The Year I Boycotted Christmas

(To hear this message in its entirety, go to http://www.buzzsprout.com/17391/138166-windows-of-the-heart-the-year-i-boycotted-christmas)

 

Christmas has always been my favorite time of year.  I have some absolutely wonderful memories of growing up and spending Christmas with my parents and my siblings.  Mom and Dad always went all out, putting up so many Christmas decorations that it took days to complete.  She would cook and bake and shop, and then all of us would make cookies together.

We had a lot of traditions, but the best one we had was on Christmas morning.  Daddy always got up first, going downstairs to get his coffee and turning on the tree lights.  Mom would follow close behind, cautioning us all the while to stay upstairs until everything was ready.  We had one of those huge 8mm cameras with the light that singed the hair off your eyebrows when it was filming, so we’d always be temporarily blinded upon first entering the living room.  It was so grand!

And then there it would be!  A huge Christmas tree, Bing Crosby singing “Blue Christmas” in the background, and so many beautifully wrapped presents.  We’d start with the stockings, then we’d exchange gifts from each other, then we’d unwrap all of the “Santa” gifts. 

All of these memories are warm and wonderful.  Then once I had children of my own, I tried to foster the same sorts of traditions.  My boys and I would bake cookies, and then we’d decorate and decorate and decorate!  Everyone looked forward to Christmas morning, and then we’d stay in our pajamas all day, enjoying our gifts, eating, and watching “A Christmas Story” over and over again.

Yes, Christmas has always been my favorite time of the year, but I must admit it had always been my favorite time for all the wrong reasons, even though I thought they were the right ones.  As a Christian, I knew that “Jesus is the Reason for the Season.”  I know the real meaning of Christmas, but even in that I had lost track of why I celebrated.  I lost sight of where the meaning was, not so much in whom the meaning existed.

Jeff and I moved away from both of our families once we were married almost 29 years ago.  So, having Christmas at our childhood home had become difficult.  Then, a few years ago while my boys were serving in the Army and the Marines, both of them were in Afghanistan at the same time during Christmas, so neither of them were going to be home.

All of a sudden, Christmas lost all joy for me.  I was empty, and I didn’t want to celebrate at all.  My boys were gone, I was 2000 miles from my parents and my brother and sister and their families.  What was the point?

Right there and then I decided that I wouldn’t put up any decorations, and as a matter of fact, I wanted Jeff to take me somewhere so I didn’t have to be home at all.  Maybe somewhere tropical…I didn’t care, as long as it wasn’t there in my house without my boys and my traditions.  However, we have two dogs, one of which is a Great Dane and the size of a small horse, so traveling with them would be too difficult.  Reluctantly, I acquiesced that staying home was best.

A few days after Thanksgiving that year, a time when I was usually elbow deep in Christmas decorations and shopping, I simply couldn’t get a certain passage of Scripture out of my mind.  You see, I didn’t think I was being belligerent or unreasonable.  Actually, I felt I was being very reasonable.  God was about to remind me that I was certainly not.

The passage that kept coming to mind was from 1 Peter 1:3-5,

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.    

Finally I sat down one day and really began to look at these verses, trying to understand why God kept bringing me back to them.  Eventually, I saw Christmas in them, and I was so ashamed of where I had relegated this blessed time of year.

 

These verses in 1 Peter really do have the real meaning of Christmas contained within them, and even though we might think we have our eyes on the prize, so to speak, any of us can very quickly lose sight of the gift we celebrate even as we understand the Savior who gave us this gift.

 

I mean, think about the disciples.  Even they lost sight of the prize, and the Prize was standing right in front of them! 

 

In Luke 10 the apostle describes when Jesus sent out the 72 disciples to go out and preach the Good News.  However, once they returned, they exclaimed in verse 17,

            Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!

Jesus quickly re-focused them by saying in verses 18-20,

I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.  Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.  Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

The birth of Jesus Christ facilitated for us the most amazing gift we will ever be given, and that is eternity!  That was the first point of my “re-focusing”:  It’s not about the gifts we give and receive to commemorate His birth; it’s about the truly supernatural gift we’ve been given which was facilitated by His birth.  Our focus, my focus, should be on the gift of being born again.

