Called to CHERISH

(Picture credits at end of post)

Read: John 21:15-19

So 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, “Tend My lambs.” (John 21:15 – NASB)

According to the Concise English Dictionary, the word “cherish” means: “to hold dear; to treat with affection, to caress; to foster, to promote, to hold closely to, to cling to.”

The word translated “love” in verse 17 is the Greek word phileo. According to Strong’s concordance it means “to be a friend to,” and “to have affection for.”

Because of Peter’s denial of our Lord he would not claim he had that stronger, moral, agape love.

He had learned not to trust his own love for Jesus. So, mustering up all the sincerity and honesty within him, he told our Lord that he loved him with phileo love. In effect he was saying, “Lord, I cannot claim to love you yet with that supreme love you demand of me, but I love like a friend; I have great affection for you; I cherish you.”

Jesus did not reject Peter’s declaration. On the basis of Peter’s sincere affection; on the basis of his friendship; on the basis of his cherishing, Jesus said to him, feed my sheep (v.17)

You may be feeling you are not able to serve the Lord because your love for Him has not yet reached the supreme level. You have failed Him before, and therefore feel unable to serve Him with the wholehearted devotion He deserves. You are waiting to serve Him when you can say your devotion to Him is complete. You don’t trust yourself enough to claim total devotion – love of the supreme kind.

Above all Jesus wants your love for Him to be real; if all you can offer Him at present is friendship, affection, and a cherishing love, He will not deny you the opportunity of serving Him. You are on the road to perfect love, as Peter was.

Tradition tells us that Peter asked to be crucified upside down because he did not consider himself worthy to be crucified in the same manner his Lord was crucified. At the end of his life Peter did have the supreme love for Jesus he would not claim at the beginning. Though he could not claim it then, he served the Lord with what love and affection he had. So can you.

The Love You Can Offer

© Saturday 4^th October 2014 – by Christopher Shennan

The love that you render to Jesus now,

May not yet have attained that fervent heat;

You long to offer to that thorn-crowned brow,

The ultimate gift to lay at His feet.

Your failure, you feel, has disqualified

You from the race – made you unfit to run;

To offer service to the Crucified,

Or to win a prize when the day is done.

Yet Jesus accepts the love you can give,

Though it may not be all you aspire to

He wants you to serve Him each day you live –

You’ll give Him all the love you desire to.

Don’t despise the small love that you give Him;

He’ll cause it to grow each day you live in.

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CC BY 3.0 Copyright by RockAngelReika. Find photo at http://rockangelreika.deviantart.com/art/Beautiful-Days-158501925. No changes were made to this photo.

Called to Chains

 

Called to CHAINS

Picture credit: Public Domain CC0

Not only was Peter called to change, but he was also called to chains.

After Jesus’ resurrection, He told Peter:

I tell you the truth, when you were younger, you tied your own belt and went where you wanted. But when you are old, you will put out your hands and someone else will tie you and take you where you don’t want to go. (Jesus said this to show how Peter would die to give glory to God.) (John 21:18-19 – NCV)

 

As I have said before Peter refused to be crucified right side up, as Jesus was, feeling himself unworthy to be crucified in the same manner as his Lord. This is in stark contrast to the night Jesus was betrayed, when he denied the Lord three times.

Learn from this that early failures in our walk with Christ do not lock us into a pattern of repeated failure. Fears and failures of the past may act as a spur and goad to greater devotion in the future. Failures may also build in us gentleness to the failures of others, us as we consider our own vulnerability to failure.

It occurs to me also that the chains Peter endured before his crucifixion could teach us another lesson:

Restricting circumstances in our work, marriage, or other areas of our lives should not seem strange to us. They may actually give us an opportunity to shine for our Lord in the very place He has planted us. As Peter was given an opportunity to glorify God in sharing in His suffering, so our restricted circumstances may bring us to a crowning act of devotion to our Lord in the final days of our lives.

Early failures, like that of Peter’s parallels the experience of a bird with a broken wing. With loving care the bird can fly again. Under the tender care of our Lord, we, too, can soar into the purified air of God’s mercy and grace:

The Broken Wing*

(16, 17th August 1997)

                         I saw a bird with broken wing

                         That in its anguish could not sing,

                         Could not bring its breath to raise

                         A single note of heartfelt praise.

 

                         I saw this creature with its eye

                         Dimmed with pain, but lifted high,

                         Beholding sky and visions bright,

                         As though there were spectres in the night.

 

                         For broken bone and bloody stain

                         Caused hope within its breast to wane,

                         And rain upon its spirit fear

                         That flight would cost a price too dear.

 

                         But fly once more it did, my friend,

                         And swoop the valley end to end,

                         And rend the heavens with its song,

                         Though healing seemed to take so long.

 

                         I thought that broken wings can be

                         A parable to you and me.

                         For we, when serving Truth and Light,

                         Are sometimes wounded in the fight.

 

                         The darts of Satan find their mark

                         And plunge our spirits into dark.

                         The spark of pure devotion falls,

                         And seems stone deaf to mercy’s calls.

 

                         Our wing of praise or prayer is found

                         With wounds, and, fallen to the ground,

                         Unsound, we think our days of worship gone,

                         And find no breast to rest upon.

 

                         And yet, if patiently we wait

                         In hopeful or in restful state,

                         Soon or late, healing will arise

                         From God’s own heart – our only Prize.

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