Peter’s Restoration

Posted on by June 13, 2015avatar
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Dineen MillerI welcome as my guest writer today, Dineen Miller.  Dineen is one of my favorite authors and speakers, as well as a special friend.  In my post last week on Forgiving Yourself, I touched briefly on the life of Peter after he denied Jesus.  Dineen goes into more detail on Peter’s Restoration. (Cross-posted from her website with Dineen’s approval.)

Peter’s story of restoration is one of my favorites in the Bible. And I think knowing where he came from gives us even deeper appreciated of his letters which reflect the man of faith he became. So let’s just jump to John 21 and look at the foundation Jesus built in the man we know as Peter.

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, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”

He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.

He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”

Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “ Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”

Jesus said to him, “ Feed my sheep. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “ Follow me.

This transaction is very symbolic. First Jesus told Peter he would deny Jesus three times, which Peter did. And it is Jesus who also restores Peter, three times. I believe Jesus knew exactly what Peter needed to be able to move forward as the rock upon which Christ’s church would be built.

Just as Peter denied Christ three time, Jesus gives Peter the chance to “choose” him three times thereby reaffirming Peter’s place in relationship to God’s kingdom and also to Christ himself.

But let’s dig a little deeper into the Greek meaning behind the two version of the word “love” used in this passage.

The first time Christ asks Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” he uses agape, which portrays love as volitional (a choice) and self-sacrificing. Peter answers him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” But he uses phileō, which means a brotherly type of love with common interests.

The second time Christ asks Peter this question, He again uses the agape form (“Do you truly love me?”). And again, Peter answers the same, using the phileō form of love.

Finally, a third time, Jesus asks Peter, “Do you love me?” Only this time he too uses the phileō form of love and in a sense he’s asking Peter, “Are you really my friend?” Peter didn’t quite seem to catch on to what was going on, and though hurt, he affirms his love for Christ in the same form he had the previous two times, phileō.

I wonder if Peter was afraid to confess such devotion out of fear. He’d let his Messiah down once. Was he afraid he would again, that he didn’t have what it took for the long haul? As I read this part of Peter’s history and imagine how he would have felt, I believe his self worth was at an all time low, which gave Jesus the opportunity to not only restore him but to define him.

Peter was about to learn who he was and whose he was—his identity in Jesus. And as we enter into his letters, we will see Peter as the man Jesus created him to be. A man sold out for Jesus because of his agape love for his Messiah.

I love Peter’s story because it reminds me that even in our worst moments, our bad choices, our failures, our losses…Jesus restores us and we can move forward in grace and truth.

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. — 1 Peter 5:10

Peter shares this bold truth with us because he understood it more intimately than most. On a beach as he sat soaked to the bone with the smell of fish cooking on a fire, Jesus himself restored, confirmed, strengthened and established Peter, the rock on which He would build His church.

Dineen’s BIO

Dineen MillerDineen Miller is passionate about God’s Word and truth. She’s been featured the Moody Radio Network, Focus on the Family Radio, Dr. James Dobson’s FamilyTalk, FamilyLife Today and INSIGHT on Miracle Channel. Dineen lives in the Bay Area with her family and is the coauthor of the award winning book, Winning Him Without Words and Not Alone: Trusting God to Raise Godly Kids in a Spiritually Mismatched Home. She is also the author of the ACFW Carol Award winning book, The Soul Saver. She and her husband divide their time between the Bay Area (CA) to be near their two adult daughters and son-in-love and Sarasota (FL) to be near their extended family. They love to collect shells and walk the famous white sands of Siesta Key Beach. Visit Dineen online at SpirituallyUnequalMarriage.com.

Forgiving Yourself

Posted on by June 8, 2015avatar
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Your Best Gift“Give me my inheritance,” the son demanded. And with that the father gave him his inheritance and the son left home and went into a faraway land. It was there that he spent all he had, and was left in a destitute situation. When at last the son came to himself, he decided to go back home to his father and ask him if he could be just a hired laborer in his fields.

The father saw him coming, ran out to meet him, and shouted to his other servants: “Bring out the best robe, and put it on him; put a ring on his hand, shoes on his feet: kill the fatted calf and let’s eat and be merry. My son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is now found.” (Luke 15:11-24)

What are the words and actions of the father saying in this famous parable?

“I don’t care what you did while you were away from me!
I’m just glad you are home.
I restore you to full sonship privileges,
not a hired hand in my fields.”

And that’s how the Father sees us when we come back home to Him and back into fellowship with him.

