Failure Isn't Fatal With Jesus

By Ricky Chelette, Executive Director

I hate to fail. Don’t you? In fact, I hate it so much that it scares me, or at least that is the way it felt when I was young. If there was even a hint that I could not victoriously compete, I often simply did not participate. This isn’t a good trait (just to be clear) and seriously prevented me from trying many things that I might have enjoyed but feared I would fail. 

When I became a Christian in my late teens, I realized that the American ideal of always being number one was not biblical.  However, I soon discovered that there was a new fear of failing, and this one was much more profound — I feared that I would fail as a Christ-follower. 

As I have grown in my Christian faith, I have realized we all fail Jesus. In fact, He was and is the only righteous one. And unlike my perception of failure as a youth, my failures don't have to be the end of the world. 

Peter was like you and me. He failed.  There are few characters in the New Testament that lived more boldly or failed more profoundly than did Peter. I love that scripture doesn’t hide his frailty, his impulsivity, or his sin. 

Peter was the first disciple chosen and the leader of the twelve apostles. This rough-around-the-edges fisherman was passionate in his love for Jesus.  When Jesus washed the disciples' feet, Peter wanted not just his feet to be cleaned, but his whole body! (Jn 13:9)  When Jesus was arrested, it was Peter who drew the sword to defend his master and cut off the ear of the priest's servant (Jn 19:10). Despite this love for Jesus, all four gospels record Jesus’ prediction of Peter’s failure: “This very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.” (Mk 14:30; Mt 26:24; Lk 22:34; Jn 13:38). 

Imagine the horror Peter must have felt to hear those words from Jesus? But it gets even worse. At Jesus' arrest, Peter lurks in the crowd and indeed denies Jesus three times. Upon his last denial, Luke records these few words that are pregnant with emotion and meaning: 

And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, 'Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.' And he went out and wept bitterly (Lk 22:61-62).

Have you had a moment like that? You know you did something terribly wrong, and just as it happens, you realize you have sinned against God.  Your heart sinks. Your countenance falls. Your soul aches. You feel as though your failure will forever define you. 

Peter was there, and we have all been there too.

But praise God, that is not the end of the story!  After the resurrection of Jesus, Mary meets the angel at the tomb, and he gives her a message, “But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you (Mk 16:7).” 

“[A]nd Peter…” The angel specifically singles out Peter from the other disciples. Yes, Peter failed at one of the most crucial moments in Jesus’ ministry, but Jesus did not give up on Peter, and He doesn’t give up on you and me. Jesus saw Peter beyond the moment of failure to the movement of faith Peter would lead. He saw in Peter what Peter could not see in himself. Jesus sees that potential in you too. 

Though we have all fallen short of the glory of God, our past failures do not define our future. Jesus invites us, as he did Peter, to repent of our sins and follow Him. The great hope in scripture is it is filled with people who failed but have a relentless Savior who redeems. 

You may be struggling with the sins from your past that continue to haunt you, bad choices you made this weekend or even last night. Those sins are not who you are, and they don’t have to be how you live your life. Jesus tells us, “the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel (Mk 1:15).” 

After the resurrection and his restoration, Peter went on to be a great evangelist. Acts 2 records that Peter’s preaching at Pentecost ushered in some 3,000 new believers. He was a pivotal leader in the church in Jerusalem and was eventually killed for his faith. Allow your failure to fuel your faith. Seek forgiveness and repentance and see the great things God has in store for your future!

Discouraged?

By Ricky Chelette, Executive Director

If you live in Texas, you come to expect hot summers. We are amid yet another summer of 100-degree temperatures and no rain in sight. In this kind of heat, people grow weary quickly. It seems hard to breathe, difficult to stay hydrated, and impossible to maintain any significant energy level for more than a few minutes. The heat is like a blanket of discouragement whose power and presence seems relentless. 

Similarly, we often find spiritual fidelity in the secular world equally draining. At every turn, Christians face a myriad of attacks. TV ads, news feeds, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Snap Chat—to name only a few—seem determined to persuade the Christ-follower that our ways are archaic, bigoted, and narrow-minded.  We quickly discover we are known more for what we are against rather than what we are for. In our attempts to stand for Jesus in our culture, we often find we are standing alone.  It is easy to get discouraged in our spiritual journey. The narrative of our world can be like a wet blanket on the fires of our spiritual passion.

David understood the feelings of isolation that often come with following God and going against the crowd. Faced with opposition from his people, as well as the culture in which he lived, David, like us, became discouraged. 

