Today’s Podcast
Today’s Scriptures
Today’s Bible reading plans include:
Ready – John 21:15-23
Set – Psalms 105; John 21
Go! – Jeremiah 45-47; Psalms 105; John 21
John 21:15-23
15 They finished eating breakfast.
Jesus: Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these other things?
Simon Peter: Yes, Lord. You know that I love You.
Jesus: Take care of My lambs.
16 Jesus asked him a second time . . .
Jesus: Simon, son of John, do you love Me?
Simon Peter: Yes, Lord. You must surely know that I love You.
Jesus: Shepherd My sheep.
17 (for the third time) Simon, son of John, do you love Me?
Peter was hurt because He asked him the same question a third time, “Do you love Me?”
Simon Peter: Lord, You know everything! You know that I love You.
Jesus: Look after My sheep. 18 I tell you the truth: when you were younger, you would dress yourself and go wherever you pleased; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and take you to a place you do not want to go.
19 Jesus said all this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. After this conversation, Jesus said,
Jesus: Follow Me!
20 Peter turned around to see the disciple loved by Jesus following the two of them, the same disciple who leaned back on Jesus’ side during their supper and asked, “Lord, who is going to betray You?”
Peter: 21 Lord, and what will happen to this man?
Jesus: 22 If I choose for him to remain till I return, what difference will this make to you? You follow Me!
23 It is from this exchange with Jesus that some thought this disciple would not die. But Jesus never said that. He said, “If I choose for him to remain till I return, what difference will this make to you?”
Today’s Devotional
From today’s background scripture God might say:
Do you know what it means to really love Me? Peter thought he did. He thought he did when he told Me he would never deny Me. But when the time came, he ran away in the night just like the rest of My disciples. He thought he loved Me, but hid during My crucifixion. Only John stood at the foot of My cross and cared for My mother in the last moments of My agony.
Peter thought he loved Me when I appeared to the eleven of them cowered behind closed doors in the upper room where we gathered for our last meal together after My resurrection. At that time he really didn’t understand real love, though. He still looked for something I was not. He was closer to understanding Me, but not yet. You see, My Spirit had not yet come to live in him.
It wasn’t until Pentecost when those 120 devoted themselves to prayer and fasting, seeking for something they had never experienced before. Asking for something they didn’t know or understand. It wasn’t until I returned and lived in them that Peter learned to love with My love. Only then did Peter allow himself to die to all that was Peter and let Me reign in his life.
Was he perfect? By no means. He still made mistakes as evidenced by Paul’s rebuke when he changed his eating habits when the Jews arrived while he was ministering to the Gentiles. Peter continued to grow in his faith throughout his life just as I expect all My followers to grow in their faith. It takes a lifetime to transform your mind to Mine. But Peter began to love like Me when he gave himself fully to Me.
I asked him three times with three different words about his love. You only have one word for love in English. That’s unfortunate. The Greeks have four. Each time I asked Peter to go deeper in his quest for love for Me until I asked about his unconditional God-like love for Me. He finally understood he had a lot to learn. Only when He let My Spirit live in him and guide his life did he really begin to know what love was about.
When Peter began to understand I gave him some simple commands tend to My sheep, feed My sheep, care for My sheep. At least they sound simple. Peter would find the commands simple, but the tasks life consuming. Such is the life of real love. Loving others is consuming. If you’ve been in love, you know love consumes you. You think of nothing else but the person or people you love. Your love drives your every action. Everything centers on your love, longer for the good for the object of your love.
Do you love Me? Do I consume your thoughts? Does your love for Me drive your every action? Not until My Spirit engulfs your life by willingly giving of your whole self to Me will you understand real love. But when you enter the love I have for you, you will experience indescribable joy the world can never understand. Peter didn’t until Pentecost, then his world changed forever. Try it out.
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