The end of our journey through Pilgrim's Progress

If you ever visit the Australian National Gallery of Victoria at Federation Square in Melbourne, look for the painting Bunyan in Prison by George Follingsby. It's not always on display, but I know I'll be hunting for it next time I'm there. It's ironic that one of the most compelling pictures of the great English preacher John Bunyan is here in Melbourne, Australia, near the Yarra River and behind the crazy-crackled modern facade of Federation Square: but there it is! ...

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Pilgrim's Progress: the River of Death

Have you ever walked with someone through death? I have, although only a very small part of the way. I will always be grateful for the honesty of this godly man, because he didn't white-wash his experience with platitudes or empty confidence. He spoke openly of his grief at leaving this world, his fear of the unknown, and his loneliness at facing the loneliest journey of all. He also shared his confidence of going to heaven. His grandchildren will never forget the day he told them that only trust in Jesus can comfort us when we're dying. He died well as he had lived well.

That experience did away with two (incompatible!) assumptions about death for me. The first is that death is too terrifying to be spoken of or imagined: it's easy to live in a state of denial when we're so well protected from death in our society. The second is that death is easy for Christians: even when you're confident of going to heaven, death can still be scary, ugly, and lonely. But how much less lonely when we know that the One we have loved and known all our lives is waiting to welcome us!

Death was closer in the 17th century. John Bunyan lost his first wife, his beloved pastor, his unborn baby, and his darling 13 year old daughter Mary, within 4 years. ... As a pastor, he sat by death-beds and walked with many to the brink of death. ... Dying well was part of living well for the Puritans. ...

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Troubled Christians in Pilgrim's Progress Part II

All the King's subjects are not champions; nor can they, when tried, do such feats of war ... Is it meet to think a little child should handle Goliath as David did? Or that there should be the strength of an ox in a wren? Some are strong, some weak; some have great faith, some little.

We've all known good-hearted, troubled Christians. Let's be honest, we're all troubled and broken in some way. Spiritually troubled: uncertain of our salvation, prone to introspection and guilt, or disturbed by feelings of God's absence. Emotionally troubled: battling addictions, anxiety or depression, hurt by relationships, or socially fearful and awkward. Intellectually troubled: confused about the truth, struggling with doubts, or mentally incapacitated. Physically troubled: sick and exhausted, in pain or chronically ill, or homeless and poor.

It's easy to neglect those who are deeply troubled - I know, I have done it myself, to my shame. To avoid their uncomfortable company and disturbing doubts and wounds we can't easily heal and sorrows unresponsive to comfort and difficult questions and unsettled hearts. Perhaps we talk mainly to our friends at social gatherings, ignore certain phone calls, or minister only to the eager and enthusiastic. After all, it's simpler to overlook those who absorb our energy and attention, don't fit into our visions for mission and church growth, or aren't easily helped to grow and change.

No Puritan pastor worth his salt neglected troubled Christians. Where we might refer a "difficult case" to a counsellor, Puritan pastors willingly carried the burden of counselling those who were troubled, sensitively and bracingly bringing God's truth to bear on their problems. I wish I could tell you all the Puritans' sane and sensible advice about spiritual desertion, doubts of assurance, and depression, but that will have to wait for another day. Instead, let's take a look at the many "weak" Christians in Pilgrim's Progress, and how we are encouraged to care for them. ...

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Discussing Pilgrim's Progress in small groups

A few weeks ago, one of our pastors discovered I'm writing on Pilgrim's Progress. With a gleam in his eye, he pulled out a heavy spiral-bound A4 volume, and placed it in my hands. I found myself holding the most readable and accurate modern English translation of Pilgrim's Progress Part I I've come across, by John Musselman of The Jackson Institute. ...

