John 21:15 "So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?" He said to Him, "Yes, Lord; You know that I love You." He said to him, "Tend My lambs."
There are a few things that strike me about this verse...well really this passage. First of all, the disciples who had spent so much time with Jesus do not know it is Him, until finally, "that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, 'It is the Lord.'" I wonder if it is because he was closest to the heart of Jesus. He could read the looks on Jesus' face long before the others could...Perhaps He was too far off for them to recognize at a distance, but the disciple Jesus loved recalled the time Jesus had done this before. Jesus' trademark.
But then Peter throws himself into the sea. I'd like to think it was because of his great love for Jesus. That kind of reckless abandon that thinks, "Not even the push of the water can hold me back from Jesus! It's faster for me to swim than to wait for this boat to get in!" (The only strange thing about that is he puts his outer garment on). And so, perhaps it comes as a shock that Jesus would even think to ask Peter if he loves him...but we'll get to that in a sec.
Someone I think highly of once told a group of us about his three kids. His oldest kid - very cute, perhaps the most competitive child ever born, and very stubborn. The middle child - so tenderhearted and selfless - they didn't know where he came from. (Both parents were very stubborn too, or so he said). The youngest - just a baby but seemingly more stubborn than the firstborn. So he proceeded to tell us of all their flaws and imperfections and how the middle child had just recently gotten a pea stuck up his nose. And yet, this dad loved his kids and moved me to choke back tears as he described his son's soccer game. His middle child was running around, letting the other kids catch up sometimes when he felt sorry for them (something the oldest would have despised), sometimes falling down, just running around...but this dad was so proud. He said he wanted to shout, "That's my son," to everyone around him. He was beaming with elation in one of those great parent moments. And then he said, "And that's how God sees us...crazy, imperfect people with peas stuck up our noses, running around like we don't have any idea what's going on...and yet there He is...He knows our flaws...He knew Peter's flaws...and yet He's beaming..."That's my child!" I know he denied me, but I still love him.
And Jesus, knowing all the imperfections of His disciples...their fear that drove them to abandon Him...wants to have breakfast with them. An informal setting. Perhaps to assuage their guilt. Let's just have breakfast...I mean, they'd already seen Him once since He died (chapter 20 verse 19)...He'd said, "Peace be with you then..." I wonder if they understood that He WAS peace. "I am with you...Peace be with you..." But here He is again and this time He wants to have breakfast and talk to Peter about love.
Simon (notice He doesn't say Peter), do you love Me more than these? (I wonder what the context of "these" means?)
Yes, Lord...I just jumped into the water when I saw you...
(I jumped into the water the first time too...and walked on it until I lost sight of You).
Simon, do you love Me?
Yes, Lord...You KNOW I do...
Simon (notice He's pretty up close and personal in using his name), do you love Me?
And Peter, pretty sad, maybe even offended (I probably would be...) says,
"Lord, You know all things; (I know you're God now...that lesson took me awhile), but you know all things...You know I love you."
...and yet, Jesus then tells him how he (Peter) is going to die. But as if to say, "Don't worry, it'll all be alright if you just fix your eyes on Me," He says, "Follow Me!"
And sadly...instead of looking Jesus in the face and doing just that, Peter turns around and sees the disciple Jesus loved...and perhaps jealously asks, "Well what about him?" (If I'm going to die, what about Him?)
His eyes are taken off Jesus yet again...Only this time he's not sinking in water but into the depths of himself.
But Jesus says, "This isn't between you, me, and him...YOU follow ME!"
(It's as though Jesus is not going to stop asking us that question...When we think we've finally got it all together..."Joy, do you love Me? No, not my people, do you love ME?! I know you learned that then, but are your eyes on ME...NOW?!" Like Peter, it grieves me that He has to ask so often.)
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
1 Peter 5:6-7
Check this out...
"Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you." - NASB
God cups us in His hands. "When we are humble God places His hands above us to cover us and beneath us to carry us...Humility hails the presence of God and He cups us in His hands. What better place to be?" - Tim Grissom
"Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you." - NASB
God cups us in His hands. "When we are humble God places His hands above us to cover us and beneath us to carry us...Humility hails the presence of God and He cups us in His hands. What better place to be?" - Tim Grissom
Favorite Quote
"It comes down to this, at least for me. When there is not a beating heart to give to the Lord, you give what shreds you have. When there is not a willing spirit, you give a broken one. When there are no limbs and muscles and strength to exert, when there is only the feeling of death, then you give him a corpse. Then whatever is left after the dying, whatever by God's grace comes back - it is born of Him. And so the dying is a kind of birth, a second chance with a different kind of life. It is the kind of life that is lived after everything else is lost and there is nothing left to lose, which I suppose, is the kind of life we should have been living all along." - Wayne Mack, Facing Forward
Another Non-Typical Evangelism Tool
Passing Out - An Occurrence in Guatemala
When I came home from Guatemala, I told my friend Laura this story and she said, "Well I wouldn't use that as an evangelism tool, but God works in mysterious ways." Again, all I can say is I had nothing to do with this...
