Pilgrim's Progress

Well, I haven't written here in a while...Life is quite busy oftentimes.
I am always thinking that I should write more on this blog, and am quite ashamed I do not do it more often, but indeed studying takes up a lot of my time. Busyness is the worst enemy of this blog :)

Anyways, that is not what I want to talk about...
I want to talk about (as the title might suggest, if you took the time to read it) the Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan.

We first heard of this great story as kids, when my aunt brought the video of the movie for us to watch. (yes, at the time we used videos and not DVDs :D). Well, the kids' reaction to that movie might be guessed: I got pretty scared, especially at the end of the movie when the devil points to the person who is watching the movie and says something like: " I lost Christian and Hopeful, but you will be my next prey..." At that time I even closed my eyes, and hoped I wouldn't have nightmares.
Next time we heard about the Pilgrim's Progress was when the youth club in the church in Brazil watched it. Then it made more sense, and fortunately they cut the Apollyon part at the end. :)

Well, some weeks ago, Answersingenesis.org began to post the Pilgrim's Progress book on their website. Ju decided to start reading it, then she encouraged us (Paulo and I) to read it too. And such a blessed book! It is a book that every Christian should read, I think. John Bunyan was really inspired to write with such clarity about the struggles in a believer's life, and the analogies he uses are indeed very interesting.
We can always symphathise with Christian in his struggles and his constant fights with the "enemy of our souls", who always tried to bring him out of the way. Many a times he convinced Christian to leave the way, showing him a wider, and easier path to follow, however the grace of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus delivered Christian from destruction, showing that He is a very present help in trouble. (Psa 46:1)
As I read the book, I can't but see how easily Christian is made prey, and I wonder why he drifts away from the narrow path so many times. Yet I know I am exactly like that, or even worse. We can easily look at the mistakes in others but, it is quite hard to detect them in ourselves.That's why I find this book interesting. It helps us to see how weak we are, and that if it wasn't by the grace of the Lord in always bringing us back to the way to the Celestial City, we would be gone from the path long ago.

I strongly reccomend the Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. You can easily find it online, and if you want to read a section a week you can read as Answers in Genesis posts sections of the book on their website:
Section 1, Section 2, Section 3 are already available!