I doubt many have heard about the story Holy War but it is an excellent work by John Bunyan. The Holy War is perhaps Bunyan’s second most popular work, after The Pilgrim’s Progress. It is another allegorical story which tells of the ongoing battle waged by Diabolus to take control of the city Man-Soul. King Shaddai and His Son Prince Emmanuel war against Diabolus and in the end subdue Diabolus and his followers. The story clearly and beautifully shows the inward struggles a Christian faces as they fight against Satan and their own fleshly desires.

I would highly recommend anyone read this story but if you doesn’t have time to sit and read it you can either stream or download the reading of it by Joy Chan. Joy Chan is probably one of the best readers I have heard. She has a clear musical tone to her voice that makes this audio story a pleasure to listen to. My family and I listened to the entire book driving between Kamloops and Edmonton and back. It is a long story but worth every minute of it. I will also be uploading Pilgrim’s Progress also read by Joy Chan very soon as well as some books by Andrew Murray.

Click here to listen to the Holy War.

I’ve enjoyed this quote from Charles Bridges and thought I would share it here.

Proverbs 3:6Proverbs 3:6
English: King James Version (1611) - KJV
6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.  

WP-Bible plugin

“Next let our confidence be uniform In all thy ways acknowledge him. Take one step at a time every step under plain warrant, and Divine direction. Never venture to plan for your self, except in simple dependence on God. It is nothing less than self-idolatry to conceive, that we can carry on even the ordinary matters of the day without his counsel. He loves to be consulted. Therefore take all thy difficulties to be resolved by him. Be in the habit of going to him in the first place before self-will, self- pleasing, self-wisdom, human friends, conveniences, expediency. Before any of these have been consulted, go to God at once. Consider no circumstance too clear to need his direction. In all thy ways, small as well as great in all thy concerns, personal or relative, temporal or eternal, let him be supreme. Who of us has not found the unspeakable peace of bringing to God matters too minute or individual to be entrusted to the most confidential. Thus it was that Abraham acknowledged God. Wheresoever he pitched a tent for himself, there was always an altar for God. In choosing a wife for his son there was a singular absence of worldliness. No mention of riches, honor, beauty, or of any thing, but what concerned the name and honor of his God. Thus did the wise man’s father in all his ways acknowledge God, asking counsel of him in all his difficulties, and never disappointed. This is indeed to walk with God as a Father. This is true faith not but exertion.”
- Charles Bridges

I am not familiar with the organization that put together this video and do not endorse the translation of the Bible that they use but the content is excellent showing how persecuted Chinese Christians are still at work in China. When we see Chinese religious leaders in the news we can be sure these do not represent true Chinese Christians. The visible church is that which is sanctioned by the government and is only allowed to teach and preach what the government allows them to.

Psalms 17:15Psalms 17:15
English: King James Version (1611) - KJV
15 As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.  

WP-Bible plugin “As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.”

Charles Spurgeon said “Glimpses of glory good men have here below to stay their sacred hunger, but the full feast awaits them in the upper skies. Compared with this deep, ineffable, eternal fullness of delight, the joys of the world ling are as a glowworm to the sun, or the drop of a bucket to the ocean.

“I will behold thy face” – God’s face
I believe that this verse refers to when we shall Christ’s face in Heaven but we can certainly apply looking at Christ’s face now with spiritual eyes. We know that no man has seen the glorified God so we know that we cannot see Him with our visible eyes. Romans 1:19Romans 1:19
English: King James Version (1611) - KJV
19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. in them: or, to them  

WP-Bible plugin–20 tells us that we can see God through the invisible things of Creation. This is the face of our Beloved! Any true Christian should view God as our most Beloved. When we look on the face of God we are looking on the face of the one that sacrificed His Son for us. Christ left Heavens glory to come to the stink and stench of our earth. This is the One that went from a pure, sinless place called Heaven to come to our earth which is full of sin and corruption.

“In righteousness”
We won’t behold Christ’s face when we are living in unrighteousness. The only way the believer can ever hope to gain a brief look at Christ is when we are living righteously, walking in the fear of the Lord. William Coldvill wrote that in order to behold God’s face in righteousness he would have to have his heart “perfectly conformed to the will of God, the perfect and adequate rule of righteousness.”

“I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness”
Again this is speaking about when we receive our glorified bodies but we can still make applications to our life now. See also II Corinthians 3:18 – Here we see that we can change more and more into His image here on earth. Our graduation into a fully changed and glorified body does not happen until we get to Heaven. Notice that this changing from glory to glory happens with the assistance of the Spirit of God. This is not something that we can do ourselves. However, all Christians should be getting closer to the likeness of Christ each day. If we are not then either we are not a Christian or we are backsliden.

Gazing on Jesus
“I fear we do not gaze enough upon that face covered with the bloody sweat, for if we did, we should be more like him; we should love him better; we should live more
passionately for him, and should spend and be spent, that we might promote his glory.” -Spurgeon, “Fragrant Graces”
~ Pastor Vaal