As part of my post yesterday about how Hebrews 11 defines “faith,” I noted that when we live in a way that reflects our trust in God above all else, that serves as a testimony to others of God’s value and character. I’ve seen the truth of this in my own life. I became intellectually convinced Christianity was true by reading arguments, but it wasn’t until I caught a glimpse of the beauty of God through the eyes of someone who followed Him that I wanted to follow Him too.
This is why I love biographies of Christians. Seeing others’ love for God stirs up my love for Him like nothing else. I’ve recommended John Piper’s biographies, John Newton’s autobiography, and St. Patrick’s Confession here before, and now I want to point you to the Theologians on the Christian Life series from Crossway. (If you’re a Kindle reader, they regularly go on sale, so keep an eye out.) These books are not strictly biographies (though they include biographical material—the amount of focus on this depends on the author), but rather, their purpose is to give you a sense of the person’s theology and how he applied that theology to the Christian life. If you’re looking for one to start with, I highly recommend Tony Reinke’s Newton on the Christian Life: To Live Is Christ.
Bethlehem College and Seminary recently hosted a conference featuring the authors of several of these books (only the fact that our youth conference was the same weekend could keep me from attending!), and now the videos are available online. I’ve posted one on Charles Spurgeon below to give you a taste, and you can find the rest here, along with links to the corresponding books. I’m looking forward to listening to all of them!