From This World, To That Which Is To Come

The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That Which Is to Come is a 1678 Christian allegory written by John Bunyan. It traces the journey of Christian from his first conviction of sin, through his conversion, trials, suffering, and victorious joy, and ultimately across the River of Death to the Celestial City. It is regarded as one of the most significant works of religious English literature, has been translated into more than 200 languages, and has never been out of print.

John Bunyan (1628-1688) was born near Bedford at Elstow, England, of a poor family. He earned a meager living as a repairer of pots and pans, and served in Cromwell’s army during the British Civil War. In 1655, Bunyan was called to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He was arrested in 1660 for preaching without a license from the Anglican Church, charged with “teaching men to worship God contrary to the law.” He was in jail more than twelve years, during which time he could have been released if he would have agreed to compromise on certain points in preaching the Gospel. His most well-known work, The Pilgrim’s Progress, was written in the Bedford jail.

“Next to the Bible, the book that I value most is Pilgrim’s Progress. I believe I have read it through at least a hundred times…Prick him anywhere, and you will find that his blood is “bibline,” the very essence of the Bible flows from him.” – Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892)

Pilgrim’s Progress is read with the greatest pleasure. – George Whitefield (1714-1770)

I find this book so full of matter, that I can seldom go through more than a page or half a page at a time. – John Newton (1725-1807)

Andy and Laura are reading “Chasing The Dragon” an autobiography of Jackie Pullinger.

Jackie Pullinger was born in Britain in 1944, and spent most of her young adult life sharing the love of Jesus with the drug dealers and prostitutes of the Walled City in the New Territories of Hong Kong. Unclaimed by either the Chinese or the British government, the Walled City was a dense block of high-rise apartments which became a no-mans-land of drugs, violence, and exploitation overseen by rival gangs. Jackie shares how God had to overcome her assumptions and preconceived ideas about what it means to “minister” until He finally broke her heart with a genuine love for the people of the city. After years of perseverance and personal growth in faith, hundreds were brought to faith through her witness. This move of God toppled the gangs and eventually brought down the Walled City itself.

I appreciate the honesty of this book as the author shares her struggles to trust God and live up to the life that she knew she was called to. In the end, it was the time she spent building relationships and showing other-centered love that finally broke through the barriers and allowed those in the city to understand and accept the love of Jesus. This is a great reminder to me that one of the most effective ways to minister is to simply pour yourself and the love that God gives you into the lives of those around you in practical ways. Jackie still lives and ministers in Hong Kong today.

Find your copy of Chasing the Dragon at the Central Desk at JFBelievers now!

Are we watering down the gospel?

Benjamin Corey confronts our vision of Jesus head-on, asking the hard question: Is what we see and hear in the modern church all there is to the message of Jesus… or is there a more radical side to Jesus than we have been led to believe?

Get ready to encounter a Jesus that is determined to turn over the tables of a stale, ineffective and boring gospel that seeks to escape from the world instead of transforming it.

This radical Jesus and His message…

• Invites us to reorient our lives not on Christian religion, but on the person of Jesus
• Calls us to live out faith in the context of authentic community with others, instead of isolation
• Includes the excluded and invites the outcast to have a seat at the table
• Responds to enemies with a radical, unexplainable love

Undiluted will invite you to step out of your comfort zone and into a process of rediscovering the radical, counter cultural, and life-changing message of Jesus. As you do, you’ll discover a more vibrant faith as you embrace an undiluted Jesus and His radical message!

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What are you reading?

Ben Morrison is reading “The Pursuit if God” by Tozer.

” I’ve actually read this book a few times before and get a lot out of it each time.  The book is about pursuing God with your whole heart and life: moving from knowledge about God and into daily realized experience walking with God. It doesn’t try to focus too carefull on doctrine, and in that way can at times be on the “mystical” / experiential side.

But I tend to be more stoic with devotions, prayer and worship. So I find the book to be both stretching and inspiring in the way he writes about having awe of God, the seriousness in following God, worshipping God, and having passion and desire to be close to God in daily experience. 

Right now I believe God is using this book to speak to me about a few things that are slowing me down spiritually. Specifically, the self-importance that I can feel about my job during the day and the self-reliance I can have when making decisions. I’ve been talking to Sasha about these things and we’ve been praying together about. I’m trying to lean further into God throughout the day: praying, reading, thinking about God. Trying to add fuel to the spiritual fire.”

