John 21:1-19

1 After these things Jesus showed Himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and in this way He showed Himself: 2 Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of His disciples were together. 3 Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.”They said to him, “We are going with you also.” They went out and immediately got into the boat, and that night they caught nothing. 4 But when the morning had now come, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5 Then Jesus said to them, “Children, have you any food?” They answered Him, “No.” 6 And He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast, and now they were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish. 7 Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment (for he had removed it), and plunged into the sea. 8 But the other disciples came in the little boat (for they were not far from land, but about two hundred cubits), dragging the net with fish. 9 Then, as soon as they had come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid on it, and bread. 10 Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish which you have just caught.” 11 Simon Peter went up and dragged the net to land, full of large fish, one hundred and fifty-three; and although there were so many, the net was not broken. 12 Jesus said to them, “Come and eat breakfast.” Yet none of the disciples dared ask Him, “Who are You?”—knowing that it was the Lord. 13 Jesus then came and took the bread and gave it to them, and likewise the fish. 14 This is now the third time Jesus showed Himself to His disciples after He was raised from the dead.

15 So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, 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.” 16 He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Tend My sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, 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 all things; You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep. 18 Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.” 19 This He spoke, signifying by what death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, “Follow Me.”

I wrote this poem in an attempt to describe this scene from Peter's perspective:

Lord please guide me through this maze.
I am just sitting here in a daze.
Did I ever do anything right?
Did I help You at all that night?
No! We were cowards, Andrew and me.
Why would You choose men such as we?
I did try to fight.
I cut off a man’s ear that first night.
But You said it wasn’t right
You told me to walk in the Light
You told us You would die.
John didn’t stop it, nor did I.
The only thing I did was lie
I did nothing but watch You die
Though You called me Your friend.
I let You down till the very end.
The bold statements I made.
But they so quickly fade…

I know I don’t need to know why,
And if it’s not You it’s a lie.
Still I hopelessly wonder.
And these questions I ponder.
To whom shall we go? Again I pray.
Only You are the Truth, the Life and the Way.
But now Lord, I need to know.
What is my fate and where shall I go?
Am I a vessel prepared for destruction?
For these sins of fear and presumption?
Or was I made for mercy and Your glory?
What will be the end of my story?

So tired of this anguish, we went to cast
Our nets in the sea, so we wouldn’t fast.
We went to the boat that we knew so well.
But we caught nothing, not even a shell
All night we tried and tried.
Exhausted, “I have had it!” I cried.
There was a man on the shore that John first saw
He was calling out and mocking us all
He said “Have you caught any fish tonight boys?”
I said “Sir, it’s bad enough without your noise”
He warmly smiled and then replied,
Try casting the net on the other side!
Why we listened, I do not know.
But when we did there was quite a show
There were more fish than we could ever haul
The boats would not even hold them all
The thought then hit me just like a board.
John nodded and said, “It is the Lord!”
They called me a fool when I jumped in the sea.
But I couldn’t let IT separate Him from me
I put on my coat and I left them there.
My only thought was does He still care?

When at last I reached the beach
I saw Him there, preparing a feast.
I felt better but I still didn’t know
What He would say or how this would go.
Then He asked me to answer Him, please
“Simon, Son of Jonah, Do you love Me more than these?"
But I just couldn’t answer because of my pride
I wanted to say YES but something stopped me inside
I just couldn’t be bold after all of those failures
So I mumbled, “Lord, come on, You know my prayers.”
“Feed my lambs”, was all He replied.
And what that meant I couldn’t decide.
He made me repeat it two more times
I didn’t blame Him, but I really did mind.
Does my love fall short? Please don’t let THAT be
But I wasn’t sure because, you know, only He can see.
And just when I thought I would NEVER be free,
He said those wonderful words, “Peter, follow Me.”

Now, I may have stumbled at every turn
But He is full of forgiveness as you too can learn.
He knows your failures but He is very wise
He makes you do better, He doesn’t criticize
Answer His call and you will see
Perfection is not the point for you or for me
His love exceeds knowledge for one and all
His peace passes understanding when you answer His call
He strengthens your spirit to perform any task
He is able to do more than you can think or ask
And then when you hear again how He died,
Trade your guilt for assurance that you’re on the inside!

1 Corinthians 3:11-15

11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. 14 If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

If my transformation to the other side includes it, I imagine that the reflections on my death bed will be like watching my entire life from beginning to end get set on fire. By this I mean that I think I will be able to evaluate the positive things I have done, accomplishments, sacrifices, acts of charity, etc. with a uniquely clear perspective. I picture that the otherwise commendable acts that were performed during my life without pure motives, whether for hidden self gain, for the recognition, for an increased opinion of myself, or some other self-serving reason, will burn the brightest in that metaphorical fire. When this fire has completed its work, I think that I will count all of those things as ashes, no matter how much good may have resulted from them. What I think will remain are the "fireproof" acts that were committed with purity: out of love for my companions during this journey, out of desire to obey my knowledge of what is right, out of desire to protect others who could not protect themselves, and most importantly, those acts that were done out of pure faith in God, that defied any other logiocal explanation. I think these things will stand taller than ever at that time, in contrast to the things that burned, regardless of whether the good that resulted from them was apparent at the time or not.

