Thursday, October 14, 2021

How did I miss this film?

               I really don't know how I missed this film. Let me start here....John Bunyan wrote The Pilgrim's Progress while in jail....for preaching without the proper license. This man was a tinker....maybe the most meager of livings there was....and he was also a 'stinker'...blasphemous and an all-around troublesome man....and then God got a hold of him.....and his story and writings have made Christians weep with joy in the over three centuries since his death.
               Charles Spurgeon....the great 19th century London preacher whose sermons were sent out into the world....who fought the battle against liberalism in England....and warned them.....before they fell as a believing people.....and whose sermons continue to feed hungry Christians today....he by his own account read The Pilgrim's Progress....100 times in his life! I am sitting here typing....and to my left on the wall are four framed drawings in map form....of the path that Christian would have taken in Bunyan's book. To my right on the wall is an actual page....ink splotch and all....of a Charles Spurgeon sermon. Next to me on the table is a book that I started last night....Yours Till Heaven.....The Untold Love Story of Charles and Susie Spurgeon.....by Ray Rhodes Jr......who I have posted on before. Straight ahead.....Billy Graham is looking at me from the cover of a coffee table book on his many crusades.
               Spurgeon and Bunyan and The Pilgrim's Progress have been part of this household for decades. Oh it was maybe twenty-five years ago.....and I was fairly new to the reformed faith of Christianity.....and I purchased 1000 Charles Spurgeon paperback books.....All Of Grace....(I got a good price).....and passed them out at grocery stores and laundromats and anywhere I could think of. I have six or seven left! Do you get the picture? I try my best to recommend Spurgeon and Bunyan to as many people as I can. So how did I miss the 2019 animated film....a major production....The Pilgrim's Progress?
              Well I came across it about midnight last evening. I have fantasized over the years....at times....how if I were to come into money....tens of millions of dollars....that I would set out to produce a film....The Pilgrim's Progress....and Brad Pitt or Matt Damon would play Christian. I would spend all the money to have a major Hollywood film on Bunyan's book at the theaters!
             This animated film is pretty close! Praise God! Please Google it! It's easy to pull up and watch for free! It's not for small children as the evil figures in the film would be too frightening....maybe twelve and older.....but I'm by no means an expert on this. As many times as I myself have read the book....and watched other films....my eyes were totally watered over at the end....and my breathing even a little labored over the joy of that message of Bunyan's book....the very gospel itself....freshly applied to my mind and heart