Thoughts on Pilgrim’s Progress, Part the Second – #12

Pilgrim’s Progress was written by John Bunyan in the 1600s while he was in prison for his faith. 

Mr. Honest and Mr. Contrite are talking about how things were going in their lives.

Mr. Contrite asks, “Pray, how fares it with you in your pilgrimage?”

Mr. Honest has this wonderful response, “…sometimes our way is clean, sometimes foul; sometimes uphill, sometimes downhill; we are seldom at a certainty: The wind is not always on our backs, nor is everyone a friend that we met in the way.”

This is true in the life of every Christian. Some today may preach a health-and-wealth message, but that is not the gospel. When we study the life of Christ, we see He didn’t even own a home, though Psalm 50:10 says: “For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.” 

As Christians, we should desire to say as Paul did in Philippians 4:11: “ for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.”

photo credit annkkml

Thoughts on The Pilgrim’s Progress #5

Bunyan wrote a Part two, or “Part the Second” which follows the journey of Christian’s wife, Christiana, and their four sons, on their pilgrimage. I found this in the introduction:

Render them not reviling for revile;

But if they frown, I prithee on them smile:

Perhaps ‘tis Nature, or some ill report,

Has made them thus despise, or thus retort.

I got to thinking about this and I pray I can remember these thoughts whenever run into someone who is having a bad day. Or when someone gives me a hard time for no reason.

I can’t know what is going on in the other person’s life. I have not “walked a mile in their moccasins”. So my prayer is that I would be gentle. That I would understand that often the rage isn’t really at me. I pray the Lord would give me a word of peace, a kind spirit, a calmness.

A few days after I read this, I came across this story on facebook. It fits right in with this idea. You can read it and see if you don’t agree.

http://www.prodigalmagazine.com/she-yelled-and-called-me-names/

Thoughts on The Pilgrim’s Progress #4

photo credit – anankkml

Pilgrim’s Progress was written by John Bunyan in the 1600s while he was in prison for his faith.

After the end of part one, there is a poem called “The Conclusion”. These four lines are part of the last stanza:

What of my dross thou findest here, be bold

To throw away, but yet preserve the Gold.

What if my Gold be wrapped up in ore?

None throws away the Apple for the Core.

I think what Bunyan is saying here is that if the reader finds something in his writings that are not correct, to not use that as a reason to throw out all he has written. He is admitting that he could be in error somewhere, but pleads for readers not to throw out the truth of scripture found in his writings. It’s like “Don’t throw out the baby with the bath water.”

I ask the same. I am so very far from knowing all the truths in scripture. But, please don’t throw out my writings. If you find me in error, tell me. Send me scriptures to read. Share with me your insight. And, please, don’t throw out the baby and keep the bath water!