Mark 13-14

The weekends are always so busy with ministry that I forget to crack the Bible. Praise the Lord for a restful Saturday in the Scripture. Chapters 13 and 14 are leading to Jesus' death on the cross. Once again I am amazed at how the Scriptures show the character of Jesus then and now and the people then and now. Through this whole time, Jesus is instructing and steadfast in God's will. Even when he's under the pressure and wants to alleviate the inevitable, He remembers that God is in control of the situation. And then you have the people around him...his disciples and the accusers. These characters just show me how flawed our hearts are and that even when we try the hardest to be faithful to God, we cannot stay firm to our faith by ourselves. The story of Peter is always a good example. I don't doubt that this guy loved Jesus. He was ready to fight for Jesus when Jesus was arrested in Gethsemane. And if they fought him, he would have certainly died. So he definitely was going to die for his belief in Jesus. But then on the flipside after Jesus is arrested, he quickly lets the fear of it change his heart. Jesus even told him that he would deny Jesus three times. And well...of course Peter denies knowning Jesus. And well..that's just human. That's me on a constant basis. I want to fight for Jesus and alongside him. Sword in hand, ready to take on the world. But then there's times where the Spirit is tugging on my heart and yet I just brush it off and keep doing what I'm doing. And well...before you know it, I'm at Ch 14 verse 72 where Peter reminds everything that Jesus said about him and just sits down and wepts. We are too often wepters of our inabilities to be faithful in Christ. But I hope that I remember that Christ loves to wept with me. That Christ holds nothing against me and my inadequacies. But rather He fills those voids and raises me up to be a child of God. Lest me now forget that.