[Friday's Devotional] - Doubting Castle

5 – Now there was a castle called Doubting-Castle

 

 

In The Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian and his fellow pilgrim Hopeful take a short cut away from the narrow path and end up in the land of Giant Despair, the owner of Doubting-Castle.  They are apprehended and imprisoned in a dungeon.

 

In the course of our lives, we often leave the straight and narrow path.  Sometimes we leave the path because our friends are not walking along it; sometimes we leave the path because the going gets difficult, and sometimes we leave the path because we are distracted by the things of this world.  It is easy to grow cold in our love for God.

 

Whatever the reason, leaving the path ends in trouble.  Thrown into the dungeon of Doubting-Castle, Christian and Hopeful, find themselves lonely and depressed.  They would die without reaching the Celestial City.  But then Christian makes a discovery.

 

“Now a little before it was day, good Christian, brake out in this passionate speech, ‘What a fool am I, thus to lie in a stinking dungeon, when I may as well walk at liberty.  I have a key in my bosom, called promise that will (I am persuaded) open any lock in Doubting-Castle.’”

 

So Christian and Hopeful used the key to leave the castle and to resume their journey.

 

John writes,

 

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.  1 John 1: 8, 9 [NIV]

 

Every one of us has left the narrow path at one time or another.  But God never abandons us; he promises forgiveness to all who turn back to the path which leads to the Celestial City.

 

Lord God, thank you that if we confess our sins you will forgive us.  Thank you that you for your promise that you will never leave us or forsake us.  Help us to be strong and to walk with you through the wilderness of this world.  Amen.

 

David Long

[Thursday's Devotional] - Vanity Fair

4 – Vanity Fair

 

 

Bunyan’s pilgrim, Christian and his friend Faithful come to the town of Vanity in which is a perpetual fair called Vanity Fair.  The fair is full of distractions and things to buy.  Bunyan comments:

 

“Now the way to the Celestial City lies just through this town, where this lusty Fair is kept; and he that will go to the City, and yet not go through the town, must needs go out of the world.”

 

It is impossible to go to the Celestial City – impossible to be a pilgrim – without passing though this town with its distractions and immorality.  Vanity Fair, then, is a picture of the world as we know it, with its standards and values opposed to those of God.  We cannot avoid living in the world, but we don’t have to make its values our own.

 

Christian and Faithful attract attention from the inhabitants of Vanity Fair because they are different and they are not interested by the merchandise on offer.  Unwelcome attention results in arrest.

 

Bunyan is making the point that as Christians we should be leading different, distinctive lives from those around.  We are not meant to blend into society like chameleons.  Our attitudes to possessions, money, sex and power are not to be like those who do not have Jesus as their guide.

 

Paul writes:

 

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Romans 12: 2 [NIV]

 

Be a rebel, Paul says!  Don’t go along with all that is evil in the world.  Instead be transformed, be changed.  Transformation is a process, not a single event, so it takes time.  And transformation is not something that we do ourselves, but something that God does to us through his Spirit if we will allow him.

 

Lord God, help me to recognise the values of the world for what they are.  Fill me with your Spirit so that I might be changed to become more and more like my Saviour, Jesus Christ.

 

David Long

[Wednesday's Devotional] - Upon that place stood a cross

3 – Upon that place stood a cross

 

 

John Bunyan’s pilgrim, Christian, continues on his way, burdened with a load on his back.

 

“He ran thus till he came at a place somewhat ascending; and upon that place stood a Cross, and a little below in the bottom a sepulchre.  So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up with the Cross, his burden loosed from his shoulders, and fell from his back; and it began to tumble and so continued to do till it came to the mouth of the sepulchre, where it fell in and I saw it no more.”

 

Christian’s burden is sin.  He has been weighed down by all of the things he has done which have fallen short of God’s standards.  But at the Cross, the burden is taken away from him and his sins end up in the grave.  They have been dealt with; they are as good as dead; they cannot stop Christian enjoying a relationship with God.

 

People come to faith in all sorts of ways.  There is no pattern.    But all of us, whichever route we have come to faith, end up at the Cross.  The Cross is where we are put right with God because of the sacrifice of his Son, Jesus.

 

Peter writes:

 

Christ himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds have you been healed.  1 Peter 2: 24 [NIV]

 

Sin kept us from enjoying the presence of God, who is holy.  But we have been put right with God through the death of Jesus on the Cross.  Now, no matter what we have done in the past, we can be forgiven if we put our trust in Jesus. 

 

Lord God, thank you for the death and resurrection of Jesus.  Thank you that my burden of sin has been taken away from me.  Thank you that I can live my life in the knowledge that you love me.

 

David Long

[Tuesday's Devotional] - Fly from the wrath to come

2 – Fly from the wrath to come

 

 

 

In The Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian reads of God’s judgement, and it is his fear of this that starts his search for salvation.  As he is out walking, he meets a man called Evangelist.  Hearing his desire to be put right with God, Evangelist guides Christian to a wicket gate (the narrow gate of Jesus’ parable) and gives him a scroll on which is written the words, Fly from the wrath to come.

 

Evangelist brings both bad and good news. 

 

Firstly, there is wrath to come.  There will be judgement, and we will have to answer for all of our actions before the throne of God.  Speaking to the crowds in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said,

 

Enter through the narrow gate.  For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.  Matthew 7: 13, 14 [NIV]

 

This is reality.  Many walk the road to destruction.  The route is wide and well-trodden; the gate is wide enough for us to enter without having to lay aside any of our sins, our selfishness or our pride.  This is the easy option.

 

But secondly, Evangelist brings good news:  there is also a narrow gate, the wicket gate, and that leads to life in all its fullness.  But we need to search for it, and not many find it.  It is wide enough for us to squeeze through, but not wide enough for us to take our prejudices, misdeeds and all the things that are not of God.

 

Notice that there is only a choice between two gates.  There is no middle way: no medium-sized gate where we can travel with some of our sins and worship God when the mood takes us.

 

Lord God, thank you for those who pointed me to the small gate and for those who encourage me along the way.  Help me, too, to be a guide to those who seek the Saviour.

 

David Long

[Monday's Devotional] - As I walked through the wilderness

1 – As I walked through the wilderness of this world

 

 

In 1677, John Bunyan wrote the first part of his book, The Pilgrim’s Progress, while imprisoned in Bedford gaol.  Translated into over 200 languages and never out of print, Bunyan’s allegory has been more widely read than any other book in English except the Bible.

 

The Pilgrim’s Progress tells the story of a man called Christian who lived in the City of Destruction.  It covers his conversion, the trials and joys of his life until he reached the Celestial City.  Bunyan tells the story as if he had dreamed it.  Here is how he begins:

 

“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 am struck by the opening words: The wilderness of this world.  How many of us see the world as a wilderness?  The world is our home; we grow up in it, marry, have children, grow old and die in it.  For many of us the world is a comfortable place.  Of course, life brings its ups and downs, but overall, for us in the rich West, life is not such a bad experience.

 

But woe betide us if we start to adopt the world’s standards and ideals.  The world measures success in terms of money, possessions, power and good looks.  These are not what God values.  The world may be our physical home, but it was never meant to be our spiritual home.

 

Peter writes,

 

Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and strangers in the world to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.  1 Peter 2: 11 [NIV]

 

That’s who we are: aliens and strangers.  Christians don’t belong here; it is as if we are foreigners.  We don’t fit in completely.  We march to a different drum beat.  We swim against the current.  We look forward to a different future.

 

Lord God, please give me wisdom to live my life in a way which pleases you as I walk through the wilderness of this world.  Amen.

 

David Long