The Boy Born Dead

Fascinating insights into the life of a fascinating man

Excellent story based on Mr Rings life. Tho maybe not completely factual, it is still the true story of how God can change anyone's story for the better.

I am blown away by this powerful story. I want my kids to hear it but at this time they are a little young to handle the heavier themes in the book. However, I will be sharing with them myself the summary of the story and how important kindness to someone in need can be, and how no one is beyond being used by God. I loved this book!!

As a story I found this mediocre. It certainly set out the sad lives that some people came to with no fault on there side. Iwas disappointed that the work of Christ was only implied,and more explicit, for instance commitment to church is not the same as coming to faith in a risen Saviour. It is a great truth that God changes his people and circumstances, but was hard to see that it was Him at work here.
I was left wondering what the purpose of the book was, If to bring glory and honour to God, then I think it fails

Great story! Motivational and well-written. Well read, too - I would take 5 minute car rides for errands just so I could keep listening. Praise God for what he has done in David Ring's life.

What a great story. This is a recommended read.

Powerfully inspiring, a great story that causes you to wonder what's next for Ring on his roller coaster ride of life.

The story teller did a great job to get into the different characters and set the scene, so to speak. Even as a non native speaker of English we will recommend this story to others as we loved it.

Having had a special needs son, especially struck a chord with us. we rated very highly however we did bypass a couple of sections of details

Such an amazing story of a boy rejected by others and himself, his turnaround and his journey to become what God wants him to be. Beautiful word pictures and a first class reader. Don’t miss it.

I could picture everything so very clearly such that painful events in David Ring's life left me aching and breakthroughs brought me a surreal joy. A poignant testimony of God working out His purpose in brokenness.
It is very well written, lots of tangents, but they all had a purpose that pulled together the overall picture. It is also superbly read, the faltering speech representing David's vocal limitations was especially well done... a benefit of listening to, rather than reading, this particular book for me.
If you like this testimony I suggest listening to "Miracle for Jen". Another powerful testimony of God working through adversity.

Fascinating story turns unexpected because it is a real story. Inspirational message.

I really enjoyed this audiobook. The reader was most excellent. His speech as the boy with cerebral palsy seemed so real. I actually got teary eyed on more than one occasion.

Great story of a boy overcoming adversity of cerebral paulsy.

Captivating story. What a testimony!

This was a great story, very engaging. The audio was superb.

What an excellent book! Amazing to hear how God can change a life.

Great miracle of God saving him.

I really liked how this story was told and the prospective that it took. Made me think about things in a new way

This was a captivating and inspiring story.

Good inspirational story of God transforming many lives through one life. The narrator goes off on strange tangents about girls sometimes, but I guess it is written from a teenage perspective.

Well done. I hadn't heard of him before but now would love to hear him speak.

Interesting and enlightening.

Inspirational story and well written.

Great read

I could not resist listening to this book! It was captivating and heart warming immediately. I would recommend this book to anyone as a brilliant telling of story that shows the power of God!

Very powerful, though provoking. I couldn't stop listening, I would highly recommend.

Very good listen. The book is well written and it is very entertaining.

Listened as I was driving and had to take off the sunglasses and wipe my eyes repeatedly. Saw David Ring many years ago and it was great to hear his whole story. God has certainly used him and blessed him.

This book is definitely worth the time to listen. What a testimony of the transformation and healing Christ brings to us!! I would have arranged the story's past and present aspects a little differently but the author wanted to reveal the past in layers like peeling away the skin of an onion. I would rather get the full picture of the past and then the impact on the present in a direct line but that's just my personal opinion. The witness of this book was wonderful!!

God is truly glorified through this amazing story. The tale of how David overcome what is perceived by the world as a handicap and hearing how David lives God's perfect design for him is inspiring and encouraging.

As David started his public ministry In the 1970's, I very was fortunate to meet David through Jimmy McNeil . David's ability to share the gospel and how his life was changed by it (the gospel) inspires me to look beyond my circumstances and struggles. God has truly been glorified in David's life and my life has been richly blessed. God has me where he has me for his plan and purposes.

TOUCHING STORY

Wow! I have heard David Ring speak a number of times over the years, but had never heard his full story. Powerful! Transparent! Amazing!

Story of great inspiration and overcoming seemingly impossible odds.

Very good listen. Well done!

A tail of courage and believing that with God all things are possible.
The actions you chose when you are following God is contagious and all the people around you get infected in a good way.

Very moving story. This is a powerful story of personal transformation and the value of life.

Great story about disability, brokenness, friendship, redemption, and employing the pain and relief as a powerful testimony to God's grace.

I've heard Rings audio messages, Dobson use to feature him but the firth we have heard his growing up story?

