Not long before he was martyred, Peter wrote, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that God has given us everything we need for living a godly life through the revelation light of Christ, the true and living Word of God. His second epistle reads much like a parent’s passionate appeal to a dear child. He pleads as one condemned, desperately pressing for understanding- not comprehension of his own situation but for the persecuted Church to be able to grasp the weight of eternity, the Truth of the gospel, and the brevity of life. All must be told before the wick is snuffed out. Church tradition holds that Peter was crucified upside down by his own choice because he claimed he was unworthy to die in the same manner as Christ his Lord. In both his life and death he preached the name of Jesus with clarity.
Peter was the stubborn older brother among the apostles. He learned things the hard way as several scriptures attest. He denied Jesus three times, was reconciled to him thrice, and his vision on the rooftop before being summoned to the home of Cornelius where the Holy Spirit first fell on the Gentiles was repeated three times. He defended Jesus with a sword but couldn’t sit still for Jesus to wash his feet until the Lord rebuked him. His mouth often got him into trouble but he was the one to recognize Jesus as the Son of God and make a good confession. He cowered before the gaze of a servant girl in a courtyard and he preached on Pentecost and thousands came to faith in Jesus as the Christ. When he finally got the message, he courageously staked his life on it. His stubbornness morphed into tenacity under the influence of the Holy Spirit.
“The council members were astonished as they witnessed the bold courage of Peter and John, especially when they discovered that they were just ordinary men who had never had religious training.
Then they began to understand the effect Jesus had on them simply by spending time with him.”
Acts 4:13 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/act.4.13.TPT
Would you like to get to a point in your own life where you, like Peter, can live courageously in the face of adversity? Would you have the boldness of Paul to go wherever God calls with the good news of Jesus? Are you content with the balance of power in your heart and head, or could you use a little more of Jesus?
None of us dream of waking up one morning and grumbling away an entire day. We don’t crave discord, at least not consciously. We all deeply desire life and rest and peace, unity and love. We want what Jesus offers but we want it on our own terms.
Peter’s life ended abruptly but his testimony lives on in scripture. We see Peter in vignettes, walking on water with Jesus, awestruck on the Mount of Transfiguration, denying Christ and going back to fishing, then being restored over breakfast. Before his death, he undoubtedly looked back over his life longing to know he had fulfilled his God-given purpose in his generation, yet seeing wasted days, moments he longed to redeem and determined to make his final hours count.
Cancer helped me to understand his predicament. The unknown facing you becomes ominous even when you know the Lord, even when you’ve consciously walked by His Spirit according to His Word. Doubt creeps in. What could I have done differently? What more could I have done? What do I regret most now that I may not have the chance to experience or express it?
When I was a girl, thinking about Jesus coming back brought thoughts of marriage, children, growing old, things I thought I would miss out on should Christ return. I had not yet recognized Jesus as my true husband, the Lover of my soul. My fifty year old heart and mind go to my own children and then to their children’s children, even before the first grandchild was born. It is the dilemma the apostle Paul faced when he wrote, “My true life is the Anointed One, and dying means gaining more of him. (To live is Christ and to die is gain.)
So here’s my dilemma: Each day I live means bearing more fruit in my ministry; yet I fervently long to be liberated from this body and joined fully to Christ.
That would suit me fine, but the greatest advantage to you would be that I remain alive.
So you can see why I’m torn between the two—I don’t know which I prefer.
Yet deep in my heart I’m confident that I will be spared so I can add to your joy and further strengthen and mature your faith.”
Philippians 1:21-25 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/php.1.21-25.TPT
When your eyes are fixed on Jesus, you cannot help longing for eternity in His presence, yet my grandchildren became an anchor, my reason to endure, for they too would need to know Jesus. We will all come to a place in this life, whether in a hospital room or by a death bed, moments after a close call, an accident survived or narrowly avoided, when we realize how fragile life is and hope as maybe we never have hoped before that this is not the end. When you know Jesus as the Way to everlasting life in God’s presence, your soul ultimately finds rest in your faith, but when your past has been spent on temporal pursuits, chasing pleasure or success at any cost, where will your soul find its mooring? Will you have time to ask the questions that demand an answer before you stand before your Maker?
“Thomas said to him, “Master, we don’t know where you’re going, so how could we know the way there?”
Philip spoke up, “Lord, show us the Father, and that will be all that we need!””
John 14:5, 8 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/jhn.14.5-8.TPT
Hear Jesus’s reply to you today and believe.
““Don’t worry or surrender to your fear.
For you’ve believed in God, now trust and believe in me also.
My Father’s house has many dwelling places.
If it were otherwise, I would tell you plainly, because I go to prepare a place for you.
And when everything is ready, I will come back and take you to myself so that you will be where I am.
And you already know the way to the place where I’m going.”
Jesus explained, “I am the Way, I am the Truth, and I am the Life.
No one comes next to the Father except through union with me.
To know me is to know my Father too. And from now on you will realize that you have seen him and experienced him.”
Don’t you believe that the Father is living in me and that I am living in the Father?
Even my words are not my own but come from my Father, for he lives in me and performs his miracles of power through me.”
John 14:1-4, 6-7, 10 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/jhn.14.1-10.TPT
Peter left everything to follow Christ. His faith became sight when he gasped his last breath of earth’s thinly veiled atmosphere. In the blink of an eye, the veil was removed and every question was answered in the face of eternal Christ, exalted as King forever. He staked his life on the Truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and he was not disappointed. For all eternity, he walks once more with Jesus. (Matthew 19:27-29, Mark 10:28-30, Luke 18:28-30) His words to the early church echo throughout the ages, as true for us today as ever.
“Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires.
They will say,
“What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again?
From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.”
They deliberately forget that God made the heavens long ago by the word of his command, and he brought the earth out from the water and surrounded it with water.
Then he used the water to destroy the ancient world with a mighty flood.
And by the same word, the present heavens and earth have been stored up for fire.
They are being kept for the day of judgment, when ungodly people will be destroyed.
But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends:
A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day.
The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think.
No, he is being patient for your sake.
He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.
But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief.
Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment.
Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live, looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along.
On that day, he will set the heavens on fire, and the elements will melt away in the flames.
But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.
And so, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight.
And remember, our Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved.”
2 Peter 3:3-15 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/2pe.3.3-15.NLT
“So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control.
Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world.
So you must live as God’s obedient children.
Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires.
You didn’t know any better then.
But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy.
For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”
And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites.
He will judge or reward you according to what you do.
So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time here as “temporary residents.”
For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors.
And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value.
It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.
God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but now in these last days he has been revealed for your sake.
Through Christ you have come to trust in God.
And you have placed your faith and hope in God because he raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory.
You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters.
Love each other deeply with all your heart.
For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end.
Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God.
As the Scriptures say, “People are like grass; their beauty is like a flower in the field. The grass withers and the flower fades. But the word of the Lord remains forever.”
And that word is the Good News that was preached to you.”
1 Peter 1:13-25 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1pe.1.14-15.NLT
“By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life.
We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.
And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises.
These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.
In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises.
Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.
The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.
So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen.
Do these things, and you will never fall away.”
2 Peter 1:3-10 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/2pe.1.3-10.NLT
Natalie Layne FRAGILE
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