Encouraging Words

So I read to my boys every night as they're going to bed. Wanting to expose them to 'the best' (and giving myself an excuse to read them) I've decided to hit on some 'classics.' So our first entry in this endeavor is 'Robinson Crusoe' by Daniel Defoe.

I'm blown away by the depth of insight in this book into the nature of faith in God. So I decided to post an example. To fill you in, Robinson Crusoe's been stranded on this island for about 24 years now and he's made contact with a group of cannibals. One he is able to, in a sense, capture and make him his servant. His name is Friday. So he is trying to teach Friday about God. And here were words I found enlightening and encouraging.

"Here I was run down again by him to the last degree, and it was a testimony to me how the mere notions of nature, though they will guide reasonable creatures to the knowledge of a God, and of a worship or homage due to the supreme being of God, as the consequence of our nature; yet nothing but Divine revelation can form the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and of a redemption purchased for us, of a Mediator of the new covenant, and of an Intercessor at the footstool of God's throne; I say, nothing but a revelation from Heaven can form these in the soul; and that therefore the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, I mean, the Word of God and the Spirit of God, promised for the guide and sanctifier of His people, are the absolutely necessary instructors of the souls of men, in the saving knowledge of God, and the means of salvation...
I had, God knows, more sincerity than knowledge in all the methods I took for this poor creature's instruction, and must acknowledge what I believe all that act upon the same principle will find, that in laying things open to him, I really informed and instructed myself in many things that either I did not know or had not fully considered before, but which occurred naturally to my mind upon my searching into them for the information of this poor savage;... and when I reflected that in this solitary life which I had been confined to, I had not only been moved myself to look up to Heaven and to seek to the Hand that had brought me there, but was now to be made an instrument under Providence to save the life and, for aught I knew, the soul of a poor savage, and bring him to the true knowldedge of religion, and of the Christian doctrine, that he might know Christ Jesus, to know whom is life eternal; I say, when I reflected upon all these things, a secret joy ran through every part of my soul, and I frequently rejoiced that ever I was brought to this place, which I had so often thought the most dreadful of all afflictions that could possibly have befallen me."

After I read this Trevor was confused about what exactly gave him the the joy and it was great to share a verse he is well familiar with- our previous Dwelling in the Word passage from 2 Corinthians- "Therefore, since it is through God's mercy that we are engaged in this ministry we do not lose heart." Robinson Crusoe felt this mercy, to be engaged in the ministry of sharing Christ, and in the midst of his 'dreadful' predicament on his island, it gave him hope.

May God bless you on your 'island.'