Promotion

There is a cause and effect relationship that I have seen play out in several passages of scripture.

Cause	Effect	Note
Proverbs 11:2 (here at Bible Gateway)
When pride comes	then comes dishonor	Note the contrast
But With the humble	is wisdom
1 Peter 5:5 – 6 (here at Bible Gateway)
Pride	God is opposed	Again contrast
Humble	God gives Grace
Humble yourself	God will exalt you at the proper time
James 4:7-8, 10 (here at Bible Gateway)
Submit to God, Resist the devil	The devil will flee
Draw near to God	He will draw near to you
Humble yourself in the presence of the Lord	He will exalt you
Matthew 23:12  (here at Bible Gateway) also (Luke 14:11; 18:12  (here at Bible Gateway))
Whoever exalts himself	Will be humbled	Note the contrast "and" essentially is functioning here as "but"
He who humbles himself	Will be exaulted
Philippians 2:8 - 11 (here at Bible Gateway)
He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.	For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,
1 Corinthians 11:1 (here at Bible Gateway)
Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.		Paul exhorts us to imitate Christ by humbling ourselves...

There are more passages that deal with this.  Psalm 75:6 – 7 (here at Bible Gateway) and Hebrews 5:4 (here at Bible Gateway) are two you may want to consult.  The issue is we are to avoid exalting ourselves, self-promotion.  I continually ask the Lord to deliver me from this.

Reboot

There is still much to say.

The long absence here this year is the result of a year that has been full of both travel and challenging health.

Many times, I have started to write again.  Topics that drew me were the intersection of homosexuality and Christianity and the ordination and inclusion of women in the proclaiming pastorate (it was the controversy surrounding the changing position of Beth Moore that was the impetus).  I began to write on both but after starting the first, realized that it would consume weeks or months of posts to handle well.  On the second in talking it over with my wife, who has benefited greatly from Mrs. Moore’s ministry, it was clear that, again, the topic would consume many weeks.  It was not and has not been my focus to deal directly with issues as these.

So, I will start again.  My focus is the requirement the Lord has stated for us, if we are to be His apprentices, to abide in His Word.  It is my settled conviction that if one is truly pursuing His requirement to abide, the issues above about which I was tempted to address will resolve.

It is a further settled conviction that for the most part many if not most believers are not abiding in the Word as our Lord has commanded.  Rather they have become dependent on others to study the Word for them and to tell them what they found.  The vast number of Christian books published each year is a testament to this reality.

So, the purpose here, mostly to remind myself, is to both encourage us to abide and in some small way attempt to equip those who engage here to do so.

So, we will reboot, there is still much to say.

Hors Catégorie

Pain.  For the past few days I have experienced the most physical pain in the span of years the Lord has allowed me to be here.  Had a cortisone shot between L4 and L5.  The end result is supposed to be good, but the day after the shot was not much fun.

Laying down – which was all that I could do – the pain level was 4 or 5.  If I moved, tried to turn over or, stand up, the pain in my left leg immediately spiked to a hard 10.  Things have settled down.  My left leg is really weak, but that is supposed to clear up in week or so.

This experience got me thinking.  We are looking at Easter.  Good Friday is in six days.  One of the things that Jesus says on the cross in Matthew 27:46 (here @ Bible Gateway), was “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

When we consider what the Bible says about Christ, the pain evident in these nine words emerges.  Christ was unified, one with the Father and the Spirit.  That reality permeates the Gospels especially the Gospel of John (here @ Bible Gateway).  During His time on the cross Christ was separated, ripped away from that relationship.

I am a fan of the Tour de France.  The climbs are rated 1 – 4 with the largest rated HC or Hors Catégorie, “beyond categorization.”  We are asked to measure pain on a scale of 1 – 10, ten being described as “unspeakable.”  It occurs to me that what Christ suffered was Hors Catégorie, beyond categorization.  He did that so that we could be restored to a relationship with His Father from whom He was separated, which caused that Hors Catégorie pain.  He did that voluntarily.  He did that for you and me.

We should probably respond.

Renewed not Retired

Things hurt today.  Neck, back, etc.  It is probable that I am paying for things, like rugby, that I did when I was younger.  As we mature, things change, work differently or not at all…

However, there is another perspective.

Consider 2 Corinthians 4:16 – 18 (here @ Bible Gateway).  The great news there is, though our bodies may deteriorate, the outer man, we still have growth to pursue in the inner man.  There is no end to what we can learn, what we can experience of our Lord, what we can share with others, what we can observe and apply in the Word of God.

