Daily Devotional for Thursday April 20, 2000

Denying Christ

(John 18:15-27) One of the things that will always be associated with Peter is his denial of Christ after He was arrested. Peter becomes an easy target to point at, and we often wonder how he could have been so close to the Lord, then deny Him so easily. In defense of Peter, let me first say that I have never been, nor have 99% of you reading this, been in a position where we could literally be killed for acknowledging our relationship with Jesus Christ. Peter was in fear for his life. That does not excuse what he did, but it would be interesting to see how many people who profess Christ as their Savior would denounce Him under the threat of being killed. I am not questioning your faith or love of the Lord, it is just something that none of us can say 100% unless we have actually been in that situation. That gets me to the point of today's Devotional. Peter denied Christ under fear for his life. Do you realize that every time you sin, rebel against God's plan and purpose for your life, you are denying Christ? I want you to focus today on that fact that God loves you so much, He sent His only son to this earth to die for your sins. When we accept Christ into our hearts and lives, we do it by God's grace and our faith in who Jesus Christ is and what He did for us. We give our lives to Him and pledge to live for Him, follow Him. Actually, that is what Peter did when the Lord called him from his job as a fisherman. He left his family and friends to follow Jesus. So every time we sin or do the things that are not what Jesus would have us doing, we are in effect denying Him. Let me speak very plain. When we go out drinking and partying with the world, we are denying Christ. When we go out to adult establishments, cruise the Internet for pornography, watch XXX movies, we are denying Christ. When we put our faith and trust in drugs, food, shopping, and any other thing, we are denying Christ. When we are involved in sexual relationships outside of marriage, we are denying Christ. When we cheat on our income taxes, we are denying Christ. My friend, anytime you are doing things that you know isn't what the Lord would want you to do, you are denying Him! While Peter is our example today of denying Christ, he is also our hope. We read in the 21st chapter of John, verses 15-17 how the Lord restored Peter. No doubt Peter repented, asked forgiveness, and we see the Lord forgiving him. In the Book of Acts, we read about the incredible way the Lord used Peter in the early days of the church. The lesson here is that even if you have denied Christ, you are not finished. If you repent, God will forgive you, restore you, and still use you for His glory. I love you and care about you. At this special time of the year, I pray that if you have been denying the Lord, this is the perfect time to repent and ask Him to forgive you. He loves you. He will forgive you and restore you to fellowship. He will use you for His glory in the future days.