The will and the plan of the Lord

A thought to ponder, Kind of like a snack before the meal...

I have been recently thinking a lot about God's plan for my life.

How am I supposed to know if I am in His will?

When I take a step forward, have I sought the Lord in whatever that step is?

How do I discern what the Lord's plan is?

How do I choose my career, or second career?

Lastly...

How can I Affect and Effect the World for the Kingdom?

Next time we will have answers to these questions so enjoy pondering for now.

Till then.
Nick

Last time we discussed the fact that Simon Peter desired to follow Jesus, even unto death, yet Jesus knew that Simon had to be broken to make that happen. First we will look at the breaking of Simon Peter so that the Lord could take his zelousness for Jesus and use it for His Glory

Matt 26:75 And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, "Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times." And he went out and wept bitterly.

I want to look at the word bitterly for just a second, from this passage we see that Jesus had to take Peter to the end of himself or break him completely for Peter to be that rock that Jesus had called him to be. Bitterly is is used as an example of the poignant grief of Peter's weeping for his denial of Christ. Have you ever felt so horrible for something that you have done, I know that feeling and it is not really fun. Jesus refers to us as clay and when clay becomes hard it must be broken down to a fine dust then you add water to make is pliable so that you can mold again into the shape that you want. What Jesus was doing here was taking Peter and making him the rock that was to be in the future. After studying Peter and seeing his ferver for Christ it would be easy to say that God truly broke his spirit and how easy could that have been for Peter to say that I'm never going back to that. I'm so disgusted with myself for leaving the Lord like that. Later on in the book of John we see Peter actually goes back to his trade, but as he is fishing Jesus calls Peter to himself. As far as I am concerned this is the greatest passage of scripture in the bible. It truly shows the compassion of Christ.

Jn 21:15-18 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." He said to him, "Feed my lambs." He said to him a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." He said to him, "Tend my sheep." He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" and he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go."

Three times Jesus asked Peter if he love him, each time Peter said yes you know that I love you and then Jesus gave Peter a command to feed His sheep, that is a huge thing. We see that Jesus took the Raw Zealousness of Peter and created him to be the rock of his name. God had made him such a rock that at the end of his life when it was time for him to be martyred Peter was killed upside down.

Are you Zealous for the Lord. Let today be the day that you check your heart and what your Zealous for.

A classic from Charles Spurgeon

This is a classic that my wife and I read on June 8th it really spoke to me in where is my faith, Remember folks faith is the evidence of things unseen. Where are you placing your faith is it in that which is daunting in front of you or is it in the creator who created the earth in 7 days and raised the dead and made the red sea part. I enjoyed this I hope that you receive and enjoy this as much as I did.

“Thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or not.”

Numbers 11:23

God had made a positive promise to Moses that for the space of a whole month he would feed the vast host in the wilderness with flesh. Moses, being overtaken by a fit of unbelief, looks to the outward means, and is at a loss to know how the promise can be fulfilled. He looked to the creature instead of the Creator. But doth the Creator expect the creature to fulfil his promise for him? No; he who makes the promise ever fulfils it by his own unaided omnipotence. If he speaks, it is done—done by himself. His promises do not depend for their fulfilment upon the co-operation of the puny strength of man. We can at once perceive the mistake which Moses made. And yet how commonly we do the same! God has promised to supply our needs, and we look to the creature to do what God has promised to do; and then, because we perceive the creature to be weak and feeble, we indulge in unbelief. Why look we to that quarter at all? Will you look to the north pole to gather fruits ripened in the sun? Verily, you would act no more foolishly if ye did this than when you look to the weak for strength, and to the creature to do the Creator’s work. Let us, then, put the question on the right footing. The ground of faith is not the sufficiency of the visible means for the performance of the promise, but the all-sufficiency of the invisible God, who will most surely do as he hath said. If after clearly seeing that the onus lies with the Lord and not with the creature, we dare to indulge in mistrust, the question of God comes home mightily to us: “Has the Lord’s hand waxed short?” May it happen, too, in his mercy, that with the question there may flash upon our souls that blessed declaration, “Thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or not.”

Peter's foot shaped mouth

This morning I was reading in John 13 as the disciples sat around the table on the night of the last supper. I have studied this chapter so many times and each time I get something different I want all of you to take a moment and ponder Peter's passion to follow the Lord.

You see he was one one of the disciples that Jesus loved(Jn 13:23-24), that was only said about 2 others James and John, but in this case and for the sake of our devotional for today and the next few posts I want to look at the fact that Peter had a problem with desiring to do and say the right thing but it usually ended up with him shoving his foot and sometimes both feet into his mouth.

(John 13) 36Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord, where are You going?" Jesus answered, "Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later." 37Peter said to Him, "Lord, why can I not follow You right now? I will lay down my life for You." 38Jesus answered, "Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you deny Me three times.
In studying this passage of scripture I have come to the conclusion that Peter may have wanted to follow Jesus even unto death but Jesus knew that he would bail at the first sign of adversity. Peter had to give the Lord his whole heart and everything about himself. A question to ponder. What are you holding back from the Lord that is keeping you from being used to the fullest? Does God have all of you? You may have a passion for Jesus, but will you bail at the first sign of adversity, personally I wrestled with this this last week. Next week we will Look at how Peter failed and if there is time also how Jesus restored Peter. Till then