In Ephesians 1:11,

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.
 

Not only have I been given the gift of being born again, but in that gift I have received an inheritance that is imperishable and glorious.  I have been promised the inheritance of fellow heirs with Christ.  Romans 8:16-17 promises,

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.

 

That’s an inheritance worth focusing on!

Then finally, those verses in 1 Peter reminded me of what “home” really is and how I had made it about something completely temporal instead of the eternal one promised to me in Christ Jesus.

There is a beautiful song called “Temporary Home,” by Carrie Underwood.  The chorus of that songs says,

 

This is my temporary home, it's not where I belong
Windows and rooms that I'm passing through
This is just a stop on the way to where I'm going
I'm not afraid because I know
This is my temporary home.

 

“Home” is so important to us; it’s always been so important to me.  Why do you think that is?  Why do we put so much emphasis on going home or being home or having a home?

It’s because home is our identity.  It’s our comfort.  It’s who we are and where we know we always belong.

When I became distressed and somewhat depressed at the thought of having no one home for Christmas or in the thought of not going home for Christmas, I lost sight of where my home really is.  If I centered my thoughts on my real home, if I lived every day in light of where I really belong, then Christmas and any other time of year for that matter would only bring me another opportunity to celebrate that.

As believers, this world really is just our temporary home.  It’s not perfect, though God has graciously given us some beautiful things while here.  However, it’s not the end.  It’s not even the beginning.  This home is temporary. 

Jesus said in John 14:2,

 

In my Father’s house are many rooms.  If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?

This earth is not my home.  This is the place where I am on the way to where I am going.  Why would any of us place our hopes and our dreams and our happiness on something that will pass away?  This is temporary!

How could I not celebrate that Christmas, regardless of who was there or not there, knowing that Jesus Christ came in the flesh, was born of a virgin, died a horrible death and then was raised on the third day so that I would have an eternal home?!  How can we focus on anything above that?

I admonish each of you, then, just as God has admonished me: 

·         Center your hearts on the greatest gift of all time, the gift of being born again,

·         Look to the inheritance that is yours in eternity because of this gift, and

·         Live each day, most especially these days, looking toward and living in the knowledge of our eternal home—heaven.

And put up your decorations, for heaven’s sake!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is He Worth It?

(Excerpt of Episode 2 of the Windows of the Heart radio program)

I still remember my wedding day.  I was so excited and nervous about being the new Mrs. Jeff Waterbury.  My husband is a fighter pilot, and I have always been so proud of him.  But more than that, he is my protector and my love and my knight in shining armor.  I remember that day thinking of how wonderful he was, how handsome he was standing at the end of the isle waiting for me!  I could hardly believe it!

 If you are fortunate to be marrying someone wonderful, when that long awaited day comes when you finally say “I do,” you can’t help but think of all the reasons for marrying him.  You see how awesome and loving he is and you feel so lucky that he is marrying you!

I can’t imagine that if I hadn’t known Jeff and spent any time with him that I would have been nearly as excited to be his wife.  It was because I knew him, because I understood how wonderful that man was who was waiting for me at the end of that isle that I anticipated being married to him. 

You see, I found out that Jeff was worth the effort it took to see him.  Over the past 28 or so years, I’ve continued to work at it, looking past the layers of both mine and his imperfections and sin to see him more and more clearly.

If I can be so excited about an earthly marriage to a wonderful, but imperfect man, how much more excited should I be at my engagement to the King of kings!  I am the luckiest human being who ever was and I should be appropriately excited about being His betrothed.

There are so many reasons why we don’t live in this due excitement, but the chief reason is because, as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:12,

            For now we see in a mirror dimly.

We’re squinting and laboring to see our magnificent and glorious Bridegroom, but our fleshly windows are smudged and dirty from the sins and imperfections of this world.  What unfortunately happens all too often is that we simply give up trying to see through it.  We just give in to the foggy perceptions of this life and stop working at seeing through this mirror into the unfathomable happiness that is ours. 

It’s just so hard to see!