A very moving story, reservation re. fictitious parts and somewhat occasional risqué details. Powerfully told. As David says, 'God uses broken things.' The Master Potter, Jer. 18.

Great encouragement to people

Beautiful Story!

Excellent book: excellent story, excellently written and excellently narrated!!!

A well written and read audio book. Thank you ChristanAudio !

the book is one hard to put down. it is ez to read and poetic. i also liked reminiscing about times from my own childhood as the characters are only a few years older and grew up in midwest as I did.

An amazing story of how God uses what man rejects. It is one of those 'must read' books that will have an effect on whoever reads it on how the love of God can radically transform someone who is without hope.

An amazing story. Very few stories have impacted me the way this one did. It shows how God uses what the world rejects. This book is one of those 'must read' books.

when the book get to the point of the story; david ring, it is an assume; I come to realize that i knew the real man. seen and heard him preach on jerry falwell. It touch deep to know all the story.

A proof of how God can turn one's life around once you put your trust in Him.

I LOVED this book !!! What an amazing true story. The powerful effect When God shows value in the lives of people whom society often overlooks ... STILL wiping the tears (of Joy) from this powerful book. Thank you for sharing this !

Great book, great reader.

I enjoy hearing true stories especially about the Grace of God at work in the midst of hardships and about God's special care for those with special needs.

Very compelling, touching and well written story.

Great story

Great inspiring story and the narrator is terrific!

It's hard to give a low rating to a good story, but it's not well told. The writing is verbose and overly drawn-out. I found myself very interested in the main character, but many times I'd be forced to listen to page after page of unimportant details of the narrative.

It didn't help that this is not the true story. It's historical-ish fiction, which is too bad. The disclaimer at the beginning tells you that some characters and scenes were made up to move the story along. So I found myself wondering if what I was hearing was the actual story, or just some manufactured drama.

The reader did a fine job, but not outstanding. Definitely not the best orator I've heard on this site.

Overall, I moderately enjoyed the story. I'm genuinely interested in the main subject's life now, and will probably go get a non-fiction book about him.

A great story of what a friendship can do, and how Jesus can change people from a life of death to a life that shines His light

Another free download from ChristianAudio of another book that I had never heard of nor may have ever come across.

This is the biographical account of a person with cerebral palsy (the result of being basically dead for 18 minutes when born). The book focused mostly on his high school years and was told from the perspective of his best friend in high school. There were side-bar type recountings of his childhood, and then an epilogue style summary of his life after high school.

[Spoilers]
This is a powerful story of a challenging life. Hard to listen to at times, because of how hard his life was. But without a doubt worth it because of the inspiration. He overcame a challenging childhood and teen years. It was all significantly challenging even without his condition. Poverty, separation of his parents, death of his father, illness and then death of his mother, sexual abuse by his sister’s best friend while his mother was on her death bed, being passed around from home to home before ending up living with his sister and her best friend enabling her abuse to continue. But add the struggles caused by cerebral palsy to all that difficult story and you end up with an understandably distraught teenager at the very end of his rope.

Beyond all of that, the book is about unlikely and reluctant friendship (especially the story-teller, a preacher’s kid whose father spurred him, or really obligated him, to reach out and befriend the boy). And more significantly, it is also about God’s work to change a life from the inside out. It is about how sometimes that inside out change can result in a significant change in outlook and experience, even in the depths of high school. And how those changes in high school can lead to the most unlikely life long ministry.

The book's subject goes on to be an impactful public speaker with international ministry. He also goes on to get married, and have healthy children.

I’m thankful to have come across this inspirational story.

I first became acquainted with David's ministry through Jerry Falwell's, "Old Time Gospel Hour." I later had the privilege to hear David in person on a couple of occasions, in the '80s in N. Alabama and in the late '90s in Nashville.Often David would give an abbreviated version of his testimony, but "The Boy Born Dead" brings the story alive anew with rich details not before made public. David's revelation of the shame of the sexual abuse that was imposed upon him was starkly, but tastefully, handled. It makes his victory over sin, shame and intimidation to service for Christ even greater. He encourages all of us, "Don't Whine, Just Shine!"

This was a touching, well-written account of the life of an inspirational man.

This was a touching, well-told story of an inspirational man.

Wonderful story, but wished it wouldn't be so detailed in the description of sexually abuse. I wouldn't want my boys listening to until I know they have been through the worst part of the fire of their own sexual temptations.
Maybe they could write a teen version with more discretion. It's a story that is very, very powerful.

A great narration which for me really made this book a good one to listen to. The story was at times too drawn out and for me had too much about the abuse & mother's death - and some other parts were overdone, but the narration made that OK. And the story is an uplifting one of redemption - for both Davids.

Awesome! Powerful! Faith building testimony of GOD having the final say in one simple surrendered life!

