I say, "You what - HUH?" [post 27]

Okay. It's 3:15 in the morning. We have just had severe weather, which means I couldn't sleep. It's the strangest thing. I had never been disturbed by bad weather until I moved out on my own. Then, for whatever reason, I have since not been able to sleep through a hard rain. Oh well.


I have been up and about for a couple of hours and thought to myself, I'm going to read. And here we are. Let's venture into Matthew Chapter 16. Somewhere around verse 13. Jesus is asking His disciples who they hear other people saying that He is. They tell Him. Then Jesus asked the disciples who they say He is. Of course Peter says, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Then Jesus answers him and says, "Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven."


All right, now this is the part that really spoke to me. Jesus tells Simon, "I also say to you that you are Peter". Now why did Jesus say this? There was an obvious reason for Him to ask the disciples who they thought He was. He wanted them to understand where the knowledge of kingdom and truth comes from. So why did He say to Simon, "You are Peter"? I really believe He wanted Peter to understand who he really was in Jesus' eyes. Not who the world said he was, but who he really was in the kingdom view.


See, the name Peter comes from the word Petros, meaning a stone. Jesus says in verse 18, "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church." We know that the church is not a building, but the body. We are the church. I see in this scripture a new perspective of church and self. We are the church, but the church is built upon ourselves. Not the self in the flesh, but the self that is defined by God. The me who is who God says I am.


This is hard to wrap my mind around because I generally only see the me that is defined by me. And just like Peter did in verse 22, I often put my interests before God's. But amidst all that, I am still unique and special to God and set apart for His purpose. So if you see this the way I do, ask yourself who you say Jesus is. Hopefully, you too will say He is the Christ, the Savior, the Son of God, the Truth. If so, then you, like I do, have no choice but to believe Him when he answers your question. That question is this: "Lord, who do You say I am?''


Peace and Blessings

-Todd Bagley

Ed: Todd leads our 4pm Worship and Bible Study on Sundays

Lent [post 26]

Lent - not to be confused with lint, those pesky, fuzzy tiny pieces of fabric that stick to one's clothing - is the 40-day period (give or take a few days) between Ash Wednesday and Easter. This holy season is usually associated with preparation, housecleaning of the soul kind. Many people fast during this season in honor of Christ's sacrifice and in anticipation of renewal and restoration.

The forty days symbolize all of those 40-day periods found in the stories of the Bible - Jesus' forty days in the wilderness before the actual beginning of His earthly ministry, Israel's forty days in the desert before entering the promised land, the forty days of grace that Ninevah received to repent, the forty days of rain in Genesis that cleansed the earth, and Moses' forty days and nights on the mountain of God receiving the law.


Recently, I discovered a little gem in some of Amy Carmichael's writings. Undoubtedly, as she was thinking about the season, she was also thinking about the verb lent (past tense of lend, to allow someone to borrow something). She was also journeying through a moment of sorrow.



She said, "Sorrow is one of the things that are lent, not given. A thing that is lent may be taken away; a thing that is given is not taken away. Joy is given; sorrow is lent. We are bought with a price, and our sorrow is not our own. It is lent to us for just a little while that we may use it for eternal purposes. Then it will be taken away and everlasting joy will be our Father's gift to us, and the Lord God will wipe away all tears from off all faces."



Therein we have hope. May we use the season of Lent and all of the circumstances "lent" to us in this life to "draw us nearer to the heart of Him who was a Man of Sorrows. He is not that now, but He does not forget the feeling of sorrow." May all of these "lent" things make us more tender to those around us, more like He was while on earth and still is today.

-Debbie Handy