Peter | Paula Wiseman

Q: Will You Surrender?

Will you lay down your life for My sake? John 13:38

Jesus responds to Peter's claims with this question. Will you? Then He exposed Peter by foretelling the disciple's coming denial. Why did He do that? Jesus requires more than being willing to die for Him. He requires death to self. This is where Peter was fooling himself. Over the next few days, Jesus taught him a painful, yet powerful lesson.

Will you …
Surrender is always an act of will. He could make make us, but He doesn't.

Lay down your life…
Give up your right of self-determination
Give up your agenda

For My sake…
You're not throwing your life away, you're offering it as an act of worship
Is Christ worth it?
Does He deserve all that we are, all that we have?

He asks, "Will you give up this pretense of following Me?"

Filed Under: Questions Tagged With: Gospel of John, Jesus, Peter, surrender

Q:Does This Offend You?

By Paula

Does this offend you? John 6:61

Jesus had just finished teaching a large group of followers that He was the bread of life. He wanted them to understand that everlasting life comes from accepting His upcoming sacrificial death. This troubled most of the multitude. A humiliated, suffering Messiah didn't fit their understanding of God, and they began to murmur. Eventually they walked away.

At some point in our walk, we will come up against words Jesus spoke that are a little jarring. Or maybe something God said in the Old Testament will cause us to stop and wonder. God wants to reveal Himself to us. As He does show more of Himself to us, we will begin to see He cannot, will not, be confined to the safe boundaries we like to put Him in.

Jesus goes on to tell this crowd, What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? John 6:62

To paraphrase, "If you can't handle this, there's no way you're ready for the big stuff."

God is not going to change to accommodate our notions of who He is or who He should be. So what do you do when you hit one of these things that rocks your theology? First, make sure it is a correctly interpreted Biblical truth and not just someone else's opinion. Check cross-references. Scripture NEVER contradicts itself, although our interpretations can't sometimes be off. Ask mature people you trust.

Then once you're sure you have understood what God said, you have a choice to make. Accept that you need to change your ideas and acknowledge who He is, or walk away.

After the crowds trickled away, Jesus asked the 12 if they were leaving too. Peter, without hesitation, replied, "Where else can we go? YOU have the words of eternal life."

They were glad they stayed around. You will be too.

Filed Under: Questions Tagged With: Gospel of John, Peter

STT: Seeing in Greek

By Paula

English is a tremendous language with rich shades of meaning in its words. However, there are a few occasions in Scripture where we miss out because we’re reading in English. One of those passages is John 20 where the discovery of the empty tomb is described. The word “see” or one of its form is repeated several times. However, there is much more going on in the Greek.

If you have your handy-dandy Strong’s or some other Greek reference, and read verse 1 you find out that Mary Magdalene “saw” the stone removed. The word is blep? and it means to look at (literally or figuratively), behold, look (on, to), perceive, regard, see, take heed. Strong calls it a voluntary observation.

In verse 5, John does the same thing. He looked in and “saw” the linen clothes lying there. Same Greek word.

In verse 6, Peter arrives and he checks things out. His word is the?re? It means to be a spectator, look at, behold, to view attentively, take a view of, survey, to view mentally, consider. Peter examines things, inspects them and begins to process the information he’s taking in.

Then in verse 9, John has another turn. John followed Peter’s example, examined things, especially everything neatly folded and in order and he “saw” and believed. His word is eido. He perceived with his eyes and understood the implications of what he saw. (Granted, John helps us out a little by supplying the words “and believed” so we know he ‘got’ it.) John had a light bulb moment. He’s not quite there yet, though, because he and Peter go home.

Mary is still hanging around, however, and in verse 12, she sees an angel at the tomb. This is the?re?. In verse 14, she sees Jesus Himself. Same the?re? kind of seeing. The risen Christ speaks to her and she recognizes Him. Jesus sends her to tell His disciples.

In verse 18, she runs to tell them she saw the Lord. She gets a whole new Greek word- horao which means to become acquainted with by experience, to experience. Strong goes on to say this word implies that it’s something remarkable. It has an idea of wide-eyed wonder. So the boys “saw” it, maybe even comprehended it, but Mary “got” it.

May God grant us all a new grasp on the wonder and miracle that is Easter.

If you have your handy-dandy Strong’s or some other Greek reference, and read verse 1 you find out that Mary Magdalene “saw” the stone removed. The word is blep? and it means to look at (literally or figuratively), behold, look (on, to), perceive, regard, see, take heed. Strong calls it a voluntary observation.

In verse 5, John does the same thing. He looked in and “saw” the linen clothes lying there. Same Greek word.

In verse 6, Peter arrives and he checks things out. His word is the?re?. It means to be a spectator, look at, behold, to view attentively, take a view of, survey, to view mentally, consider. Peter examines things, inspects them and begins to process the information he’s taking in.

Then in verse 9, John has another turn. John followed Peter’s example, examined things, especially everything neatly folded and in order and he “saw” and believed. His word is eido. He perceived with his eyes and understood the implications of what he saw. John had a light bulb moment. He’s not quite there yet, though, because he and Peter go home.

