What's It To You?

We all know the story of how Peter is reinstated by Jesus in John 21 to become a pastor and to lead in the building of the church.

You know the story. Peter had denied Jesus three times and, poetically, Jesus asks Peter three times in this episode if Peter loves him.

While most Bible studies on this passage may focus on the three "Do you love me?" questions, I think it is compelling to consider that the most important question Jesus poses to Peter isn't the first, second, or third question, but rather the fourth.

Fourth?

Yes. Jesus most certainly is making an important point with Peter regarding the trifecta "Do you love me?" query. Perhaps, however, an equally vital spiritual issue for Peter is embedded in this fourth inquiry by Christ.

Question #4 is found embedded in John 21: 19-22:

"Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, "Follow me!"  ²⁰Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, "Lord, who is going to betray you?") ²¹When Peter saw him, he asked, "Lord, what about him?"  ²²Jesus answered, "If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me."


As Jesus provides direction and focus to rehabilitate this fisherman, we get a glimpse at a "heart issue" that plagues Peter and so many of us in our spiritual journey.

I would argue that Peter's issue isn't that he failed to love Jesus.  No, Peter deeply loved his Rabbi, teacher and friend. Peter, like many believers, falters because he fails to focus on the right thing.

Jesus simply commands Peter to "Follow me!" This command is an echo dating all the way back to Christ's initial calling of the original disciples: "Come, follow me."  "Obey my commands."

Instead of maintaining a singular focus on Jesus' command, Peter instead is focused on competing with John. "Lord, what about him?"  Peter totally misses the point. He's supposed to focus on following Jesus, not how he stacks up with others.

We are naturally competitive critters, we humans. And as citizens of Liberty, we're conditioned for equal or better treatment. We want our fair share. And to make sure we maintain our social standing, we're constantly working to "keep up with the Jones'".

When we focus on jockeying for position, comparing if we're getting dealt a better hand in life, or subtly working to accumulate more toys than our neighbor, how can we possibly maintain a singular focus on following Jesus? The simple answer? We can't.

Peter's issue wasn't his love for Jesus. Nor is ours, much of the time. Peter's issue was taking his focus off of Christ and placing it on less important things.

And you know what? Jesus calls him to the carpet. "What's that to you, Peter!? You must follow me!"

The next time we're tempted compare our situation to others, to make a power play or to keep up with those pesky Jones', we need to question our motives. Will this help me focus on following Jesus or is it a distraction?

The answer to that question could be life changing.  It was for Peter, and consequently, for all of Christendom.

"That Were I am You May Also Be"--Jesus

When Jesus was sharing with his diciples in the upper room in John 14, he was comforting them as he shared the fact that he was going to be going away for a while.

He said he was going away to prepare rooms for them in his Father's House.

He also promised that he would be back for the disciples so that he could bring them to where he was at.

I don't know about you, but the comfort in this passage doesn't come from the fact that Jesus is preparing a home for me in Heaven.  The comfort--for me--comes from the fact that Jesus is coming back for those who believe and we'll be able to be with Him.

Give me a mansion without Jesus and I give you an empty mansion.

Give me a shantee with Jesus and I'd say "that's paradise!"

Sermon on the Mount

This week in class we began a journey through the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5-7. Over the next few months, we'll be taking an in-depth look at what is the closest thing to a manifesto that Jesus laid out for his disciples.

A few key points as you study the Sermon on the Mount over the next few week:

• Read and study through the eyes of the disciples to whom Jesus preached this Sermon.  They were living in a time and culture where the Pharisee's defined and enforced their own brand of righteousness.  This sermon from Jesus was radical to them.  To us it is so familiar that we forget just how radical Jesus' teachings were.
  
• Read and study through the lens of Matthew 4:17: "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near!" Matthew Henry states that this passage is the text of the Sermon on the Mount. If that's the case, then this sermon is all about what living a life of repentance looks like.  How does your life stack up to these Scriptures? Read and mediate, evaluating how well these words fit yourself.
  
• Realize that the Sermon on the Mount is preached in the context of meeting the peoples physical needs. Doing so not only gave Jesus credibility, but by meeting their physical needs, the people were able to become more aware of their spiritual needs as well. Do we miss this opportunity to open doors today to the Gospel?
  
• Reflect on what "righteousness" is to you as your read the Sermon.  The Pharisee's had developed a special set of rules to define righteousness, but their rules had become a heavy weight around the necks of the people. Are we guilty of the same mistake today, with our own special rules?
  

Our "book" for this study is the Scripture itself.  Take some time this week to linger in the Sermon on the Mount.  

One writer I read recently states that our familiarity with this sermon inoculates us from its power.  We can breeze through it, without being changed at all because we know it like the back of our hands.  Discipline yourself.  Prayerfully meditate on these passages and be prepared to share in class new insights the Spirit is revealing in your life.