It opened my mind to the world of a person with a disability, appreciate their challenges and also to help them in their walk with the Lord. I have persons with a disability in my family. Story and narration excellent.

Good book, well written and an excellent performance. Great story too. It reminds me of bible characters - we see our "hero" with flaws and such, not idealized. This is a real and believable story and one I found relatable and encouraging. I work in the recovery movement and this is the sort of story that helps set people free. Praise God who calls us to comfort others with the comfort we have also received.

Inspiring

This is a well-written, almost miraculous account of David Ring's birth and early life. However, the author admitted that certain parts of the story are "fictionalized" and I found myself wondering what parts were true and what parts were "spiced up." While this is common in Hollywood biopics, it's less acceptable in a book that purports to be a biography.

Wonderful story that brought me to tears and made me laugh out loud!

Well written and excellent narration.

Great, encouraging, and sobering

It was a great story about real life and real people. It reminded me of how we need to make the most of each opportunity God gives us to help others by being a friend.

His story is Inspiring, thought provoking, life changing... though, not a family listen if you have younger kids. Also thought some of the author's "physical/visual" references were unnecessary -- it might be the way teenage boys think, but I think it disracted from the message.

I had not known of David Ring prior to this book. I truly wish I had known of his story earlier. I don't mean to use the sometimes overused word inspirational, but at first try that is the word to use. It goes much deeper than that however, it goes past dealing with mere theology to difficulty. A type of difficulty that requires you to think in your own self where you stand with your past, how you view yourself now, and how easy it is to be lazy and let time pass without dealing with reality. Reality that starts to make you understand why 'today is the day of salvation'. To deal with a relationship that, even for Christians in a hurried world, is sometimes unkempt.

People have closets, every one does, and they have skeletons in them. Those dry bones can be used to keep us down, or they can be used by God to lift us up and in turn lift others up. In other words, a cup that is turned upside down can not be filled and cannot run over.

Enjoying it very much. David was in a neighborhood church preaching recently.

A must read. I have listened about 5 times and want to again. God uses broken people to save souls.

Well, this is more than an audio book, beyond a well told or narrated story. i found myself as i listened strolling the quiet roads with Dave and Dave or 'RING' if you want. It tells how much our lives can be transformed by God and how our lives and little actions can make a difference and of course meaning in the lives of many pain-stricken hearts.

This was an amazing story. God is so Amazing in how He works.

An amazing story of the delivering and saving grace of God.
I was totally enthralled and was anxious to see how his life would develop

I found this book to be engaging, thoroughly drawing you into the lives of the characters. It also causes you to examine your own thoughts and feelings on some difficult subjects. The fact that it's a true story just blows your mind to the power of the Almighty.

It is a relevant and important work.
It is good to have it as an audio book.

Very moving story of God's redemptive power.

Inspiring

very good story and message

Inspirational story of how someone overcomes the hand he is dealt and a reminder that God is faithful to finish what he started

I am glad I listened to this book. Very entertaining and inspiring read. I loved how Ring summed up his speech at the end: "I have cerebral palsy. What's your excuse?" I was deeply moved, even to tears, at points. When I'd finished the book I felt moved and inspired.

But there was a gaping hole: the gospel is never shared in this book. Another reviewer said the name of Christ is never shared and that is true. How could the authors describe Ring's conversion and call to ministry without sharing the gospel and how the gospel transformed him? Even in his moving speech at the end, which was given in part for the purpose of evangelism, shared only a version of the prosperity gospel: "God had a wonderful plan for my life and He does for you as well." What of Christ? What of His death and resurrection?

It's a nice book. It would have been in my top 10 recommended book lists and 5 stars from me had the authors made a commitment to sharing the gospel, even just once. But instead, in my view, they missed a tremendous opportunity.

The Boy Born Dead is a solid biography and the reader did an outstanding job expressing it. The struggles of David Ring dealing with life and the struggles of people dealing with David Ring were presented honestly and fairly, and make for a compelling story. Early in the book there were a couple of out-of-place anecdotes concerning racism that had nothing to do with the story and seemed to just be a nod to political correctness than anything else. i found that kind of distracting, but overall this is one audio book that i would highly recommend.

Great book about the work of God in people's lives.

Good book

Very moving story of courage and overcoming the difficulties of life,
Really encouraged by David Rings testimony of faith

So overwhelming and redemptive!

Nice work!

The story itself was very touching. The whole theme of transformation throughout the story was challenging as well as uplifting. The author did an excellent job of intertwining the background with the main plot. The narrator did an excellent job of representing the various characters and of conveying the author's message.

God uses all of us for his work whether it be a big part like David Wideman or Ms Myers or a small part like Amy at a bus stop. Thanks Christian Audio for publishing this book.

