Moments Almanac Episodes

On September 21, 1522, Martin Luther’s German New Testament—known as the September Testament—was published, placing the words of Scripture into the hands of ordinary people in language they could understand. Luther believed the Bible should not sound distant or academic, but like the language spoken in homes, marketplaces, workshops, and everyday life. His translation would help shape the German language and dramatically expand access to Scripture. But five centuries later, the challenge has c...

William J. Kirkpatrick gave the church some of its most beloved gospel music, including the melodies associated with “Jesus Saves,” “He Hideth My Soul,” and “‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus.” But one of his most remarkable songs began with a burden for a young soloist who could sing the gospel beautifully—yet always left before the preaching began. Kirkpatrick prayed for him and wrote a song: “Lord, I’m Coming Home.” The young man sang it, stayed to hear the message, and according to the story,...

Three generations. Three journeys. One calling. On September 19, 1853, twenty-one-year-old Hudson Taylor sailed from England for China. Decades later, Jonathan Goforth carried that same missionary burden deeper into the Chinese interior. And on September 19, 1955, Nate Saint flew over the Ecuadorian jungle searching for the Waorani people — a journey that would soon cost him his life. Their stories were separated by years, continents, and methods, but each was marked by the same simple realit...

On September 18, 1905, Scottish minister, novelist, and fantasy writer George MacDonald died—never knowing how far his stories would travel. Years later, a young C. S. Lewis discovered MacDonald’s Phantastes and said it had “baptized my imagination.” That seed would eventually bear fruit in one of Christianity’s most influential writers. Today on Moments Almanac, we explore the remarkable legacy of a man whose pulpit may have disappeared—but perhaps only because it got larger. It’s a reminder t...

September 17, 1942. In wartime Romania, a Pentecostal believer named Voicu Rusin stood before a military court and faced a devastating choice: compromise his convictions and go free—or remain faithful and pay an almost unimaginable price. This episode of Moments Almanac tells the little-known story of an ordinary Christian whose quiet refusal became an extraordinary testimony. It’s a story about conscience, courage, and the moments when faithfulness comes down to one simple question: What are ...

September 16 — Joseph Samuel Murrow: He Stayed On September 16, 1857, twenty-two-year-old Joseph Samuel Murrow was ordained to the ministry. Soon after, he headed west to serve among Native peoples in Indian Territory—and what began as a missionary appointment became a lifetime of service. Murrow helped establish churches, train Native pastors, strengthen schools, care for orphans, and share the gospel across generations. But perhaps the most remarkable thing about his story is also the simpl...

On September 15, 1963, a bomb exploded at Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church, killing four young girls: Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Denise McNair. The tragedy came on a Sunday when the church’s Youth Day carried an almost unbearable theme: “A Love That Forgives.” In this installment of Moments Almanac, we remember four lives, a nation confronted by the horror of racial hatred, and a difficult question that still reaches across the decades: What does forgiveness...

On September 14, two remarkable lives meet across more than thirteen centuries. John Chrysostom — the famed “Golden Mouth” of the early church — died in forced exile in 407 after years of preaching with unusual courage against corruption, luxury, and indifference toward the poor. His words could fill a cathedral, but they also unsettled powerful people because he refused to let the comfortable forget the suffering around them. On that same date in 1736, Robert Raikes was born in Gloucester, E...

On September 11, 2001, evil left a terrible mark. But it was not the only thing present that day. In this solemn Moments Almanac, we remember the loss—and the courage, compassion, sacrifice, and grace that appeared in the darkness. Share Your Thoughts

On this day in 1819, Joseph Scriven was born in Ireland — a man whose private grief would one day give the church one of its most beloved hymns. In this episode of Moments Almanac, we trace the quiet, sorrow-shaped life of a man who endured deep personal loss, served others with unusual humility, and discovered that friendship with Christ was not sentimental language for easy days, but solid ground for hard ones. Sometimes the songs the church sings most confidently were first written through te...

Four hundred and thirty-eight years apart, Philipp Melanchthon and President Dwight D. Eisenhower faced very different questions of authority. One helped articulate a Reformation conviction that Scripture stands above human institutions. The other signed the first federal civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, as America wrestled with whether justice could be left to the will of individual states. Two moments. Two very different struggles. And one enduring question: Who gets the final w...

When the Walls Don’t Hold On September 8, AD 70, the Roman siege of Jerusalem came to its devastating end. On the same date in 1941, Leningrad was cut off from the outside world, beginning a siege that would last nearly 900 days. Two cities. Two sieges. Nineteen centuries apart. One story remembers people who fled when warned. The other remembers people who had nowhere to go and endured. Sometimes faith means go. Sometimes faith means hold on. And both stories remind us of something we easily...