This past summer my college basketball team went on a mission trip to El Salvador and Guatemala. I absolutely loved it. There are so many stories to tell of God's faithfulness and protection - and just stories in general. But I got sick in Guatemala. And I'd like to believe it was because God answered a prayer I had prayed several days earlier in El Salvador while playing in the waves of the Pacific Ocean.
I recall thinking how great those waves were and how easily God could have wiped me out if He wanted to. And then I began to think of how powerful He really was and asked Him to use that power in us while we shared His gospel. I'd like to think that's where it all began...after all the powerful waves did shovel what seemed like a half-ton of sand in my ears. I told a teammate a few days later that there was still sand in my ear. But then I thought nothing more of it.
While in Guatemala I got a fever and slept on the bus while the team did a clinic. We were scheduled to drive a couple hours away to a game but for some strange reason (also known as God's Sovereignty) our coach decided we needed to eat right then and there. There being a Pollo Campero (fast-food chicken). "What about the Wendy's up the road?" someone suggested. "No, let's eat here," she said. So we stopped. I ate some mashed potatoes and was teased for my "mosquito eyes." That's what they look like when I get sick. And then I said, "I think I'm going to pass out," and proceeded to do just that. I was carried to the bus, and my head was placed on the leg of the evangelist of the group. My coach asked if there was a hospital nearby and one of the fast-food workers told her and our bus-driver to follow him on his motorcycle.
I'm told we flew on that bus through the streets of Guatemala - no easy feat when the bus is probably a foot narrower than the alleys it's passing through. We got to the clinic where I received medical attention. God was sovereign in so many ways. My heavy head had caused the evangelist's leg to fall asleep and I think that's why he didn't come into the clinic. Instead, he stayed outside and talked to the motorcyclist from Pollo Campero. With tears in his eyes, Jorge accepted Jesus as his Savior and said, "I've never felt peace like this before." That night, the man who drove a motorcycle for a fast-food chicken restaraunt became our brother.
The next day I saw another doctor who told me I had an ear-infection. I didn't make the connection until several months later when looking at my journal, but perhaps the sand from those powerful waves caused the ear-infection that made me pass out. Only heaven will tell...
When I came home from Guatemala, I told my friend Laura this story and she said, "Well I wouldn't use that as an evangelism tool, but God works in mysterious ways." Again, all I can say is I had nothing to do with this...
This past summer my college basketball team went on a mission trip to El Salvador and Guatemala. I absolutely loved it. There are so many stories to tell of God's faithfulness and protection - and just stories in general. But I got sick in Guatemala. And I'd like to believe it was because God answered a prayer I had prayed several days earlier in El Salvador while playing in the waves of the Pacific Ocean.
I recall thinking how great those waves were and how easily God could have wiped me out if He wanted to. And then I began to think of how powerful He really was and asked Him to use that power in us while we shared His gospel. I'd like to think that's where it all began...after all the powerful waves did shovel what seemed like a half-ton of sand in my ears. I told a teammate a few days later that there was still sand in my ear. But then I thought nothing more of it.
While in Guatemala I got a fever and slept on the bus while the team did a clinic. We were scheduled to drive a couple hours away to a game but for some strange reason (also known as God's Sovereignty) our coach decided we needed to eat right then and there. There being a Pollo Campero (fast-food chicken). "What about the Wendy's up the road?" someone suggested. "No, let's eat here," she said. So we stopped. I ate some mashed potatoes and was teased for my "mosquito eyes." That's what they look like when I get sick. And then I said, "I think I'm going to pass out," and proceeded to do just that. I was carried to the bus, and my head was placed on the leg of the evangelist of the group. My coach asked if there was a hospital nearby and one of the fast-food workers told her and our bus-driver to follow him on his motorcycle.
I'm told we flew on that bus through the streets of Guatemala - no easy feat when the bus is probably a foot narrower than the alleys it's passing through. We got to the clinic where I received medical attention. God was sovereign in so many ways. My heavy head had caused the evangelist's leg to fall asleep and I think that's why he didn't come into the clinic. Instead, he stayed outside and talked to the motorcyclist from Pollo Campero. With tears in his eyes, Jorge accepted Jesus as his Savior and said, "I've never felt peace like this before." That night, the man who drove a motorcycle for a fast-food chicken restaraunt became our brother.
The next day I saw another doctor who told me I had an ear-infection. I didn't make the connection until several months later when looking at my journal, but perhaps the sand from those powerful waves caused the ear-infection that made me pass out. Only heaven will tell...
The High Places
Several summers ago, while at Tapawingo, we read the book, "Hinds' Feet On High Places," by Hannah Hurnard. That began an initial love for the book of Habakkuk, particularly 3:17-19:
Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines, though the yield of the olive should fail and the fields produce no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet I will exult in the LORD, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The LORD God is my strength, and He has made my feet like hinds' feet, and makes me walk on my high places.
Little did I know then, that those verses would be cemented on my heart in the coming years. At the beginning of a very difficult sophomore year in college, God used my basketball coach to write a card with those verses at the end. At that point it was a nice encouraging card, nothing more. But it wasn't until after this trying period, that I went back and realized God was stamping His fingerprints throughout - He was always undoubtedly near.
