For Those of Us Who Fail

Right in the middle of the earthshaking drama of Holy Week, while Jesus is moving toward His amazing work on the Cross, there is Peter’s story. The blustery leader of the disciples is swept up in the emotions at the Last Supper. Who wouldn’t be? He wants to protect the Man he has followed, the One in whom he has found purpose and hope.  All the talk about dying and leaving rattles Peter and he rises in protest. When Jesus tried to caution him about his weaknesses, he insists he is ready to ‘go to prison or death’ for Jesus. The Lord sadly tells him that he will not be a hero, that he will fail spectacularly. I am encouraged by what Jesus added:  "But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” (Luke 22:32, NIV)

A few hours later, in the courtyard of the high priest’s home, while Jesus is being interrogated, Peter’s courage fails. When he was pressed about his relationship with the Lord, he broke. “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.” (Luke 22:60-61, NIV) Even reading those words make me tear up. “Oh, Peter, you’re going to hate yourself!”

Are there any episodes in your life that you wish you could erase, memories that make you cringe? At a critical moment, did your faith fail; did you make a self-preserving choice that you now regret? Let me shout what I know from Peter’s story and from my own experience of God’s grace- it’s not over, you’re not finished, God has not discarded you as worthless. I am not minimizing failure, but I am extolling the scandalous nature of God’s grace. He does not just love the beautiful people or use those with perfect records. Much as we might try to deny it, the truth is that ‘all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.’

Peter’s story takes an unexpected turn a few weeks later, the ‘rest of the story’ told in the Gospel of John.  On the shore of the lake in Galilee, Jesus met Peter at a fire where they shared breakfast and renewal. Jesus walked him backed to the night of his failures and pointedly asked, “Do you love Me?” – not once, but three times. With each affirmation of love, Jesus told Peter to go and take care of the ‘sheep.’  Peter found new faith, returned to Jerusalem, and after Pentecost, he was a new man, full of the authority and power of the Holy Spirit. Peter’s testimony of faith and renewal was compelling then and now.  "I was the one who fell on his face when the Lord needed me. I was the one who missed the point of the lessons - but He loved me still and restored me. Now, He'll do the same for you!" The broken, the failing, the hopeless heard a word of hope in his testimony and turned to follow the Lord. He embraced the Lord's command - "Peter, strengthen your brothers!"

Don’t gloss over that failure. Forget making excuses for that fall. Stop trying to justify yourself. Instead, find yourself at the feet of Jesus where there is grace, healing, and renewal. Take Peter's example for yourself. Get right with God. Confess the sin, find forgiveness, let the Spirit do His restoration work, then strengthen your brothers!

Here's a word from the Word. Peter was inspired to share this promise with us. It reads so powerfully against the background of his failure and restoration. "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. … And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast." (1 Peter 5:6,10, NIV)

You’re invited to our remembrance of Jesus’ gift of grace – Good Friday, 7 pm;

And to our celebration of the Resurrection – 10 am, Easter Sunday.

Https://FaithDiscovery.com

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Living Hope
(No more despair, because there is LIVING HOPE)

How great the chasm that lay between us

How high the mountain I could not climb

In desperation I turned to heaven

And spoke Your name into the night

Then through the darkness Your loving-kindness

Tore through the shadows of my soul

The work is finished the end is written

Jesus Christ my living hope

Who could imagine so great a mercy

What heart could fathom such boundless grace

The God of ages stepped down from glory

To wear my sin and bear my shame

The cross has spoken I am forgiven

The King of kings calls me His own

Beautiful Savior I’m Yours forever

Jesus Christ my living hope

Hallelujah praise the One who set me free

Hallelujah death has lost its grip on me

You have broken every chain

There’s salvation in Your name

Jesus Christ my living hope

Then came the morning that sealed the promise

Your buried body began to breathe

Out of the silence the Roaring Lion

Declared the grave has no claim on me

(REPEAT)