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The women in Pilgrim's Progress II

I love strong women. I think they are magnificent testimonies to Christ. Because ... they are combining things that the world can’t explain. They’re combining a sweet, tender, kind, loving, submissive, feminine beauty with this massive steel in their backs and theology in their brain. (John Piper, group discussion from T4G'08 HT Writing and Living)

In Pilgrim's Progress II, Christiana follows her husband on pilgrimage. With her travel her handmaid Mercy, Ruth to her Naomi, and her four sons, eager to tread in their father's footsteps. The garrulous village women try to prevent them leaving, mock them after they've gone, and quickly forget them in gossip about their flirtations. But Christiana and Mercy press on, confident that "the bitter must come before the sweet, and that also will make the sweet the sweeter". ...

One of my favourite scenes in Pilgrim's Progress is where Christiana braves the lions (persecution) and Giant Grim (the power of the state) on the neglected path to the Palace Beautiful (the persecuted church). She echoes Deborah, judge of Israel: "Though the highways have been unoccupied heretofore, and though the travellers have been made in times past to walk through by-paths, it must not be so now I am risen, now I am risen a mother in Israel" (Jud. 5:7). What a woman! ...

How beautiful the godly woman, and how lovely her graces! Her mouth gives wise instruction, her spirit is filled with a quiet trust, her heart is tender and humble, her hands overflow with mercy, her limbs are strong. Courageous, she dares to walk between lions and travel through the Valley of the Shadow. A mother in Israel, she nurtures and teaches the young. To be a woman like this is my heart's desire: and I hope yours, too. "Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised" (Prov. 31:30).

What have you learned from the women in John Bunyan's life and Pilgrim's Progress? Would others describe you as a "strong woman": not bossy or overbearing, but gentle, humble in heart and quiet in spirit, with an inner core of strength which comes from trusting in Christ? If young and single, are you so in love with your Lord that no lesser love will do? If older and experienced, are you a "spiritual mother" to the women around you? Which womanly grace would you most like to grow in? Ask God to help you become the woman he wants you to be.

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The women in John Bunyan's life (part 2) Elizabeth Bunyan

How I love the women in my church who stand when everything around their soul gives way! Oh, how the grace and the glory of God shines off of their lives! I've been there 28 years. I've walked through a lot of dark valleys with them, and I've buried a lot of children. [God's purpose for men and women] doesn't lead to wimpy womanhood, but it does lead to ... true womanhood. (John Piper, The ultimate meaning of true womanhood)

Elizabeth was only 19 when she married 31 year old John, a year after his first wife died. She became step-mother to four children, the oldest one blind. She was pregnant one year after their marriage, but the shock of John's arrest drove her into premature labour, and her baby died. Grieving, inexperienced, and lonely, she was left to raise John's four children during the twelve years he was in prison.

When I heard her story, I couldn't help wondering how she felt. Left to bring up the young family of a man she had recently married, weak and in pain after 8 days labour, her baby lost and her husband in prison because he was unwilling to stop preaching the gospel - was she tempted to bitterness, complaining or resentment? Did whispered thoughts go through her head - "He was only asked to stop preaching, not to deny his faith ... he doesn't really love me ... God has abandoned me ... "?

Instead, she stood bravely before a hostile courtroom, pleaded for her husband's freedom, and defended his right to preach the gospel. I'll tell you the story in her own words, as she told it to John, for every word shines with a fierce intelligence, courage and grace ...

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The women in John Bunyan's life (part 1)

When you dream about being a strong woman what should you dream? ... Women, young girls, dream of being so confident in God, and who you are in God as the daughter of the king of the universe, and what he has done for you and promises to do for you and be for you in Jesus Christ, that you fear nothing but God and laugh at the time to come - no matter what it holds. (John Piper, Christian Men and Women are Strengthened by the Gospel

I want to tell you the story of some strong women. I want to tell you the story of a woman who helped win her godless husband for Christ, some women so captured by God's grace that joy shone from every word they spoke, a blind girl who faithfully served her imprisoned father every day, and a woman who fought bravely for the gospel even when it cost her baby's life and her husband's freedom. I want to tell you the story of some women whose grace, love and courage still speak to us across the centuries.

