Peter gets asked 3 times of his love confession for the 3 times he rejected his professed love for Jesus on a beach, the same scene where Jesus first meets the ruffian. One day God will take the hand of His first creation in His image, lead Adam back to where he ate life daily, maybe God takes us all back to where we first encountered Him for a very special reason. Maybe in the middle of our walk with God, maybe at the very end, maybe very shortly after. At some point in our walk it seems theres a time to see the beginning again, to encounter the faith becoming sight, to understand the new birth anew. Maybe its after a season of drought, you've betrayed your convictions purposefully, you've grown tired of waiting, your patience is wasted, you feel unheard and cared for, everything seems chaos related and dominated. Maybe its in a time of fullness, great accomplishments made, break thru's realized, overcoming a habit or situation. Whatever time it is, HE chooses it, and it maybe more then once, however many times it takes for us to taste the wonder of His love that spurs us forward again, the love that stirs the monotony.
What i like about this all is that Jesus doesn't let one thing that could be a barrier slip by without confronting it, His love for us doesn't allow him to let some things slip by because they maybe small, the 1 inch step is the beginning to the progress of walking away from His side, the devil knows this and if something that can be slipped in that can be questioned or overlooked that isn't so sacred, that means we'll be ready to accept the next 1 inch that would come after that, so by many 1 inches accepted we are led purposefuly away from our first love.
Some may consider the first inches to be the externals like a bit of this or that won't hurt you in itself, diet, the substances in moderation, sabbath time spent on something else besides the love of Jesus, and then after those things become more acceptable its easier to look at the more sacred and consider them not as important or valuable to our walk till the 1 inch has taken us 180 degrees in the other direction from Jesus.
Jesus confronts every inch because He knows how far the inch can spread, so He asks peter of his devotion and love for each time peter denied his profession, and after each questioning he entrusts him with the same charge He first found him on the beach with....follow me...feed my sheep...WOW and again i say WOW. This robs the theory of 'once saved always saved' theory in bold daylight. This Jesus in His zealousness confronts sin because he has tasted the cost of sin and knows the permanence it can have in our distance from Him. This disciple who has seen every great miracle possible in 3 years slipped up at the end completely denying his love for Jesus and here Jesus days before He leaves this earth takes the time to confront this weakened vessel because he knows the cost it will have in peters walk if He doesn't.
You can mess up, it can be more costly then we realize, so EVERYTHING must be brought to His full light, sin is separation, thats what it comes down to, so for something insignificant to us in its weight in all actuality can be costly to our salvation. The devil doesn't have to wave crazy blatant sin in our face to get us off, we may have the strength to resist adultery or murdering someone, but we may find it easier to compromise the small, a lie maybe, not being satisfied with what we have and wanting someone else's lifestyle or possessions, having a sip of this, a puff of that. The 1 inch will always be more deadly friends, the slow progression of tolerance builds it harder in our minds that its acceptable, thats what all of the heavens and principalities are fighting for, our choice is the most sought after possession of all time and in all the universe. Jesus is the only one to have experienced the fullness of permanent separation from God in his 3 days in the grave. He only had the assurance of Gods love for him facing this. That is what we must rely on now, on our heavenly father, the testimony of Jesus, and this precious gift of the Holy Spirit. All three don't want us forever separated from their adoring love over us, so they point out the thorn in our side, the slip in our step, so that we can see the bad step ahead next time, we can see the thorns reaching for us and avoid them in the future.
I got the thorns still in friends, and i'm in the process of having them taken out, i'm excited to be able to see them ahead of time. I'm done with the inch, but it ain't done with me. Everdays start we must respond to Jesus' words 'i love you, follow me, feed my sheep' with 'i love you back, i will follow because i love you, your will is my joy because i love you' or those thorns will stop looking like a threat, and will become inviting. God showed us His love first friends, our natural response isn't pretty, but when we ask to see His confession daily, it will draw us in every so sweetly because nothing in this world will be sweeter to us than this love.
I think this is why sin is so detestable to God, its separation, and He can't stand being apart from the ones He loves, THATS US FOLKS! we are the object of his undying love, He counts us worthy of His blood, His time, His all, how could an inch to this or that be worth giving to something else besides giving it to this love? I want the inches back to Jesus, walk with me friends, we are weak and can't really do it on our own, but He will walk with us!!!! Hallelujah! it's promised! His name means we can't be alone ->Emmanuel<-"God with Us" He knows the thorns, the broken steps, and if we walk with Jesus we don't have to have repeats again. I'm done with the destruction of repeats, be done with me.
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9 comments:
Amen! I really enjoyed reading that. It is true and people need to grab a hold of it.