Mary is still hanging around, however, and in verse 12, she sees an angel at the tomb. This is the?re?. In verse 14, she sees Jesus Himself. Same the?re? kind of seeing. The risen Christ speaks to her and she recognizes Him. Jesus sends her to tell His disciples.

In verse 18, she runs to tell them she saw the Lord. She gets a whole new Greek word- horao which means to become acquainted with by experience, to experience. Strong goes on to say this word implies that it’s something remarkable. It has an idea of wide-eyed wonder. So the boys “saw” it, maybe even comprehended it, but Mary “got” it.

May God grant us all a new grasp on the wonder and miracle that is Easter.

Filed Under: Study Tip Tuesday, Uncategorized Tagged With: Bible study, Easter, Gospel of John, John, Mary Magdalene, Peter

Get Out of the Boat

By Paula

Last night, our pastor preached from Matthew 14, where Jesus walks on the water out to the boat full of disciples in the middle of a storm. It’s one of my favorite stories. Four of those twelve guys were fishermen and had no doubt seen their share of storms on the Sea of Galilee. The other eight, however, were complete landlubbers and probably didn’t even know how to swim. Now imagine being terrified, seasick, cold and wet. It’s somewhere between three and six o’clock in the morning, you see a … man (?) Jesus (?) walking (?) out to you. Then he says something completely crazy. “Be of good cheer! I AM; do not be afraid.” Yeah right. Be of good cheer? If the disciples weren’t so miserable they would’ve caught what Jesus said to them – I AM. In English, it gets translated,”It is I”, but in the original, Jesus says the same words God said to Moses. This was HUGE. I AM [JEHOVAH].

Then Peter does the unthinkable. “Lord, if that’s really You, call me out there on the water with You.” And Jesus did. Then Peter did. Imagine sitting in that boat, listening to this exchange. Peter wants to go OUT of the boat. We’re about to drown IN the boat. Why would he want OUT?

Because Peter got it. There’s a storm. It’s beyond what I can handle. My own ideas of what’s safe and secure (the boat)are failing me. I want to be where Jesus is. It’s calm where Jesus is. That’s where peace and safety is. I’m not gonna wait for Him to come to my boat. I’m going to Him.

And Peter walked on water. Sure, he sank after a little bit, and Jesus had to grab him, but what about the nameless guys in the boat? What about the “they”, and “them” who sat and watched it all? They all worshipped Jesus when He got in the boat, but Peter worshipped Him before that. Jesus didn’t have to calm the storm before Peter knew Jesus was God.

So many times, I’m a “they” hiding out in the back of the boat, trying to handle things the best way I know how, never admitting that my boat is taking on water. Jesus has already said, “I’m here.” How much longer am I gonna stay cold and wet, tired and scared, before I realize I need to be where Jesus is? How long before I get out of the boat?

j0289274 Last night, our pastor preached from Matthew 14, where Jesus walks on the water out to the boat full of disciples in the middle of a storm. It’s one of my favorite stories. Four of those twelve guys were fishermen and had no doubt seen their share of storms on the Sea of Galilee. The other eight, however, were complete landlubbers and probably didn’t even know how to swim. Now imagine being terrified, seasick, cold and wet. It’s somewhere between three and six o’clock in the morning, you see a … man (?) Jesus (?) walking (?) out to you. Then he says something completely crazy. “Be of good cheer! I AM; do not be afraid.” Yeah right. Be of good cheer? If the disciples weren’t so miserable they would’ve caught what Jesus said to them – I AM. In English, it gets translated,”It is I”, but in the original, Jesus says the same words God said to Moses. This was HUGE. I AM [JEHOVAH].

Filed Under: Living Tagged With: Matthew, Peter

Allergies in the Body of Christ

By Paula

I was sick all last week during my semi-annual battle with my immune responses. 42-16820864 We have a spring skirmish and a fall assault each year. The fall one was late- very tricky. However, as I was giving my body a chance to recuperate, sleeping off the antihistamines, I began to wonder if we, as the body of Christ ever suffer from an allergy attack.

An allergic response occurs when the body misidentifies something as an invader and rallies a full immune system response to get rid of it. Do we ever incorrectly identify threats, or invaders? Is our ‘body’ tired, achy or ineffective because we’ve being fighting the wrong things? This is not to say that the body of Christ isn’t threatened from within as well as from the outside. John’s and Peter’s epistle say a great deal about heresy and false teachers. However, we do need some discernment to ensure we’re not at war with something harmless or worse, fighting our own body.

I’m not going to name what I believe have become ‘allergies’ for the church. Our best strategy is to look at Jesus Christ. He had three short years of ministry, so He didn’t waste any time on anything that wasn’t helping fulfill His purpose. How did He minister? What did He address? How did He touch lives?

Go, and do likewise, He said.

Filed Under: Living Tagged With: allergies, church, John, Peter