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Peter: Idiot or awesome?

Today I have been writing a talk for next Sundays service – today is pretty much the only time to do it when the kids won’t be around, so I ruled the day out for writing… pr so I thought…then no.3s party got cancelled, no.1 needed shopping for Soul Survivor which she goes on tomorrow, then the floor man came to repair our floor (washing machine leaked and floor rose 6 inches – no joke…).. I seriously wondered if I was ever going to get it done. But God has been so gracious, despite my awful tendency to get distracted by twitter and emails… and thankfully I can now blog without feeling guilty!

Anyway, I will post about the talk next week, but through preparing for it I have looked a lot at Peter. I love Peter, because he just makes me feel like I am ok!

Here is a guy who actually spent time with Jesus, was his disciple, prayed for people, man I mean, people even wanted to be in his shadow to get healed, but yet so often we seem him being, well, let’s face it, a bit of an idiot. he doesn’t always ‘get it’, does he?  He is impulsive, not always on the ball…I love how at the transfiguration, when he’s up on the mountain with Jesus, and then Moses and Elijah appear, and he suggest making shelters for them all.. Shelters? I mean, these guys descend from heaven in a cloud, Jesus’ face is shining in glory and he wants to build a shelter? Soooo missed it…

And there’s the time when he denies he knows Jesus, not once but three times. In my NLT in Mark 8:32, the passage where Peter doesn’t believe what Jesus says about dying, the translation reads: ‘Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things…’ He, Peter, is reprimanding Jesus!

 But ultimately he has amazing faith in Jesus. Jesus asks him to look after his followers (He says ‘feed my sheep’), he heals people in Jesus name, for example: the lame beggar who asks for money at the temple: (Acts 3:). His teaching, along with John, was so good that the Priests and temple guard were so concerned that they arrested them (Acts 4).

Jesus accepted Peter in spite of his failures, and Peter went on to be an amazing man of God. Which just makes me feel so much better about myself when I make a mistake or get things wrong. Sometimes I feel like I am so in the dark, that I haven’t got a clue what God is saying to me, or wanting me to do, but I know that’s ok.

My NLT says: its better to be a follower who sometimes fails than someone who fails to follow…

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