However, many people have difficulty receiving God’s forgiveness. They regret decisions they have made in the past, and are plagued with guilt, shame, condemnation, and feelings of unworthiness even after they have asked Jesus to forgive them. It’s almost as if they are branding themselves for life-FAILURE. They are not seeing themselves the way God sees them – cleansed, pure, accepted, loved, significant.

I’ve heard it said many times that God is more interested in our future than in our past. Why? It is the future where we are to fulfill the same commission He gave to Peter in John 21:16: “feed my sheep.”

It is interesting to note that Jesus gave these instructions to Peter after he had denied him three times. He did not chastise Peter for denying him. Instead, He stressed to him “if you truly love me, you will “feed my sheep!” Obviously He didn’t want Peter to live in shame; He wanted him to rise above it because He still had a work for him to do. In essence: “I forgave you; now put it behind you and go forward.”

In his book, The Gift of Forgiveness, Charles Stanley says that our resistance to forgiving ourselves can be traced to one of four general problems.

  1. Belief in Performance-Based Forgiveness: This is saying, “I must earn my forgiveness.”
  2. Disappointment in Self: Some people believe they failed in their own expectations of themselves so God must also be disappointed.
  3. Surrendered to Guilt: Sometimes we live so long under guilt that the idea of being free is scary and threatening. We feel more comfortable staying where we are because we have already adjusted to it.
  4. Expectation of Repeated Sin: Sometimes we may realize that God has forgiven us, but the reason we don’t forgive ourselves is that we are afraid of repeating that same sin again.

I want to add my own opinion as another possibility some may have in not being able to forgive themselves and that is: The Relationship One Has or Had With Their Earthly Father.

I can honestly say that I have never experienced not being able to forgive myself, and I truly believe it has a lot to do with the relationship I had with my daddy growing up. Back in the “old days,” kids were given guidelines to live by. The guidelines could safely be entitled: “As long as you live in this house, you will do what I say!” (Not a bad idea)

When I broke one of the guidelines, daddy would discipline me, not harshly, but within reason. When the discipline was over, the event was never mentioned again; it was over and done with.

In between times of my stretching my limits on the guidelines, daddy would tell me how proud he was of me, and we shared many pranks and laughs together. (Oh yes, I believe God has a sense of humor, too. He and I share many laughs alone together.)

Many Christian psychologists say: “As you see your earthly father, so shall you see God.”

I have come to believe that statement is true, not only from my own experience, but in listening to stories from women and men in prison. I lead Bible studies in a federal prison in Texas for several years. It was not uncommon to hear the inmates say: “My dad stood over me with a whip just waiting to lower the boom on me when I did something wrong. That is the way God is, too; He is out to get you!”

Can you relate to any of the above reasons for not passing on forgiveness to yourself? If so, what can you do to break out of this pattern? I offer a few guidelines:

  1. Make a List of Things For Which You Have Not Forgiven Yourself
  2. Meditate on Bible Verses Daily Confirming Your Forgiveness

➣1 John 1:9: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness
➣Romans 8:1: Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
➣Psalm 103:12: He has removed our sins as far away from us as the east is from the west.
➣Isaiah 43:25: I, yes, I alone am he who blots away your sins for my own sake and will never think of them again.

  1. Forget Those Things Which are Behind

➣In Philippians 3:13-14, Paul says: Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

➣Paul is urging those who live with these daily reminders of their past to “forget those things which are behind and press toward what is ahead.” Forgetting does not mean the inability to remember. It means to no longer be influenced or affected by something.

  1. Choose to Live in Freedom

Forgiving yourself is a choice, not a feeling, just the same as it is a choice to forgive others.

My friends, sometimes we need to give ourselves a gift, as Hannah has so beautifully illustrated. I encourage you today, let this gift be the gift of forgiving yourself. After all, Jesus has already given it to you.

As I once heard it said:

Don’t Kill Today With Yesterday!

Your Best Gift 2

Join me next week when my guest will be author and speaker, Dineen Miller. She will take us further into a study of The Restoration of Peter after his denial of Jesus. You don’t want to miss this.

How to Bless Your Enemies: A Step Beyond Forgiveness

Posted on by June 1, 2015avatar
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Tree of BlessingIt may happen only once in a lifetime, but sometimes you may receive the ultimate betrayal from a friend or family member that could cause you a tremendous amount of pain. Such was my case several years ago.

It is not necessary to go into details surrounding this event in order to write about my topic today: How to Bless Your Enemies: A Step Beyond Forgiveness.

When news of the betrayal was first made known to me, along with all of its false accusations, I knew immediately that I had to forgive her. How could I so easily pass on forgiveness? You see, many years ago, I experienced first-hand the torture of an unforgiving heart. But one day, while at the end of my rope, I cried out to the Lord, “I forgive them, Lord, and I ask you to forgive me of all the bitterness inside of me.” That day, I began walking in a freedom like I had not experienced in years.