As I’ve counseled and taught so many times over the years, seeing Jesus Christ as our Eternal Bridegroom and living in the absolute joy that knowledge brings is a learning process.  Basically we have to unlearn everything we’ve ever learned about what it means to be loved, and re-learn both what true love is as well as who this King is who has chosen us as His bride.

The process is long and it is arduous here on this earth.  I think Jeff won’t mind me saying that it wasn’t long after that wonderful wedding day that it wasn’t so wonderful anymore.  That seemingly perfect man wasn’t so perfect after all, and neither was I.  Our marriage has lasted 28+ years because we determined ourselves to keep looking at one another.  We didn’t give up on knowing who the other was.

 

Why do we put so much effort into earthly marriages, or not, but give up so easily on the one that is eternal and perfect?  So we see as in a mirror dimly now.  Just because that is true doesn't mean that we stop at the first part of that verse in 1 Corinthians.  The entirety of 13:12 says,

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.  Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

 

It is a process and it is one we have to be committed to if we want the “part” that we know now to be increased, resulting in more joy and contentment as we wait for the “face to face” when we will “know fully.”

 

Okay, so it’s a process.  Where should we start?  Well, the most logical place is to start with who we are looking at and why He is so worthy of our effort.  It is logical to ask ourselves, “Who is this King of kings?  Who is Jesus Christ, the Most Excellent King?”  After all, getting excited over being the bride has to come as a result of excitement over that Person who wants us!  We must see how amazing and excellent is this King who has chosen us among all others to be His bride.

Jonathon Edwards once wrote about the reason why the children of God will want to grasp the excellency of Christ.  He wrote:

“There is a divine and superlative glory in the excellency of Jesus Christ, an excellency that is of a vastly higher kind and more sublime nature than in other things, and a glory greatly distinguishing them from all that is earthly and temporal.  He that is spiritually enlightened truly apprehends and sees it, or has a sense of it.  He does not merely rationally believe that Christ is glorious, but he has a sense of the gloriousness of Him in his heart.” ("A Divine and Supernatural Light," Jonathon Edwards, 1734)

 

This is our goal.  We want to gain a sense of the gloriousness of our Bridegroom, our King Jesus, because a sense is really all we can attain while looking through these sin-stained windows.  However, if we don’t look, we will turn away from His unimaginable love in frustration, sadly living outside of that which is already ours.

That is sad indeed.

 

So, who is this Jesus?  What kind of a king is He who has chosen us to be His?

 

He is the King that Paul describes in Philippians 2:5-7.  He is the King who

…though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 

 

He is God.  He was God.  He will always be God.

Not only that, but this God humbled Himself in ways we simply cannot comprehend, all for the sake of His love for us and His obedience to the Father.  That means that He refused to accept the riches and privileges and heavenly glories that come with His being God, all so that He could redeem us, His church.  He did all of this so that our deserved debts would be paid and we could live forever with Him.

 

He humbled Himself to the point of death, even death on the cross, so that He might present you and me faultless and pure before the Throne of Grace.  Then He may say to us, just as the Bridegroom says to His bride in the Song of Songs 4:7,

            You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you.

Think of it like this:  the king of the richest land in all of the earth has chosen his bride among the poorest and most unlikely of peasants in the land.  He has to ransom her from slavery and the only way he can do this is to give up all that he has as king—all of the honor that goes with his station—and become one of the lowest of the low, and because he loves her so much, he is willing to do that and more.

 

Now please understand here that Jesus did not empty Himself of His deity in this sacrifice.  He couldn’t do that or He would cease to exist.  If He emptied Himself of being God, which is by His very nature who He is, then He couldn’t be.  He didn’t empty Himself of His deity; He emptied Himself of His rights as that deity.

In John 17 He says He set aside His heavenly glory to come to this sin-stained planet. 

In John 5 He says He set aside His independent authority and acted only as His Father commanded.

He emptied Himself.  He made Himself nothing.  He gave up everything, for a time, so that we could be wed to Him. 

C.S. Lewis said,

“No seed ever fell so far from a tree into so dark and cold a soil as the Son of God did.” (Miracles, C.S. Lewis, 1947)

He did that for us.  What kind of amazing king is that?

