My summer reading, I’ve never had one before but this summer is different and has me extra blessed to have time to focus on faith. I’ve REALLY enjoyed reading this Michael Card book “A Fragile Stone” and I’ve gotten to the chapter about Jesus forgiving Peter for his 3 denials the night Jesus was being arrested. Yeah, reconciliation on the beach shore, Jesus asks 3 times “Do you love me?”… I’ve read this chapter piecemeal at a few different shore locations within 2 weeks… I’ve read it again and again for it resonates with me – feed My sheep – and it is a pivotal beginning to Peter, to his relationship with Jesus AND the others, pivotal to the beginnings of the spread of the news of Jesus, pivotal to Jesus Himself finally getting thru to Peter for good….  and to me – especially to the Peter-tendencies in me…

WOW – so strong a message… souls so incredibly broken, feeling the deepest repair…

Love qualifies Peter to be whom Jesus needs Him to be… LOVE so divine to reconcile and recruit… 

And oh how Peter must have felt he was refined in the fire, to become the complete follower of Jesus and called to be Jesus’s chosen leader of the others… Jesus says: “Follow Me”

It is one thing to know how blessed you are, but a totally deeper thing to know how forgiven you are. Don’t recount your deepest flaws but know they are forgiven. You have been recovered and rescued from the depths.

Oh, to feel that immense deep love from Jesus – Yeah – wow… Peter, and me, and us… oh yes, he was THAT broken, then he was repaired THAT much…

YEAH… if you know repair and love, you know…  if you know, you follow… if you follow, you lead… if you lead, you follow…

Even if sin is all equal, our distance from Jesus can feel varied. Our brokenness and our denials of His plan for us are overcome with the deepest widest of catches. Yes Jesus reaches and looks and He will scrape the bottom of the depths of everywhere to find you – to recover just one soul… to get me, to get you…  YEAH… if you know, you know…  if you know, you follow… if you follow, you lead… if you lead, you follow…

Then, the second part of follow is to do our part, embracing the role the Lord has for us. Just like Jesus knew of Peter’s purpose, He knows our potential purpose. We must embrace our purpose. It’s great to be a believer but to believe to move where Jesus leads? YEAH…

A Savior’s calling needs a listener… a listener needs processing… processing needs a process… a process needs a Savior. A Savior needs His saved ones and His saved ones need to head their Savior’s calling. 

This is not a circle but a growing spiral… natural patterns are full of spiral shapes, following mathematical and personal rules like the golden ratio and the golden rule. A spiral goes places… so we are to go, with faith, places too.

Yeah… YEAH… if you know, you know…  if you know, you follow… if you follow, you lead… if you lead, you follow…

YEAH, you GROW…