I made a promise to myself at that time that I would never allow myself to be tormented in this way again. It stirred me to live my life according to: “What Christ has done for me, pass it on to others” (Colossians 3:13) I began to realize that no one could hurt me like my sins hurt Jesus when He paid the ultimate price for my salvation.

Not only that, I try to remind myself that I am not always “Miss Squeaky Clean;” there are times when I hurt others also. For these two reasons, I try to forgive others quickly no matter what comes into my life.

However, months went by and I kept thinking about this situation. “What is going on here,” I began to wonder. “If I have truly forgiven, why is her face always before me?” Yes, I knew that sometimes the pain of a hurt takes time, but this was different.

I began to sense that there was another step I needed to take beyond forgiveness. It soon became apparent to me what this step was when every time I opened my Bible to read, it seemed to fall on “Bless those who persecute you.” (Romans 12:14)

The question on my mind was “How do I bless the one who persecuted and betrayed me?” “What should I do to put this verse into practice?”

Then one day, I came across a prayer I had recited many times at the end of church services. In fact, the passage of scripture actually begins with the Lord saying to Moses:

Tell Aaron this is HOW I want my people blessed.

Numbers 6:23-27.
May the Lord bless and keep you.
May the Lord shine His face upon you and be gracious unto you.
May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.
And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel; and I will bless them.

Quite honestly, that prayer was just something I recited without taking into consideration what the words really meant. I had to find out since the passage started out with “this is HOW I want my children blessed.”

The following is a brief summary of points I learned from several commentaries on Numbers 6 about pronouncing the blessing.

(vs 24) The Lord Bless and Keep You

  • Bless means to speak well of, praise; call down God’s gracious power.
  • As a person, those who offend us are no different than you and I. They are God’s creation, and the Bible says that while we all were yet enemies, Christ died for all of us. (Romans 5:10) He shed His blood for us, not when we got better, not when our wrong had been set straight, but while we were yet enemies and separated from Him.
  • Keep in mind that we are not blessing the works or deeds of an enemy (offender) of ours; we are to speak well of and giving honor to God’s child whom He loves, despite their wrong doing. After all, when God told Aaron to bless the Israelites, these were the same people Moses referred to as stubborn stiff-neck people.
  • Keep you means, of course, to provide and care for; to guard and protect. One of the main things God desires to keep and protect His children from is sin and its bitter effects.

(vs 25) The Lord Make His Face Shine Upon You and Be Gracious Unto You

  • His face shine upon you alludes to the shining of the sun upon the earth, to enlighten and to renew the face of it. We cannot help but be happy if we realize we are loved by God and His face is shining upon us.
  • Gracious comes from the word grace and we know that by his grace He has washed away our sins and will continue to do so.

(vs 26) The Lord Lift up His Countenance Upon You and Give You Peace

  • Countenance means facial expression or approval. This seems to allude to the smiles of a father upon his child that he approves and accepts his child.
  • If God give us the assurances of His acceptance of us, this will certainly give us gladness in our hearts and peace within ourselves, God, and with our fellow man.

(vs 27) And I will put my name upon the children of Israel and I will bless them.

  • Here God gives Aaron permission to make use of His name in blessing the people, and to bless them as His people, called by His name.
  • For in every place where God records His name, He will meet His people. When we place God’s name on enemy territory, there can be no hostility, no ill feeling, only a desire to see them blessed.
  • It ends with a promise to bless. Though the blessing was pronounced by the lips of man, God made the promise and assurance that, “I the Lord will bless them”.

That passage of scripture began to take root way down deep inside of me for the one who had betrayed me. Had I forgiven her? Yes, but God’s desires for her future became my desires. I sincerely wanted her:

  • to be protected from all evil.
  • to experience the love of a her heavenly Father as He shines His face upon His children.
  • to feel love, accepted and approved by God.
  • to experience the comfort and peace with herself, others, and God.

I conclude that:

  • Forgiving others keeps our life free from being tormented with bitterness.
  • When we take a step beyond forgiveness, we become God’s mouthpiece in which the blessings flow to those who have persecuted us.  That, in itself, is an honor to be His mouthpiece.

I have said it many times: God does have a sense of humor in getting us to the place He wants us to be. Though written many years ago, I have to believe He knew I would someday need this Old Testament scripture in Numbers 6 in order to go forward in my life after being betrayed with false accusations.

Join Hannah and me next week as we take a look at Forgiving Yourself.