Shortly after beginning the year, several deaths, a move, an ailing family member, and pride left me internalizing pain. And in His grace, God had just the lesson for me, coming in the form of a class on the prophets. I had the privilege of learning and experiencing Habakkuk at the same time. Our professor taught us the context of the book and said, "If you learn nothing else, know that the three staples of Israelite well-being during this time were olive oil, livestock, and produce." Habakkuk knew that God was going to allow these to be stripped away and the entire book is him questioning God's intentions. He never does arrive at an answer. But he does come to a conclusion in verses 17-19.
"No matter how bad it gets. Even if all you hold dear, your three staples; even if life itself is stripped away, YET I will exult in the LORD." And this isn't without due cause...He goes on to say, "The Lord God IS my strength," and He has ALREADY proven faithful by guiding my steps and making my feet like the sure feet of a deer."
During this hard time, I recall crying with a friend and coming to a point where I had to make a decision. I said to her, "I don't know why all this is so HARD. But if this is what He wants for me, then I want it, because I love HIM." I know beyond a shadow of a doubt it was His past faithfulness that got me through that time.
But it doesn't stop there! In my weakness, God proved Himself. At Tapawingo that summer, I was asked to speak on suffering. Naturally, Habakkuk was the book of choice. I was going to share a little bit of my testimony at the end, but God knew His word does not return void and that was not needed in this case. Halfway through my talk (which cut it way short), I got to these verses and decided that verse 18 was a good one, "Yet I will exult in the LORD, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation." I was about to start speaking on my testimony but as I read this verse the first time I decided the audience needed to hear it again. And a third time...and at the end of the third time, I began to sob uncontrollably...Oh for them to understand the brevity of this! Oh, for me who was just beginning to understand the brevity of this! My pain came washing over me and I wanted to jump off that little island and sink to the bottom of the lake.
I went to bed at 7:30 or some early hour that night and didn't speak with anyone about the incident hoping that it was just a very bad dream. But at the end of the week, the director gently called me into her office and said, "Joy, I just want you to know that a little girl gave her life to Jesus because of those verses in Habakkuk." God had used me in my brokenness. And He had done so without my testimony - just His powerful word...and at that, with a book that is not typically considered an evangelism tool...more on that later.
Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines, though the yield of the olive should fail and the fields produce no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet I will exult in the LORD, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The LORD God is my strength, and He has made my feet like hinds' feet, and makes me walk on my high places.
Little did I know then, that those verses would be cemented on my heart in the coming years. At the beginning of a very difficult sophomore year in college, God used my basketball coach to write a card with those verses at the end. At that point it was a nice encouraging card, nothing more. But it wasn't until after this trying period, that I went back and realized God was stamping His fingerprints throughout - He was always undoubtedly near.
Shortly after beginning the year, several deaths, a move, an ailing family member, and pride left me internalizing pain. And in His grace, God had just the lesson for me, coming in the form of a class on the prophets. I had the privilege of learning and experiencing Habakkuk at the same time. Our professor taught us the context of the book and said, "If you learn nothing else, know that the three staples of Israelite well-being during this time were olive oil, livestock, and produce." Habakkuk knew that God was going to allow these to be stripped away and the entire book is him questioning God's intentions. He never does arrive at an answer. But he does come to a conclusion in verses 17-19.
"No matter how bad it gets. Even if all you hold dear, your three staples; even if life itself is stripped away, YET I will exult in the LORD." And this isn't without due cause...He goes on to say, "The Lord God IS my strength," and He has ALREADY proven faithful by guiding my steps and making my feet like the sure feet of a deer."
During this hard time, I recall crying with a friend and coming to a point where I had to make a decision. I said to her, "I don't know why all this is so HARD. But if this is what He wants for me, then I want it, because I love HIM." I know beyond a shadow of a doubt it was His past faithfulness that got me through that time.
But it doesn't stop there! In my weakness, God proved Himself. At Tapawingo that summer, I was asked to speak on suffering. Naturally, Habakkuk was the book of choice. I was going to share a little bit of my testimony at the end, but God knew His word does not return void and that was not needed in this case. Halfway through my talk (which cut it way short), I got to these verses and decided that verse 18 was a good one, "Yet I will exult in the LORD, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation." I was about to start speaking on my testimony but as I read this verse the first time I decided the audience needed to hear it again. And a third time...and at the end of the third time, I began to sob uncontrollably...Oh for them to understand the brevity of this! Oh, for me who was just beginning to understand the brevity of this! My pain came washing over me and I wanted to jump off that little island and sink to the bottom of the lake.
I went to bed at 7:30 or some early hour that night and didn't speak with anyone about the incident hoping that it was just a very bad dream. But at the end of the week, the director gently called me into her office and said, "Joy, I just want you to know that a little girl gave her life to Jesus because of those verses in Habakkuk." God had used me in my brokenness. And He had done so without my testimony - just His powerful word...and at that, with a book that is not typically considered an evangelism tool...more on that later.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
