Denine left a comment below yesterday’s post: I Have Decided to Follow Jesus:
”But whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven” Matthew 10:33
““Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.” Luke 22:61-62
He allows us to be human…
The bible says a lot of things. Not always in the context we choose when we set the honest offerings we pluck from here and there. We never think of those as “killer verses” – yet we seem programmed to elevate “The Whole” – to elevate God and Jesus – in only plucking verse fragments.
As I wrote the words “fuck knows” yesterday – as I heard his “foul language” – I cringed inside. I cringed because I knew that when I wrote those words and pressed “publish” there would some (many?) who would be offended. And I am not here to offend – I am here to hear and share a loving pebble plopped into a pool – and always the ripples are his and not mine. It is always this way.
”But whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven” Matthew 10:33
So just what do I do when I hear him use “foul language”? Do I censor and sanitise his words? Do I “deny” his words because you might be offended? Do I deny him because of you and what I think you might think of me?
And you.
Do you censor what you read about him to suit your (crafted and tidy) version of who he must be? Do you protect and keep safe the very God you follow? Do you “deny” that he could ever utter “foul language” – even as we do in private?
The very “private” when it is ONLY me and him?
““Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.” Luke 22:61-62
Simon Peter, the one example of “denying him” that we excuse because he is the rock on which our church (this very Sunday) was built. And if we remove that rock because of his sin of denying – just what are we left with?
So we don’t. We pick our fights. We pick instead fights with each other. Others who read the same bible, follow the same God and Jesus, do so many of the same things we do. And in picking fights with each other we pick a fight with God and Jesus – yet deny(!!) we would ever do that (even as we do).
“He allows us to be human…”
Denine sums it all up in those few words. Yet I think it is MUCH more than that.
I think he CHALLENGES us to be human. I think he CHALLENGES us to allow him to be who he is as well. And that is NOT the censored and sanitised “selfie version” of you and me – and it is NOT the crafted and tidy version of him either.
Denying the God and Jesus we follow … ?
Can be as subtle as the splinter in your eye and the log in mine. It can be as simplistic as to become childlike in our faith. It can be many things. But denying God and Jesus is not a “public dishonouring” – it’s a private and unseen silent thought … a spontaneous and invisible gut response … a split second of “what will they think” … “what will this look like” …
(edited post publish …)
“Denying him” is about our “selfies” and “craftwork” (again) because …
“Only you can do that – only you can love yourself less for what YOU say and what YOU do.”
(thank you)
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Just me being curious 
Denying him(sic) is a recognition that it is all simply the product of human imagination/invention.
Exactly as one would expect from a made up piece of nonsense designed to control fearful, ignorant people.
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Morning Ark (sic)
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Bonjour, Monsieur Paul. Comment sa va?
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Tres bien, merci beaucoup! Which exhausts my linguistic prowess!
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Love this! So true. Every time we believe the world over Him are we are denying Him.
“Never shall You wash my feet!” Peter told Him. Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with Me.” 9“Then Lord, Simon Peter replied, “not only my feet, but my hands and my head” as well. 10Jesus told him, “Whoever has already bathed needs only to wash his feet, and he will be completely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.”…John 13:9
In Christ, our sins are now outside of who we are. When we have been baptize with the Holy Spirit we are “already bathed”
What allowed Peter to be able to continue after He had denied Christ?
He believed God. He knew he was no long under the curse of sin which results in death. But under the law of grace. By grace we are the righteousness of God through faith in Christ Jesus. We stand in and on His rightousness not our own. When fall or fail we simply need to “wash our feet.” And we are instructed to wash the feet of our brothers and sisters.
But it seems to me, because of our own pride, we have no problem casting the first stone instead. It is sad that we condemn ourselves as if we were still under the law of sin and death. Just as Peter did we simply, “need to wash our feet.”
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I have had “my feet washed” (and pedicured) in Turkey. I found my discomfort only vanished when setting aside that “this is weird” head-stuff – and enjoyed the sensation of the experience. And then it was “good weird”.
“Unless I wash you, you have no part with Me.”
Has always been a washing clean of sin. A function. A transaction. Yet you have triggered something else. A connection, a communion, a coming together where roles and hierarchy are set aside like my head stuff. Maybe is not even about sin at all.
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I think your probably right. Like with Peter after he denied Jesus. He was “already clean” But I think he would have to rid himself of the fear, shame and guilt The “weird head stuff” the things we carry and pick up from walking around in this world as a result of all our human-ness. I think one can get buried alive under such things… even if it is not of our own making. We can end up with a very distorted view of ourselves.
Makes me thinking back to being a mom with young babies. You kinda become a human tissue snot, spit up, dirty diapers. But with a good hot shower and for a moment we feel refreshed, clean, and back to normal. . A “good weird”
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