Our New Study Focus: Resurrection

We've been spending a lot of time studying what the Bible has to say about suffering and pain.

Hope is the one thing that keeps us moving forward through the bad times, isn't it?

Our hope is based in the real Resurrection of Jesus Christ! It's not just a story! It's history! It really happened and the power and hope available because of this historical event is life-changing.

My goal over the next few weeks is to simply get you to focus on and mediate about the reality of the Resurrection and the power of Resurrection in your life! If we acheive only that we will succeed.

For homework: read the Resurrection accounts in Scripture (all four). You read one on Sunday, if you were in class.

Focus on the details of each eyewitness account.

How did each person in each story react to the Resurrection of Jesus in the moment?

Write out your answers and mediate on them.

How do you react to the Resurrection in everyday life?

For other musings on Resurrection, click here....

What a Great Revival!!!

To be blessed, you must be blessable!!

To receive the blessing of the Holy Spirit, remove the lid from your barrell!

Do you have any Isaac's you need to deal with?

There is a healing balm in Gilead!

Holiness is to be Christ-like!!

Thank you Dr. Dabydeen for you obedience during revival this week!

Pain Sharpens Our Eternal Perspective

This week in class we were discussing how pain can actually help us gain and maintain a better eternal perspective.

What is an eternal perspective?

It's is coming to the realization that living for the "here and now" is just one tiny fraction of our journey. It is realizing that what we are facing in this moment may feel like it will never end, but from an eternal perspective, it's very temporary and short lived.

It is really difficult to gain and understanding of eternity.

Remember when you were a kid? Remember how it seemed like forever from the time school started until Christmas. The days would crawl? The weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas seemed like they would never end.

Now, as an adult, I'm starting to panic about Christmas because it's the end of October and I haven't begun to prepare. Time is flying faster and faster. Every year seems to go more quickly as I get older. That gap between Thanksgiving and Christmas? Zoom!

Why is that?

In my opinion, it's all relative. When we are younger, experiencing the passing of a year is perceived as a long time. For a five year old, one year is one fifth of one's life. So it seems really long. As a 38 year old, one year is 1/38th of my life. That's a lot smaller fraction and when stacked up against all my other years, it seems to go faster (based on my experience and perception). When I'm 65, a year will be 1/65th of my life...and so on and so on.

Compare that to eternity. When we've been there 10,000 years, even 10 years of pain and suffering will only seem like (10,000 divided by 10) 1/1000th of our life. Just a very short time.

Does that make sense? To restate my earlier point: what we are facing in this moment may feel like it will never end, but from an eternal perspective, it's very temporary and short lived.

Experiencing pain allows us to develop a keener sense of eternity. For me, it is stirs hope to know that the vast majority of my existence (eternally) will not be spent in pain and suffering, because Jesus is my Savior.

If we were to only experience pleasure, who would want to think about tomorrow. Pleasure blurs our eternal perspective and prevents us from keenly appreciating the eternal promises of glory in Heaven with our Savior.

It's easy, when experiencing pain and suffering to argue that we deserve better than this. But it is important to realize that God can use this current pain to shape and form us into the image of Christ, into the people He needs us to be to build his kingdom.

I like the quote from our book this week: “God will not look you over for medals, degrees, or diplomas, but for scars.”

He'll recognize us by our scars. Someday they will reap a harvest of righteousness for us in Heaven.

It's about Character, Not Comfort!

Angie L. shared this with me by email...a great read...and right on point for what the class is studying right now:


AN INTERVIEW WITH RICK WARREN (AUTHOR OF "A PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE")

Interview with Rick Warren , author and pastor of Saddleback Church in California .

In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, Rick said:

People ask me, What is the purpose of life? And I respond: In a
nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were made to last
forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.

One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body--
but not the end of me.

I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions
of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal.

God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity.
We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life
isn't going to make sense.

Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just
coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one.

The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character
than your comfort.

God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making
your life happy.

We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of
life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.

This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the
toughest, with my wife getting cancer.

I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark
time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe
that anymore.

Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of
like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something
good and something bad in your life.

No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something
bad that needs to be worked on.

And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something
good you can thank God for.

You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems.

If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness,
"which is my problem, my issues, my pain."

But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off
yourself and onto God and others.

We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of
thousands of people, God was not going to heal my wife or make it easy
for her.

It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her
character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a
testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.

You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.
Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For
instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million
copies, it made me instantly very wealthy.

It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with
before. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego
or for you to live a life of ease.

So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety
and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide
what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.

First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our
lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases.

Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from
the church.

Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace
Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the
sick, and educate the next generation.

Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since
I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be
able to serve God for free.

We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions?
Popularity? Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness?
Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?

When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God,
if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and
love You better ...

God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more
interested in what I am than what I do. That's why we're called human
beings, not human doings.

Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.

Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.

Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.

Painful moments, TRUST GOD.

Every moment, THANK GOD