Category Archives: Healing

Challenge, Encouragement, Healing, History, Identity, Insecurity, Issues of the Day

Healing A Damaged Soul’s Identity

A Thirty Day Devotional adapted from the NEW book: Identity: The Distinctiveness of You – Day 17

I am the head and not the tail. Deuteronomy 28:13

I am forgiven. I John 2:12

Regardless of what has happened to you in your past, those things do not define who you are today.  Your pain-filled memories, your losses, rejections, embarrassments and shame are all a moment in time.  They are moments that fill you with heartache, unforgiveness and bitterness or they have worked to create a better you.  You have either embraced them as truth and told yourself your worth and value are determined by those things or you have embraced the experience of them, sought healing through them and grown tremendously by allowing them to grow you into a deeper, more forgiving, more grace-filled and more loving, genuine person.

You have been given one life to live on this earth and it’s up to you how you will live it.  If you allow anyone else on earth to determine how you will live, then you have sold yourself to another.  It is God who has given you life and breath, not anyone else. 

Every day people are born and every day people die.  You have been given a gift of life and it’s up to you what you make of it.  You can live in history, the present or in constant hope of a better future; it’s up to you.  

If you choose to live in history, then you most likely are choosing to live in unforgiveness. Unforgiveness gives birth to brokenness, being stuck in life, the loss of freedom, physical illnesses, depression, bitterness, anger, self-pity, self-torment and the like.  Living in unforgiveness is an anguishing way to live life.  It holds us in bondage to others. I believe it was author and speaker Joyce Meyer who said that to hold onto unforgiveness is like drinking poison in hopes that the one who you cannot forgive dies.  It only hurts you.  Unforgiveness is certain death to any sense of wholeness and identity.

Counselees would often say to me, “You have no idea what I have been through” and they were right.  But you will not move forward if you stick with that excuse.  You will be stuck forever in history.  Listen, it is not about what we have been through; it’s about who He is in you for yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Does that mean we are in denial of our past?  No, it does not.  But if you are waiting for an apology from that person who hurt you, you might be waiting all of your life.  That confession may never come. Those tears of sorrow for hurting you might never surface.  Then what?  If you keep waiting, placing your life on hold, you have become a captive of the person or persons who hurt you.  You have empowered them to control your life and your emotions.  You have made them more powerful than yourself and more powerful than God.  You are allowing them to determine who you are and what you are.  

Jesus is as concerned about your future as He is your past and the Holy Spirit desires to move you on.  No one created by God was designed to live life looking backwards, constantly filtering everything that happens today through what happened to them yesterday.

Jesus said that we were to forgive as we have been forgiven.  Have you ever needed forgiveness?  How many persons have you hurt, have you damaged?  Every one of us are in desperate need of forgiveness. We are commanded to live in forgiveness. 

Question for reflection:

Are you in any way stuck in the past, bound to people who have hurt you?

You can order your new book here or start a small group and study the book together.

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Challenge, Encouragement, Healing, Identity, Insecurity, Issues of the Day

Created to be an Image Bearer III

A Thirty Day Devotional adapted from the NEW book: Identity: The Distinctiveness of You – Day 14

Christ is being formed in me. Galatians 4:19

I am being conformed into the likeness of His Son. Romans 8:29

Jesus was surrounded by deception, by false prophets, by religious ones who had selfish goals in mind, by political ones, by criminals and by many persons who only wanted a miracle from Him, but didn’t want Him.  How did He handle all of this pressure and yet maintain who He was?  

One day the disciples were discussing among themselves with Jesus present what it must be like to see God, the Father.  Jesus then began telling them that He needed to go away and they would be unable to come with Him at this time.  He revealed to them that He was going to prepare a place where they could come. Then Thomas asked Him, “…How can we know this way?”  Jesus said those wonderful words in reply, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  He added, “If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well.”  (John 14:5-7)

The disciple Philip then inquired of Jesus to show them the Father.  Jesus’ reply was pretty firm, “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time?  Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father…I am in the Father and the Father is in me.”   (John 14:9, 11)  From this dialogue, we are reminded there was only one image the Son was reflecting— that of the Father.  

Paul the Apostle confirms Jesus’ very words when he writes, “He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.”  (Colossians 1:15) Perhaps the disciples struggled to comprehend this level of image/identity building, but Paul did not.  Paul was a trained Pharisee and he understood having his security, his esteem, his image and his identity built within a religious system that failed to show him who he really was.

