John Bunyan

Every now and then I run into a book that is life-changing, that is, it deeply affects the way I think and act. One of those is a recent book by Faith Cook titled Fearless Pilgrim: The Life and Times of John Bunyan (Evangelical Press, 2008). If you purchase this volume, it is worth every dollar or quid!

Bunyan was a tinker, that is, a laborer who fixed pots and pans. One day something extraordinary happened in his calling; it is best to put it in his own words:

Upon a day, the good providence of God did cast me to Bedford, to work on my calling; and in one of the streets of that town, I came where there were three or four poor women sitting at a door in the sun, and talking about things of God, and being now willing to hear them discourse, I drew near to hear what they said, for I was now a brisk talker also myself in the matters of religion, but now I may say, I heard, but I understood not, for they were far above, out of my reach.

What Bunyan heard that morning from those poor women was deeply disturbing to him. He further explains:

Their talk was about a new birth, the work of God on their hearts, also how they were convinced of their miserable state by nature; they talked how God had visited their souls with his love in the Lord Jesus, and with what words and promises they had been refreshed, comforted, and supported against the temptations of the devil.

Bunyan was devastated because he had been trying to live a life of works righteousness, and he took great pride in his religious accomplishments. But Bunyan was drawn, and so day after day he managed his work so that he could hear the women speak of such things as God's grace to undeserving sinners. These poor women were members of John Gifford's dissenter church in Bedford . . . and this was the church that would later send out a preaching evangelist whose name was . . . John Bunyan.