biographies of regular Christians

Hi everyone, I am reading the biography of Madame Guyon and have been tremendously blessed. I notice that part of the advantage is that this is the story of a regular lady who had a tremendous love for God and pressed into Him, but was not in the ministry (at least for the first half of the book - I haven't made it past that so I'm not sure what happens next). I am encouraged to hear of how she sought the Lord in everyday circumstances. Most biographies I'm familiar with are of Christians who are in minsitry and travel the world preaching and such. I'm looking for other biographies similar to this one which tell of regular people who worked, were married, had children, etc. and share their story of their walk with God.

Is anyone familiar with other good biographies or autobiographies like this?

Thanks!

One of my favorites is "Evidence Not Seen" by Darlene Rose. She was an ordinary lady who went to the mission field before WW2; was captured and imprisoned by the Japanese. She writes mostly about her life while in captivity. I think this kind of testimony is one we do well to take to heart because we do not know when we may be in a similar situation.

There is one other book I love, having read it several times and that is "I Dared to Call Him Father" by Bilquis Sheikh. This is the testimony of a Muslim lady who came to the LORD. She was not a missionary nor a preacher's wife. Just a high-born woman living in Pakistan.

Have you read any of Corrie ten Boom's books? "In My Father's House" details life before WW2 while she lived with her parents working as a watchmaker, teaching youngsters in kid's clubs, etc. WW2 intervened and then the drama began - this is detailed in "The Hiding Place". Corrie's books are very inspiring - I would encourage anyone to read them all. I do not know how many there are but I would guess twelve.

If you are looking for books that detail a homemaker's walk with the LORD I suspect you will have to resort to blogs on the web because usually there is not enough drama in an ordinary life that would excite any publisher to take the risk of printing and trying to sell a book like this.

BTW, I would guess most most famous Christians are at heart ordinary Christians. My grandfather was a well-liked preacher. I loved him dearly. But he was ordinary, very ordinary. One day I saw his humanness and discovered he also needed the Blood of Jesus to cleanse him. I was shocked, but I needed to witness that because it knocked him off a pedestal - which is where he belonged - onto the ground with me! :-)

Just my opinion.

Thanks guys, I will check those people out. Looking forward to it!

I would like to echo sister Ginnyrose's recommendation about the works of Corrie ten Boom. As our sister mentioned, her remarkable life is detailed in THE HIDING PLACE but also in TRAMP FOR THE LORD.

I would also like to recommend the following:

THE CROSS AND THE SWITCHBLADE (David Wilkerson)
NO COMPROMISE: THE LIFE STORY OF KEITH GREEN
GOD'S SMUGGLER ("Brother Andrew")
BWANA TEMBO (Morris Plotts)
THROUGH THE GATES OF SPLENDOR (Jim & Elizabeth Elliot)
HUDSON TAYLOR (J. Hudson Taylor)
TORTURED FOR CHRIST (Richard Wurmbrand)
GRACE ABOUNDING TO THE CHIEF OF SINNERS (John Bunyan)
MEMOIRS OF REVIVAL OF RELIGION (Charles Finney)
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF GEORGE MULLER (George Muller)
JONATHAN EDWARDS (by George Marsden)
REES HOWELLS: INTERCESSOR (by Norman Grubb)
AN INSTRUMENT OF REVIVAL (Evan Roberts)

This is just a short list, but these books have blessed me.

Along similar lines, but not as lengthy as full biographies, are the small written accounts...glimpses of Christians from different centuries and cultures you come across now and then ...often just a few paragraphs telling of some faithful preacher in a little church, or a saint who gave up some comfort for another person without ever expecting to be remembered for it, or of a hard heart made soft by repentence in a revival meeting.

These little glimpses handed down to us in antiquarian books provide a connection with regular Christians who have joined the great cloud of witnesses.

Perhaps we can post their stories here as we come across them.

Blessings,

MC

Many wonderful biographies are available online in their entirety. Just a small sample can be found at

http://www.gospeltruth.net/others.htm

Scroll down to .....

ON REVIVAL and EVANGELISM

NEW! The PRICE and POWER of REVIVAL by Duncan Campbell
NEW! The Shantung Revival by C. L. Culpepper --Revival in China-- early 1900's

BY MY SPIRIT by JONATHAN GOFORTH---Revival in China

WHEN THE SPIRIT'S FIRE SWEPT KOREA by JONATHAN GOFORTH, D.D.

THE REVIVAL WE NEED by Oswald J. Smith 1925

These are some of my favourites and they are free! OK, so THE REVIVAL WE NEED is not a biography but its a great book on revival.

Read all the biographies you can + you will be encouraged. In THE PURSUIT OF GOD, A W Tozer spoke in a way that would greatly encourage us to read biographies when he wrote, "Come near to the holy men and women of the past and you will soon feel the heat of their desire after God. They mourned for Him, they prayed and wrestled and sought for Him day and night, in season and out, and when they had found Him the finding was all the sweeter for the long seeking." I know of no other way to draw near to them but to read about them.
There are so many good bio's its hard to know where to start. Perhaps "50 People Every Christian Should Know: Learning from Spiritual Giants of the Faith" by Warren W Wiersbe would be a good primer. You could get the full bio of those that you find interesting.

There must be mention of this book of short biographies of many notable Christians from the past several centuries. Almost a top 20+ of influential saints. Included are:

Girolamo Savonarola
Madam Guyon
Fenelon
George Fox
John Bunyan
John Wesley
George Whitefield
John Fletcher
Christmas Evans
Lorenzo Dow
Peter Cartwright
Charles G. Finney
Billy Bray
Elder Jacob Knapp
George Muller
A. B. Earle
Frances Ridley Havergal
A. J. Gordon
D. L. Moody
General Booth

Title: Deeper Experiences of Famous Christians
Author: J. Gilchrist Lawson
Published: 1911

Tremendous and extremely faith-building!
Read it online or download it in PDF, Word, or text format for FREE.
Read and/or get it here:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/62621076/Deeper-Experiences-of-Famous-Christians

On a whim I googled Corrie ten Boom yesterday and found a list of her books. They totaled 25! I was way off when I suspected 12...I said 12 because we have them and am unfamiliar with her later writings.

Wow Trxx,
What an amazing site.Thanks for posting this.
God bless

Thanks everyone for these great resources. I've heard it said that Hebrews 11 is a biblical mandate to read church history and biographies. I've been so blessed by them and desire very much to read many. The biographies I've been listening to have come from ccel.org - since many of them have audio readings, I'm blessed to be able to listen to them during my commute.

Hi Ginnyrose,

I too loved "I dared to call him father", As a woman, I could relate so much to her. I have read it at least three times. Others out there are:
Death of a guru-a Yogi comes to Christ
Michael, Michael, why do you hate me?-a Jew comes to Christ
The heavenly man-about a man in China, rather far out!
Born again-Chuck Colson's story
The Cross and the Switchblade-Nicky Cruz
Run baby run-Nicky Cruz
Brucko-Bruce Olson's missionary story
Chasing the Dragon-excellent!
A man called Peter-Peter Marshall's story
Appointment in Jerusalem- the best-Derek Prince's wife
Most of these were written years ago.

There are others that I have read, but can't remember them all. One that I wish I could find was a book written by a young American Indian woman, who came out of her native paganism belief and converted to Christianity in a big way, anyone heard of that one?

A CHANCE TO DIE: the Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael.

MIMOSA by Amy Carmichael - The inspiring, beautifully written true story of Mimosa, a Hindu child who heard of a God who loved her, and lived from then on under His influence, surmounting every kind of opposition and adversity.