For Paul, it took an encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus where he received a vision and heard the voice of Jesus himself.  Just after this amazing and personal encounter, the Lord said to Ananias, another disciple, concerning Saul, “This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings.”  (Acts 9:15, emphasis mine)

Up to this point in time, Saul was carrying his given name and his authority in his Pharisaical beliefs.  While this character was powerful and ended the lives of Christians, God had a different name, or different mission and a different identity for Saul.  He would become Paul, a chosen vessel that would carry a much more powerful mission, identity and name.

We carry that name today as well.  This name is above every other name on this earth.  This name represents the image of our God within us.  

It is estimated by astronomers within our Milky Way galaxy alone, there are 100 thousand million stars.  The web site Space.com tells us the Hubble telescope has uncovered 100 billion galaxies and speculates this number will increase as telescope technology increases.  While all of this seems unfathomable, God, the creator of the universe, of every galaxy and every star also knows the name of every galaxy and every star.  

Truthfully scientists can’t tell us how many stars actually exist within our vast universe, but God knows each one and He knows you.  He knew you before you were in the womb of your mother.  He knows your name and He calls you by name.  He loves your name, the sound of your name, the sound of your voice, because He loves you.  Your name represents your existence on the earth and His call to you to follow Him.  Just as the disciples questioned, He wants to show you Himself and in actuality show you His Father.  Just like Paul, He has chosen you to carry His name, His identity and who He is to the world around you.  

Question for reflection:

How are you carrying His name to others?

You can purchase the book Identity: The Distinctiveness of You here.

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Challenge, Encouragement, Healing, Identity, Insecurity

Created to be an Image Bearer II

A Thirty Day Devotional adapted from the NEW book: Identity: The Distinctiveness of You – Day 13

I am holy and without blame before Him. Ephesians 1:4

I am an heir of God, a joint heir of Christ. Romans 8:17

It’s about time we actually provide a definition to what we are discussing, what we are in pursuit of.  The dictionary states that identity is “the condition of being oneself, and not another.  The condition or character as to who a person or what a thing is; the qualities of belief…that distinguish or identify a person.”  (Dictionary.com)

For our purposes, the definition we’ll use is a bit different.  Our definition must reflect Someone far superior to us as human beings.  It must reflect Someone whose image is eternal and of worth to bear.  This identity must reflect the image of the one and only God and the character of His one and only Son, Jesus Christ.  Further and finally, the Holy Spirit of God must dwell within the spirit of the person who claims this identity as his/hers.

Here is our definition of identity:  To know who we are and whose we are in bearing the image, the heart and character of our Creator.

There is nothing religious about this definition; it is fully relational.  It is an identity that relates to the Triune God, the creator of identity through His very own work in creation.  To bear the image of the One who created us can never be accomplished by mere human thought, balance, personal effort, blood, sweat or tears.  It is not accomplished by human effort at all.  It is received.  An unworthy human vessel is baptized in the love of God, the truth of God, the Spirit of God, the character of God, in order to reveal the image of God.

I once heard someone say that if our identity is connected to what we do, then when we do more are we more?  Or said a different way: if our identity is connected to our intelligence, then are those who possess a higher IQ also possessing a greater, more actualized identity?  And, if our identity is connected to our resources, do those who make millions of dollars possess a superior sense of identity?

Obviously the answer to the above scenarios is “no,” and those who are building their identity on these capacities or beliefs will one day suffer loss and the consequence will also be the loss of their identity.  This is why far too many Hollywood actors end their own lives prematurely through suicide even with fame, fortune and notoriety.  It is why billionaires are not necessarily fulfilled or happy in life with their billions.  

Famous author Henri Nouwen once said concerning success, popularity and power, “Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection.  Success, popularity, and power can indeed present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from the way they are part of the much larger temptation to self-rejection.  When we have come to believe in the voices that call us worthless and unlovable, then success, popularity, and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions.  The real trap, however, is self-rejection.  As soon as someone accuses me or criticizes me, as soon as I am rejected, left alone, or abandoned, I find myself thinking, ‘Well, that proves once again that I am nobody.’ Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the ‘Beloved.’  Being the Beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence.”   (From: You Are the Beloved, by Henri J. M. Nouwen, Penguin, Random House, Canada)

As an heir of God, you are embraced as holy and without blame because you are His “Beloved.” You are seen by God through the cross of His Son. You are without blame because the Son of God was blameless.

