The Rabbi

After the resurrection of Christ, and the power of Holy Spirit took control of Peter's life. He was not anymore a scared and afraid man but a courageous witness of Lord Christ Jesus. When God changes someone then He empower the person to live out for Him; The message of Peter's life is to encourage believers to depend on God, regardless of our weaknesses God has power to use us.

I read through this slowly, and I love how Peter is telling us his prayer for the readers.I think that Peter shows a great example of how we should live our lives for Christ. In that we should be humble servants and to love one another just as Christ loves us. Peter also reminds us that we all need forgiveness, and that God will forgive. We might not feel like we measure up enough, but because we are washed in the Blood of Christ, God will forgive a true heart. Also we need to make sure that we ask from the heart and not from the mouth. I liked how this blog was done. It made me reflect on how fortunate we have it to be able to read scripture and applly it to our hearts and be doers of the word. Also being able to know that we can pray to God at anytime and not have to go to a priest, is amazing! We also need to realize that not everyone knows of this privalege and it is our duty to tell them about it.well that is all that I can think of to write for now-wow I am surprised that I am one of the first few to blog-lol-usually I am the last one-anyways-be Blessed my sisters and brothers, and May God hear your hearts and grant you the desires of them.

In His Holy Name,
Jessie Rose

Peter, it sounds like you’re developing spiritual stigmata. So are you telling me what Jesus said too that life is hard and hurts, but we get to suffer the honor of a greater pain as Christians. Wow, what an honor… to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. I think of the individual who kissed the dirt at Jesus’ feet, because the feet themselves were too holy to kiss. Do you mean you can almost still see Jesus, Peter? Where is He? You know what He looks like as well as what He is like… where can I look to see Him? I’m just longing to actually see Him.

Peter, I wonder with this hurt, is it harder for you who have seen or we who believe? I don’t have to wrestle with that same sort of missing… I miss one whom I’ve never seen. So here between the call and the promise… you heard Him call you with His voice, we only listen to Him by faith. How do you tell us so that we know you speak for Him? You are our teacher, and we have to perfect our discerning as students to separate man from God. Yet we cannot always, and so in throwing our hearts into belief, we must trust His love is enough to buffer the truth. And I am to measure my amount of blessing by the amount of abuse I receive for His sake? Wow, what an oxymoron. The tangible evidence of my faith is pain.

Makes sense if you follow in this line of reasoning: Greater revelation – greater responsibility – greater requirements – greater reward, but before the reward comes a greater pain. Do we have a more offensive message? I wish I could ask Him about His use of “soon”… I am impatient and would rather have Him say: LATER than have me hanging in the suspense of “soon.” If I don’t know when He’s coming, I have to always be ready or else I could miss Him… He wants that perpetual state of holiness, not something prepared and delivered one day a week as my “worship.”

It should be enough to simply love and obey, but do I treat it as such? Simply… what a loaded word. I am giving up all the world thinks is good… I am choosing to despise its wealth, divorce myself from its recreations, and be utterly foolish to it by my faith. This is the cost, and I cannot really love like my Jesus without being foolish and hurting just like Him. You would pay the cost for my pride, because you think the pain will drive me away? Peter, you’re not Jesus, and I think He needs me to suffer for my own pride so that I may come to be drawn to Him as you are. God’s way up is down, right? I’m game for that more than I was a year ago. Prayers for God’s patience are always welcome, because I am sure I try His soul. God bless you and increase the way you look like Jesus.

Peter looks back and relates to us as believers here. Peter was one of Christ's most intimate friends while He was in the flesh, and here Peter prays a prayer that is completely empowered by the Holy Spirit. Peter was controlled by the Holy Spirit and it showed no matter what was to come forth. Peter was stubborn, and weak faithed at times (the denial), but he encourages us through his testimony and life that no matter what God can always use us. That is very re assuring coming from a man who walked with Jesus. We too like Peter can be forgiven (no matter what a person has done), and sometimes I wonder if the body of Christ has forgotten that?

Thing thing that stood out to me the most in this text was Peter's plea for his friends. He is genuinely concerned for his friend's. This writing is an earnest prayer that represents Peter's intercession for others. When was the last time a Christian prayed this sincerely, genuinely, humbly, and unselfishly for another?

So as I was reading this, I remembered how we used to analyze poetry. I was noticing a break in person, with the phrase "I have, I am, I will." I was wondering if that was not Peter but God?

What it must have been like to see God, to touch his face. To hug him. To see his example in person, like Peter did.

To disappoint him in person...

Peter may be the prime example of a proud man turned humble. So lets just... pray that it doesn't take what it took to turn Peter to turn us.

It must have been quite the experience to see true fellowship with Christ and the other disciples. Peter also experienced fellowship after the death of Christ, what was the difference? Did he yearn for that fellowship once again? I suppose that Peter cares for his readers and friends so much because he saw the real value and the real blessing of being in direct communion with God and his people.

