The Example of Peter and Paul

When life gets difficult or stressful, I often turn to the story of a biblical character for guidance. This week I have been very blessed by the characters of Paul and Peter. Both men were called by God, yet by different parts of the trinity- Paul was confronted by God the father while traveling; Peter was confronted by Jesus while fishing with his brother Andrew. In both cases we see God doing the selecting- God chose us! There was no reason for this to be so, yet in his mercy he declared us worthy of the saving grace provided on Calvary.

I think what really encourages me about these two men is the depth from which they were saved and the newness that they were brought in to through Jesus blood. Indeed, these two men were give new names through Christ. How awesome is that? I think its just an amazing picture of God washing the slate clean… it’s as if he says, “Here is your new life, go and live it!”

Simon, a simple fisherman, comes upon Jesus suddenly and unexpectedly one day. It is not as if he was given time to contemplate this choice; God presented him with a new life to live and he jumped at the chance without looking back. In Peter I see my own shortcomings. Peter was a zealous follower of Christ- he was a man of extreme highs and lows in his spiritual walk… both could get him into trouble. On one end of the spectrum we see him cutting off the high priest’s ear for trying to take his beloved Lord away, and at the other end we see him denying Jesus three times with shame. Peter was also the man that refused to let Jesus wash his feet, and then asked him to wash his whole body! I know that’s something that I can really relate to- it seems that all too often I’m either on fire or freezing in my walk. The encouraging part is that Peter was beloved of God- he was turned from Simon into Cephas (translated Peter) which means ‘rock’. What a great God we serve that can turn restless, changing men into solid rocks of the faith.

The story of Paul is quite possibly one of my favorites in the Bible. In the character of Paul, we are given a glimpse of how deep the cleansing blood of Jesus runs. Saul was not a nice man by any means… in fact he was quite the opposite. Saul made it his sole purpose in life to hunt down and kill those who proclaimed the name of God (he was even present in the condemnation and martyring of Stephen). In Saul we see the most violent of offenders- a man who attacked the very cause that he would soon claim as his own! The amazing part about this is that it wasn’t a slow revelation for Saul- it was instant. God appeared to him on the road and declared that he change his ways. When I start to try and imagine the guilt that Paul had to deal with at his conversion, I am humbled. Here you have a man that had just spent the better part of his adult life attacking and killing men and women that he was now called to join! When I ask myself the question, “How could God ever forgive me, when my sins are so vile?” I need only look to Paul and realize that God’s saving grace knows no bounds. That is truly moving my friends- God saves us from every wrong thing we have done against his name!

It is my prayer that God would make all of us like Peter and Paul; that he would take overzealous, murdering men and turn them into solid, rocks for Christ. Well I’ve done it again… I just can seem to post short blogs! At any rate, that’s what has been on my mind this last week- I hope it is an encouragement to you all as it has been to me. Have an awesome week, take care.