Hope for Us

     How did Peter, the outspoken disciple, washed but not polished, become speaker on the day of Pentecost, the day Christianity began? 

     Peter was not fit to represent Jesus. He had not come to an end of himself. In the garden he pulled a sword. When that didn't solve anything, he slid into the crowd of Jesus haters. He lied about being a disciple and he heard the cock crow...as Jesus had foretold. 

     It was over. He wept bitterly.

     "We can learn from Peter's life," wrote pastor Andrew Murray. 

     After Jesus' resurrection, Peter surrendered. He gave up all to follow him (Matthew 19:27). He became a man of obedience. Peter, after fishing all night knew there were no fish. But when Jesus told him to let down the net on the other side of the boat, he did so. 

     He was a man of spiritual insight. When Jesus asked the disciples, "Whom do you say that I am," Peter was quick to answer: "Thou are the Christ, the Son of the living God." 

     After Jesus returned to heaven, when the Jews gathered at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit fell on them. The man Christ corrected taught and blessed and took charge. Christ is waiting to take charge of every heart willing to surrender, as did Peter. 

How do we take charge? 

     We can do something Peter didn't do. We can trust and obey Jesus without having seen him. 

     One idea. James, half-brother of Jesus, wrote, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: ...keep oneself from being polluted by the world." - James 1:27