The Shepherd Song

The Valley of Humiliation (humility) is a place of terror for those who are proud. But the Valley bears another, smiling face for the humble in heart. In this green vale Jesus spent his days, the gentle pilgrim Mercy rejoices to tread, and the poor and lowly gladly dwell. Here the shepherd boy sings his famous words:

He that is down needs fear no fall;
He that is low, no pride:
He that is humble, ever shall
Have God to be his guide.

I am content with what I have,
Little be it or much:
And, Lord, contentment still I crave,
Because thou savest such.

Fullness to such a burden is
That go on pilgrimage:
Here little, and hereafter bliss,
Is best from age to age.

from John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress Part II

image is from Flickr

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! ...

Read the rest at EQUIP book club today.

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. ...

Read the rest at EQUIP book club today.

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. ...

Read the rest at EQUIP book club.

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. ...

Read the rest at EQUIP book club today.

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.

Read the rest at EQUIP book club today.

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 ...

Read the rest at EQUIP book club today.

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 ...

Read the rest at EQUIP book club today.

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.

Read the rest at EQUIP book club today.

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".

Read the rest at EQUIP book club today.

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: ...

Read the rest at EQUIP book club today.

The opening scenes of Pilgrim's Progress: Conversion and Assurance

As I've delved more deeply into Pilgrim's Progress, I've been fascinated to find that the Puritans had very different views to us about conversion and assurance. This made the opening scenes of Pilgrim's Progress hard for me to understand at first. But the more I read and reflected, the more I realised we have a lot to learn from the Puritans (and they something from us!) at this point. Here's some highlights from my article on conversion and assurance in Pilgrim's Progress today at EQUIP book club:

So I saw in my dream that the man began to run. Now he had not run far from his own door when his wife and children, perceiving it, began to cry after him to return; but the man put his fingers in his ears, and ran on crying, Life! life! eternal life! So he looked not behind him, but fled towards the middle of the plain.

If you're anything like me, the opening scenes of Pilgrim’s Progress left you with lots of questions. When exactly does Christian become, well, Christian? What’s the parchment roll he has to carry to gain entry into heaven? The Slough of Despond sounds like something from Harry Potter, but what’s it all about?

We're confused because we often think of conversion as a simple process, a human decision made in response to an alter call or a Two Ways to Live gospel presentation: “You can be 100% sure of going to heaven! Just pray this prayer!” But for the Puritans, conversion was more like a natural birth than an induction, and the pastor the mid-wife overseeing God's sovereign work in the heart. Conversion was generally a slow process, following certain stages, and it was often necessary to humbly wait on God for his gift of assurance. ...

So what can we learn from Pilgrim's Progress about conversion? We learn that conversion is sometimes simple and quick, and sometimes long and drawn-out: we shouldn’t expect every conversion to follow the same pattern. We learn that every conversion includes conviction for sin, and if modern converts don't experience guilt or fear, this may be because we fail to preach God’s holiness and judgement. We learn that it may take time to gain assurance, and that we will gain it by looking to the cross of Christ. We learn that conversion is God's work, and takes place with his timing and in his way: our job is not to pressure people into the kingdom, but to support God's work in their hearts. ...

Now it's over to you. What was your experience of becoming a Christian? Was conversion a simple process for you, or a long and complex one? Do you identify more with Bunyan, Christian and Hopeful, who had to wait for assurance, or with Christiana, who received assurance immediately? Do you think it's common for people today to experience "conviction of sin"? What is your assurance based on? Have you ever lost it, and why?

Read the rest at EQUIP book club today.

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". ...

read the rest at EQUIP book club

Entering the world of Pilgrim's Progress

Imagine you're about to go on a journey. You're not travelling in the padded seat of an aeroplane, across the globe to a foreign country, but in a time-machine, to another culture in another century. What's more, you're moving across dimensions into a spiritual plane, where everything happens on the level of the human soul.

Opening the first page of Pilgrim's Progress is like entering another world. Not just the mysterious world of a story, with its own characters and landscape, but also the world of another time, when Christians thought and wrote differently from us. It's a fascinating world, but because there might be a bit of culture shock, I'll give you a few hints about entering the world of Pilgrim's Progress: you'll find them here ...