Romans 8:16-18

16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. 18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

The one part I might not like about this passage is "if indeed we share in His sufferings". This is the hard part, a clue that the Christian life is not for sissies. A movie called "The Counterfeiters" about a Jewish concentration camp in World War II, provides what I think to be a great illustration of the Christian's struggle with this concept. It is a true story of a group of Jewish men who were hand picked out of various concentration camps to develop counterfeit English pounds and American dollars. They had all seen the very worst of conditions during the previous five years. After being assigned this task by the Nazis, they were treated like kings relaitive to their previous enviornment. Clean, soft beds, showers with soap, normal meals, and a purpose in life that had value to somebody (albeit the enemy), were luxuries that they had not had in some time. The problem was that they were being used to finance the German effort in the war, which caused an interesting dilemma for them. Should they continue to perform for their bosses and enjoy a life that was tolerable to them but that could result in the success of the monsters who were responsible for the horrific treatment of their people? Or should they sabatoge the operation and risk going back to conditions that they knew would mean horrific suffering and ultimate death?

As Christians we face similar decisions of smaller extremes constantly. Many times when we choose to be comfortable we are sacrificing much, in ways we won't even know until later. And often when we choose to sacrifice we are gaining much, also in ways we may not see immediately. Jesus carries this concept out to its logical conclusion in in Luke 9:25:

What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?

In the same way I think this verse can be applied on a smaller scale, by saying, "What good is it to gain anything in the way of ease, comfort, safety, security, power or pleasure, if it means we have to compromise in some way on the things that we really care about."

Romans 8:28

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

There is a song called, "Life is Hard, But God is Good". This concept is sometimes hard to accept, because we want so much reach that elusive destination where we can say that "life is good". The problem with that goal is that life is inherently hard much of the time, and when we buy into the naive concept that it is not or that it doesn't have to be, our philosophy can become, "life is good, but God is hard".

To avoid this trap we must learn to believe in Romans 8:28. This verse promises that all things work together for good when we love God. This isn't some weak "glass half full" outlook on life, where we believe that God can bring something positive out even the most horrific scenarios. Even that can be hard to buy sometimes, but the truth laid out in Romans 8:28 is much more difficult to believe and at the same time more powerful and life changing. Romans 8:28 is a promise that all things will bring about good, which would mean there is not anything or portion of anything that will not bring about good.

You might ask, how is that possible when we see some of the evil that goes on in the world and the harm that results? I would answer that when we take a thorough look at our God, it is impossible for anything, no matter how awful, to be anything other than good for a person who loves God. If we believe Romans 8:28 to be untrue or partially true , we must also accept one or more of the following as true:

1) God sometimes wants things or some aspects of things to work to the detriment of people who love Him;
2) God sometimes misjudges the people who love Him; i.e. He thought something would be good for us, but we weren't as strong as He thought so it devastated us; or
3) God wants to make all things work for the good of people who love Him, but He can't always because evil can work in ways that block Him from doing it.

There may be more, but I hope it is obvious that these and any others you could come up with are unreasonable.

You might also ask, "What about people who don't love God, how do they get excluded?" The problem for these poor souls is that they will not accept the most of the good things and none of the best things that God provides. A believer may trade an awful tragedy for a hundred-fold blessing that they may not even see until they depart this world, but an unbeliever who will not accept the good that God would give him as a result of that tragedy is left with only the pain and suffering.

Jude 5

But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.

And they manifested their unbelief by not facing the challenge God was calling them to as detailed in Deutoronomy 1:23-32:

23 “The plan pleased me well; so I took twelve of your men, one man from each tribe. 24 And they departed and went up into the mountains, and came to the Valley of Eshcol, and spied it out. 25 They also took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us; and they brought back word to us, saying, ‘It is a good land which the LORD our God is giving us.’ 26 “Nevertheless you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the LORD your God; 27 and you complained in your tents, and said, ‘Because the LORD hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. 28 Where can we go up? Our brethren have discouraged our hearts, saying, “The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to heaven; moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.”’ 29 “Then I said to you, ‘Do not be terrified, or afraid of them. 30 The LORD your God, who goes before you, He will fight for you, according to all He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, 31 and in the wilderness where you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place.’ 32 Yet, for all that, you did not believe the LORD your God,

God often gives us a choice when He faces us with a challenge. He wants us to choose to trust Him and manifest that trust by taking on what may seem like impossible odds. We often think that declining a challenge from God, while maybe not as exciting, is far safer and better for us and our family. We think that by "playing it safe", we may not receive all of the blessings God has for us, but at least we can stay comfortable and secure, and that is fine with us. Well, we see in this story that it doesn't always work like that. Refusing to heed the call to battle cost these Israelites everything. While their conservative approach did spare them from having to courageously risk their lives in combat with an intmidating foe, in the end it not only cost them the great blessings of the Promised Land, it also resulted in them spending the last 40 years of their lives wandering aimlessly, prior to being "destroyed" as Jude puts it, which was the very thing they were trying to avoid.

The next time you are faced with a challenge, be it sharing your faith with an unbeliever, confronting someone who is acting ungodly, or some other situation that causes you distress, don't just assume that by taking a passive role you are avoiding risk. If God is calling you to act in that situation, you are far better off charging in than walking away.