Twitter and Facebook, for all that they offer, will never give us anything like the biography and what it offers. What you get is perspective, something that is sorely lacking in the let-me-tell-you-about-me world of social media.

So, it is with great pleasure that I can tell you about the latest round of biographical accounts by John Piper, this time called “Filling Up the Afflictions of Christ: The Cost of Bringing the Gospel the the Nations in the Lives of William Tyndale, Adoniram Judson, and John Paton.” The book, the latest in his The Swans Are Not Silent series, is now on sale at Desiring God. Here is how it is described at the site:

The history of Christianity’s expansion proves that God’s strategy for reaching unreached peoples with the gospel includes the sufferings of his frontline heralds—the missionaries who willingly die a thousand daily deaths to advance God’s kingdom.

The price William Tyndale, Adoniram Judson, and John Paton paid to translate the Word of God, pave the way for missionary mobilization around the world, and lead the hostile to Christ was great. Yet their stories show how the gospel advances not only through the faithful proclamation of the truth but through representing the afflictions of Christ in our sufferings.

These aren’t big books, yet there is much to be gained through being introduced to the lives of these men who “the world was not worthy of.”

To read and hear biographical messages on these men, visit the links below.

Why William Tyndale Lived and Died

Suffering and Success in the Life of Adoniram Judson

You Will Be Eaten by Canibals! Lessons in the Life of John G. Paton