There are no sidelines in the Christian experience.  There is no retirement.  There is no finish line other than being in the presence of the one that enables us to run this race.

That is a journey, an adventure, to which it is worth our complete commitment.

Quickly Fickle

There have been times in my life when I wanted to be recognized, wanted people to notice what I had done, what I had accomplished.  Not proud of that, but it is the case.

Acts 14:18 – 19 (here @ Bible Gateway) reminds me of one of the reasons that it is not a very good idea to desire recognition.

One sentence after Paul and Barnabas have a hard time restraining people from sacrificing to them as gods, the Jews turn the crowd against them and they attempt to stone Paul to death.

It is a quick, short distance from praise to hatred.  Seeking praise then would seem to invite that quick hate.

Not PC

I have been accused of a lot of things.  Being politically correct is not one of them.  I find that whole movement destructive of rational dialog and thought.  So this post will be anything but politically correct.

Genesis 2:18 – 25 (here @ Bible Gateway) has been in my reading in the past month, and it was as well a year ago.  Focus on 2:18 (here @ Bible Gateway).  Throughout the two accounts of the creation the Lord calls all that He did, “good” or “very good”.  Yet here, He says that it is “not good” that the man be alone.

As a result, God chooses to fix the “not good” situation.  Consider 2:22 (here @ Bible Gateway).  God fashions a woman for man.

A few days ago I got the December issue of JETS (Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society).  The table of contents for each issue is on the cover.  The first article listed was, “Does Genesis 2 Support Same-Sex Marriage?  An Evangelical Response”.  My first reaction – actually all of my reactions were – “you’ve got to be kidding me!”

But there it was.

Those who have an agenda will twist the Scripture into an unrecognizable shape.  They use their advanced degrees, condescension, “compassion”, and “scholarship” to bury the text with convoluted arguments that have not a scintilla of connection to what the text says.

It has been my observation that the more committed one is to proving the text does not say what it says the more ink and paper will be employed and the response to those questioning them will be branded as ignorant or “hate speech.”

To disagree with those who hold “compassionate”, “informed”, and “enlightened” positions, is to be a hater.  The convenient result of this response is it removes the “enlightened” from having to rationally discuss their errors.

Ashamed of Christ?

Pretty sure that I have mentioned before that repetition in the Word is one of the means of emphasis.  In Hebrew parallels are used for emphasis; sometimes to emphasize a comparison or a contrast.  The human authors of the New Testament had Jewish backgrounds.  Many times, the elements of both repletion and parallelism appeared in their work.

Look at Luke 9:26, notice what is repeated.  In the NASB, ashamed and glory.  Note what is the object of shame for each use.  In the first clause, the object of shame is Christ and His words.  In the second clause, the object of shame is the one who held Christ and His words in shame.

That raises some questions.  What does it mean to hold Christ in shame; to hold His words in shame.  It would seem that if I were to ignore, discount, trivialize, or disobey Christ’s words, that would be tantamount to being ashamed of His word.  If I am ashamed of His word, doesn’t it follow that I am ashamed of Him?

Have you ever withdrawn from someone because of something he or she said?  Have you ever ignored someone because you did not view them as important or what they said as weighty?  Isn’t that what Christ is describing here?

Now consider Matthew 6:33.  Christ commands that we seek His kingdom first.  If we do not do so, is that being ashamed of His word?

If that is the case is not the effect what Christ describes here?

So You Want To Be Important?

All or most of us have been in situations where there was a group of people who were the movers and shakers and we were not either.  There were meetings going on at work or at church or some other organization that was where the best information was shared and decisions were made.

You may have experienced at your work something that was decided at some meeting that made absolutely no operational sense. As a consultant from time to time I saw clients make decisions that did more harm than good.  I have made some of those myself.

Most of us then have, at one time or another, wished we could have been in the meeting so it would have gone better.

Look at Numbers 13:2 – 32.  Moses assembled an elite team to go and research the land God had promised and make recommendations.

All but 2 of the 12 blew it.  The elite team completely mislead the nation.  With the result that for the next 40 years the nation did laps around the wilderness, until all of those who followed the advice of the 10 that were wrong and those 10 were beneath the sand, and the nation was right back at the same place they decided to trust the 10 rather than God.