Question for reflection:

Have you ever heard voices call you worthless or unlovable? Do you understand that you are “beloved”?

To purchase your book or a book for a friend click here.

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Challenge, Encouragement, Healing, Identity, Insecurity, Issues of the Day

Created to be an Image Bearer

A Thirty Day Devotional adapted from the NEW book: Identity: The Distinctiveness of You – Day 12

Christ is being formed in me. Galatians 4:19

I am being conformed into the likeness of His Son. Romans 8:29

When my younger son was living at home with us as an older teenager, he was frequently told by others that he sounded like, looked like and walked like his father.  While that was not pleasing to him at the time, it was true.  Marc, without trying to, bore the image of his biological father.  Truthfully, it’s not something that we, as sons and daughters, can control due to the fact that God created us to be image bearers.

In Genesis chapter one, it is revealed that God created man in “…his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”  David, the Psalmist, wrote, “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” (Psalms 139:14) We were made, created, breathed into to bear the image of God, our creator.

Perhaps you have lived life long enough to realize that you did something, said something or thought something that reminded you of one of your parents.  You told yourself at that moment, “Wow, did that ever sound like my dad.”  You might have been reminded by a sibling that a certain look, raised eyebrow, laugh or gesticulation reminded them of your mother.  It’s inescapable actually.  We were created to be image bearers.

For those of you who are fortunate enough to now have children of your own, you may already see images in your children that remind you of yourself.  It’s uncanny how it happens, but it happens for one reason only.  When God first created man, he created him to bear an image and the first image that we are to bear is the image of our heavenly Father.  Make no mistake, our created self has the DNA of our family, but traced back to the book of beginnings, Genesis, it is one image and one image only that we were fashioned after–the image of God.

It is not an option to be an image bearer, but it is an option as to whose image we bear.

We carry within us the things that that have helped to shape us.  We can choose to bear the image of a “mere human” or we can choose to move toward that which we were created to be.  In I Corinthians chapter three, Paul is sharing with the Corinthian church that they too had a choice.  He wrote that who they were acting like, the image they were bearing/reflecting was challenging his desire for them to be persons who “live by the Spirit.”  He revealed to them they were still acting worldly (or of this world) with petty jealousies and the like.  His admonishment to them was to stop acting like “mere humans” and start acting like God’s temple.

How often have we acted as mere humans with our petty differences, jealousies, offenses, snarky replies and the like?  Mere human thoughts are thoughts connected to our earthly existence only and do not reflect God’s kingdom on earth.  Mere human thoughts are self-centered, self-absorbed and self-protecting.  These thoughts stem from our minds and not our spirits.  They are full of earthly wisdom and bear the fruit of that wisdom.  (See James 3:13-16.) A key verse concerning the foundation of our identity is this truth, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?”  (I Corinthians 3:16)  

You are being conformed into the likeness of the Son of God, because you were created to bear His image.

Question for reflection:

How are you an image bearer of your earthly family, of Jesus?

You can purchase the Identity book here. Use it for yourself, your family or study the book with a small group.

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Challenge, Encouragement, Healing, Identity, Insecurity

Have You Been Noticed Lately? II

A Thirty Day Devotional adapted from the NEW book: Identity: The Distinctiveness of You – Day 7

God’s love is lavished upon me. I John 3:1

God has given me a spirit of power, of love and of a sound mind. II Timothy 1:7

An important discovery for each of us is to uncover where our security is derived from.  What are the things that we look to for security?  The list can be quite extensive.

Money                                                       Relationships

Marriage                                                    Success

Children                                                     Self-pride

Houses/real-estate                                  Approval                                   

Retirement accounts                               Accomplishments

Business

Earlier in my life, I was a marriage and family counselor.  One day a full-fledged, ordained, denominational, seminary degreed pastor came to see me.  Several sessions into our counseling, I remember a very honest confession from him.  He said, “I am an ordained pastor who speaks on the love of God, knows the scriptures on the love of God and I tell everyone that God loves them, but I do not know the love of God.”  Can you imagine that your profession is telling and teaching people that God loves them, and you yourself do not know that love?

It’s an everyday occurrence.  We think we know the love of God, but do we?  Do we understand that deep within our twisted soul, our shortcomings and our sin, God is madly in love with us?  He created you because He loved you.  He longs for you to know Him because He loves you.  He forgave you through His Son’s life given as a ransom on the cross because He loves you.  He will receive you into eternity one day, not based on your accomplishments or anything that you have done, but based on His incomprehensible, unfathomable, unexplainable righteous love.

