Mark Johnston

The Valley of Vision: A Reader’s Guide to a Christian Classic

Some books have a strange and unanticipated ability to capture people’s attention and exceed all expectations in the number of copies they sell. That has certainly been the case with The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions. Over the almost fifty years since it was first printed, demand for this little resource has not only steadily increased but has often come from some unlikely quarters.

Given that the label “Puritan” often has pejorative connotations — even in some Christian circles — why has this anthology of Puritan prayers managed to bless such a broad cross section of the church for so many decades?

Puritan Rediscovery

The answer lies in some measure with the story of how the Banner of Truth came into existence. In the postwar years in Britain, largely through the influence of men like D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones and J.I. Packer, many rediscovered the Puritans and their writings with a fresh appreciation of what Packer once described as “Christianity of an older, deeper, richer, riper sort.”

During the seventeenth century in England, the Puritans served as heirs of the Protestant Reformation. They both preserved and built on the theological legacy of men like Calvin, Luther, and Zwingli. They also maintained the rich piety that marked that crucial era in church history — a piety rooted in the conviction that, as Paul says in Titus, “knowledge of the truth . . . leads to godliness” (Titus 1:1 NIV).

The Puritans were first and foremost pastor-teachers who sought not merely to educate and inform their congregations but to see their lives transformed by God’s word and Spirit. They were Bible men through and through, and the impact of their ministries was plain to see in the congregations they served. They wrote prolifically, and much of their writing simply offered in print what they taught and proclaimed from their pulpits week by week. This multipronged ministry led to the penetrating application of great Bible truths worked out in the everyday experience of their people.

It was hardly surprising, then, that the legacy of these men lived on through their books in the centuries that followed, with notable figures like George Whitefield being influenced by them and, in turn, being used by God in significant measure in their own days. However, with the dilution of evangelical convictions and the rise of liberal theology in the nineteenth century, the influence of the Puritans began to wane — that is, until their works were rediscovered in the aftermath of the Second World War.

In that surprising context, a new generation of preachers began to benefit from these classic works. Iain Murray was one of those young men, and he, along with like-minded friends, helped stir up fresh interest in the Puritan legacy.

Roots of a Classic

This was the soil into which The Valley of Vision sunk its roots. Through Murray’s contacts at that time and his early work with what would become The Banner of Truth, he encountered Arthur Bennett, an Episcopalian minister. When he came across Bennett’s writings on the life and work of David Brainerd (a close friend of Jonathan Edwards and missionary to the Delaware Indians in New Jersey during the eighteenth century), Murray sent Bennett some examples of Puritan prayers and suggested not only that he might find them helpful, but also that he might consider editing and abridging some of them to bring them back into circulation for the church.

The outcome of these interactions was an effort not merely to republish these prayers from the past but also to use them as a template for a book more suited to a new generation of Christians. In Murray’s words, they planned to use these Puritan prayers as “a source for a book in more modern form, taking thoughts, petitions, and, at times, even language, recast, and all more natural to [our] own prayer life today.” They hoped to create not only a record of the past but even “more a devotional work to aid Christians in their communion with God in the present day” (as the preface to the 1975 edition says).

In God’s providence, Bennett’s predecessor in his parish in Hertfordshire was Rev. E. Bickersteth, a gifted evangelical Anglican poet and hymn writer. Bickersteth clearly influenced Bennett and his work in compiling his devotional anthology.

Prayers for Every Season

The beauty of this collection of prayers is multifaceted, traversing the entire scope of the Christian journey from the depths to the heights. The prayers express the deep desires of the heart and the perplexities of our Christian experience in language full of deep reverence for God on the one hand and, on the other hand, a down-to-earth sense of our needs, longings, and failings. Through them all, there is the rich gospel realization that, despite our manifold sins and transgressions — through omission as much as commission — the grace of God in Christ is more than sufficient for our guilt, and the aid of the Holy Spirit is more than equal to our human weakness.

The prayers are organized topically. They begin, quite appropriately, with an acknowledgment of the Holy Trinity — eternally one God in three persons. What follows is a sequence of prayers that both savor God’s triune glory and celebrate the benefits that belong to us through our union and communion with God in Christ. From there, the prayers cover the nature of our salvation — its grounds and benefits — and our communion with God as we grow in grace.

