Peter was to become the leader of the first century Christian church. At the beginning, though, he started life as a fisherman. When Jesus met him, he changed his name to Cephas (John 1:42), which means ‘rock’. Cephas is Aramaic. The Greek word for rock is Peter, hence the name he is known by. A detailed account of this meeting is given in Luke 5. Peter’s salvation comes in Luke 5:8. A study of Peter’s life shows how vulnerable he is. He certainly had his share of difficulties.
The old tempter can always be counted on to bring people down. His constant goal is to prove to people how weak and unacceptable they are. No matter how hard man tries it will never be enough to be saved. Being saved doesn’t exclude people from grief, or pain, or disappointment, or whatever. Satan tried to bring Peter down but couldn’t because even Satan has to go through Jesus to try and destroy the saved.
Imagine that life is like a blank sheet of paper. Draw lines for the years. Now as those years go by, things happen both good and bad. Make black dots going along those lines. Some will be higher for the good times and lower for the bad times. These lines and dots become the story of a life. To just stand back and look at it, it’s nothing more than a sheet of paper with lines and dots.
Then the magic happens. Jesus enters. He’s put at the front of life. Now stand back and look at it. All of a sudden it’s transformed into a melody. It’s the song of a life. All those notes had to be there or the song wouldn’t be right. Sometimes it’s hard to see when it’s happening. Like Peter, man just has to know that the joy of the song is at the end, not the beginning or the center. This was the sermon today. The verses were Hebrews 12:2 and Psalm 51:12.
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