MONDAY, January 18* The Confession of Saint Peter

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Matthew 16:13-19. But who do you say that I am?

Simon Peter was bold in his answer: "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." Because of his boldness, Jesus rewarded Simon Peter with the promise of the keys to the kingdom. And then, within such a short time, Simon Peter failed Jesus, failed to stand up for him, failed to proclaim him the Messiah, failed to proclaim him Lord.

God bless Simon Peter! He tried so hard, failed so often, and then got right back up and tried again. He boldly floundered his way through discipleship when Jesus was alive, and kept right at it after the risen Lord sent him out into the world. He wasn't the most articulate, he couldn't quite get things right at least part of the time--and yet, upon him, Jesus built the church.

Peter is a personal hero precisely because he was such a failure so often. He's a hero because he didn't quit and he didn't let his own failings get in the way of the Good News of God in Christ Jesus. He tried and failed and tried again, and as a result, we are here today.

Do we have the courage to proclaim boldly, fail, then get up and do it all over again as well?

PRAY for the Diocese of All Saints Cathedral (Kenya)

*Today is the civil holiday for Martin Luther King, Jr. in the U.S. The church commemorates his life on April 4.

Ps 23; Acts 4:8-13; 1 Peter 5:1-4

View the daily Lectionary Readings at Satucket.com.
Or view the Bible passages at Biblegateway.com.

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Jan 18, 2010 at 11:38 am

Written by VH,

I think I am so much like Peter...I often feel like such a failure to myself and to God. Its like for every one thing I get right I get ten wrong. This makes me feel like I am such a bad person. I look to him for the strength to get up and start over each time but I often wonder if He will tire of me failing so often

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Jan 18, 2010 at 12:12 pm

Written by Richard H. Schmidt, Editor, Forward Day by Day,

No, VH, God will not tire of you. Over a million millennia, God will never tire of you. You cannot wander far enough that he will not have walked along with you, hoping for your return to him.

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Jan 18, 2010 at 1:19 pm

Written by Richard H. Schmidt, Editor, Forward Day by Day,

Lauren Stanley, our January author, wrote to me as follows earlier today:

Tell people I concur, and GUARANTEE that God never tires of us, as long as we try to be faithful (sorry, can't get to the reply section - don't have time to do 18 attempts to post).
tell them that the people of Haiti, like the people of sudan, know this to be true and we are seeing this every day in both of these countries. if we are faithful, god is faithful to us ... even when we can't be as faithful as we want to be.
tell the people to pray!
thanks,
lauren

As for trying 18 times to post, I sometimes have that problem, too. It's about security, keeping hackers from breaking into our website. Sorry about that, friends. We'll improve it as can. ---RHS

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Jan 18, 2010 at 7:01 pm

Written by VH,

Thank you for your assurance. God bless you both.

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