Monday, August 30, 2004

bible study

Yesterday I went to Sharon's church and she had to help out at the youth service after the service we went to so she told me to go to the english ministry bible study and she would meet me after. The bible study was really good. It was about failure and we studied Luke 22:24-34 and 54-62. I don't ever remember reading that passage. I must have, but hmm.

So the thing that really struck me was that Jesus knew that Peter was going to betray him, and it was like he was saying "you're going to fail me, but after that, when you're restored, strengthen your brothers." (vs. 32). There's so much grace in that. Jesus doesn't take failure as seriously as we do sometimes it seems. He was going to restore Peter again and have faith in him and give him responsibility in His kingdom. I think Jesus sees failure more as an opportunity to learn and grow than some kind of dead end, which is how we see it at times. Gotta love how God can be in control even in the midst of our many failures.

2 comments:

jonathan said...

yah - that says a lot about how we see regret and such. God wants us to learn. Eventually to be perfect, but first to learn.

Anonymous said...

yeah, talk to me sometime about failure... :-) It's true that Jesus really doesn't see things the same way they may look to us. He's all about grace... even things that may really be failures (as opposed to ones we just make up out of little disappointments or inconsequential things), even our real failures He doesn't hold against us. It's a little weird to think about that way, but really, any Christian is just acknowledging that fact - we're still alive and breathing only out of His mercy and grace despite our failings. God is awesome!
+Jordy