Pilgrim #9: Christian now has a healthy Word +Spirit balance to not only protect, but guide him to deliverance + his true destination. He ran along the Wall of Salvation as fast as he could with his burden still weighing on him "and on that place stood a Cross! + and a little below, a Sepulchre. Just as Christian came up, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back; and 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.' And so Bunyan simply+powerfully describes Christian's experience : ONLY ONE WAY to be free of sin = The Cross of Jesus! All other religion/philosophy are nothing more than man's own futile efforts. The Cross is nothing less than God's Love breaking through where all else fails. The simple Gospel: Believe + Receive! Jesus alone rolls burdens into graves.. till you see them no more! It's true... it works... I know... by experience!

Pilgrim’s Progress #8: Evangelist rescues Christian... again! + he finally makes it to the Gate where Goodwill meets/takes him in. Aren’t you glad when you meet Goodwill on your life journey? He sets Christian’s course on the ‘straight+narrow’, not the seductive ‘broad+crooked’, and directs him to Interpreter’s House. Here he sees/realizes 7 things for understanding + purpose: 1 a picture of man looking to heaven = world at his back; 2 a dusty parlour: sweeping = Law only stirs dust up, but water sprinkled = Gospel cleanses heart; 3 2 children: Passion = discontent; wants everything now X Patience = quiet; seeks eternal + at last wins all; 4 unquenchable fire = grace is unstoppable; 5 a persistent man = even violent force gains access to palace; 6 a professor in dark cage, heart so hardened, now without hope; 7 a man awakening from bed, but not ready for judgment? So Christian now has a healthy Word +Spirit balance: Hope +Fear = both wings = gifts of the Interpreter = the Holy Spirit, to not only protect, but guide him to his true destination … and so does every Christ-follower!

#7 Pilgrim’s Progress: Help gets Christian out of his emotional Slough of Despond, but he unfortunately jumps from the frying pan into the fire when he heeds the intellectual advice of Mr Worldly-Wiseman from the town of Carnal Policy (ie. practical common sense). ‘You’re too weak to get through that mystical Gate. Stop meddling in that book you’ve been reading. It’s too high for you. Here’s an easier, not so dangerous way for you to get rid of that burden (sin) on your back.’ And so, MrW-W redirects him to Mr. Legality in the town of Morality with a son named Civility. In other words… You don’t have to fight the world, just join it, keep the rules, fit in and be respectable! Christian listens to this wrong counsel and begins to climb the high + impossibly steep hill to get to Morality…but it threatens to fall on his head! And so it is with us today. When distracted by just wanting to get rid of our pain, we only end up jumping from one ditch to another. We can never keep a Law to save ourselves. Mt Sinai only condemns; only Zion saves!

Pilgrim's Progress Step #6: the Slough of Despond: not just a swamp, but the accumulated scum/filth: fears, doubts + apprehensions that attends sin's conviction. It runs continuously; it cannot be mended. Heedless, Pliable +Christian both fall in. Pliable loses hope, changes his mind... again +turns back; Christian in desperation cries for help + Help rescues him from this mire of depression! 'But why was Christian distracted/missed the clearly marked steps?' // Why do we not heed those simple warnings X sin ourselves: abhorrence/repentance of pride? unforgiveness? selfish ambition? = all that seeks to hinder, ensnare, entangle, suffocate + drown us? + so often fall into this Slough ourselves? We need Help!

Pilgrim's Progress #5: His name = Christian, not just an individual, but in allegory = embodiment all those who set their hopes/faith for the Celestial City -Truth Beyond what the world's Destruction offers. He's now confronted by 2 neighbours, not just individuals, but personifications/embodiments of their character types. Obstinate: adamantly refuses to follow Christian's decision + tries to convince him to turn back: 'leave our friends + comforts'? + Pliable: true to his name, wavers like grass in wind, leaning towards whichever argument he last heard. But these are more than just external persecutors; they represent inner struggles Christians face in following Jesus. Our minds resist His simplicity: common sense argues while comfort seeks compromise... but Christian does not waver between 2 opinions: he presses on... yea even progresses in a higher call, of which falsely so-called 'Progressives' today have virtually no understanding.

#4 Step: Evangelist = the Gospel asks, 'Why are you crying? + Pilgrim: 'I perceive by the book I am condemned to die + after that, the judgment + I find I am not willing to do the 1st nor able to do the 2nd; and if I die, this burden will sink me lower yet!' Evangelist: 'Don't just stand there! Flee, get rid of your burden! Change direction! Head towards that Light, through the Gate + don't stop till you reach your real home, the Celestial City!' Life here on this sin-sick earth is not our real goal. God has more! We must not confuse what is only temporary/comfortable for what is eternal/best. Here is like a passing breeze, a breath of wind; if we substitute what is passing away for what is eternal, then we miss its essence. This world will never satisfy; its lusts will always disappoint; it can never fulfill your inner, God-driven hunger/thirst for what is true + forever. Set your heart to gain God's Eternal City. Don't settle for man-built theories/Utopias. If you haven't yet noticed, they have always failed... and will... they are like passing wind!

Pilgrim's Progress # 3: Bunyan dreamed, 'behold, I saw a man clothed with rags.. with his face from his own house, a book in his hand + a great burden upon his back.. and brake out with a lamentable cry, 'What shall I do?' Pilgrim's Progress is an allegory, figurative symbolic poem of one subjective under guise of another. This is NOT a literal story, but reaches beyond 1 man to describe true human spiritual condition. Naturally: our efforts to improve/save ourselves/be comfortable in this world are mere rags, unable to protect/provide our real needs; his book=the Bible=God's Word, exposes our separation from our Father God-Creator + sin = great burden on his back. This man, like our world today, needs more than a cosmetic change; he finds no remedy in our natural environment, but turns direction from his own comfort + cries from depths of his heart. Our only hope is that God so exposes our need, we cry out for change + act accordingly!