This is an interesting and engaging story. A quick listen that was easy to enjoy and celebrate with the characters.

I liked the book. The story was well told about David, I listened to it almost non stop. I had a hard time pausing the book. I highly recommend it.

It was very good! It is a tear jerker though. It was well worth a listen.

I enjoyed listening to it very much.

It was an intriguing story that was relatable.

Beyond the fact that David Ring's life story is both emotionally moving and spiritually motivating, this book is exceptionally well written, and the reader of the audio version does a spectacular job of bringing the words to life.

Captivating story. Great job reading the story line.

Inspiring. Highly recommended.

Great life story

Great book really inspirational

What an excellent account of God's redemption at work! Masterfully compiled to reflect the glory to God.

Great story! It is encouraging to see the power of God in a "helpless" situation. It is Jesus who makes all things new. And it is when we are weak that we are strong because it is God's power demonstrated through our weakness

An excellent story on what God can do through our lives whether you face tragedy, abuse, physical impairments, or struggling through overcoming sin in your life. God can do mighty things to set us apart for His plan and purpose.

Excellent story and very effective audio.

What an amazing story! God's glory and grace is felt throughout this entire book. Absolutely loved it!

It's one of those books you can't put it down. You won't be disappointed.

This book is one to inspire anyone who may think life is too hard and hopeless. There is hope for all who put their trust in Christ, as He has a plan for good and not for evil for all. Such an amazing testimony of a life redeemed.

Paul Marshall does an excellent job narrating and impersonating Mr. Ring without sounding cheesy, and the book is very well written both in literary style and flow. I found myself not being able to "unplug my headphones."

The reality of "Ring's" multi-dimenional suffering is portrayed through-out the book, but never in an explicit or all-consuming way. There are mature themes for sure, but early teens and up will be riveted by this book.

The message that God doesn't waste anyone's life is clear and inspiring. It's a great read for Christians and non-Christians alike.

This was a great story. It was hard to get into the first few chapters because of the way the narrator described the main subject...he was trying to be too mysterious and I wished he'd just come out with it. Also, I didn't like all the flashbacks & jumping around between perspectives & events in time. I could see the need for it, but I prefer a more continuous plot. Either way, it was a very good story. The reader did a good job. I thought he was way too slow, but that's what the 1.5X playback is for. The Alabama accent got on my nerves too. Despite all that, the story was so compelling that it was worth a listen & even a re-listen as I play it for my husband. I'd say more, but I don't want to give anything way. It's just beautiful to get a personal story illustrating some ways that God works.

Great book! It was very hard to walk along David's life struggles, but also reveals that we all face the same battles we just start with different life circumstances.

Everybody should read this book, very moving story.

A powerful story of redemption and the love and grace of Jesus

Excelent

Excellent! Simple message powerful in delivery!

Fabulous story of God's love, not just for Ring but for everyone.

Good story but Jesus was never directly mentioned.

A truly phenomenal book I cannot recommend highly enough. I have not had a book yet move me as much as this book did. When the book ended I was longing for more. I wanted to know so much more about each characters past, but also more of where they are now. A more current and more detailed update of each person would have been fabulous.

Paul Michael does an exceptional job at reading this audiobook. I found his voice for David to be somewhat hard to listen to, only because it is spot on and unsettling when right in your ear. Although he is very good at male voices, I found his female voices to be interrupting, and rather halted the flow of the narration whenever his mom or girlfriend would "speak".

Interestingly enough I went to school with a boy named David, and he too had Cerebral Palsy. This book took me back to that time period and caused me great heartache for the way I remember the kids treating him. And he too hung out with the popular crowd and was obnoxious. I really had to wonder if this was not the very same David I went to school with. And it very well could be. What a beautiful story if that were the case. I would like to think my David grew to be so successful in his relationship with God, his friends, his wife, and others in this very manner.

The hardest part of the story was definitely the sexual abuse. I find it so very disturbing, and quite honestly, unbelievable anyone could commit such horrific crimes. What would possess a girl to sexually abuse a handicapped boy. It is just absurd, and so hard to wrap my head around sick abusers such as this. And yet, it surely must have happened to this character David.

The book goes into such great detail into the past its hard to believe the memory can be that accurate. Often there are times that I am left wondering, "Did that really happen?" or have they embellished the story a little. I believe in the preface they did admit to changing a few things. However this only adds to the telling of the story, what matters is how he turned out in the end.

Overall I enjoyed this book immensely, and highly encourage your purchase of this book. Its a story I doubt you will be disappointed with. And I would bet Davids story will be with you long after you have finished the book.

I was so fortunate to have been given this book for free through the Christian Audio book review program. This review is completely my opinion and in no way influenced by the gift.