The elite group, the brain trust, the leaders, sometimes get it wrong.

Focused Anger

Yesterday during my quiet time, I was praying for Cameroon.  It was on the list of prayer requests from a ministry for which I pray.  As is my current practice, I turned to Operation World, which by the way is a great resource for your prayer time.  In there I read about the current state of the Church in Cameroon.  Typically OW lists answered prayer as well as prayer requests for the country.  One of the patterns I have seen from country to country is the need to translate the Scripture.  Cameroon was no different.  I have contacts in Nepal that are engaged in the same work as well as people I have met who are doing a similar work in Indonesia.  I had a strange reaction as I prayed through this prayer request.

I got angry.

Why, you should probably ask, would a prayer request about getting the Bible translated into 252+ languages make me angry?  Good question.  First, I recognize that James 1:20 is true, my anger is pretty much non-effective.  What stirred me up was disparity in the efforts of the Body.

We expend an enormous amount of effort, albeit not enough, to translate the Word of God into the heart languages of the people we are working to lead to Christ.  But, when the work is done, very little effort is expended to equip those same people to study and apply that Word.

A little over a year ago I worked with church planters in Eastern Nepal.  Each of them had a Bible in their own language.  But there was very little knowledge of how to study the Word for themselves.  I wrote about my frustration with their basic understanding of the Word in my journal.  It was then the Lord reminded me that is why He sent me there.  But, I cannot go to all the nations.

We can translate the Word into every language and dialect that we can identify, and I support that effort whole heartedly.  But, that is just the start.  If we do not expend the same amount, no really more effort, in getting people to engage in that translated Word by equipping them to personally engage with the Word to probe its depths and apply it to their lives, why go to the trouble of translating it in the first place?

I am perplexed.  This question is consuming my thought.  I read something in Proverbs 1 that seems to make this a more critical issue.

I will share that tomorrow.

Jerry Bridges

We lost a warrior yesterday.  Jerry Bridges went home.  A few years back I was on the program with Jerry and Jim Downing at a Glen Eyrie conference.  Jerry sat in my workshop taking notes.  I was overwhelmed.  My thought was what can he possibly learn from what I share.  But there he sat with my handout.

Jerry wrote over 20 books.  Yet he was sitting in my workshop.  The lesson for me is that there is always something I can learn from another believer, no matter what I have done or think I may know.

We should all follow Jerry’s example.

Peddling the Word of God

People who are all about promoting themselves, especially those who are in the ministry, bother me.  I have followed the ministries of men who started out sharing where they got their information and inspiration but have morphed into claiming and promoting “their” insights.  That sickens me.

A day or so ago I was reading 2 Corinthians 2:17.  Paul there contrasts his ministry with those who were peddling the Word of God.  The contrast with peddling was sincerity.  I know of ministries that are all about the ticket price or the offering.  That does not seem to line up with either the ministry of Jesus or the ministry of Paul.

You may want to exercise caution in following one who is continually suggesting that you buy their material, or attend their seminars.

Paul might have questioned their sincerity. 

Stopped

I have been writing this blog since November of 2011.  Until last year I had not missed a day.  This fall I have missed a few but never more than a day.  I got sick this week.  I went to bed Tuesday afternoon and basically got out of bed yesterday.  I canceled everything on my calendar.  It hurt to talk.  Since that is what I do in most of my meetings that made them impossible.

This blog has been a sustained obedience.  It seemed to me that the Lord was asking me to do this.  I am not doing this for the number of page views or likes, but out of obedience.  It was something that I thought and still think the Lord wants me to do.  So I do.

In the past when I missed, I felt some sense of loss.  I have been released from that.  I will still write everyday but it is no longer a task, it is more of a sense of worship – no that is not right, it is more of an offering…

The passage that comes to mind is Romans 12:1 – 2.  This is a living sacrifice with the purpose of being conformed to Him.  I think it is a reminder to me of what He is doing in my life each day.  The illness forced me to cancel two online studies with men who are in other countries halfway around the world, as well as the studies I have locally.  Those are the things that He has given me that have in the past seemed to give me value, significance, if you will.

The reality is – and I have written about this lately – He is enough.  What He does in my life daily is enough.  He is, or should be, the focus and all that I need.

It is a shame, I think, that it took putting me on my back for four days to remind me.

