{"id":25241,"date":"2015-04-03T00:25:18","date_gmt":"2015-04-03T04:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=25241"},"modified":"2015-04-02T23:56:51","modified_gmt":"2015-04-03T03:56:51","slug":"follow-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2015\/04\/03\/follow-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Follow Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"encouragementbloggraphicromans15\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Jesus’ first words to Simon Peter were “Come, follow Me” (Matthew <\/a>4:18-19). \u00a0Jesus’ \u00a0last words to Simon Peter were “Follow Me” (John 21:22<\/a>). \u00a0Every step of the way between these two challenges, Peter never failed to follow…though he often stumbled. \u00a0When Jesus came into Peter’s life, this everyday fisherman with nothing special about him, grew into \u00a0a new person with new goals and new priorities. \u00a0He was far from perfect but he was always himself.<\/p>\n

What did Jesus see in Peter? \u00a0Only Jesus knew. \u00a0He even gave him a new name—Peter the rock.<\/p>\n

Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’) and upon this rock,
\nI will build My church, and all the powers of hell \u00a0will not conquer it.
\nMatthew 16:18 NLT<\/p>\n

He didn’t always live up to that name, and he was quite impulsive sometimes. But Jesus wasn’t looking for perfect…He was looking for real<\/em>. And Peter was a real<\/em> follower of Jesus.<\/p>\n

Peter was known for a lot of things but the one we think of at this time of year was his part in the Crucifixion. \u00a0First he defends Jesus when they come to get Him to arrest Him. \u00a0He cuts off the ear of one of the officers with his sword. Then Jesus tells Peter that he will deny Him three times before the rooster crows. \u00a0Of course Peter says there is no way he would do that. (But he does.)<\/p>\n

\n

Meanwhile, Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. \u00a0A servant girl came over and said to him, \u201cYou were one of those with Jesus the Galilean.\u201d \u00a0But Peter denied it in front of everyone. \u201cI don\u2019t know what you\u2019re talking about,\u201d he said. \u00a0Later, out by the gate, another servant girl noticed him and said to those standing around, \u201cThis man was with Jesus of Nazareth.\u201d \u00a0Again Peter denied it, this time with an oath. \u201cI don\u2019t even know the man,\u201d he said. \u00a0A little later some of the other bystanders came over to Peter and said, \u201cYou must be one of them; we can tell by your Galilean accent.\u201d \u00a0Peter swore, \u201cA curse on me if I\u2019m lying\u2014I don\u2019t know the man!\u201d And immediately the rooster crowed. \u00a0Suddenly, Jesus\u2019 words flashed through Peter\u2019s mind: \u201cBefore the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know me.\u201d And he went away, weeping bitterly.<\/p>\n

Matthew 26:69-75 NLT<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Can you imagine how Peter felt after he realized that he not only had denied knowing His leader, the Messiah, but he turned away from knowing his friend. \u00a0Jesus had loved him and taught him and believed in him before he ever believed in himself. \u00a0But Jesus never turned away from Peter. \u00a0Peter knew he had failed. \u00a0But Jesus knew, when He asked Peter to follow Him, that this would happen. \u00a0But it didn’t stop Him from asking.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u271e\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 * <\/span><\/p>\n

He is asking you today, too.<\/span><\/em>\u00a0 He is saying, “Will you follow Me?” \u00a0He knows you will make mistakes and you may even live a little like Peter. \u00a0You may not tell all you come in contact with that Jesus is your Lord, but He always will love you and He will always forgive you and He is your friend. \u00a0So if today you want to answer the call, I ask that you pray this simple prayer with me.<\/p>\n

Dear God, I know that I am a sinner. \u00a0My life isn’t what I want it to be and something is missing. \u00a0I need a Savior. \u00a0I believe that Jesus is Your Son, and He came to die for me. \u00a0I ask that You come into my life and be my Lord. \u00a0Forgive my sins. \u00a0I don’t know all that I need to know about You but I want to know. \u00a0Please walk closely with me. \u00a0Thank You. \u00a0In Jesus’ name, amen.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jesus’ first words to Simon Peter were “Come, follow Me” (Matthew 4:18-19). \u00a0Jesus’ \u00a0last words to Simon Peter were “Follow Me” (John 21:22). \u00a0Every step of the way between these two challenges, Peter never failed to follow…though he often stumbled. \u00a0When Jesus came into Peter’s life, this everyday fisherman with nothing special about him, grew […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":20533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6228],"tags":[5871,6998,8713,425,8714,589,8709,8708,938,1547],"class_list":["post-25241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-encouragement-2","tag-crucifixion","tag-encouragement-blog","tag-follow-me","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-jesus-called-peter-to-follow-him","tag-kim-spring","tag-matthew-2669-75","tag-peter-denies-jesus","tag-scripture","tag-sinners-prayer","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/encouragementbloggraphicromans15.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-6z7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25241"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25255,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25241\/revisions\/25255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}