Is He worth our effort?  Is this King worth the process and the time and the frustration we often feel to learn about Him and work at seeing Him?

At that I answer, “Yes and Amen!”

 

To listen to the complete radio broadcast, click the radio icon on the right or download the podcast at loveeverlastingministries.com or on iTunes.

 

 

Windows of the Heart, "My Bridegroom, My King"

Excerpt from Episode 1 of "Windows of the Heart" radio program from Dr. Deb Waterbury)

 

Have you ever really wondered at what Paul meant  in 1 Corinthians 13:12 when he wrote,

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.  Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

I think what he was getting at is that we look at the world through a lens of ourselves.  I see everything through the lens of myself.  I interpret the world around me, the people around me, and my experiences through my own perspective, and unfortunately, that perspective is terribly flawed. 

We’re all flawed, which makes this lens we see through quite dim, and it’s dim for any number of reasons.  It’s dim because of our expectations, it’s dim because of our emotions, but mostly it’s dim because of our sin and our subsequent perceptions in light of that sin.

 

For the believer, the struggle is seeing through this cloudy, smudged up window into something so beyond our comprehension that we can find ourselves squinting and frustrated at what we think we see there.  We read the Bible, we study it, and we know the words.  We know that it promises that we are loved beyond compare, that we were set apart and chosen despite our imperfections, and it refers to us as the bride of Christ, the betrothed of the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

 

The problem is not that we don’t read those words or even believe them.  The problem is that we can’t perceive them.  We can’t really see what they are because we’re doomed to looking through this window dimly.  While on this earth, the window of our heart struggles to see the magnitude of these promises.  Yet God does not want His children to go through life miserably uninformed.  He has given us His Word to direct our knowledge toward the seemingly impossible love that is ours in Christ Jesus.

 

So, how can we perceive this truth in a world which translates into such a smudge-up, dim window?

 

It occurs to me that the only way we can even begin to do so, though our mirrors will remain dim while living in these fallen bodies, is by looking intently at what the Bible tells us of the amazing love that all believers have in Christ Jesus.  We may have to squint and work at making out fuzzy shapes and ideas, but we can get glimpses of the truth if we look into the only place where there is truth--God's Word.

Jesus Christ is the Bridegroom referred to in Isaiah 54:56,

 

For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called.  For the Lord has called you like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God.

He is our Redeemer and our intimate Savior, and He loves us more fully and completely than we can comprehend.  How sad it is when we live as if that love isn't already ours! 

 

It doesn't have to be that way, at least not so much.  We study and we read and we meditate on great bible writings like the Song of Solomon and Ephesians 5 because in them we get glimpses into this unfathomable love that is ours in Jesus.  May we work daily at wiping away the smudges of sin and imperceptions and misconceptions on our windows to eternity and instead see a little more clearly into the love of all loves and the King of all kings:  our Jesus.

 

To listen to the complete recording of Episode 1 of the "Windows of the Heart" radio program, click the radio icon in the upper right corner, or download the podcast on iTunes.

 

 

 

Giving New Meaning to "Peter-ing Out"

 

 



Peter:  The Unlikely Hero

 



Aren’t you sometimes relieved you weren’t alive when the Bible was being written?  If I had been, I would have been the best bad example they ever had!  Just think about all of those believers who fell and then had their names live in infamy in the pages of the best-selling book of all time. Thank God the Bible offers hope to those who have fallen.  It does not leave us without a way out and it certainly doesn’t leave us hopeless. 

 

I’m very thankful that the Bible paints its heroes, warts and all!  The Bible lets us see the men and women of faith in its pages for exactly who they were:  people who struggled against the same weaknesses and temptations as we do, but who recovered from the sins and disgraces through God’s abundant grace.  There are dozens of examples, but probably the one that causes my heart to break the most is Peter in the high priest’s court after Jesus was arrested.

 

 

Background

An interesting thing about Peter’s denials is that they are woven through the trials of Jesus.  During the middle of the night, which was actually early Friday morning after the Passover feast in the upper room, the leaders of Israel with the Roman soldiers came to the Garden of Gethsemane and arrested Jesus which occurred after the Lord had told Peter he would deny Him three times that very night before the rooster crowed.  That’s how the account of the Peter’s denials begins; they tied Jesus up and led Him away. The first place they took Him was to the house of Annas.  There they made an attempt to come up with an indictment that would stick, a crime that He had committed that could justify His execution.