24And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing.
sacrifice is our part, the taking up of the cross.
he takes away our dross, but refines our gold in the same fire.
like the two goats of atonement: the 'sin' goat is sent away into the wilderness, the 'good' goat is an acceptable sacrifice.
we have to purge ourselves of sin and let it go--let him purge us--before we can become an acceptable sacrifice.
and sacrifice is a physical manifestation of inward agape--loving the lord your god with all your mind and strength, preferring his will to your own in love, trusting in his sovereignty.
Tommy, once again, I love you brother... One of the reasons? By reading this blog, I can see you're not like most people in the fact that - in our conversation the other night, you were actually listening. Not only that, you absorbed what I had to say, meditated on it, then spit it out in a newer refreshed, refined by the fires of God sorta way. I dig that daddio. You're one cool cat, and you keep getting cooler. Don't take it as flattery, but as truth, because that's all I spit these days =)
God loves you, God loves me, God loves us all brother, no matter how many inches we may have walked away.
Just like God transcends time, *Hallelujah* He also transcends space. No matter how far we walk away, His grip, and His reach will ALWAYS be longer and tighter. If we let Him, it'll never be a problem for Him to pull us back.
I totally agree that we've got to work on getting back, it's not a mindless journey, the one to God. In fact, it's the mindless journey that leads us the other way.
Something to contemplate I thought up after reading your blogg-o... The thorns in Jesus' crown... Symbolic of all those 'sinny' thorns in our side no? They didn't effect Jesus in His life cause He's just too cool, but in His death, they brought immeasurable pain and suffering. That's how we have to view the thorns of sin. Picture that blood trickling down His cheek, and the pain it would have caused and WILL cause. If that doesn't make one cry, or shudder, or worse, then it's time to lay the smack down on our face into the Bible I'd say.
And on a final note, for those that truly care about Jesus. I've always kept in the back of my mind. It's not just ourselves that we hurt with sin. It's not like the thorn only hurts you and "oh, well I'm not hurting anyone but myself" attitude cannot apply. Every time we sin, we dig one of those thorns on the crown of Jesus a little deeper into his loving head. Every time we walk away from sin, and choose the other path, we're taking that thorn out a little more.
We can't erase that He died for us, and who would want to, but we can justify His death, by living in Him, for Him, and by Him, in each and every day.
(wow... my first blog response and it's as long as a blog. my apologies, and much love...)
Shane
and on a side note, to kirklinn, and i mean no disrespect, just maybe some retrospect =)
I don't think God wants us to sacrifice, and I don't think we need to view not sinning as sacrifice. That's one of the biggest problems, is our paradigm on sin. If we sin, it's fun and exciting, if we don't it's a great sacrifice and painful. To reverse this paradigm, all we need to do, is instead of looking at the immediate result, look at the end payoff.
Would you consider not touching a hot iron out of curiosity a sacrifice? Or a blessing?
If we don't sin, we are given SO MUCH MORE than this world can ever offer. If we sin, we get a result that makes us feel worse, more empty, and dead.
i swear, last comment... lol!
"But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him." Luke 15:20b
there's so much i want to comment on. so many thoughts to share but i doubt i can translate them with any eloquence. i had to re-read stuff son! this is the most daring and fantabulous work you have put forth by far!... known to me...but it's not yours. this is why you love that holy spirit so much. you speak the language. someone talks to you. this reminds me that just as the spirit lead the authors of the bible and ellen g. he still inspires! he still speaks. they still speak! soo good.
this ain't YOU man! it's too on point. it's like the writing in the sand stylz!. it's just...you've been blessed. and i'm ever grateful that i've known you. this here is gonna be someting to write home about. i am changed from this day forth. i wanna remember THIS! it seems that we gets these boosts of theologic insights and then we fizzle. but i wanna remember this.
the mention of the walk?! i'm so far gone i can't remember where i started or when He and i last touched. for real. i wanna remember! i wanna be familiar with it. i wanna refer to it as easily as a home phone number....so i can remember the path that's led me there. home.
faith becoming sight!? i long for that day! for i am IN the allowance stage of the "this&that" of the seemingly unmentionable stupid little things "no one will ever really remember".
but AHH there's soooo much.
:sigh:
thank you. just i thank you and the God you serve.
last thing....
this reminded me...that he LOVES me. not like i've really forgotten but....he loves ME.
tanx again.
To sin is inevitable, for none of us are perfect on this earth. Fortunately, we have the gift of repentance (as well as forgiveness). God & Jesus do have an undying love for us, but we do need to recognize our wrongdoings and repent for our sins. That way, we return our love and respect back to Him.
a message well stated.... and well received.
to put it simply, thank you.
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