories in the Bible are more than just stories. The reality
they express needs to take hold of us. Moses, for instance,
knew what it meant to feel insecure. The people he led out of
Egypt cried hot, salty tears that left lines on their wind-blown
faces. These people had hearts that pounded when they were
scared. They had headaches when they were tired and
hungry. The arteries in their necks bulged when they were
angry, and their eyes watered when they laughed.
Oh Christian friend, ask God to make the people of the
Bible and their experiences come alive to you. After all, they
were living, coughing, crying, laughing human beings. And
they are our examples, for good or for not so good.

What to do:
✞Let God's Word come alive to you.

********************
Do You Know About
Jim Valvano?
April 27

 Bible Reading: Hebrews 12:1-9

 Key Verse: Verse 1 - “Wherefore seeing we also are
compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth
so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the
race that is set before us,”
Key Words: run with patience

A Winner says, “Let’s find out;” a Loser says “Nobody

knows.”
When a Winner makes a mistake; he says, “I was
wrong;” when a Loser makes a mistake; he says, “It
wasn’t my fault.”
 A Winner goes through a problem; a Loser goes
around it and never gets past it.
A Winner makes commitments; a Loser makes
promises.
A Winner says, “I’m good, but not as good as I ought
to be;” a Loser says, “I’m not as bad as a lot of other
people.”
A winner listens; a loser just waits until it’s his turn
to talk.
A winner respects those who are superior to him and
tries to learn from them; a loser resents those who are
superior to him, and tries to find chinks in their armor.
A winner explains; a loser explains away.
~ Sources Unknown
Suffering from terminal spinal cancer at the age or 47,
former North Carolina State basketball coach Jim Valvano
spoke with a reporter earlier this year. He looked back on his
life and told a story about himself as a 23-year-old coach of a
small college team.
"Why is winning so important to you?" the players
asked Valvano.
"Because the final score defines you," he said, "You
lose, ergo, you're a loser. You win, ergo, you're a winner."
"No," the players insisted. "Participation is what
matters. Trying your best, regardless of whether you win or
lose -- that's what defines you."
It took 24 more years of living. It took the coach
bolting up from the mattress three or four times a night with
his T-shirt soaked with sweat and his teeth rattling from the
fever chill of chemotherapy and the terror of seeing himself
die repeatedly in his dreams. It took all that for him to say it:
"Those kids were right. It's effort, not result. It's trying. God,
what a great human being I could have been if I'd had this
awareness back then."
~ Gary Smith of Sports Illustrated(1993)
What to do:
✞Are you doing your best for Jesus? I hope so.

Do You Know About

J.G. Warmath?
April 28

 Bible Reading: Galatians 5:1-7

 Key Verse: Verse 1 - “Stand fast therefore in the
liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be
not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”
Key Words: the liberty wherewith Christ hath
made us free

There are those who believe that salvation is not

freedom from sin, but freedom to sin. How strange! God
saves you to stay in the same sinful bondage you are already
in? How silly!!
SALVATION DOES NOT FREE US TO SIN BUT IT
FREES US FROM SIN.
We read in verse 13, "For, brethren, ye have been
called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the
flesh, but by love serve one another."
A family in Tennessee has handed down a significant
letter for at least three generations. William Walter Warmath,
a Baptist minister, received it from his mother on his twenty-
first birthday, which came while he was serving as a staff
member at Ridgecrest Baptist Assembly in North Carolina.
He tells about it in his book Spirit in Conflict. It had first
been written to William's father, J. G. Warmath, on this
twenty-first birthday, by his father. Since then, William
Warmath has passed it along to his own son, Jerry, on his
twenty-first birthday. Here is how the torn pages, yellow with
age, read:
Humboldt, Tennessee
March 24, 1893

J. G. Warmath, Twenty-one years old today. Free to

do as he pleases - to make a first-class gentleman, second or
third class as you may. Free to associate with first, second or
third class ladies and gentlemen. Free to be an honor to his
family and society generally or otherwise. Free to lead an
honorable and upright life, a life that will be esteemed by all
who may associate with you. Free to choose your own
occupation and make a success or otherwise. Free to love any
nice pretty first-class young lady and wed her if she is willing.
Free to make all the money that you can honorably and save a
good living out of it for old age or misfortune. Free to be your
own guardian and counsellor - to use all means that may come
into your hands as seemeth best to you. But not free to bring
reproach upon your Father and Mother's name ... Hoping
that life may be an honor to your name and country. We
subscribe our names - Your Father and Mother.
We are never free to bring reproach upon the name of
God, never!!!