On September 7, 1807, Robert Morrison arrived in China with a Bible and a calling, beginning decades of quiet missionary work that would help bring Scripture to the Chinese people. Ninety-four years later, the Boxer Protocol marked the bitter aftermath of an uprising fueled partly by resentment toward foreign influence. Two moments on the same date offer both a calling and a warning: carry the gospel faithfully—but be careful what else you carry with it. Share Your Thoughts

On September 6, 1529, Anabaptist preacher Jörg Blaurock was executed for a conviction that had already cost him his position, his freedom, his friendships, and ultimately his life. Four years earlier, Blaurock had knelt in a small house in Zurich and asked to be baptized upon his own confession of faith—helping ignite the Swiss Anabaptist movement. Arrested, beaten, banished, and threatened with death, he kept preaching. Even during his final weeks in prison, he wrote hymns rather than pleas fo...

On September 5, 1997, Mother Teresa died in Calcutta after a lifetime spent among the poor, the abandoned, and the dying. To the world, she seemed to embody unwavering spiritual certainty. But letters published after her death revealed a surprising private struggle: for decades, she often lived without any felt sense of God’s presence. In this episode of Moments Almanac, we look beyond questions of Catholic sainthood to something every Christian can understand—the experience of praying when God...

September 4 — Two Men, Two Surrenders On September 4, 1886, Apache leader Geronimo laid down his weapons for the final time, ending years of resistance against the United States government. Seventy-nine years later, on the same date, physician, theologian, and Nobel Peace Prize winner Albert Schweitzer died at the hospital he had built in Lambaréné, Gabon. Geronimo surrendered because the fight had reached its end. Schweitzer surrendered a life of prestige and accomplishment because he believ...

On September 3, two men tried to disappear — for very different reasons. In 590, Gregory the Great tried to escape the responsibility of becoming bishop of Rome. More than twelve centuries later, Frederick Douglass escaped slavery, risking everything for freedom. One ran from a calling he didn’t want. The other ran toward a freedom he’d never been allowed. Their stories raise a powerful question: What are you running from — and what are you running toward? In this episode of Moments Almanac, ...

Two people, separated by more than two centuries, faced stretches of water that had already demanded much from them. Methodist pioneer Thomas Coke crossed the Atlantic again and again for the sake of the gospel. Diana Nyad returned to the waters between Cuba and Florida after four failed attempts. Their stories remind us that faithfulness doesn’t always mean getting there the first time. Sometimes it means getting back in the water. A Moments Almanac reflection on perseverance, calling, and Gal...

On September 1, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland and the Second World War began. Eighteen years later, on September 1, 1957, Billy Graham stood before an enormous crowd in Times Square to close his historic New York Crusade. One demanded surrender at the point of a gun. The other invited surrender at the foot of a cross. Two moments, one date — and two radically different pictures of power, conquest, grace, and the kingdom of God. Keywords: Billy Graham, September 1, World War II, invasion of ...

On August 31, 1688, John Bunyan died after one final journey of service. The beloved preacher and author of The Pilgrim’s Progress had traveled through heavy rain to help reconcile an estranged father and son. He returned soaked, developed a fever, and never recovered. In this episode of Moments Almanac, we follow Bunyan from a poor tradesman’s home to a prison cell, from an unexpected conversation with a few faithful women to the creation of one of Christianity’s most enduring books. Bunyan w...

Some Victories Take Generations | August 30 On August 30, 1856, a failed Ohio resort where enslaved attendants had once served vacationing Southern families was reborn as Wilberforce University, a college dedicated to educating Black students. Exactly 111 years later, on August 30, 1967, the United States Senate confirmed Thurgood Marshall as the first Black justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Two moments. One long road toward freedom and opportunity. In this episode of Moments Almanac, we tra...

August 29 — Two Johns, One Choice What do you do when the truth costs you something? On August 29, we remember two very different moments in history. The church has long observed this date as the martyrdom of John the Baptist, who confronted Herod Antipas with a truth the ruler did not want to obey. Eighteen centuries later, during the Second Battle of Manassas, Union General John Pope received reports that Confederate reinforcements under James Longstreet were arriving — and refused to belie...

On August 28, 430, Augustine died as the Vandals besieged Hippo, convinced that no earthly empire—not even Rome—could ever be the Christian’s final home. Fifteen centuries later, on August 28, 1963, Baptist preacher Martin Luther King Jr. stood at the Lincoln Memorial and called a divided nation toward a dream of justice and human dignity. Two preachers. Two troubled cities. Two visions of something beyond the brokenness they could see. In this Moments Almanac, we consider Augustine’s City of ...

On August 27, 1883, Krakatoa erupted with a force heard nearly 3,000 miles away, sending deadly tsunamis across the Sunda Strait and changing skies around the world. Centuries earlier, another kind of darkness surrounded Monica of Hippo as she prayed year after year for her wandering son, Augustine. Today’s Moments Almanac brings together a volcano that shook the world and a mother whose persistent prayers helped shape one of Christianity’s greatest theologians. It’s a story for anyone enduring...