 

Following that, there was a trial before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin, and then finally after dawn, there was a third trial in the daylight, which was the only time they could have a legal trial according to Jewish law.  It was between those first two trials in the middle of the night that Peter’s denials are woven.

 

The Denials

 

John 18:12 tells us,

 

So the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound him. (ESV)

 

Understand that once they arrested Jesus, all of the Apostles ran away, including Peter and John (who was with him), though they were following at a distance so no one could see them.  Matthew’s account tells us this in Matthew 27:56,

 

But all of this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.  Then all the disciples left him and fled. (ESV)

 

Now, let me set the scene so that you are not confused between the renderings of this event by the four apostles.  When taken all together, we can see what and where everything, including Peter’s denials, occurred.

 

Jesus was tied up as prisoner and led away to the house of Annas, who was in real power.  Annas was the former high priest and his son-in-law, Caiaphas, was the current high priest.  The soldiers took Jesus first to Annas because he was the puppet-master at this point.  He really called the shots, and they needed to come up with some sort of charge that would stick.

 

It was early on Friday morning, still dark out, when He was taken to the house of Annas, who would have lived in the same palace compound as his son-in-law, Caiaphas.  I make this distinction because Matthew’s account says they took him to Caiaphas, leaving out the previous meeting with Annas, and Mark and Luke only say “high priest.”  Only John mentions the first meeting with Annas, and since, as we will see soon, John was there with Peter in the court, we understand how he came to know of the exact location of Jesus’ first stop.  Jesus’ first trial, then, was in front of Annas and only when the former high priest was finished questioning Jesus did he send him to Caiaphas. (John 18:24)

 

(The other three didn’t mention a change in venue because, as I said, Annas and Caiaphas lived in the same compound.  They simply would have taken Jesus from one area to another while in the same location.) 

 

Peter’s First Denial

 

In John’s gospel, 18:15-18, we can read Peter’s first denial which occurred while Jesus was being questioned by Annas.  Peter entered the court undetected, but he could only have entered if he was with someone who had connections with the court.  That someone was John.  Peter and John were in the courtyard, trying to stay close to Jesus but also remain unidentified.  The girl who first saw and recognized him was most likely the girl who opened and closed the gate of the court, letting people in and out.       

 

Peter was warming himself by the fire with the other guards when the girl asked him if he was one of Jesus’ disciples.  He would have been able to hear what was going on in Annas’ house; he would have heard the screaming while Jesus was being questioned.  He may have even been thinking of what he might say or do if he were called before Annas himself.  He may have thought he was ready.

 

But then, out of the blue, a simple servant girl asked him if he was with Jesus, and he crumbled.  No Jesus to support him, no miracles, only him, and he was a coward.  He told her that he didn’t know Him.

 

Peter’s Next Two Denials

 

In John’s gospel we then read the account of Annas questioning Jesus and then eventually having Him transported across the courtyard to Caiaphas’ palace.  There Jesus would again be questioned before the Sanhedrin.  It was during this time when Jesus was in the courtyard between Annas’ house and Caiphas’ house that the next two denials occur.  John is kinder to Peter than Matthew was in these last two denials.  John just says that Peter denied knowing Jesus.  Matthew gives us a little more.

 

Matthew 26:72 says this of Peter’s second denial,

            And again he denied it with an oath. (ESV)

Peter was swearing that he did not know Jesus.

 

In verse 74, it gets even worse with the third denial,

Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know the man!” (ESV)

 

Basically, Peter began to curse wildly at the accusation, claiming not to know Jesus.  It was then that the rooster crowed. 

 

Forgiveness

 

Everything had occurred just as Jesus said it would, and once the rooster crowed, the most compelling sentence in regards to this story is recounted in Luke’s gospel.  Luke 22:60-61 reads,

 

But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.”  And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed.  And the Lord turned and looked at Peter.  And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord. (ESV)

 

We really can shudder at this, can’t we?  It’s just a heartbreaking moment.  Peter crumbled and was swearing repeatedly that he didn’t even know Jesus, and right in the middle of his tirade he looked up and Jesus looked at him—eye to eye.  Can you even imagine the agony this man must have felt at that very moment?  Can you imagine our agony if in the midst of sin, which is really denying Christ's power and lordship, we looked up and Jesus was looking right at us?