What to do:
✞You are free - not to sin, but free from sin. Live like
it!

********************
Do You Know These Four
Chaplains?
April 29

 Bible Reading: John 15: 1-13


 Key Verse: Verse 13 - “Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
Key Words: that a man lay down his life for his
friends

Jesus is without a doubt man’s greatest friend. He

showed his friendship and love to us by laying down his life so
we could have eternal life.
While Jesus is the greatest example of one laying down
their life, there are others who died so men could live
physically such as the four chaplains on the S.S. Dorchester.
In January 1943, 903 GIs and four chaplains – George
Fox, Clark Poling, Alexander Goode, and Johnny Washington
– boarded the S.S. Dorchester. On February 3, a German
torpedo ripped into the ship. “She’s going down!” the men
cried, scrambling for lifeboats. When one GI told the
clergymen that he had lost his life jacket, the chaplain gave his
up, saying, “I’m staying. I won’t need it.” One by one , the
other three also gave up their life jackets. The chaplains, arms
linked and heads raised in prayer, stood on deck as the
Dorchester slipped beneath the waves. They were among 678
men lost that night.
President Harry Truman later praised the four: “I
don’t think in the history of the world that there has been
anything in heroism equal to this. It was the greatest sermon
that was ever preached.”

What to do:
✞What are you willing to give up so men can live
forever spiritually?

********************
Do You Know About the
Indianapolis?
April 30



 Bible Reading: John 5: 1-9
Key Verse: Verse 7- “The impotent man answered
him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled,
to put me into the pool: but while I am coming,
another steppeth down before me.”
Key Words: I have no man

What a shame for one to desire to be delivered and

there is no one to aid in his deliverance, only Jesus; but it was
Jesus only that the lame man needed.
A little before midnight on Sunday, July 29, 1945, the
heavy cruiser Indianapolis was returning from a secret
mission to the Pacific atoll of Tinian. It had delivered parts
for the atomic bomb that would be dropped on Hiroshima
eight days later. Headed toward Leyte in the Philippines, the
vessel was ripped by torpedoes from a Japanese submarine.
Within 15 minutes, it had vanished beneath the surface, the
last American ship sunk by the enemy in World War II. For
its survivors, the most desperate days of the war were about to
begin.
The ship sank so quickly that of the 1,199 crewmen,
only about 850, including Captain Charles McVay, escaped.
In the confusion, they had released a mere dozen life rafts and
six flotation nets, and the captain had been unable to send an
SOS. But the survivors weren’t even aware of their greatest
catastrophe. An earlier message giving the ship’s estimated
arrival time had been garbled in transmission so that it
couldn’t be decoded, and no one at Leyte had asked for a
retransmission. The terrifying truth was that it would take
days for the U.S. naval command to discover that the
Indianapolis was missing.
Here are 850 men who need to be delivered from the
waters of the Pacific and there was none to help.
Today the world is filled with people drowning in sin
and waiting to be delivered. Will you do your part? If not
you, then who? If not now, then when?
What to do:
✞Go out in the hi-ways and bi-ways and tell them of
Jesus.

Notes:
I deeply appreciate the
help of

Mary Parsons

Glenda Myrick

And my lovely wife, Linda

Without God using these

people to help, this
devotional would not
have been possible.
Dr. Mike Rouse
 is a ministry of

5568 Chalkville Mountain Road

Birmingham, AL. 35235
(205) 854-2741
www.mountainviewbaptist.org