How is a God-fearer to survive in a land filled with spiritual critics, outright unbelievers, and militant foes actively seeking to silence the truth of God's Word?

David had one strategy - he reminded himself of who God is, who he was, and the promises of God for him. As David correctly aligned his life with a proper understanding of God and himself, he was able to see past the momentary difficulty to the eternal glory God would provide for him. In Psalm 3:3-4, we read, 

But You, O Lord, are a shield about me,

My glory, and the One who lifts my head.

I was crying to the Lord with my voice,

And He answered me from His holy mountain.

Though we are thousands of years removed from David's Psalm 3, opposition to the truth of God is still strong. When you leave your house each day, you will enter a world that is against the things you believe, the way you choose to live, and the positions you take on moral issues. Often, you will be called upon to stand up for the truth. In those moments you will feel as though you are utterly alone, but you are not. God is with you.  

As Christians, we are never alone. God has promised that when we trust in Him, He fills us with His Spirit who empowers us. He promises that He will be with us and will never leave us or forsake us. 

He promises, as He did with David, that he will “be a shield about [you].” Nothing can touch you that has not passed through the protective hands of the Father. He will protect us and keep us from the lies of the evil one if we are trusting in Him. 

He promises that in those moments when we grow weary and feel as though we can go no further, He will be “the One who lifts [our] head.” Though the darkness seems to steal away victory, and our zeal may falter, He will bring renewal and lift our attention from the present trouble to the glory of His presence seen fully in His face. 

He promises that He will be a good father, the kind who listens attentively to his children’s cries and answers them. He is alert, aware, and active even in those moments when we cannot always see immediate evidence of His work. He is faithful.

As I watch the news, read the reports of the cultural pundits, or even overhear the chatter of well-intentioned church-goers on their way in and out of worship, it can be easy to get discouraged. Christians seem afraid to speak out and are doubtful of the goodness of God or His ability to make a difference in our world gone adrift.  We can all get discouraged, but we must be like David and cry out to God. He is faithful. He will listen.  And He will lift our eyes from the present discouragement and focus our attention on the One who He sent to bring liberty to the captives, sight to the blind, and salvation to all who would call upon His Name – Jesus the Christ.  He is the lifter of our heads.  Be not discouraged.  He has overcome the World.

The Pain of Rejection, Part 2

by Bruno Borges, Men's Ministry Director

Rejection is painful. And that’s not just a platitude or turn of phrase. A 2003 MRI study revealed that the experience of rejection activates the same portions of the brain used to process physical pain.[1]In other words, we feel rejection as deeply as we would a burned hand or a broken bone. It’s no wonder that people use all kinds of coping mechanisms to assuage the pain associated with rejection. And Leah from the book of Genesis is no exception. 

Last week we talked about the numerous levels of rejection experienced by Leah in Genesis 29. She was labeled as less comparatively beautiful than her sister (v. 17). Her father, rather than protecting her, forced her into a marriage founded upon trickery, sending the message that she would never be actually loved by another (v. 23). Her husband outrightly rejected her, announcing to all her family and friends at their wedding banquet that he loved her sister more than her (v. 30). The level of pain that Leah must have felt from these rejections would have been intense to say the least. 

Whenever we feel intense pain, we attempt to ease that feeling in the most expedient way possible for the particular pain that we feel. We will reach for an aspirin if we have a headache. We will search out porn if we feel alone or stressed. We will hookup if we feel unloved. Yet even if these coping mechanisms succeed in temporarily lessening the pain, they often do not actually resolve the deeper issue. Case in point, Leah’s reaction to rejection. 

According to Judaic primogeniture customs, one of the greatest blessings that a wife could give to a husband was a son. Sons were seen as one of the greatest representations of a man's strength and courage. Genesis 29:31 says that God looked with favor on Leah and gave her a son, something she believed will take away her pain by removing her husband’s rejection. We know she made this assumption based upon her response to the birth of the baby boy: “now my husband will love me” (Gn 29:32). Yet it would seem that Jacob did not remove his rejection from her. We know this because after she gives birth to a second son, she comments, “because the Lord has heard that I am hated, he has given me this son also” (Gn 29:33). But even the birth of the second son did not remove the rejection of her husband because at the birth of her third son she exclaims, “now this time my husband will be attached to me, because I have borne him three sons” (Gn 29:34). 

