{"id":5593,"date":"2018-07-09T12:56:34","date_gmt":"2018-07-09T02:56:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=5593"},"modified":"2018-07-09T12:56:34","modified_gmt":"2018-07-09T02:56:34","slug":"you-cant-leave-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/you-cant-leave-me\/","title":{"rendered":"You Can’t Leave Me"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

You Can’t Leave Me<\/strong><\/p>\n

by\u00a0John Boules<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

I\u2019m the type of person that is very dependent on others. I get really happy when I\u2019m at church with friends, I love it when we drive to church together as a family, I speak to my friends everyday, and I don\u2019t really like being alone.<\/p>\n

I was thinking about it today and I think you can make that same assumption with Saint Peter. You see how much he really loves Our Lord and how dependant he is on Him.<\/p>\n

If we look at the story of Peter walking on water, he doesn\u2019t actually care about the act\/power of walking on water, he cares about going to Christ.<\/p>\n

And Peter answered Him and said, \u201cLord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.\u201d (Matthew 14:28)<\/p>\n

He just wants to be with his Lord because that\u2019s where he feels safest. It reminds me of when I was a kid and would walk off by myself in the shopping centre and then I\u2019d realise I\u2019ve lost mum and I would just drop onto the floor and cry. As soon as I\u2019d look up and see my mum at a distance, I would race towards her as she crouches down and jump into her arms! It was the best feeling – the safest I\u2019ve ever felt.<\/p>\n

From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, \u201cFar be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!\u201d
\n– Matthew 16:21-22<\/p>\n

The word that screams out to me is \u2018rebuke\u2019
\nIf we define rebuke, it says; \u201cto express sharp disapproval or criticism of someone because of their behaviour or actions\u201d<\/p>\n

This reminds me so much of those movies where you\u2019ve got the husband and the wife and they\u2019re having an argument. He stands up abruptly and yells \u201ci can\u2019t do this anymore! I\u2019m leaving!\u201d He walks towards the door and she quickly realised that\u2019s she can\u2019t do life without him. She jumps towards him and grabs his hand and pleads with him! \u201cNo! Please don\u2019t leave me! You can\u2019t leave me, I need you!\u201d<\/p>\n

Christ tells the disciples that He\u2019s going to be crucified and killed and He\u2019s going to leave them. They\u2019re going to be independent soon. Peter can\u2019t take it! He pulls him aside and gets really angry! But not anger, anger! But more anger out of love and being scared! \u201cLord you can\u2019t leave me! What am I supposed to do without You! You actually can\u2019t do this to me!\u201d<\/p>\n

You also see it when the Jews arrest Christ, Peter rips the sword out and cuts the servant\u2019s ear! At that point, he sees it all unfolding. Everything that Christ said earlier is actually happening and it hits him all at once. He freaks out and he was probably thinking, \u2018you can\u2019t take Him! He\u2019s all I have!\u2019<\/p>\n

Three people approach him in front of others saying that he\u2019s associated with the crucified One. He hastily denies all accusations. But you notice in the last one he gets really angry in comparison to the first two times – \u201cMan, I do not know what you are talking about!\u201d<\/p>\n

He knew exactly who Jesus Christ is. He knew he was denying Christ. But we tend to look at him as a traitor without going through the emotions with him. When His Lord is on the cross, Peter feels abandoned, he\u2019s angry and he feels lonely.<\/p>\n

Lord, we were always together! Lord, you were my strength. I was your sheep, you were my shepherd. You healed the blind. The children that came to you, you hugged them and showed them compassion. You cried after Lazerus. Now you\u2019re up there. On the cross. Why couldn\u2019t you just stop them? Why couldn\u2019t you just wipe them out? Why do you have to leave me? I need you Lord!<\/p>\n

Saint Peter was terrified. The person he loved so much, depended on so much, is now on the cross. He feels so lost and lonely right now and then three people try and get him into trouble. So he yells out \u2018I don\u2019t know him! I don\u2019t know him!\u2019 He runs away and sobs bitterly by himself. He does all this because he loves Him so much, he\u2019s just scared! The thought of Him not being in the picture just freezes his bones! But Peter didn\u2019t realise that Our Lord was with him the whole time. He never left him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will never leave you nor forsake you.\u201d – Hebrews 13:5<\/p>\n

Thinking about this has just made me fall in love with Saint Peter. I see myself in him in so many ways. In times of trouble, I feel lonely and abandoned. But just as Christ never left Peter, Christ never leaves me.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?\u201d – Psalm 118:6<\/p>\n

I feel jealous though – I want to feel dependent on God just as Saint Peter did. Lord, I want to feel lost without You. I want to feel so completed with You that when I\u2019m not with You, I feel there\u2019s something big missing.<\/p>\n

Lord, help me feel Your presence in my life. Help me feel whole again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You Can’t Leave Me by\u00a0John Boules I\u2019m the type of person that is very dependent on others. I get really happy when I\u2019m at church with friends, I love it when we drive to church together as a family, I speak to my friends everyday, and I don\u2019t really like being alone. I was thinking … Continue reading “You Can’t Leave Me”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5594,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[61],"class_list":["post-5593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-friendship-with-christ"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5593"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5595,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5593\/revisions\/5595"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}