I am always encouraged when I read about the humanity, struggles, sins and shortcomings of other preachers, because it reminds me that I am not alone in my own weakness and suffering. Please read the following disturbing biographical information about the famous Baptist preacher John Bunyan (1628-1688):
Conversion and ministryBunyan’s conversion to Puritanism was a gradual process in the years following his marriage (1650–55); it is dramatically described in his autobiography. After an initial period of Anglican conformity in which he went regularly to church, he gave up, slowly and grudgingly, his favourite recreations of dancing and bell ringing and sports on the village green and began to concentrate on his inner life. Then came agonizing temptations to spiritual despair lasting for several years. The “storms” of temptation, as he calls them, buffeted him with almost physical violence; voices urged him to blaspheme; the texts of Scriptures, which seemed to him to threaten damnation, took on personal shape and “did pinch him very sore.”Finally one morning he believed that he had surrendered to these voices of Satan and had betrayed Christ: “Down I fell as a bird that is shot from the tree.” In his psychopathic isolation he presents all the features of the divided mind of the maladjusted as they have been analyzed in the 20th century. ...Bunyan soon proved his talents as a lay preacher. Fresh from his own spiritual troubles, he was fitted to warn and console others: “I went myself in Chains to preach to them in Chains, and carried that Fire in my own Conscience that I persuaded them to beware of.” [emphasis added]
Jacob - Genesis 32:10, “I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands.”
Job - Job 17:1, “My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.”
David - Psalms 22:6, “But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.”Isaiah - Isaiah 6:5, “Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”Peter - Luke 5:8, “When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”Paul - 1st Timothy 1:15, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.”
Genesis 15:12, “And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.”
Psalms 142:7, “Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name: the righteous shall compass me about; for thou shalt deal bountifully with me.”
There was a child, born into a large family. Tragically, his father died when he was just four years old, leaving his mother to tend for him, his six brothers and his two sisters. When he was 17, he attended a church, as part of the conditions of his employment at his uncle's shoe store. After several months of attending this church, he converted to Christianity, when his Sunday school teacher told him about how much God loves him. That child was none other than the famous preacher, Dwight L. Moody (1837-1899).
Here is what his Sunday school teacher Mr. Edward Kimball (1823-1901) had to say of him:
“I can truly say, and in saying it I magnify the infinite grace of God as bestowed upon him, that I have seen few persons whose minds were spiritually darker than was his when he came into my Sunday School class; and I think that the committee of the Mount Vernon Church seldom met an applicant for membership more unlikely ever to become a Christian of clear and decided views of Gospel truth, still less to fill any extended sphere of public usefulness.” SOURCE
“If you do not put a difference between justification wrought by the man Christ without and sanctification wrought by the Spirit of Christ within, you are not able to divide the Word aright; but contrariwise, you corrupt the Word of God, and cast stumbling blocks before the people.” —Evangelist John Bunyan (1628-1688)
Ephesians 4:21-24, “If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”Romans 12:1-2, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
Philippians 4:8-9, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.”
- When you are confused, SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES!
- When you are lonely, SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES!
- When you are angry, SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES!
- When you are tired, SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES!
- When you are scared, SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES!
- When you are tempted, SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES!
- When you are frustrated, SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES!
- When you are confounded, SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES!
- When you are betrayed, SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES!
- When you are worried, SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES!
- When you are upset, SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES!
- When you are happy, SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES!
- When you are at peace, SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES!
- When you are safe, SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES!
- When you are confident, SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES!
- When you are horrified, SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES!
- When you are sad, SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES!
- When you are perplexed, SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES!
- When you are curious, SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES!
