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Jessie Penn-Lewis was born in 1861, in Wales to a Calvinist Methodist minister. Her family had moved into an old museum – and in the attic of the old tower Jessie “taught herself to read the Bible freely” by the age of four. “There were books, books, and more books everywhere” in the home.
She received [...]

Mothers have often felt powerless to see good outcomes in their wayward children. History and the Bible attest to the effect of a woman’s prayers and the actions of a praying mum. Those who follow my daily Church History posts will recognise two mothers in particular who saw their prayers answered for their wayward [...]

Constanine the Great was born Flavius Valerius Constantinus, at Naissus, Serbia (so states Christian History Magazine, No. 27, page 23). But the year? “Probably 272”, however others put the range as from 274 to 288. His father was Constantius Chlorus, a Roman officer, and his mother was Helena, a concubine and a woman of inferior [...]

John ‘Rabbi’ Duncan died, on February 26, 1870. He was not really a rabbi, but such was the nickname by which he became known.
John Duncan was born to humble, pious parents, in Gilcomston, Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1796, his father, John, being a shoemaker. Young John was the only child of his parents to survive infancy. [...]

The concept of freedom seems contradictory to the idea of law. But the two are intrinsically linked so you cannot have true freedom without God’s Law. And to attest to that fact I have a quote from an ancient man of God and a phrase from the Bible which you need to be aware [...]

Susanna Wesley, mother of John and Charles Wesley, wrote to her husband in defence of her ministry! It was February 25, 1712. John Wesley was only 9 years old at this time and it was 30 years before Susanna’s death.
When Susanna’s husband, the Rev Samuel Wesley, was absent, attending Convocation in London, his good wife [...]

Amanda Jane Berry Smith died, on February 24, 1915. She was born into slavery on a farm in Long Green in Maryland, USA on January 23, 1837. She was the oldest daughter in a family of thirteen children. Her father was able to buy his freedom, with funds raised by selling products he made in [...]

In a previous post (Finding Time for Important Things) I pointed out that the things we think are priorities in our lives are actually “imagined priorities”. Our Real Priorities can easily be determined by what we spend our life doing.
When you give your time, energy and life over to a bunch of mundane things [...]

Bartholomew Ziegenbalg died on February 23, 1719.
Born in Saxony in 1682 and raised in the university town of Halle, Germany, Ziegenbalg became a pioneer Protestant missionary to India, and the first to translate the Scriptures into an Indian language … some 80 years before the more famous William Carey.
This young German had been converted [...]

James Russell Lowell was born, in New England, USA on February 22, 1819.
He is described as “a poet, essayist, publicist, humorist, scholar and diplomatist” (Cyclopaedia of English Literature, Volume 3, page 799). DP notes: None of the books consulted tell me whether he professed to be a Christian – or not!
His father was a Unitarian [...]