Oh Me.....

"He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else." ~ Benjamin Franklin

I was nudged to write about Peter over a week ago and didn't do it. In light of my opening line... I will not deign to make an excuse for why I didn't write on the subject some time ago. But, I do want to be honest with you all and say, I messed up again. Satan likes to use the times when I mess up to tell me that I am not worthy of sharing a message that God speaks to my heart.

So... here goes...I was speaking with a friend regarding appearances recently. Shortly after our talk, I was reading in the word about when Peter denied Christ. I think we all know the story. Jesus told Peter, "before the cock crows, you will deny me three times" and Peter swore it wasn't true and it came to pass, just as Jesus stated. The lessons generally taught along with this story is affirmation of Jesus prophetic nature, the lure of peer pressure, etc. We know that Peter walked alongside Jesus for years - he observed firsthand miracles and prophecies. He knew without a shadow of a doubt that Jesus was the Christ and yet, he denied him because he was afraid.

There's more to it though... in Matthew 10 we find Jesus teaching His disciples. During this time of teaching He commissioned the disciples to preach salvation and then He went on in verses 17-19 to say, "Be on your guard against men; they will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues. On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say". Keep reading through the chapter and let me also make special note of verses 32 & 33, "Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven."

Now, back to the point I am trying to make...Peter was willing to deny Jesus at the risk of his salvation because he wanted to look good even though he was warned not only the night before, but during Jesus teaching.

We put on faces that we want the world to see. Sometimes we put on different faces for different people, this one for my family, this one for my colleagues, this one for my church friends, this one for my teammates...and we may fool some people but, we won't fool them all. It's a lie and for the one you didn't fool, you have destroyed your testimony. Sometimes, we even lie to ourselves about who and what we are. Sometimes, we would rather make excuses for our behavior and rationalize it then to face that we blew it. I am going to boldly say that it is the worst kind of cowardice when one cannot face themselves.

1 Samuel 16:7 "But the LORD said to Samuel, 'Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." Hebrews 4:13 states, "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account." There is no such thing as "looking good" in front of God. We have all sinned and come short of His glory.

One time, my oldest son had friends over and they began roughhousing and one of the boys fell hard into the wall in the hallway causing a large hole in the drywall. My son went and got a poster of Captain Kirk and hung it over the hole, hiding it from view. Nobody knew it was there... but it was. It doesn't matter what others see, if there is a deficiency in your heart condition, it will remain there, whether it is seen or not. Because the poster hid the hole... we put off repairing it. Exposing our faults, is the first step toward overcoming them. As long as we keep them hidden, there is little motivation to repair... after all... it just might be painful.

But, back to Matthew 10... when we face those things that frighten us...we have the promise of the Spirit leading us. We know what to say because He speaks through us. I want you to really "get" this...you cannot fail when you follow the leading of the Holy Spirit...you cannot fail. So, when you try to protect yourself... and you follow your own leading, you may think you are saving yourself from [humiliation, pain, loss, etc.] but, you are in fact, putting yourself more at risk.

Keeping a right heart attitude can be a lifelong process. David said in Psams 51:10, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." To "renew" a right spirit implies that he had already possessed a right spirit at one time and in order to have that right spirit renewed, he needed his heart to be cleansed. He didn't ask God to stop him from sinning, he didn't ask God to improve his reputation. He recognized that the cause of his failure was his heart condition.

Why is it that we like to put band-aids over our little cuts and scrapes when we know that keeping them uncovered allows them to heal faster? We need to stop playing cover up so, real healing can begin and real progress can be made. Do you truly believe that there is anybody that believes you are perfect? Let's confess our faults and lift each other up, let's pray for each other, let's show compassion and understanding to our fellow man, let's be real so God can really use us to further His kingdom.

Write after I wrote this... I read something from a friend that I am going to add here with my paraphrase:

Man in his normal state will renounce his beliefs just as readily as Peter renounced Jesus before the Resurrection. But the same Peter discovered after the Resurrection, there is a power beyond man that causes him to forsake all. It is the power of God revealed through the Holy Spirit.