Bewildered Part 2

(Continued from yesterday)
All In
After that first verse analysis study on 2 Timothy 2:2, I was hooked.  I went to the local Bible bookstore and bought a New American Standard Bible, not a study Bible.  All it had was side column references.  It was the first time the NASB had been published as the full Bible both testaments.  I also bought a couple of books that I thought might be helpful.  Those were the first two of many.

Over Committed
Within the next six months I was leading 7 Bible studies per week and teaching Sunday school at the Base Chapel.  I do not recommend that as a normal course of action.  But there is a point I want to make…

The Bible was/is Central
From the first time I understood the gospel it was obvious to me that I needed to be in the Bible.  It was never a question.  I took the Air Force commission because I wanted to fly fighters, well really RF-4s, reconnaissance.  After I got into the Word it became clear that the planes were temporal, they were going to eventually burn.  But the people flying them, were eternal, they were going to live forever, either with Christ or else separated from Him for eternity.

The Bible First
So in the midst of learning to fly supersonic aircraft, the Bible became more important to me than the planes.  Don’t get the wrong idea, I was a good pilot.  Graduated near the top of my class and was fighter/IP qualified.  But, flying, though I loved it, was no longer my top priority.

So from the first week I was a believer, it has been crystal clear to me that the Bible had to be central, had to be a focus of my life.  It was obvious to me that apart from that Book I could never know Christ well.

The Bible Not Central
So, I share all of that yesterday and today to explain why I am bewildered.  I continually run into believers who view time in the Word as good but not necessary.  I hear messages from pastors and Christian speakers that refer tangentially to the Bible or not at all.  I have had people tell me that in their “Bible” study they are studying a book by Mark Batterson, Craig Groeshel, or Francis Chan.  I like those guys, I have read some of their work, it is not the Bible and it is not inspired.

Yes and No
I have had multiple people tell me that they wanted to learn to study the Bible, yet when I begin to show them how, they bail.  It looks like work, to them.  Probably because it is.  So what?  We go to school and take classes for two to 10 years depending on what degree we pursue.  We take tests.  We do that to learn a profession.  That kind of smacks of work.  Yet we are not willing to invest some level of effort to learn to study the Bible so that we can know our Lord better?  I do not get it?

There is more that I do not understand.  I will finish with that tomorrow

Suffering Members Why Not?

The Challenge
Yesterday I asked if it was your experience that we hurt when one of those in our community hurts.  In my experience too often the answer is no.  Why?  There may be several reasons.

Not Operating In Giftedness
There are those in the Body who are showing up but not engaged.  They are not contributing for whatever reason.  They are there to consume not share.  They may not have identified their gifts.  They may have, but they are holding back.  It is hard for one who is not engaged feel the hurt of others.

Not Transparent
This was one of the issues with the Corinthian church, 2 Corinthians 6:11 – 13.  It is pretty much impossible for others to hurt for one if one is not sharing the challenges in their life.

Too Busy
This may be the root issue for us in the western Church.  The reason we are not engaged or transparent with one another, is that there are too many events scheduled on our smart phones.

Not Equipped
This last one could be a function of one’s fellowship culture.  I have quoted Ephesians 4:11 – 16 often.  It may be the case that people are not engaged, transparent, or too busy because there has not been an emphasis in the fellowship on engaging with one’s gift with a life that is transparent.

The Ideal
Read Acts again.  Look at how the believers related to one another.  What would it be like if all in your fellowship were operating in their gifts transparently sharing their lives with the purpose of building up one another’s faith?

Be pretty neat.

Suffering Members

I’ve Been Ill
You probably did not notice but I have not written anything in a couple of days.  There is a reason.  I have been dealing with a medical issue which I will not describe but involves, pain and a bad infection.  I have felt drained for two weeks, I was running a temperature, and I thought I had a sinus infection.  When the doctor saw the infection he told me that it was very bad and it was the reason for all of the other symptoms.  He then prescribed pain meds and an antibiotic that one normally takes one per day, but that I was to take two, two times a day.  He said that I may need surgery to get rid of the infection…

Shut Down
So for the last couple of days I have been pretty much shut down.  First, I have no energy.  Second, what energy I do have leaves in about an hour and a half.

Made Me Think
Working through this brought 1 Corinthians 12:26 to mind.  One member’s pain causes the whole body to suffer.  Why?  My doc said it is a systemic issue.  The systems are so interconnected that a severe infection in one member can shut the body down.