Jesus Yours is the victory whoa

Jesus Christ my living hope

Oh God You are my living hope

Brian Johnson | Phil Wickham

© 2017 Phil Wickham Music (Fair Trade Music Publishing [c/o Essential Music Publishing LLC])

Simply Global Songs (Fair Trade Music Publishing [c/o Essential Music Publishing LLC])

Sing My Songs (Fair Trade Music Publishing [c/o Essential Music Publishing LLC])

CCLI License # 810055

That beautiful thing that is so rare

One of the most precious memories of my late wife are her prayers for me! How many times in the night, when I awakened in a struggle with some issue in ministry, she would put her hand on my forehead and pray for the Spirit to make His peace mine, His wisdom my guide. After she died, I found journals that included little written snippets of prayer and Scripture that she offered for me. What a treasure those prayers were and are.  But there is Another whose prayers for me (and you!) are of inestimable worth – Jesus!

In John 17, one of Jesus’ prayer for us is written down.  He was hours from His own intense sacrifice of reconciliation at the Cross, knowing the anguish that was before Him. And, we were foremost in His mind.  He does not ask the Father to make us rich, to give us lives of ease. He prays for us to be filled with the knowledge of the Father’s will, to be made uniquely useful to His purposes, and then He prays this prayer that is so poignant, and so often goes ignored among Christians.

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." (John 17:20-23, NIV)  Yes, He prays that we (Christians) will be of one heart, working and living together, to reveal God’s amazing love to our world. Truth be told, we have mostly failed miserably to accept the grace of that prayer, have we not?

Human history is one long tragedy of conflict, war, one group seeking advantage over another. Empires rise and fall on oceans of blood. Individuals push to be first, scheming and conniving for power. It can be seen in families, among children in school yards, in corporations, in politics, and saddest of all – in the church of Jesus Christ. When those outside of Christ look inside and see people playing the same power games, taking the same kinds of offense, using positions for personal enrichment like every where else in the world, many conclude that the Gospel is a fraud. The Name of Jesus is disgraced by our failure to love. Why is it so hard for us to understand Satan’s strategy to keep us from our mission is to “Divide and conquer?”  When we dig in and defend our positions, attacking those who are our brothers, those angry divisions, Paul says, always “give the devil a foothold” (Eph. 4:27).  We are quick to note the sins of lust and greed, but what of these:  “discord,” “dissensions” and “factions” (Gal. 5:20)?

Christians often hide their arguments behind protests of doctrinal purity but the Word says otherwise. Fighting is a sign of weakness in faith, of a mind that is not yet grasped the principles of Christ, that still is working on the power principles of the world.  Listen to Paul’s rebuke of the Corinthians who thought they were protecting God’s work, even as they destroyed it. “For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly?” (1 Cor. 3:3).

So, where does unity come from?  It is an evidence of the supernatural experience of the Love of God that causes us to love people more than our program or agenda. We cannot make ourselves ‘nice.’  The Spirit can, if we allow Him, make us loving. That love, "always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." (1 Corinthians 13:7, NIV)  Paul Thigpen observes – “Unity is not a matter of homogeneity, (being the same) but of harmony. Christians are not all to be alike, but they must find ways to integrate their differences into a symphonic whole—to create a singleness of spirit, of identity, and of purpose whose unifying center is Christ.” (Discipleship Journal  : Issue 101. 1999)

In this Resurrection week, would you join me in praying that prayer of Jesus?  
“Father, make us one; bring us to complete unity … so that others will know” the grace of Jesus and turn to God.

