March 22

Matthew 26:57-68 (Click to see scripture)

Bible in One Year Passages:

Journal Entry

Scripture

Matt 26:58 And Peter was following him at a distance, as far as the courtyard of the high priest, and going inside he sat with the guards to see the end.

Observation

I see two problems with Peter, in this passage. First of all, Peter followed Jesus from a distance. Secondly, he sat with the guards. The first action caused the second action to occur. When I am not close with God, I become close with something else with an undesirable effect. In Peter’s case, he became close (at least physically) with the guards. I wonder whether this is picture of our Christian walk. We are not close enough to be affected by affliction which may be caused because we are Christians, yet we are not too far, because of the fear of “missing out”. There is a very influential clothing manufacturer in LA. She attends a Korean church which is not too far actually from our church. The owner is a well known Christian. She is known to attend the early Morning Prayer meeting almost every day. A lot of vendors attend her church, for the most part, to have an opportunity to do a business with her. This church also boasts a very strong attendance for the Morning Prayer meeting. The almost comical thing is, most of the attendees happen to sit around this business woman. The reason is quite simple, as you can imagine. They want her to notice that they came to the early Morning Prayer meeting.

Application

Do not follow Jesus from afar. This almost always will make one stumble and makes it very hard to have a joyful fellowship with Christ. Back in my old church, I was a Sunday school teacher for about 20 years. One day, I looked back and see how many of the current young adults have been part of my Christian life for that 20 years. There were exactly eight. So then I begin to wonder as to what made them to stick around for all those years. I found one common trait. Their parents were either non Christians or very active Christians. Perhaps that is why God is calling us to be either hot or cold, but not lukewarm.

Prayer

Dear Lord, help me to have a daily walk with you side by side. Help me not to walk from a distance, lest I fall with a wrong crowd and miss out on a joyful fellowship with you. I realize that this may cause pain in my life, but I also realize that it will be all worth it in the end.

--Joey