Love Christ

There is one final story in Peter’s life that I want to dig deeper into. In this story, Peter thinks he knows how it’s going to end, but God ends up surprising him in the best way. “ Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. He called out to them, ‘Friends, haven’t you any fish?’ ‘No,’ they answered. He said, ‘Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.’ When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. Then the disciple whom Jesus loves said to Peter, ‘It is the Lord!’ As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, ‘It is the Lord,’ he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water the other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from the shore, about a hundred yards. When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread. Jesus said to them, ‘Bring ...

What does it look like to have faith in the wrong thing? Peter had incredible faith, but it didn’t just happen one day, this was something that he built over time. He went through both ups and downs to get to the faith that we know him to have. There’s a story in the book of Matthew that shows a specific point in Peter’s life that I want to look at.  Matthew 16:21-25 “From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ‘Never, Lord!’ he said. ‘This shall never happen to you!’ Jesus turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.’ Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up ...

  One of my least favorite parts about going to the doctor is having to do the eye exam. I know that I can see, but when you have me covering and uncovering my eyes, it makes it very difficult. At first when we look with both eyes, it’s pretty easy, we aren’t shocked by what we are seeing. Once we have to cover one of them, it gets a little harder to see, but we can still see pretty well. But, when we uncover the eye that was covered and try to see out of it, it is so hard, it’s blurry and blotchy, it becomes much harder to see. This is a great example of what our faith looks like.  When we are living a life with Jesus, there are going to be things that come to the surface. There are going to be habits, actions, and thoughts that we are compelled to change. When we walk through life without anything blinding us, it is pretty easy, but, at some point, there are going to be things that come in and mess with our vision. We can still move around and see pretty well with the th...

There’s another story in Peter’s life that I love. It is the story where Peter walks on water. At this time, Peter had been following Jesus for a while. Jesus went to preach to a group of people, when He was done, He called His disciples to come with Him on the boat across the lake. Jesus went off to pray. At this point, Peter knew what he was waiting for, Jesus to come back to them, but if you know the story, you know that it didn’t happen in the way that he expected it to. Matthew 14:25-31, “Shortly before dawn, Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. ‘It’s a ghost,’ they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: ’Take courage! It is I. don’t be afraid.’ ‘Lord if it’s you,’ Peter replied, ‘tell me to come to you on the water.’ ‘Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, c...

Recap--The last part of this series we talked about the importance of waiting. We talked about not missing out on our callings because we are so focused on what we want to happen.     Maybe you were thinking about that, and you are at the point in your life where you are just frustrated with God. You don’t understand why He isn’t doing what you think He should be doing. Maybe you don’t think that His timing aligns with yours, or maybe you don’t see God moving at all.      When we look at what God is doing in other people’s lives, it is so easy to let that blind us to what He is doing in ours. We think that our life has to look like theirs to mean that God is working. Maybe you are frustrated with God because you didn’t get the job that you wanted. Maybe you’re frustrated because you didn’t get into the school that you wanted, or the sports team that you wanted to be on. Maybe you’re frustrated with God because you feel like He isn’t moving in your life...

The last part of this series, we started out looking at the very first call on Peter’s life, asking ourselves the question, “What are you waiting for?”  I want to tell y’all a story that I think really fits well with Peter’s. When I was in middle school, I put a lot of my identity in people and friendships. I thought that the amount of friends that I had and the quality of our friendships defined who I was as a person. There was a point at the end of middle school and the start of high school, where everything started to change. Suddenly, the friends that I had began to pull away. I didn’t understand it at the time, but I slowly started to distance myself from the people that I did have. When I pulled away from other people, I also pulled away from God. There was a point when I decided that I needed something more. When I first started noticing people pulling away, I pulled away from God too. I thought that if everyone else was leaving, why wouldn’t He? I tried so hard to go right ...

This new series is all about waiting. I want to ask you a few questions to keep in your mind. What is a goal or dream that you are chasing after? What is a job or title that you are striving towards? What is something that you are waiting for? Throughout this series, I want to focus on the life of Peter. Peter is one of Jesus’s 12 disciples. He is known for being really stubborn, but at the same time, Peter is known for having great faith. Peter was a fisherman, that is what he did to live. Peter fished in a boat with his brother Andrew. One day when they were fishing, they saw a man across the lake (this man was Jesus). He called out to them saying, "have you caught anything?" They said, "no we haven’t." Jesus said to them, "cast your net on the other side of the boat." So, they did, but something amazing happened. When they pulled their net back up, the net was so full of fish, it began to break. Immediately, Peter said, "you are the Messiah, I ...