I'm declaring this to be women's week in our Pilgrim's Progress series. Today I'll share three stories of women in John Bunyan's life, on Wednesday I'll tell you the inspiring story of Elizabeth Bunyan, and on Friday we'll chat about Christiana and Mercy from Pilgrim's Progress Part II . Let's begin with three stories from John Bunyan's autobiography ...

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Pilgrim's Progress: how to become a giant slayer

In this combat no man can imagine, unless he had seen and heard, as I did, what yelling and hideous roaring Apollyon made all the time of the fight; he spake like a dragon: and on the other side, what sighs and groans burst from Christian’s heart.

Do you think of yourself as a warrior? Have you realised this is exactly what God wants you to be? Every day, God calls you and me to a battle against sin, the world, and Satan. He calls us to fight the good fight, demolish falsehood, take every thought captive, stand our ground, resist the devil, overcome the world, guard ourselves and the gospel, battle our sinful desires, even shed our blood (1 Tim. 6:2; 2 Cor. 10:5; Eph. 6:13; Jam. 4:7; 1 Jn. 5:4-5; Lk. 12:15; 2 Tim. 1:14; Jam. 4:1; Heb. 12:4). Here is his charge: "Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be [wo]men of courage; be strong" (1 Cor. 16:3).

There are many battles I fight daily. I battle sinful desires: gossip and bitterness, gluttony and covetousness, anger and complaining, laziness and self-absorption, anxiety and discouragement. I battle the world: magazines which produce dissatisfaction, advertising which tempts to over-spending, TV shows which promote life free from restrictive morals. I battle Satan: his whispered thoughts of temptation, worry, doubt and despair. Sometimes I win a decisive battle, only to have to take up my weapons again. ...

May we ... use well the weapons God has given us:

• remember God is on our side, mightier than the most powerful and numerous enemy
• stand our ground and keep fighting, however long the battle and whatever the cost
• pray (Eph. 6:18) - it's not noticeable, but prayer is essential to every victory in Pilgrim's Progress. The children's versions usually leave it out, so add it back in if you're reading to a child!
• put on our armour - truth, righteousness, readiness, salvation (Eph. 6:10-20)
• carry our shield, answering all Satan's accusations with the death of Christ (Eph. 6:16)
• wield our sword (Eph. 6:17) - read, reflect on, remember, and recall the Bible
• hide the key of promise in our heart - memorise the Bible (Ps. 119:11)
• seek the companionship and encouragement of other Christians
• use the world - exercise, rest, healthy eating, the beauty of creation - to battle discouragement
• when all else fails, pray, trust, keep doing our duty, and wait for the day God will restore his light

With such great weapons at our disposal, let's not give up in the day of battle! Let’s wake each morning, put on our armour, polish our shield, sharpen our sword, and hide the key of promise in our pocket. Let's get ready for the fight, and battle on through the long days and nights, confident that we can overcome through him who gives us strength.

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Pilgrim's Progress: journey through a varied landscape

This book will make a traveller of thee,
If by its counsel thous wilt ruled be;
It will direct thee to the Holy Land,
If thou wilt its directions understand.

John Bunyan is inviting you on a journey. It’s a pilgrimage from a City doomed to Destruction to a City of Glory. Along the way, you’ll face giants, fiends, lions and robbers. You’ll be tempted to leave the stony path for softer pastures. You’ll meet people who try to turn you from the way. You’ll face hunger, thirst, weariness, even death. There will be times of rest and refreshment, but also times of doubt and despair. Are you ready to travel the straight and narrow path?

God also invites us on a journey. Like Abraham and Moses, we are nomads travelling through an inhospitable land to a fair country we have been promised but never seen. We flee Satan's country for a new and better land, a heavenly City prepared by God. We are “aliens and strangers”, “sojourners and exiles”, “strangers and pilgrims on this earth" (Heb. 11:13; 1 Pet. 2:11 – NIV, ESV, Geneva). God calls us to turn our backs on all that is dear to us, and to run, like Christian, with fingers in our ears and faces towards heaven.

