i love god with all my heart, im so blessed in so many ways. i know he is with me at all times protecting and guiding me. the first time i felt that presence i knew without a doubt that it was god. that he was there and he was true and that he had a plan for me. a plan i may never understand but that there was a plan non the less. however im not the kind to stand on the street corner and and praise jesus. i feel like im a coward. i don't deny my love for god ever, but i don't shout it out either. in fact most my friends barely know im a "christian". i have my beliefs and they are very strong, but i've had times when i felt the need to pray for someone and turned away. embarrassed of what others would say... please help pray that i can over come this ridiculous fear.
Now this is an awesome witness; and I mean that from the heart. I can give you a true witness, that like Peter, you loved your friends more than you love Jesus. This is not a condemnation. It is a spiritual truth which happens in the lives of many people; and this why Jesus revealed this nature that can be found in a disciple that follows Jesus. Peter denied Jesus when he was among his friends; but when Peter denied Jesus the last time, at that very moment, a rooster crowed, and at the same time Jesus turned and looked Peter in the face. What did Peter see in the face of Jesus, that Jesus gave a rooster to teach us the difference between the truth of men and the truth of Christ? When Peter was questioned by his friends, their truth did not awaken Peter. But when Peter looked Jesus in the face, he remembered, and it was that Truth that woke Peter (the rooster crowd), and set him free. It was a bitter truth. But when Jesus was risen and came back, Jesus asked Peter, "Do you love Me more than these?" Peter replied in the way which seemed right to him, "Lord, You know I love You. and the second time was the same response from Peter. But the one thing many miss in this parable language in the last part of the Book of John,
When Jesus asked Peter the third time, Peter remember and began to understand this flaw that was in him and Peter replied in a way that He did not understand before. "Lord, You KNOW ALL THINGS, You know I love you" Peter began to realize that the one thing trusted most about himself, he thought was his greatest strength. Peter denied the Word of God several times; even more that the teaching of the rooster.
Peter denied Jesus even with his love that seemed right to him. This is the that very moment when Peter understood what was standing in his way, that Jesus said (paraphrasing) Before you clothed yourself in the security of things which seemed right to you and you went where ever you wished; but now that you are older in wisdom, another will clothe you and take you where you do not wish to go." Then Jesus said with Peter understanding, "Follow Me."
Jesus said, "Follow Me" in a few places in His walk with His disciples, but it wasn't until they came to a certain place in that walk with Jesus, that the came to realize that the truth of men and the Truth of Christ
are not the same. But the working of Christ within a person, as He had done with Peter and the other disciples, a person is made stronger in the evidence of their own lives in God's sight. It's a humbling experience.
You love your friends more, and in doing this, you have denied Jesus. It is this very thing which Jesus came and gave His live for, because even in the things which seemed right to us; Peter understood and wept bitterly. Peter could not stop what Jesus had to do. It was because of Peter's sin, that Jesus had to give His life. This is life language that speaks personally to each of us from within. Some teach from the pulpit that we shouldn't be like Peter and deny Jesus. This is not even close to the Truth. Jesus said, "All will be made to stumble because of Me" Then Peter proclaimed, "Even if all others are made to stumble, yet I will not be made to stumble."
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All the disciples agreed with Peter. And now the evidence of Truth comes us when we have said in our hearts, that what Peter did was wrong, that we will not be made to stumble. Hello, that is exactly what Peter and all the FIRST disciples of Jesus said. In order to understand how wrong we can be according to the things which seem right to us; we need to 'wear the shoes' and see how biblical language unfolds in front of us as a living example of who we are and why we are that way in God's sight.