Leah desperately kept believing that she needed an earthly solution to her rejection. But somewhere between the birth of her third and fourth son, she realized that she instead needed to take her attention off her pain and turn it toward God. After she gives birth to her fourth son, she declares, “This time I will praise the Lord” (Gn 29:35). And it was this child that she named Juda, the tribe through which Jesus traced His lineage. Through her act of worship, Leah became a part of the lineage of He who would also be rejected in order to conquer all rejection.

So, what does all this mean for us? We, like Leah, need to stop looking for the solution to our pain among earthly sources. Yes, rejection hurts, but the remedy for that pain can only be found in Christ. Though we are rejected by others, God “will not leave [us] or forsake [us]” (Dt 31:6). Rather than clinging to earthly coping strategies, we must turn our gaze upon Christ and worship Him. For in doing so, we reorient our hearts and minds to look at the eternal rather than the temporal. In doing so, the pain of rejection diminishes in light of his glory and grace for us. 

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[1]Naomi I. Eisenberger and Matthew D. Lieberman, “Why Rejection Hurts: A Common Neural Alarm System for Physical and Social Pain, “Trends in Cognitive ScienceVol.8 No.7 July 2004, 294-300.

the Pain of Rejection - Part 1

by Bruno Borges, Men's Ministry Director

The Pain of Rejection: Part 1

Rejections are the most common emotional wound we sustain in our daily life. We have all experience rejection and have been impacted by its painful influence. Rejection can appear in our lives through minor circumstances, such as lack of interaction on our social media pages or responses to our text messages. We also experience rejection through significant occasions like being fired from a job or being left by a loved one. Regardless if small or big, all rejections hurt and make us feel devalued.

Leah from the book of Genesis understood what it was to be rejected by everyone around her. She was the oldest daughter of a man named Laban, who also had a second, younger daughter named Rachel. While we don’t find much of a physical description of Leah in the Bible, we do know that, “Leah's eyes were weak, but [her sister] Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance” (Gen 29:17). The fact that the description of Leah’s “weak eyes” is followed by compliments regarding her sister makes it hard to believe that she didn't struggle with comparing her looks to her sister's beauty. This perceived rejection must have wounded her deeply.

We can grasp the severity of this rejection even more when we remember that this story was written down about 500 years after the events. Thus, people must have repeatedly commented on and recalled Leah’s physical appearance as the story was passed down orally. Could you imagine what it must have been like for people to constantly compare you to your sister? What it was like to be remembered as the one with “weak eyes” rather than the one who was “beautiful in form and appearance”?

As if the rumors about her supposed lack of beauty were not bad enough, her father, the man who was supposed to love and protect her, felt the need to trick a man into marrying her. In Genesis 29:21-30 we are told that on the night of her sister's wedding to Jacob, Laban made Leah take Rachel’s place in the marriage bed. After the nuptial night, Jacob wakes up to realize that he has been fooled by his father-in-law. He immediately strikes an argument with Laban, telling him and everyone at the wedding festivities that he loves Rachel, not Leah.

Well, this is certainly not what any bride wants to hear from her groom right after being married. But to make matters worse, Laban agrees to give Rachel in marriage to Jacob right after he finishes the honeymoon with Leah. Again, I don’t think any bride wants to spend her honeymoon knowing that the moment it ends, her husband will be married to another woman, let alone a woman you have been compared to your whole life.

Let’s stop and recap the levels of rejection inflicted upon Leah. She is seen as less beautiful than her sister, something that has probably happened for a long time. Her father felt that it was necessary—possibly because of her appearance—for her to gain a husband through trickery, sending the message that she will never actually be wanted or valued by another. Her husband, in front of all of her family and friends, declares that he does not love her and instead loves her sister.

The wounds of rejection run deep for Leah, yet they also run deep for us as well. Many of us have felt the sting of being compared to others only to be found lacking. Others have had parents who have betrayed us rather than protect us. Still, others have felt the rejection of a spouse or other family member. What hope can there be in situations like these?

Isaiah 49:15 says, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!” Even though it would seem impossible for a mother to forget her child, parents can indeed reject their children, as seen in Leah’s story. Yet God says that he will never forget us. He promises us that He will stand by us even when everyone else rejects us.

While we will see how this works for Leah in next week’s devotional, we should all take time to acknowledge the ways that we have been rejected and then think about the ways that God has stepped into those rejections. How has God shown you that He has not forgotten you? Who has God brought into your life to show you that you are loved and valued? Has God been trying to heal your wounds but you have refused to let Him intervene because He is not meeting your needs in the way you want or have envisioned? Pray and think about these questions this week. Allow God to step into the wounded parts of your heart to bring healing, even if that healing is different from what you have imagined.