Do you think of your Christian life as a journey? People talk about their "spiritual journey", but it's often a fuzzy-minded way of saying "You have your journey, I have mine". We've forgotten the Bible's idea of the Christian life as a pilgrimage through an alien landscape, beset by troubles and trials, ever tempted to stray from the true path. We have much to learn from Pilgrim's Progress. ...

Old Honest sums it up beautifully:

It happens to us as it happens to wayfaring men: sometimes our way is clean, sometimes foul; sometimes up hill, sometimes down hill; we are seldom at a certainty. The wind is not always on our backs, nor is every one a friend that we meet with in the way.

Here's what I've learnt from Pilgrim's Progress. I've learnt that no time lasts forever: that times of difficulty are followed by times of rest, and times of refreshment with new trials. I've been warned not to leave the path for an easier way, the promise of safety, or the lure of pleasure. I've been reminded not to put down my roots in pleasant places, and be lulled to sleep by comfort and happiness. I'll choose my travelling companions with care. I'll keep my Guide-book close, and consult it often. I'm determined to travel on days of sunshine, and days when I struggle against the wind. I'm travelling a pilgrim's path, and with God's help, I'll make it to the end. "The bitter must come before the sweet, and that also will make the sweet the sweeter".

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The Puritans: pilgrims and warriors

What do you think of when you hear the word “Puritan”? Gloomy men in black clothes and black, peaked hats with buckles, and their wives in white head scarves and demure dresses? Strait-laced kill-joys, opposed to dancing, theatre, and sport?

Maybe it’s vaguer for you than that. Maybe you think of the word “puritanical”, which the Online Dictionary says is “usually disparaging”, meaning “strict in moral or religious outlook”, with synonyms like “severe, disapproving, stuffy, fanatical, bigoted, prim, narrow-minded, prudish, strait-laced, rigorous, proper”. Not exactly an attractive portrait, is it? ...

Let me give you a different picture. The Puritans were our forbears, the evangelicals of 16th and 17th England, who wanted to reform the English church further. Their clothes were normal, and often brightly coloured; they opposed many things we would also oppose, like bear-baiting and gambling; and they moved organs from churches into their homes, where they enjoyed music and dancing. ...

But the Puritans have an immense amount to teach us. Here are some of the things we can learn from them: ...

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John Bunyan's journey

In many ways, the story of Christian in Pilgrim's Progress is John Bunyan's story. You can't understand one without getting to know the other. So let me tell you the story of John Bunyan.

John was born in 1628 in the town of Elstow in England, in the white cottage on the left. His father was a tinker, a mender of pots and pans, and Bunyan inherited his trade.

It's hard to imagine more difficult teenage years: Bunyan's mother died when he was 15, his sister a month later, and his father remarried within a month. In his spiritual autobiography, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, he says "I was the ringleader of all the youth ... in all manner of vice and ungodliness" like "cursing, swearing, lying, and blaspheming the holy name of God". ...

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Equip book club

Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye, the Equip book club is here!!! (I would have told you a couple of weeks back, but I've been a little distracted recently.)

The Equip book club is planned and run by my bloggy friend Nicole, who I met a couple of weeks ago at Equip. What a privilege, to meet my bloggy friend in the flesh!

Like me, you probably struggle to find time to read Christian books. Being part of a book club can encourage you to stay on course with your reading.

The Equip book club has chosen 11 books (one for each month until Equip 2008) which they think Christian women will enjoy reading, thinking, and chatting about. Each month someone writes about a book, and you're invited to respond with comments.

The book for June is Bryson Smith's Faith: A Matter of Trust, so you might want to get reading!

I was thrilled to be asked to contribute. In November I'll be writing about John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, the story of Christian's journey to the Celestial City.

Just to whet your appetite, I'm thinking of writing about the Christian life in terms of "journey," "geography," "battle" (thank to Jenny for these ideas) and the final hurdle, the "river" of death. I'd also love to write about Puritanism and John Bunyan, and review some editions of Pilgrim's Progress for children, but we'll see.

So join us for the ride: a book a month, lots of great posts, a chance to make your own comments, and encouragement from your sisters in Christ to read good books which feed your faith and encourage your joy.