The "Wordly Warming" Fire

Today's bible reading impacted me greatly - It was the night of Jesus' betrayal and arrest. Most of His disciples fled in fear. We must at least give Peter credit for following Jesus to the courtyard of the High Priest - even if at a safe distance. Peter is best remembered for his denial of knowing and following Jesus Christ, even though Jesus had told him in advance of this very temptation. We find Peter warming himself by the fire - he is simply doing what everyone else is doing - nothing wrong with warming yourself on a cold night - but the fire became a place of connection with the world and denial of the Lord.
Just because we're in a religious environment doesn't mean we're safe from the enemy. Peter was in the courtyard of the High Priest, the very head of the Jewish religious system. But they didn't acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah, the Savior and Lord of mankind.
Following Jesus at a safe distance is never really safe. Because we're not fully against Him we are not safe in the world, and because we're not fully for Him we're not filled with His power to use us and to protect us. Read Matthew 16:24-25.
When we try to blend in with the world (at the warming fire places in life) we will always find ourselves surrounded by the enemy's people. Peter was attracted to the warmth, light, comfort and security of the enemy's fire. Gathered around the fire he could just blend in with everybody else. But by doing so, he found himself sitting with the enemy's guards; the very men who had come to arrest Jesus. He was comforting himself at the very fire they had built. Read John 17:13-16.
There are many ways to deny Jesus, and once we start we begin to drift away more and more from grace and power and a deep connection to Jesus and His truth. DENY: means "to disclaim connection with or responsibility for" (Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary). We disclaim connection with Jesus when we drift from Him, cease to worship Him , serve Him and make deep heart level connections with the world. When the warmth of the world's fire is more alluring to us than the warmth of God's Spirit and truth we are denying Him. The more we disclaim connection with Him the easier it becomes.
Our best safeguard is to read, study and meditate upon God's Word and pray to Him and take time to journal each day and allow God to speak to us deeply.
What are the fires of the enemy? What are the ideas by which we are attracted and by which we warm and comfort ourselves and by which we blend in with the world?
The account of Peter's denial is not just about Peter; it is about all of us. The time and culture in which we live does not protect us from committing the same error and denial as Peter. Do you recognize that you have been attracted to one of the enemy's fires? I am sure each of us has a little big of Peter's Denial at work in us - some attraction to the worlds values or the "worldly warming fire."
The final word in this lesson is that denial is not necessarily deadly. Peter recognized his mistake, he wept bitterly, and he made himself available to Jesus for forgiveness and restoration (see John 21:15-17). By the way, Peter was called to follow the Lord while he was by a warming fire, denied the Lord as he was by a warming fire and called to a heart of love and grace by Jesus (post resurrection) at a warming fire. Have you realized that the only way we know of Peter's denial is that he must have told others about it himself after he had been forgiven and restored? He wanted us to learn from his mistake and to know that there is forgiveness. Our challenge is to follow Peter's example: recognize our mistake, weep bitterly over what we have done to Jesus, and make ourselves available to Him for forgiveness and restoration.
Keep an eye out for the "Wordly Warming Fires,"
Stay the Course and Do Not Deny the Lord,
Pastor Bernie