Sermons & Devotionals by Short Biographies

"That they may be one as we are one." The General Secretary of the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) was in his office in Johannesburg. As it was before 7.00 am he was surprised when Smith Wigglesworth burst into his office. "Come out here," he boomed. Pushing David firmly against the wall he prophesied... Read More

Livingstone was born in 1813 in Blantyre, Scotland, trained as a physician, and ordained as a missionary in 1840. His original plan was to work in China, but he was prevented from doing so by the Opium Wars. He therefore went instead to South Africa and travelled northward into the interior. To his ... Read More

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Pastor and Theologian hung 10 April 1945 Bonhoeffer was born in 1906, son of a professor of psychiatry and neurology at the University of Berlin. He was an outstanding student, and at the age of 25 became a lecturer in systematic theology at the same University. When Hitler came... Read More

E d w a r d I r v i n g Charismatic Pioneer Edward Irving was invited to be minister of Caledonian Chapel in London, July 1822, when he was almost thirty. He had recently completed all the stringent requirements to obtain a "License to Preach" in the Scottish Church and was ready for service. Most p... Read More

E. M. Bounds in his book "Prayer and Praying Men", wrote "Elijah learned new and higher lessons of prayer while hidden away by God and with God . . " This statement is certainly also true of its author. E. M. Bounds was a man hidden away by God and with God in prayer. During his lifetime he never at... Read More

Born: August 16, 1818, Kingston upon Hull, Humberside, England. Died: March 18, 1889, Heath (near Wakefield), West Yorkshire, England. Buried: Kirkthorpe, West Yorkshire, England. In 1850, Eliza mar­ried Rev. W. Al­der­son, chap­lain to the West Rid­ing House of Cor­rect­ion, Wake­field. It was ther... Read More

Born: May 25, 1905, Os­kars­hamm, Swe­den. Died: Jan­u­a­ry 6, 1986, Grand Ra­pids, Mi­chi­gan. Buried: Pine Grove Cem­e­te­ry, Man­ches­ter, New Hamp­shire. After Ahlwen em­i­grat­ed to the Unit­ed States, she stu­died at the Moo­dy Bi­ble In­sti­tute in Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois, and be­came an evan­g... Read More

Eric Henry Liddell was born on the 16th January 1902 in Tientsin (Tianjin) in North China, second son of the Rev & Mrs James Dunlop Liddell who were missionaries with the London Mission Society. He was educated from 1908 to 1920 at Eltham College, Blackheath, a school for the sons of missionaries. E... Read More

The seeds of revival are always nurtured in the hearts of the humble. And so it was with the great Welsh Revival of 1904. It was in a young coal miner named Evan Roberts that God imparted a burning vision for spiritual revival. Evan Roberts did not possess the gifts of a great intellect or eloquent ... Read More

F. B. Meyer 1847 - 1929 "LIFE'S MOTTO: "Make the most of me that can be made for Thy glory." One of the greatly loved preachers of his day, Frederick Brotherton Meyer was a pastor, author, Bible teacher and evangelist. He was born in London in 1847 and grew up in a Christian home. After attending Br... Read More

Born: August 13, 1851, Alzey, Hessen-Darmstadt, Germany. Died: April 24, 1933, New York City. Son of a rab­bi, Ad­ler em­i­grat­ed to Amer­i­ca in 1857, and grad­u­at­ed from Co­lum­bia Col­lege in 1870. He found­ed the New York So­ci­e­ty for Ethic­al Cul­ture, the Eth­ic­al Cul­ture move­ment, and... Read More

Born: March 24, 1820, Put­nam Coun­ty, New York. Died: Feb­ru­a­ry 12, 1915, Bridge­port, Con­nec­ti­cut. Buried: Bridge­port, Con­nec­ti­cut. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fanny Crosby was prob­ab­ly the most pro­lif­ic hymn­ist in his­to­ry. Thoug... Read More

Francis was born in 1182, the son of a wealthy cloth merchant. His early years were frivolous, but an experience of sickness and another of military service were instrumental in leading him to reflect on the purpose of life. One day, in the church of San Damiano, he seemed to hear Christ saying to h... Read More

Francis Asbury 1745-1816 The founding father of American Methodism. Francis Asbury was born in England. He was converted to Christ at the age of 13, and soon began to hold meetings. Wesley licensed him at the age of 18 as a local preacher. As he grew into maturity, he became so concerned for the col... Read More

Francis Xavier, or Francisco do Yasu y Javier, was a Basque. (The Basques are a people from the region of Biscay in northern Spain, whose language is unrelated to any other known language.) He was born in 1506 and studied at the University of Paris, where he met Ignatius Loyola and joined together w... Read More

Franz Jägerstätter was an Austrian Christian executed for his refusal to serve in the armies of the Third Reich. He was born out of wedlock in 1907 in the small town of St. Radegund (47:11 N 15:29 E), about 13 kilometers north of Graz. His natural father was killed in World War I. His mother married... Read More

Friedrich Schleiermacher 1768-1834 The German preacher and philosopher Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher is often called the leading 19th-century theologian of the Protestant church. Schleiermacher was born on November 21, 1768, in Breslau, Lower Silesia (now Wroclaw, Poland). Despite his being ... Read More

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (usually called G.K. Chesterton or simply GKC) was born in London in 1874. He became a well-known writer and lecturer. He was officially received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1922, but had been writing from a Romanist point of view for a long time before that. Some of h... Read More

George Mueller 1805-1898 GEORGE MüLLER, MAN OF FAITH AND PRAYER Orphans THE ORPHAN CHILDREN all had their dinners and were ready for bed. They always felt loved and cared for in the Bristol orphanage; little did they know that the orphanage had no money and there was no food for breakfast the next d... Read More

Born: September 7, 1812, Mans­field, Mass­a­chu­setts. Died: De­cem­ber 9, 1877, Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio. Buried: West­wood Cem­e­tery, Ober­lin, Ohio. Allen stu­died mu­sic in Bos­ton, Mass­a­chu­setts, un­der Lowell Mason. In 1837, Allen be­came an in­struct­or in Sci­ence of Music at Ober­lin Col­leg... Read More