 

We wouldn’t be surprised if Peter was another Judas and went out and hanged himself.  But Peter is no Judas and his faith does not fail.  Why?  Luke tells us right there in verse 61; it was because Jesus looked at him.

 

B.B. Warfield once commented on this passage in a sermon,

 

“As our Savior was being tried and preparing to bear the sins of us all on the cross, He had time to give one glance to a faltering disciple and so save his soul in the saving of the world.” (B.B. Warfield (1851–1921), from his essay, “‘Miserable-Sinner Christianity’ in the Hands of the Rationalists,” in The Works of Benjamin B. Warfield, vol. 7, pp. 113-114)

 

The difference between Peter and Judas can be traced to that look; it was something about what the Savior did in His infinite mercy for Peter.  You see, this is not a story of final failure, like with Judas; this is a story of final restoration. 

 

It was Peter’s love for Christ that broke his heart at that moment and that breaks ours now at the thought of it, not the pain at what he had done.  It’s not really our sins that make us weep.  They have a part in it, to be sure, but for us and Peter it isn't sin that brings weeping (the Greek means “sobbed out loud”).  Peter wept because he saw the kind of Savior he had sinned against.  He repented because when Jesus looked at him, he thought of the Word.

 

True Repentance

 

True repentance begins when the Spirit holds the Word up to us like a mirror and we look into that mirror.  Our eyes are opened, and we suddenly realize what we’ve done.  The difference between a remorse for being caught in sin and godly sorrow that leads to repentance is the renovation of life because we finally see, and what we see is the Word of God. 

 

As Ligon Duncan said,

 

“Repentance isn’t just feeling badly about sin; it’s not just feeling badly about the consequences of sin or the embarrassment of sin.  It is coming to see the sin for what it is and recognizing how ugly it is and turning from it and to God.” (“The Necessity of Repentance,” Sept. 18, 2011)

 

Jesus is the Word (John 1:1),  and the Word looked straight into Peter’s eyes.

 

That was the difference between Peter and Judas.  Jesus restored Peter with one look.

 

Restoration

 

And then when Jesus was resurrected and with the apostles in Galilee, He fully restored all of them, most especially Peter.  Jesus made a special point to single Peter out after the resurrection, restoring him to service.

 

On that first Resurrection Sunday, when the men from Emmaus returned to Jerusalem to tell of their encounter with the risen Lord, the eleven said to them in Luke 24:34,

            “The Lord has risen indeed, and appeared to Simon!”

 

Also, at the tomb, the angel told the surprised women in Mark 16:6-7,

“Do not be alarmed.  You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.  He has risen; he is not here.  See the place where they laid him.  But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee.”

 

“Go and tell the disciples” would have been enough, but knowing Peter’s colossal failure and the pain His apostle felt afterward in repentance, the Lord instructed the angel to add “and Peter”! 

 

When we fail the Lord and then repent, He just keeps piling on His grace to reassure us of His forgiveness.

 

One of the most beautiful aspects of Peter’s restoration by God’s grace is Jesus’ restoration of Peter to His service.  When Jesus appeared to the seven disciples, we read of the restoration in John 21:15-19.  Here Jesus asked Peter to affirm his love for Him three times—one for each time Peter denied Him, and in this He was restoring His beloved to service.  And look at what Peter goes on to do in the second chapter of Acts—he preaches the very first sermon of the gospel of Jesus Christ!

 

How glorious it is that Jesus said in Matthew 9:13,

            For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.

 

That call is to salvation and to His service.  The truth is that if God didn’t use failing people, He wouldn’t use anybody!  Such a comfort to sinners such as we are!  He never loses His children.  He will call us back, give us a look, remind us of His Word, and then He will use us to the advancement of His kingdom.

 

By the grace of our Lord, we are all unlikely heroes.