Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Peter and us..

it has been 2 years since my last post.. today let's talk about an interesting man named Peter. Peter is the most charismatic follower of Jesus and he also been famous also but his 'big-mouth' reputation. why so? the reason being is that he always speak the wrong thing and don't really process his word before it comes out from his mouth.

On Mat 16 Peter made a remarkable confession to Jesus that He is the Messiah, this was remarkable because there is none making such a brave and dangerous statement that one is the Son of God that come to deliver all from sins. through this revelation from God, Jesus blessed Peter and Prophesied that great things will be done through Peter and he will be the rock where Jesus stands on Earth.

however, the next incident after Peter confession is that Peter speak something that totally opposite of what he done the previous verses. and this time Jesus confronted him, rebuke and address Peter as 'Satan, go away from me'.. Wow, what a turn for dear Peter who blessed by Jesus the other day and now degrade to 'Satan'. What are the problems here?

Peter saw what other people can't see, that he declared Jesus is the Messiah, and for that Jesus praise him and regarded him as faith. but Peter misunderstood the whole purpose of The Messiah, taking the form of man and descended to earth. To Peter, maybe the rest of the followers, sees Jesus going to build a earthly kingdom that will aims to overrule the Roman Empire. Interestingly, the famous Jesus's quote of the cost of following Him come after this incident. What profit is the man who gain the whole world but loses his own soul, Jesus asked. Jesus's desire is to build a spiritual kingdom, but the followers were expecting the earthly kingdom here and now.
therefore, what are the roles of Peter playing in this whole Messiah conversation?

Sometimes Peter's desire reflected in our lives while walking closely to God. We see, visualize what God can do in our lives, but the dangers lie when our expectation do not match with God's intended plan. We felt that we are called for something, for greatness. Yes praise the Lord, and all glory to God. but we need to remind ourselves that we are building God's kingdom not our kingdom. Many people distorted or stray away after the reach the place of promise. but not knowing that the real challenges come after the promise and many fails on the task of maintaining. Just take a look after Israel conquer the promise land, many stumble and sin against God. Therefore, bear in mind that in all that we are doing, striving to glorify God, always put His thoughts higher than our thoughts. and know that it is He who gave us our visions and dreams and we are merely the steward of his dream for us.

Be a good steward of dream, multiply it and harvest it for God! Just like how Peter spread the good news to people, God multiply his dream and Peter fix his eye on the Lord rather than he and himself.