Who, of all your relationships, really knows you?  Who knows your faults, your personal quirks and your incapabilities?  The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit really know you and the Godhead, the three in one, adore you.  It is a revelation to know whose you are.  It is a revelation to know the One who knows you inside and out and it is a revelation to know the love of God for yourself.  Do you know this love?  You can.  It is this God, our Father, who through the scriptures below proves His love to you over and over.

He is a faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations – Deuteronomy 7:9

I am loved with an everlasting love – Jeremiah 31:3

How priceless is your unfailing love, O God – Psalms 36:7

I am a saint and loved by God – Romans 1:7

God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit – Romans 5:5

I was loved by God before my birth – Jeremiah 1:5; Ephesians 1:4

Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy made us alive in Christ – Ephesians 2:4

And to know this love that surpasses knowledge, filled with the fullness of God – Ephesians 3:19

God’s love is lavished upon me – I John 3:1

I am loved, God’s Son sacrificed Himself for me – I John 4:10

The love of God transcends any lie we have ever believed that leads us to feelings of inadequacy and insecurity. It is His love that has been and will forever be lavished upon us daily.

Question for reflection:

Of the above scriptures, which ones speak to your heart the most concerning your need for security?

To order your own book or a book for a friend or a group click here.

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Challenge, Encouragement, Healing, Insecurity, Issues of the Day, Small Groups, Training

Healing Our Insecurity II

A Thirty Day Devotional adapted from the NEW book: Identity: The Distinctiveness of You – Day 5

I am forgiven all my sins. Ephesians 1:7

I will heal my people and will let them enjoy abundant peace and security. Jerimiah 33:6

To die to ourselves as C.S. Lewis penned does not come easy.  We fight it, wrestle with it, deny it, defend ourselves, project onto others our shame and guilt, and feverishly attempt to coverup our inadequacies.  To die means to face them head on, acknowledge them, confess them to God in order to eventually lay them at the cross.

Why do we hold onto something that inwardly is hurting us?  We find it enormously difficult to be honest about ourselves.  We can barely entertain the thought of looking into a mirror and saying, “You have deep insecurities and you have to stop covering them up.”  For some of us, letting go is more difficult because it demands living another way.  It requires change and sometimes change, even for the good, is more problematic than staying the same, even when it is unhealthy to do so.  

Catch these verses found in Proverbs, “He who listens to a life-giving rebuke will be at home among the wise, He who ignores discipline despises himself, but whoever heeds correction gains understanding.”  (Proverbs 15:31, 32) 

Are you aware the Bible tells us that God, like a loving parent, initiates discipline and correction?  Do you know why?  He loves us enough to encourage life changes.  “…God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.”  (Hebrews 12:10)  God wants us to change through correction in order to grow and gain something good—to be like Him, holy.  

It is imperative that we renounce the idol of worshipping oneself.  To renounce means to give up a claim or to disown voluntarily.  Even if we seem unable to pinpoint any of our self-protecting insecurities, we can still take a step of faith and renounce anything in our life that looks like, smells like or acts like insecurity.  There is only one God to worship and it is Him alone.

But if we can label our insecurities, now is the time to confess them.  Perhaps along the way many of those insecurities have come to mind.  It is now time to confess them to God, renounce them and break off any unhealthy dependency or unhealthy attachment with them.  It is time to confess any fear of man that exceeds your fear of God.  It is time to break off inordinate relationships that have become a source of security for you.  It is time to lay down your excuses and justifications for negative behavior which actually stem from your insecurities.

“What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?  For we are the temple of the living God.  As God has said: ‘I will live with them and walk among then, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.’  Therefore, ‘Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord.  Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.’  And, ‘I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.’”  (II Corinthians 6:16-18)

All of us have sinned. (See Romans 3:23.)  We all fall short of God’s plan, and the wages of “missing the mark” (which is the definition of sin) is death, but Romans 6:23 states: “The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  God has given us a free gift, without any effort on our part.

When the Bible speaks of being justified or having received justification (See Romans 5:1.), there is a threefold definition to this word.  To be justified means that I am forgiven of my sin, I am free from my guilt, and I am in right standing with God.  To be forgiven, free of the guilt I feel for sinning, and then to actually be in right standing with God in my human state is simply astonishing and yet true, based on what Jesus, the Just One, did for me.

