S -
Matthew 16:21-27 (NIV): "From that time on Jesus began to explain to his
disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of
the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed
and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to
rebuke him. "Never, Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to
you!" Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are
a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the
things of men." Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would
come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For
whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me
will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet
forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son
of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will
reward each person according to what he has done."
O - How
can Jesus tell Peter he doesn't have in mind the things of God? Peter has in mind justice, Christology, his
love for Jesus, the greatness and worth of Jesus to name just a little of the
inspiration which must have been working in "the Rock" who had received
the Father's revelation about Jesus' true identity (cf. Matthew 16:15-20). All of this and more Jesus dismisses as
"the things of men" because it was all assimilated and concluded as
earth thinks and acts not as heaven does.
The remedy for this tragic misunderstanding is as sure as the way this
earth will end. We must lose our lives for them to be found, we must learn to
think like heaven and not earth; and Jesus will come back in his Father's
glory. Stephen Covey got it right "begin with the end in view."
A - This
is the point for me every day and in each circumstance … will I have in mind
the things of men with a religious or "spiritual" overlay OR will I
have in mind the things of God … the God whose kingdom is at hand and who calls
me to change the way I think because of it?
If I will lose my life he will find it.
If I will lay it down he will take it up and fill it with his
irrepressible life. If I will keep in
mind the things of God by thinking, acting, loving and speaking like Jesus then
I will avoid the tragic miscue of using the words without embracing their
meaning. Today, I will believe by
following as Jesus instructs and leads.
P - Lord
who is coming and is here right now,
Today is my only venue to
love you back, grow, know you more, make you glad and be a reason someone else
might believe. Lord, today is your
crafted gift to me and to the whole world and so I say heal my eyes, enable me
to open my heart and mind and let me
follow so that your life will come into me and your life flow out of me. I ask,
I seek, I knock according to new wineskins, mulberry trees in the ocean and
that which is too wonderful for me.
Asking to think, speak, act
and love like you,
Steve
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