An entire section of prayers expresses our daily need of penitence as one of the hallmarks of genuine conversion. In addition, other sections offer prayers for our spiritual needs and prayers to remind us of the various privileges we enjoy: our access to God in prayer, the gifts God lavishes upon us as his children (which we so easily undervalue), and the calling we have as disciples of Christ. Another section relates to the work of the ministry (but which can be prayed by all Christians for their own pastors). The closing section takes a heaven’s-eye view of the challenges and struggles we face in daily life. This little volume contains, quite literally, “a prayer for all seasons of life.”

Awake to God

Those of us who belong to this present era — some fifty years after this rich devotional resource was compiled — might find its language and form somewhat alien to what we are used to. Whether we try using the prayers in our own personal prayer life or in public prayer, their style and tone may sound quaint. Even still, we should not allow this impression to put us off.

The very fact that their style, tone, and content take us out of our often-thoughtless comfort zones should give us pause for thought. Not least because, when we reflect on the tone as much as the content of these expressions of praise and petition, we realize they convey an affectionate regard for God’s glory, holiness, and beauty too often absent in our own day.

In that sense, this collection of prayers from a different era in the church’s history reflects a depth of communion with God and an awareness of his glory and attributes that many churches of our time lack. The Valley of Vision, then, may become for us what it has become for so many: a time-honored aid to cultivating our daily appreciation of God and our moment-to-moment need of him.

3 Things You Should Know about Philemon

We cannot help but notice how Paul’s union with Christ radically altered his relationship with every believer who shared this same sacred bond. Personal union with Christ extends into corporate communion with all His people. That is, just as in our natural families we and our siblings share our parents’ DNA, so in the family of God we share the same spiritual DNA, so to speak, with Christ our Elder Brother and Redeemer. For the Apostle, this transformed the way he viewed his relationship not only with the newly converted Onesimus, but also with Philemon, Apphia, and Archippus (who was thought to be a fellow-worker in the church that met in Philemon’s house). 

At face value, Paul’s letter to Philemon seems like a private letter written to address a painful problem that had arisen in a Christian family in the New Testament world. It is indeed just that; but, in God’s wider purpose, He saw fit to include it in the New Testament canon for the benefit of the church through the ages.
At one level, the issue it addresses is plain to see. A slave called Onesimus apparently stole from his master, Philemon, and ran away, likely to Rome. Under Roman law, such an act carried serious consequences for the perpetrator—extending to the right of the slave owner to execute his slave if he so desired. However, in the case of Onesimus, as he tried to run away from his earthly master, he unwittingly ran into the arms of a new and heavenly Master when he encountered Jesus through the preaching of Paul while he was a prisoner in Rome.
Without condoning Onesimus’ theft, the Apostle saw this slave’s life turned around by grace. He was transformed from being seen as a “useless” runaway in the eyes of Philemon to being “useful” not only to Paul, but to his former master as well (Philem. 11). The force of this turnaround is seen in the play on words bound up with his name, Onesimus, which means “useful.” The Apostle wrote to Philemon not merely to ask that he receive Onesimus back but that he welcome him as a brother in Christ. More than this, Paul promised Philemon that he would cover the financial loss he suffered through the theft.
How do we explain this countercultural response to Onesimus’ misconduct on the one hand and Paul’s seemingly incredible request to Philemon on the other? The answer is Christ and what we become in Him when we are joined to Him in salvation.
1. Christ Enables Us to See Our Circumstances through a Different Lens
Paul was in prison yet again, and yet again the Apostle responded to his incarceration not by grumbling and complaining about the situation, but rather by acknowledging God’s providence in it all.
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Bring me the Scrolls

Paul’s books were his companions in the closing stages of his earthly pilgrimage. They had been his best friends in his life and ministry along the way and he knew they would not fail him at the end. For those who struggle to understand why books matter to pastors (and why it is so important to have Christian publishing companies that are faithful to Scripture), think again about the priority Paul gives to his books even as he prepares for heaven.