Interconnected Interdependent
That is the picture that Paul is painting in 1 Corinthians 12:1 – 26.  In the Body of Christ we are supposed to be interconnected.  We are supposed to be dependent on one another’s gifts.  When one of us is in pain all are impacted.

Is that your experience?  If not, why?

I will share some thoughts as to why tomorrow.

Misplaced Anxiety

Who Is This?
A Christian group started in 1844 with 13 men in London.  In 1855 they published their mission statement with read in part:

We “…seek to unite those young men who, regarding Jesus Christ as their God and Saviour, according to the Holy Scriptures, desire to be his disciples in their faith and in their life, and to associate their efforts for the extension of his Kingdom amongst young men.”

In 1851, D. L. Moody was the leader of this group in the United States.

Here is the core of their Logo at the time:

Do you know the organization?  Select the area between the # marks to find out #The YMCA#.  Needless to say one does not associate commitment to the gospel with that organization today.

Many Drift Away
In my lifetime I have seen pastors leave the faith.  I have seen Christian missions abandon their core commitment to the Word of God.  Schools like Princeton, Yale, Harvard, and Duke which were founded to train pastors have abandoned that core responsibility and become bastions of secular thought.

When I see a Christian leader stumble and fall, it troubles me.  I hate it.  When I see a Christian organization or denomination abandon the Word of God, I grieve.

Many Will Change Their View of the Word of God
Jeremiah 5:5, 15, speaks to this.  We will continue to see denominations, churches, leaders, and Christian organizations like the one above break the yoke and burst the bonds.  But…

God Does Not Change
That does not diminish, marginalize, invalidate, or change God.  He is.  It is appropriate to grieve.  It is not appropriate to worry or get anxious about some entity breaking the yoke.  God is God.  Their departure does not change that.  John reminds us in 1 John 2:19 why they leave.

So when we see leaders, denominations, churches, and organizations leave the faith and abandon the Word, we need not get anxious.  We need to hold on tight to our unchanging God.

Character?

Question
Is character important in a Christian leader?  Seems so, 1 Timothy 3:1 – 13; Titus 1:5 – 9.  So if one who presents as a Christian leader does not have this type of character, how should we respond to them?

Genesis of the Question
This morning I got an email from an old friend, with whom I am in the Word weekly.  We both have been laboring in the ministry at different levels for the past 40+ years.  He sent me a quote that his wife had found about the use of commentaries, here it is:

Coming to the Bible through commentaries is much like looking at a landscape through garret windows, over which generations of unmolested spiders have spun their webs. – Henry Ward Beecher, American Congregationalist clergyman, social reformer, and speaker (1813 - 1887)

Why Ask?
My friend sent the quote because he knew that when I work with men and pastors in Bible study I emphasize that commentaries are resources that one uses only after one has completed their own study.  He was right I love the quote.  However…

Good Source?
I was familiar with Beecher’s name but not much about him as an individual.  I do not remember his name coming up in my Church history class, and I just checked one of the textbooks and he was not mentioned there either.  So I searched for him on the web.  Wikipedia had this entry:

Beecher married Eunice Bullard in 1837 after a five-year engagement. Their marriage was not a happy one; as Applegate writes, "within a year of their wedding they embarked on the classic marital cycle of neglect and nagging", marked by Henry's prolonged absences from home. The couple also suffered the deaths of four of their eight children. 

Beecher enjoyed the company of women, and rumors of extramarital affairs circulated as early as his Indiana days, when he was believed to have had an affair with a young member of his congregation. In 1858, the Brooklyn Eagle wrote a story accusing him of an affair with another young church member who had later become a prostitute. The wife of Beecher's patron and editor, Henry Bowen, confessed on her deathbed to her husband of an affair with Beecher; Bowen concealed the incident during his lifetime.

Several members of Beecher's circle reported that Beecher had had an affair with Edna Dean Proctor, an author with whom he was collaborating on a book of his sermons. The couple's first encounter was the subject of dispute: Beecher reportedly told friends that it had been consensual, while Proctor reportedly told Henry Bowen that Beecher had raped her. Regardless of the initial circumstances, Beecher and Proctor allegedly then carried on their affair for more than a year. According to historian Barry Werth, "it was standard gossip that 'Beecher preaches to seven or eight of his mistresses every Sunday evening.'"

Unqualified
If that data is true, Beecher was not qualified to be a deacon or elder, much less a pastor of a church.  Under the heading of having a good reputation, regardless, he would be disqualified.

