Jesus Uses Failures

Wednesday at our ALIVE meeting, the girls and I had a TERRIFIC bible study, I just HAD to share about it. I am thoroughly loving this group we’ve got right now. They’re consistent, committed, teachable and uplifting. But anyway, back to the bible study from last night. I’m not quite sure why this question popped into my mind about a week ago, but suddenly I thought to myself “Hmmm, I wonder why, after Peter had denied Christ the evening of his seizure, did Jesus later respond to Peter with ‘Feed my sheep’?” Or to put it in another way, why, of ALL the things Jesus could have said to Peter - such as “you idiot…” or “you’re forgiven, no worries…” or “told ya so…” or “Hey bud, I love ya…” did he say “Feed my sheep?”

John 21 - Feed my sheep.

Could Peter have ever seen that one coming? And when we fail big time like Peter (especially when we’re sturdy and self-assured like Peter was during the Last Supper - ‘Oh no, I will NEVER fail YOU, Lord!’) what might it mean to us that Jesus said “Feed my sheep” to his fallen disciple?

So we discussed this question. Here are some of the points we made:

- Peter needed to know that Jesus was confident in his ability to continue as a leader

- Peter needed to be reminded that he was called to do in the first place - despite a failure along the way

- Peter needed to get past the self-pity, not wallowing in his failure and focus on the future

- Peter was chosen to be USEFUL, not paranoid about failing

- Peter needed to be strong for the other disciples and ministry leaders he would coach very soon

- Peter had already been taught and shown what he needed during his years with Christ, he didn’t need to be reminded of all of that, he just needed a statement of send-off

- Jesus knew the Holy Spirit would be sent soon, Peter would soon have that resource to help him in temptation

Above all, we concluded that Peter is a perfect example of how Jesus DOES and CAN use us - even after we fall or have failed. Here is a fantastic article from Desiringgod.org that sums up our conclusion: Jesus Chooses and Uses Failures

Prayer - For Real

His mercies never end, they are new EVERY morning… - Lamentations 3:22-23

It’s a new week. *sigh* Relief! Last week was one horrid experience after another. Thank you for praying and listening…The worst is over (hopefully) but the trauma remains…

I’ll tell you what though, I am extremely grateful of the power and refuge of prayer. About a year ago my pastor did a series of sermons on prayer. Normally his preaching is fairly formal (for a Southern Baptist church) and straight-forward. Lots of truth packed into a neatly formulated thirty-minutes. The sermons on prayer, however, were different. They were from his core. They were filled with emphasize from a personal experience that he had genuinely been having. After years of hearing this man preach and being affected by his personal integrity and profound words, the depth of his yearning for us to know what real prayer is like was more moving than any sermon I can remember. He was having an experience in his own prayer life with the Almighty God, and he just wanted us to have a taste. It was like he was saying; “My beloved Franklin Heights, you’ve GOTTA TRY THIS!”

I Want To Be…

Finish the sentence.

As for me? I Want to be Influential  

Corrie Ten Boom