It is often the case that a minister only begins to really appreciate the value of his books when the time comes for him to part with them. Sometimes it happens when he runs out of space on his shelves and he is forced to thin them out. Or it may be when it comes to his retirement and he is downsizing his house and there simply isn’t the same amount of space in his new accommodation. Either way, he finds himself struggling to decide which ones to keep and which to let go. It begins to dawn on him that these volumes mean more to him than he may have previously realised.
I well remember an occasion when the value of Christian books came home to me in a way I had never experienced before. It was in relation to a Bible College in South Africa that our church had been able to help. I had met its founder and Principal on a visit to the country a year previously and he had spoken of his desire to build up a decent theological library for the college, but in the same breath said they lacked the finance to do so. It so happened that my church in London at that time was quite close to a Christian charity that specialised in good Christian books and they had a section in their warehouse that was dedicated to theological works. So, I told my friend that the next time he was in London he could come and choose a thousand volumes and our deacons would arrange to have them shipped out.
About a year later I was back in South Africa and the Principal asked if I would come and deliver a guest lecture at his little institution. When I arrived at the college, I was immediately struck by the extreme poverty that surrounded it and just how primitive its facilities were. But the students were overflowing with warmth in the welcome they gave me. It was clear that there was one room they wanted to show me and it was their library. When I saw what these books meant to them, it dawned on me as never before just how valuable such books really are.
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Face to Face with the Majesty of God

People instinctively go to church with the hope of being made to feel good through being there – and in the highest sense, that is absolutely right – but God’s way of getting us to that point also means facing up to what we hate about ourselves.

Public worship can all too easily feel lacklustre and mundane, not just for a congregation, but also for the one entrusted with leading it. This is not some new phenomenon. It has been a challenge for the church throughout its history. Indeed, it was at such a low point in the history of worship, in the time of Isaiah, that God told the people that the ‘worship’ they offered outwardly was contradicted by the attitude of their hearts inwardly. Far from being the ‘sweet smelling aroma’ of praise God intended it to be, it was a stench in his nostrils. God is not fooled by false worship, nor is he indifferent to it.
It is noteworthy that Isaiah himself knew something of what this was like in his own personal experience of God. He describes it in what is undoubtedly the defining chapter of his prophecy.
It relates to a particular experience he had in the temple – quite possibly in the context of worship. Isaiah was no stranger to the temple, or to the worship offered there. But what happened on this occasion was nothing less than a profound encounter with God in all his greatness. Its significance embedded itself on this man’s heart in a way that was to alter the entire course of his life and ministry. It was the fact that there, on that day, he was brought face to face with the majesty of God.
It came in the form of a vision. The fact that its backdrop was the temple is significant. Everything about that building was designed to point away from itself to the heavenly reality it represented (He 9.24). But in this supernatural encounter granted to Isaiah, the reality burst in upon his consciousness in a way he had never known before.
It is impossible to imagine what that must have been like. But if we think of someone who had grown up with a picture of the Philadelphia Eagles on their wall, but then got to meet the team in person is perhaps a pale reflection of it.
As never before Isaiah was gripped by the awesomeness of God – ‘upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple’ (Isa 6.1).
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The Gentleness of God

We can hardly be surprised by the fact that the gentleness of God shines through in the life of the incarnate Son. He is truly the one who is gentle and lowly. In all his dealings with people in every circumstance of life – right down to his concern for his mother at the cross – his gentle spirit is manifest in his heart for others.

The much-loved hymn, ‘I greet thee who my sure Redeemer art’ – included in the Strasbourg Psalter of 1545 and attributed to John Calvin – contains the lines,
Thou hast the true and perfect gentleness,
No harshness hast Thou, and no bitterness
These words have often drawn comment, or been quoted because they point to a divine attribute we can easily overlook.
They stand out in part because, if they were indeed penned by the great French Reformer, come from a man who has been caricatured as harsh and austere. This is a misperception, if ever there was one! Any true glimpse of Calvin – not least as husband and father, let alone as a pastor-theologian – reveals him to be kind-hearted, loving and patient. His gentleness of spirit and deep compassion for those under his care shines through consistently.
The words of this hymn stand out even more because they speak of the God whose voice ‘thunders…is powerful…is full of majesty’ and ‘breaks the cedars’ (Ps 29.3-5). He is ‘mightier than the thunder of many waters’ (Ps 93.4). He is the One before whom all the earth ‘trembles’ (Ps 96.9). Yet he is gentle and tender in his dealings with people generally, but especially with those he has redeemed and made his very own.
He is indeed great and terrible, to be feared above all other gods; but this only serves to accentuate the wonder of his gentleness and deepen our loving reverence for him. More than this, it provides a vital perspective on his dealings with us – especially when we find ourselves in the midst of seemingly harsh providences.
It is striking to see the range of images the Lord uses to press home this aspect of his character. In Deuteronomy he speaks of his ‘everlasting arms’ that are round about and underneath his people (Dt 33.27).
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