Through Him I am forgiven of all my sin, in right standing with God and can enjoy peace and security in my life.

Question for reflection:

Can you take a minute to once again identify your insecurities, confess them and break off their power over your life?

To order the book for yourself, a friend, your family or a group click here.

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Challenge, Encouragement, Healing, Insecurity

Healing Our Insecurity

A Thirty Day Devotional adapted from the NEW book: Identity: The Distinctiveness of You – Day 4

I am justified from all things. Acts 13:39

I am the righteousness of God. II Corinthians 5:21

Many years ago, my wife and I were in a particularly difficult board meeting in which some false accusations were leveled at me as the leader of a ministry.  The person speaking those words knew they were untrue: still others who were in the meeting knew they were untrue and yet everyone sat there allowing the false accusations to land squarely upon me.  Perhaps in fear or perhaps in just wanting this meeting to be over with, no one with the exception of my wife came to my defense, but even she was quickly quieted.

After the meeting, my wife followed me to the parking lot for some fresh air.  I was visibly shaken.  I asked her, “What just happened in there?”  I was dumbfounded. I then spoke out loud my honest thought, “How could he say those blatantly false things?”  Before she had an opportunity to respond through her tears, a car pulled right up beside us and the driver, a board member who said very little in the meeting, rolled down his window.  He looked directly at me without any hesitation, and with a slight bewildering, albeit incongruent smile, blurted out, “That was pretty hard-hitting in there. True or not, here’s my response: After every death you die, there is a promised resurrection.”

He had some insight into death.  He saw it in our faces. Perhaps he didn’t intervene because this “death” was directed by the hand of God.  Today I can say it was a profound, penetrating and enlightening moment for me.  It was totally life-altering.  Numerous insecurities and pride, along with other areas in me and my leadership began the painful, God-driven, but mercy-led process of death.

Jesus said it this way: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.  For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.”  (Luke 9:23, 24)

In the book Beyond Personality, CS Lewis wrote: “Give up yourself, and you’ll find your real self.  Lose your life and you’ll save it.  Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end; submit with every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life.  Keep nothing back.  Nothing that you have not given away will ever really be yours.  Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead.”

It is like the father, who was also his son’s judge in the courtroom, came down off the bench and paid the fine he had just levied on his son for his crime. The judge, first a loving father, bore the penalty of the wrongdoing and paid the price of his son’s fine himself.  All the son had to do was receive the gift that his father, the judge, was freely and mercifully bestowing upon him.

Jesus’ death is that gift given freely to us.  His Father, our Father sent His Son for the penalty of our sin when judgement should have come to us.  There really are no earthly words for this and the best theologian, while being able to explain what He did, will never be able to explain why He did it except for one single word—love.  Love motivated the Father and love motivated the Son.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  (John 3:16)

While I should have been judged and found guilty, Jesus took the judgement of my sin and paid the penalty for me and all of humanity. Because of the price Jesus paid, I am now justified by Jesus, the only Just One, and I stand in righteousness before Him.

Question for reflection:

What do I need to die to in order to experience a resurrection?

To order your book for yourself, a friend or a group click here.

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Challenge, Encouragement, Healing, Insecurity, Issues of the Day, Parents, Small Groups

The Presence of Insecurity in our Lives II

A Thirty Day Devotional adapted from the NEW book: Identity: The Distinctiveness of You – Day 2

I have eyes to see God’s eternal purpose. II Corinthians 4:18

The Spirit Himself intercedes for me. Romans 8:26

Several years ago my mother visited our home, bringing with her a handful of report cards.  She had kept every report card from kindergarten on—every one. Wondering what I would do with them, I set them aside.  

A few weeks later I began to peruse through them.  My grades were quite good, especially in grade school and middle school (high school might have been a different story with certain subjects…just saying.).  However, it was a comment that my kindergarten teacher placed on my report card that caught my eye.  It read, “Steve has difficulty using a scissors.”  I failed scissors cutting!  Really?  Yes, really.  (But honestly, could those dull, blunt-nosed scissors cut anything?)

Truthfully, I was nervous and apparently when placing a scissors into my four-year-old hand, I could not cut paper.  It was an outer expression of an inner insecurity.

Insecure persons struggle with relationships.  We walk out life with certain fears and ongoing feelings of failure.  We struggle with our esteem and can retreat within ourselves.  We become nervous around persons who we see as secure or we feel an inner judgement coming from them.  Some of us would claim shyness, but the truth be told, we lack social confidence stemming from our own misbeliefs.  