Useful?
So, what do I do with that quote?  Do I use it?  Does the bad character of the individual who makes the statement invalidate its usefulness?

No.

There are many who were not believers who are quoted in the Bible; many who said things that were true that had bad character.  Truth is truth, regardless of its source.  Truth conforms to the Bible.  That was the point of the series of posts I wrote about Einstein.

So, yes, I will use the quote.

More to Say
There are some other things we need to learn from Beecher however.  I will share those tomorrow.

Crushed

Hard Times
This has been a hard week.  I say that but it has not been a hard week in terms of what Paul endured.  But nevertheless I have felt crushed by several things that have happened in the past few days.  I should not be surprised, after all Jesus promised it would be like this, John 16:33.  That doesn’t make it fun.  I think I will add John 16:33 to the list of passages in the Bible of which I am not very fond.

Paul’s Example
Back to Paul.  When I studied 2 Corinthians in the past year or so I made a mental note that those who are engaged in trying to help others in their walk with God should from time to time read and study this letter.  I took my own advice today.  I re-read 2 Corinthians 6:4 – 10.  Based on what Paul faced I do not have a lot about which to complain.

But I still feel crushed.

The Solution…
The good thing is that what I have been reading in Psalm 119 is true.  The Word is a refuge in the storms, trouble, tribulation this life throws at us.  I just have to claw my way back into it to get that solace.

Judged and Misconstrued

Acts 21:20 – 21, 29 describe Paul’s experience with the Jewish believers in Jerusalem after his third missionary journey.  It was not positive.  He was judged and his actions were misconstrued.  He was accused of things that the Jewish believers had heard he had done, he had not done them.  They did not ask questions, they just reacted based on what they “knew”.

It is a good thing that never happens to believers today (tongue firmly in cheek).

If it has not happened to you or if you have not misconstrued something that another believer has done, wait for it…

There are some fairly simple things we can do as believers to stop or significantly diminish these types of issues.  First, if someone comes to you with a bad report on another believer stop them.  Say something like…

“Excuse me, have you talked to [name] about this?”  If they say no, reply something like, “You should talk to them about this first.”

If they say yes, “Are you telling me this because you would like for me to go to them with you to talk about this?”  You are asking them if they are in the process of following Matthew 18:15 – 18.  If they say yes, great.  If not, then, “Thank you but I would rather not talk about this.”

Second, if you have concerns about something another believer is doing or you suspect them of doing, ask them.  Do not ask about them, ask them.  Something like, “[Name] I am a bit confused, it seem like you may be [insert whatever you think is going on here].  Is that the case or have I got my wires crossed?”  By asking you are starting the process of following Galatians 6:1 – 2 in a gentle way.  If you have misunderstood great.  If not, you may have helped a fellow believer get back on the path.

In either case these are better ways to deal with these kind of issues than what we usually do…

Head Waiter

I read something a few days ago in Luke 12 that nearly knocked me out of my chair.  I have read it before, many times, but somehow it had not sunk in.  Frankly I get focused on Luke 12:48 and pretty much everything else blurs out…

But look at Luke 12:37.  When the master finds his slaves on the alert, the master girds himself and waits on the slaves…what?  Peter got it.  He starts asking clarifying questions, not sure if he was taken aback or did not want to share the event, but He reacts similarly to the way he reacted – I am getting ahead of myself…

If I am reading this right, the image is of the creator of the universe serving those believers who are prepared when He returns.  I can read what it says but I cannot conceive of that actually being what is being said…but there it is.

How would you react?  If the Lord of the universe came to you to serve you…

John 13 gives us, perhaps, a clearer picture.  You know the story, Jesus girds Himself and begins to wash the apostles’ feet.  Peter again responds, “No you don’t.”  I totally understand why.  I would be frankly, terrified.  Peter by this time thought he knew who Christ was and he was certain that it was inappropriate for Christ to wash his feet, serve him.  Christ quickly disabuses Peter of that notion causing Peter to go all in.

The event in John 13 seems to mirror Luke 12:37.  In both cases Peter is struggling with what Christ is saying and doing.  I am too.  I have the benefit of Peter’s experience.  I have the full canon.  I have studied the life, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ.  I know He came to serve.  I know He emptied Himself.  Somehow though the thought of my creator serving me in that way is overwhelming.

But I know I have to, like Peter, go all in.  Otherwise, I will have no part with Him…