22 September 2010

Oil and Water parable

Here is a parable that represents what I hope this blog will be about. It is an excerpt from The Pilgrim's Progressby John Bunyan.

"Then I saw the Interpreter take Christian by the hand and lead him into a place where was a fire burning against a wall, and one standing by it, always casting much water upon it, to quench it; yet did the fire burn higher and hotter.

Christian: What means this?

Interpreter: This fire is God’s work of grace in the heart. He who casts water upon it to put it out, is the devil; but you shall see why in spite of the water it still burns. So he led him to the other side of the wall, where he saw a man with a vessel of oil in his hand, which oil he continually cast, but secretly, into the fire.

Christian: What means this?

Interpreter: This is Christ, who continually, with the oil of His grace, maintains the work already begun in the heart. So in spite of what the devil can do, grace never dies out in the heart. The man behind the wall to keep the fire is to teach thee that it is hard for the tempted to see how this work of grace is kept alive in the soul."

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