The Fisherman

The greatest joy of the Christian life is in studying God's inspired word. It is beyond my comprehension that those who have the audacity to call themselves “Christians” do not find everything they could possibly want in this ONE BOOK. This is the only book in the world which speaks directly to you, by your own Father, the Creator of the Universe, words which can give you fulfillment when nothing else can. We love to read about our Savior, the world's only perfect human being, (God, who put on a tent of human flesh and dwelled among us) to think that in this world of 'haves and have nots', the one who created everything owned nothing but the one robe he was wearing!

And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” (Matthew 8:20) In a world fraught with possessions, to think that our blessed Lord never owned anything, never went many miles from the home where he was raised, but from 12 itinerant followers, has become the best known name, the name above every name. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.(Revelation 19:16)

Every legal document, every check that is written on this day, is in memory of his birth. The wonderful, exciting characters of the Old Testament are ever in our mind. Abraham, ,whose name means father of a great multitude, the first Jew, the world's wealthiest man at the time; Joseph, whose own brothers sold him into slavery, and the very shackles that bound him, immunized him for the temptations and knowledge that determined world history; Paul, writer of most of the New Testament, 13 of the 27 books, probably the most educated man in the world at the time, but none can compare with Peter. What mortal man can fail to associate himself with this 'real' man with qualities which we all possess. I do not know how many books have been written about this great New Testament character, first Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, such as “Peter, Prince of the Apostles”, but none can compare with his epistles.

The epistles are addressed to believers in general, who are strangers in every city or country where they live, and are scattered through the nations. These are to ascribe their salvation to the electing love of the Father, the redemption of the Son, and the sanctification of the Holy Ghost; and so to give glory to one God in three Persons, into whose name they had been baptized. As a faithful servant of Jesus how very eminent Peter stands forth to observation; for who among the apostles so zealous, so attached to his Lord, as Peter? And that such a one should fall from his integrity, even to the denial of his Lord, what caution doth it teach to the highest servants of Jesus! But when we have paid all due attention to those striking particularities in the life of Peter, the most blessed and most important instruction the life of this apostle exhibits, is in the display of that sovereign grace of Jesus manifested in Peter's recovery. Hope, in the world's phrase, refers only to an uncertain good, for all worldly hopes are tottering, built upon sand, and the worldlings hopes of heaven are blind and groundless conjectures. But the hope of the sons of the living God is a living hope; not only as to its object, but as to its effect also. It enlivens and comforts in all distresses, enables to meet and get over all difficulties. All possessions are stained with sin, either in getting or in using them. How ready we are to turn the things we possess into occasions and instruments of sin, and to think there is no liberty or delight in their use, without abusing them! Worldly possessions are uncertain and soon pass away, like the flowers and plants of the field.

Whether naked in a fishing boat, warming himself by the enemies fire, or cutting off an ear with his sword, (I'm convinced Peter was aiming at the throat) Peter felt, at the end, unwilling to be crucified as was his savior, so, according to legend, he was crucified upside down. I know of no verse of scripture, that I have given to more people in times of troubles or sorrows, than the wonderful verse 1 Peter 1:6-7. “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ...” Particularly, in times of loss, whether by disability, (blindness, deafness, crippled, etc.) or otherwise, we find great comfort in knowing that Peter, like us, was a character of disappointment but who knew that “our trials are more precious than gold.” Satan has a way of molding people through his deceit, into people who find no satisfaction in anything, always out for a new conquest, sexual or otherwise (even to the molestation of children), never with enough money, willing to swindle/lie/cheat/steal.

I hear advertisements, as people are constantly bombarded with their desire for things, about such comforts as mattresses, a mattress which can be regulated for firmness, that can have different firmness for different sides for husband and wife. Have you ever considered, how many people in the world, have never slept on a mattress? I have been in hospitals, in remote areas of the world, where patients were laying on bags of leaves or straw. The answer to suffering is suffering, the most unfair act in the world was the crown of thorns slapped on our Savior's head.

Today, as with the first couple, (the only people in the world to not have navels) is the beguiling challenge by Satan, then and now, “Does God really mean what he says? When he draws a line, does he really expect us not to cross it?” Was Peter really sincere when he left us the message that we are to be peculiar people, strangers and pilgrims, that our citizenship is in Heaven. “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul” (1 Peter 2:11) Peter, like Paul, could say to us as we struggle with our daily challenges, we are just here on a temporary visa, a holding pattern in our eternal flight. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. (Philippians 3:20)

50 days after the crucifixion, Pentecost, when Peter gave his greatest sermon, had I been there, I think I would have said to Peter, “if I were you, I would stay quiet.” But, Peter knew forgiveness, after all, at the graveyard, it was Peter who went into the tomb, and it was Peter that our blessed Lord specifically desired to know of His Resurrection. But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see him, as he said unto you. (Mark 16.7)