Going deeper, we can become emotionally dependent on others to be our security or find persons or substances that help to create or foster a false sense of security.   It seems as though there is no end to our negative self-talk and repetition of neediness when it comes to insecurity.  How can something that each and every human being needs so deeply be so difficult to acquire?  What makes security so elusive?

Working with a drug addict for many years has given me a new appreciation of what these persons suffer, not to mention what their love ones suffer along with them.  Drugs can take on a life of their own.  One can be a drug addict and work, earn a living, be many things, but that will not be their focus or define their purpose in life.  They can have a family, go to church, pay their bills, but those things will not capture their ultimate attention.  What will?  Drugs, and the need for more drugs.

Drug addicts can eventually take on the identity of a drug addict because their lifestyle requires it, or should I say, forces it.  At the end of the day, all else takes a back seat to the most important thing in their life—drugs.  Please hear me, I am not saying for a minute that this life is chosen or preferred by them or that they are just trying to be totally selfish, but the addiction now leads them.  It takes any worth or esteem they might have, any identity or security, and forfeits it all for the next high.

In your insecurities have you gripped onto idols or stuff of earth that continue to promote insecurity?  It’s a vicious cycle that ends in even more insecurity. According to our knowing who you are in Christ verses for today, God has already established eternal purposes for you and has given you the eyes to see those purposes, as the Holy Spirit intercedes for you.

Question for reflection:

Can you identify idols or “stuff of earth” that continue to promote insecurity in your life?

To order the book at a significant discount for yourself, your family or for a group study click here.

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Challenge, Encouragement, Healing, Issues of the Day

My “Victim Awareness Letter of Apology”

A number of years ago we were robbed. What a mess with such senseless damage to deal with. There were police reports, insurance company calls and descriptions, pictures taken and more police calls after the individual was caught.

 

Long after the damage was repaired and we were able to identify what was stolen, we received the following letter from the minor who created this nightmare. It read:

 

Dear Mr. Prokopchak, I’m sorry for what I did to you and I know it was the wrong thing to do. And if there is anything that I can do for you tell me or write back. And will not ever do some thing like this again. So plz take my apology and I’m really sorry.

 

We were pleased the probation department of his county required this letter of apology and for him to pay his fines. It was a costly mistake.

 

I did write him back. I told him how violated we felt. I told him that it was not good for him or for us and I told him that taking responsibility for his mistake was the right thing to do. More importantly, I told him that we forgave him and we would not hold it against him. Finally, I told him that I believed it had matured him and that he would become an amazing young man with a wonderful future who would experience personal growth through all of this.

 

Then I shared what he could do for me. I wrote, “You could receive God’s forgiveness for what you have done and then forgive yourself and start over. All things could become new in a personal relationship with Jesus.”

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Challenge, Encouragement, Healing, Issues of the Day, Small Groups, Training

The Look

It transpired right after Peter’s denial as he disowned Jesus. Jesus was within sight of His disciple Peter and just after Peter’s final denial something really unnerving is mentioned in the gospel of Luke, chapter 22.

The rooster crowes and then this happens, “The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter.” There were no recorded words spoken, only a “look.” It was done, over, just as Jesus had said it would happen. Peter would deny Him in His presence. Can you imagine with me what Peter felt in that moment? His whole body must have become warm and filled with mixed emotions as blood flowed through his neck to his flush face. I can see him wanting to escape the trauma he felt, looking down, shaking, feeling embarrassment and, of course, shame. What thoughts were going through his mind as fear must have gripped his heart during and after “the look?”

Sometimes I ask a small group question that goes like this, “If you had the opportunity for one do-over in life, what would it be?” I know mine; do you know yours? I’ll bet everything I own that at that moment Peter would have wished for his one do-over.

However, Peter received His Lord’s forgiveness and went on to be the greatest soul winning preacher of the New Testament. He didn’t quit, he didn’t get depressed and he didn’t remain in shame. I believe he went to the cross and made it right. And for me, it is one of the greatest stories of redemption in the Bible.

Is there anything in your life that needs redeemed? There is One who from the cross said, “Shame off of you. Let’s work on a do-over.”

For Peter, the hours leading up to Jesus’ resurrection must have been pretty dark, but then came Sunday, where everything must have become full of light, life and hope!

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