On This Day in Christian History by Robert Morgan: A Review

     On This Day in Christian History by Robert Morgan is a small devotional meant to be read every day.  A day includes a short story about the life or part of the life of a Christian hero, compassing early Christian maryters to Billy Graham, and a Bible verse that goes along with the theme.  Most of his examples come from Catholic history with a few Pentecostal, women preachers, and main stream Protestants thrown in for good measure.  These stories are supposed to encourage and challenge believers in their walk with God. 

     I was disappointed by this book.  When I saw the title, being a huge history buff, I was very excited. As I got into it, I found that most of the stories were anything but encouraging and most often dishearting.  You are told of the faults of men in detail and then supposed to be encouraged because God used them. The book never shows how God helped these men overcome their faults. God just worked around them. The best example of this is Charles T. Studd who left his wife in England for years, was terribly critical of all people who didn't meet his standard of hard work (meaning 18 hrs days, limited meals, and no vacations), and finally died a broken man. Popes that are good guys in one story are villains in the next.  Pope Gregory VII, also known as Hildebrand, forced the German emperor Henry IV to stand in the snow to receive absolution for disagreeing with the pope's "reforms".  A few entries later, Hildebrand is praised for those very reforms!

     Not all of the stories are bad, however. One of my favorites is the story is how a Sunday school teacher named Edward Kimball converted a teenager named D.L. Moody. Moody converted a man named F.B. Meyer, who converted J. Wilber Chapman, who converted Billy Sunday who converted Billy Graham.  The story shows how one "little" thing, like being a faithful Sunday school teacher, can lead to many people knowing Christ as Savior.

      Although the book is well written, I did not find the content to be an encouraging or challenging start to my day.  This isn't a book that I will be returning to.

While my opinions are my own, I want to thank BookSneeze for sending me a copy of this book to review.