I enjoy seeing the progression Peter makes. The statement "I finally understand" is comforting to me in many ways. First, I find hope in the fact that someday I will understand the reasons for things and be able to see the whole picture even though so much doesn't make sense to me now. Second, God's Word has the power to penetrate even the most stubborn, thick headed people. There was hope for Peter, therefore there hope for me. I also like tracking how Peter's perspective changes and he becomes more others focused and encourages his readers to do so as well. Because of this he is able to see abuse as a benefit, even though his readers may not feel the same way, knowing that they are blessed. He is concerned they might decide it is not worth it, perhaps that is why he speaks of hope and a future reward for doing right so much. Peter knows what is possible because of his own experience and genuinely wants his readers to have the same thing.

I'm struck by how honest this poem is. How real and raw the emotion is. I wish that I could be more like this in my conversations with God. The connection between Peter and Jesus is so strong and I'm not sure that I've ever experienced Jesus this way. I've had honest conversations with Jesus, and I've felt close to him- but Peter's prayer resembles Jesus so closely that you can almost hear Jesus within Peter's prayer for his friends.
Very nicely done.

Peter has quite a prayer here I must say. I guess I connect most with the "who I was, cannot be, who he is, must be me" stanza. Who I was, was a really bad person. Not that it would be appropriate to share in this forum that information, however I do spend a lot of time looking back, a lot of times I should look forward. What I am going through right now has let me have an oppurtunity to change my relationship with Christ for good. I want to be "who he is" more than I have in three years. Pretty stoked about that. I hope Peter keeps praying for me like this, I need lots of help.

i think peter is using this prayer to let the fallen know that there is always hope. that can go back, god will receive them. god is always there to pick us up when we fall. because we are sinners, he expects we will fall. all we have to do is ask, he's there waiting. we need the patients he has.

How gracious and noble that someone would take the time and pray for others because they've been where they're at and know how it feels. Peter knew what it felt like to be distant from God, feel unforgiven, he knew the pain of separation from Him because of sin. I think that's what moved his heart to compassion and pray for the believers that they would not lose closeness to God. What Peter does here by praying for them is very praiseworthy because he did not want them to feel what he himself once felt. Peter was once young and now he's old; he was once a smelly fishermen and now he's an apostle of Christ. He's lived he's life and know's that fellowship with God is where life is. The same holds true for us. What is this life on earth all about? Fellowship with God.

When trials come and I wish I could have the right attitude for them all the time. To automatically assume God has everything in control. Sadly I'm not there yet, and I suppose its mostly because I need more time to mature. But I do hope at least that whatever trial I may next face that I if not at first lean into God, I do it rather quickly. I rather not fail the tests presented to me, but I might, and that won't be fun then. I fully hope though at trials next knock that I don't automatically fall into some old sin or fail that temptation. Hopefully I can keep Peter in mind with the trials I may face.

I think that we must take Peter's advice about being humble, do good when evil is done to you. If the Christian's in the world, took Peter's advice the world would have no reason not to believe. However, it is getting the church to take Peter's advice and living it out, but we still think we should live by the law of an eye for an eye of the Old Testament.

I think that Peter prayer speaks volumes of his love for his friends and those he doesn't even know. It is a prime example as what Jesus taught through his ministry and Peter through many of his trials and life experiences continued on. I think it is really neat that he was able to encourage them even though they were persecuted and wanted to just give up. He would know. He persevered through the test and I think in the end that he passed, and he wanted believers down through time to pass the test too.
I wish I could be as transparent as Peter, but I can't, at least not yet. But I don't have to be, God knows my heart, God created me. He knows what makes me tick and my personality. I think that I need to lean more on God and less on myself.

I, too, like the phrase "who you are, must be me" Jesus did take our place - I think to often we forget that. Sure we know He died on the cross for our sins, but that was our penalty. We were to be punished with death for our sins. Can you imagined being hung on a cross? He hung there as me, as all of us in the world. Put into perspective like that it hits a little bit harder what he really did for us.

Sometimes I wonder how exactly to pray for people. I've seen so many christians, whom I knew very well, and seemed solid in their faith, completely turn their eyes away from God. Were they really christians, or was it just a front? Should I have prayed differently? Would it have made a difference? Ultimately it is their choice. Most of them made this choice to turn their eyes from God while in great pain or suffering. Some were very angry with God. Some wanted relief, and didn't want to deal with the pain anymore..."What draws me closer, I'm afraid may drive them away." (from Peter's prayer)
So what about now? How do I pray for those that seem solid, and are going through pain and suffering? What can you say to encourage them? What could I have said to the woman dying of cancer who is leaving behind three young children, and a husband who is not a believer? What could I have prayed for the struggling christian girl whose unbelieving (as far as we know) brother just committed suicide? How about the mother of the 6 yr. old girl who was sexually abused, or the teenage christian girl who was raped while going for a walk in a normally safe area, to spend time talking to God? I can see the struggle here in Peter's prayer..."All they have from you, from me, are mere words--are they enough?"

Peter's plea for his friends is clearly explained by the author. Every pain and suffering seem to be nothing when I think about Jesus' pain and suffering that he bore on the cross for me. Jesus went through it and he is able to help us to walk/work through it.