Here is a word from the Word.  My prayer is that my mind will submit to the truth of it for the glory of God. "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit— just as you were called to one hope when you were called— one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all." (Ephesians 4:2-6, NIV)

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O Come To The Altar

(the place to find healing and hope for unity)

Are you hurting and broken within

Overwhelmed by the weight of your sin

Jesus is calling

Have you come to the end of yourself

Do you thirst for a drink from the well

Jesus is calling

O come to the altar

The Father's arms are open wide

Forgiveness was bought with

The precious blood of Jesus Christ

Leave behind your regrets and mistakes

Come today there's no reason to wait

Jesus is calling

Bring your sorrows and trade them for joy

From the ashes a new life is born

Jesus is calling

Oh what a Savior

Isn't he wonderful

Sing alleluia Christ is risen

Bow down before him

For he is Lord of all

Sing alleluia Christ is risen

Bear your cross as you wait for the crown

Tell the world of the treasure you've found

Chris Brown | Mack Brock | Steven Furtick | Wade Joye

© 2015 Music by Elevation Worship Publishing (Admin. by Essential Music Publishing LLC)

CCLI License # 810055

When the church burns

The world paused yesterday to collectively gasp, then to mourn, as the beautiful cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris burned. 2 centuries in the making and standing as a marker of creativity and devotion for 7 centuries since,  the loss is beyond calculating. Even those of no Christian faith felt sorrow at the destruction of the church which stood at the center of the city, a place where kings were crowned, the famed buried, and faith was celebrated. As I watched the news story, I was reminded of the transitory nature of the things of this world and the eternal nature of the true Church, the Body of Christ. My shock and sorrow was tempered by the solemn realization that Christ is greater than His churches!

We grow so attached to our holy places, our churches, our homes for worship – be they cathedrals in the city or chapels along a country lane. That is not a sin! After all, the devout experience the collective gathering of God’s people in those buildings. They mark the passages of life – birth, marriage, baptism, death – there. Then, the church building burns and we realize that as much as we love our ‘places’ our faith is larger and more enduring than the buildings in which we gather.

My own Christian journey includes several churches along the way, places where I met Jesus and the Spirit in worship, where I found love and encouragement in the faith. I visited the little chapel that was the church of my childhood last Summer and was shocked to find it a ruin, the roof collapsed, trees growing in the rubble! (It was no cathedral, to be sure.) Did that destroy my faith? Of course not. The echoes of the worship remain and the patterns of faith laid down there continue in me.  Another church that was pivotal in my past fell apart as people forgot Who they gathered to know and serve. As they fought, one by one people left the place and now the doors are closed. But, the seeds sown in my heart still are fruitful!

The Words says, “Fix your eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of your faith.” He is the enduring center of our worship. Building will come and go. Congregations will grow and falter. Movements will arise, thrive, and die but the Gospel of Christ will continue until the Father says, “It’s time for the fullness of the Kingdom!”

Ultimately these temples of the Spirit, our bodies, will die, too!

But, then there is glory unimaginable. Build your life on the lasting hope of Jesus, laying up treasure in that place “where moth and rust do not corrupt and thieves cannot steal.”

Here is a word from the Word. May it, though stark, encourage us to a right perspective.
"For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down
—when we die and leave these bodies—
we will have a home in heaven, an eternal body made for us by
God himself and not by human hands.

We grow weary in our present bodies,
and we long for the day when we will

put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing.

For we will not be spirits without bodies,
but we will put on new heavenly bodies.
Our dying bodies make us groan and sigh,
but it’s not that we want to die and have no bodies at all.
We want to slip into our new bodies
so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by everlasting life.
God himself has prepared us for this,
and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.

So we are always confident,
even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies
we are not at home with the Lord.
That is why we live by believing and not by seeing." (2 Corinthians 5:1-7, NLT)

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The Church’s one foundation is

Jesus Christ, Her Lord.

She is His new creation by water and the Word.

From heav'n He came and sought her

To be His holy bride

With His own blood He bought her

And for her life He died

Elect from every nation

Yet one o'er all the earth

Her charter of salvation

One Lord one faith one birth

One holy name she blesses

Partakes one holy food

And to one hope she presses

With every grace endued

• Samuel Wesley, Public Domain