... I'd love to hear from you about how you're finding Pilgrim's Progress so far. If you haven't started reading yet, what are you looking forward to (or not looking forward to!)? If you have started, how have you found the book so far? What are you enjoying about the way it's written? What are you finding difficult? Any questions so far? Add your comments and questions here.

read the rest at EQUIP book club today

Pilgrim's Progress - the month ahead

To whet your appetite, here's an overview of the journey we'll be taking with Christian through Pilgrim's Progress during the next 4 weeks. ...

... As we read Pilgrim's Progress together, if you're anything like me, you'll sometimes stop and ask, "Huh? What does that mean?" So I'd like to encourage you to use the comments section to ask about anything you didn't understand. I'll do my best to explain, or someone else might respond to your comment, and tell you what they thought. No question is too stupid: if you've thought of it, chances are someone else did too. As you read, why not make a note of the bits you don't understand, and ask about them in the comments.

Reading Pilgrim's Progress together will be much more fun if we all share what we're learning. If anything in the story struck you, or if you found something particularly helpful, why not add your observations to the comments. I'd love to hear - I'm sure we all would! - about the impact Pilgrim's Progress has had on your life, and how God has used it to help you live for him.

I'm looking forward to travelling through Pilgrim's Progress with you.

read the rest at EQUIP book club

Pilgrim's Progress: children's versions

Next Monday, Jean Williams will start to walk us through November's book, Pilgrim's Progress. One thing I'm planning to do this month is to read through a children's version with my kids. Jean has kindly provided us with her preferred versions in this post...

Pilgrim's Progress has always been a great favourite with children. What child wouldn't love an adventure story about a valiant pilgrim-warrior who escapes the City of Destruction and travels to a Golden City, along a treacherous path which runs up stony mountains, into dark flame-filled valleys, and through enchanted lands which lull the unwary traveller to sleep, all the while battling fierce monsters, escaping fearsome giants, and resisting the temptations of a dazzling year-long fair?

Our hope, of course, as we read Pilgrim's Progress with our children, is not just to entertain them, but also to turn them into pilgrims themselves: brave travellers who will cast their burdens of sin and guilt at the foot of the cross, turn their faces away from the world and towards heaven, weather times of difficulty and discouragement with courage, fight their battles valiantly, and travel with perseverance until they receive their own hero's welcome into heaven. ...

... read the rest at EQUIP book club.

Pilgrim's Progress

It's not long until I start my Equip Books series on Pilgrim's Progress! Can I encourage you to start reading it yourself, or with your children?

There are three children's editions I'd recommend, if you want to read one with your children:

For pre-schoolers - Dangerous Journey
My 5-year old adored this. It draws on the original language, very much shortened and simplified, and the illustrations are of exceptional quality.

For school aged children - Helen Taylor's Little Pilgrim's Progress
Highly readable, well told, faithful to the original, and includes both the story of Christian and Christiana.

For older children - Pilgrim's Progress (part I) and Christiana's Story (part II)
My 7-year old loved hearing his father read him the first of these. These are original language versions, so beautifully produced that they make reading a pleasure.

I think Pilgrim's Progress is a wonderful read, both for adults and children, and we have so much to learn from it about the Christian life. Here's what I've written so far at Equip Books, with information about some adult's editions you might like to get hold of:

As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place, where was a den; and I laid me down in that place to sleep: and as I slept I dreamed a dream. I dreamed, and behold I saw a man clothed with rags, standing in a certain place, with his face from his own house, a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back. I looked, and saw him open the book, and read therein; and as he read, he wept and trembled: and not being able longer to contain, he brake out with a lamentable cry; saying, “What shall I do?”

Every time I read this opening paragraph, it sends shivers down my spine! And I'm not alone in loving Pilgrim's Progress: it has long been the world's best-selling book after the Bible, translated into over 200 languages. Missionaries carried it all over Africa and Asia, and it's especially popular in the third world.

Charles Spurgeon, who read Pilgrim's Progress more than 100 times, said, "Next to the Bible, the book that I value most is John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress ... it is ... the Bible in another shape." Samuel Taylor Coleridge said, "This wonderful work is one of the very few books which may be read over repeatedly at different times, and each time with a new and a different pleasure." ...

... read the rest here