Enjoying Jesus through the Spiritual Disciplines

Three seemingly unremarkable principles shape and strengthen the Christian life: listening to God’s voice, speaking to him in prayer, and joining together with his people as the church.

Though seemingly normal and routine, the everyday “habits of grace” we cultivate give us access to these God-designed channels through which his love and power flow — including the greatest joy of all: knowing and enjoying Jesus.

“Hear his voice.

Have his ear.

Belong to his body.”

Reviews

“David Mathis has more than accomplished his goal of writing an introduction to the spiritual disciplines. What I love most about the book is how Mathis presents the disciplines—or ‘means of grace’ as he prefers to describe them—as habits to be cultivated in order to enjoy Jesus. The biblical practices Mathis explains are not ends—that was the mistake of the Pharisees in Jesus’s day and of legalists in our time. Rather they are means by which we seek, savor, and enjoy Jesus Christ. May the Lord use this book to help you place yourself ‘in the way of allurement’ that results in an increase of your joy in Jesus.” Donald S. Whitney, Associate Professor of Biblical Spirituality, Senior Associate Dean of the School of Theology, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; author, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life

“So often as we consider the spiritual disciplines, we think of what we must do individually. Mathis takes a different approach that is both insightful and refreshing. Along with our personal time of prayer and reading, we are encouraged to seek advice from seasoned saints, have conversations about Bible study with others, and pray together. The Christian life, including the disciplines, isn’t meant to be done in isolation. Mathis’s depth of biblical knowledge along with his practical guidance and gracious delivery will leave you eager to pursue the disciplines, shored up by the grace of God.” Trillia Newbell, author, United: Captured by God’s Vision for Diversity and Fear and Faith

This pocket-sized discipleship book was designed to encourage and challenge professing Christians to truly and fully follow Christ.

“A good, short book by Piper about striving to ‘enter through the Narrow Door’ that Jesus calls His followers to go through.”

What would compel a man to sell everything he has in order to buy an open field? An overwhelming joy arising from his knowing that treasure is buried in it.

“But when God gives the radical change of new birth and repentance, Jesus himself becomes our supreme treasure.”

Jesus compared his kingdom to these circumstances. When we face the hard road of suffering and sacrifice to which Jesus beckons us, we act just like the man who found a treasure hidden in a field. In our joy we are able to sell all that we have and walk with Jesus along the Calvary road.

Join John Piper as he describes the cost of following Jesus, and the supreme joy which sustains believers every step of the way, that’s true discipleship.

The chapters

The chapters are six selections from “What Jesus Demands from the World” by John Piper:

(1) Coming to Jesus is Not Easy

(2) Following Jesus is a Hard Road

(3) The Road is Hard But it is Not Joyless

(4) Strive to Enter the Narrow Door

(5) Without Jesus Our Striving Would Be Losing

(6) Our Joy in Jesus Sustains Our Striving

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

God’s will is not a bullseye to hit, but a life to live

The gist of the book, Just Do Something, is that too many of us spend too much time trying to divine God’s will and too little time striving to obey the plain commands of Scripture. God’s will is not a corn maze or magic eight ball. His will is our sanctification. God promises to direct our steps all throughout life. He never promises to show us what each step is ahead of time. Too many of us are prone to passivity and indecision. Doing nothing feels more spiritual (and less risky) rather than doing something. We stumble around in chains of subjective impressions and wander here and there, and in and out of our parent’s basement.

Pastor Kevin DeYoung counsels Christians to settle down, make choices, and do the hard work of seeing those choices through. Too often, God’s people tinker around with churches, jobs, and relationships. They worry that they haven’t found God’s perfect will for their lives. Even worse, they do absolutely nothing. Stuck in a frustrated state of paralyzed indecision, waiting… waiting… waiting for clear, direct, unmistakable direction.

God doesn’t need to tell us what to do at each fork in the road of life.

He’s already revealed His plan for our lives:

to love Him with our whole hearts,

to obey His Word,

after that…to do what we like.

No need for hocus–pocus. No reason to be directionally challenged.

Just do something.

This book is Available at JFB Central Desk

or at these online stores below