August 3 Update

The last update I posted has been a few weeks back now. My failure to do an official post wasn't so much for lack of desire as for lack of information.

Micah has been sick. He's been up and down, but more down than up. Unfortunately, there's been too little information about why and even more troubling no way of determining what to do about it.

On Friday Micah had a liver biopsy. It was almost the liver biopsy that didn't happen. The results came back showing inflammation in the liver consistent with rejection. In the grand scheme of things, it is mild. Micah has been receiving powerful doses of steroids the last two days to knock his immune system down to curb the rejection.

Micah's bilirubin level was down by 2 points at last check. We celebrate that and hope this indicates the steroids are addressing the rejection and helping his liver function better.

He has been receiving nutrition in his feeding tube that was inserted Friday as well. Micah's calorie and protein intake have been below what is needed to maintain and certainly far lower than what is needed to replenish what he's lost. The tube is necessary evil for him. It isn't comfortable and he wrestles with the discomfort of it. However, it appears to be giving him the much needed nutrition.

Today has been a better day than the past few. Perhaps it is the nutrition, perhaps the treatment of the rejection, perhaps the blood transfusion from yesterday, or maybe the mix of all the above. He even enjoyed a few moments when his two younger brothers showed up to visit. But then again, who couldn't Titus and Malachi make smile.

We are grateful for your prayers. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to be back at Refuge Church and preaching this morning for the first time in 5 weeks. It was also a joy to have the people gather around to pray for me, our family, and, more importantly and specifically, Micah.

Whew!

My summary of the last few days, beginning around 6:30 PM on Monday, would be one word: Whew!

We knew Micah was listed to receive a new liver, but we never knew when.

We knew having a transplant comes with many challenges, but we never can tell what they will be.

We knew that God has always shown Himself mighty, but we hoped it wouldn't have to occur as it did.

On Monday evening around 6:30 PM, I received a call from Sarah who was in Virginia visiting family with all our boys (minus me who was still in Raleigh). Her first words were: "So Dave just called from Duke." Dave is the transplant coordinator for pediatrics. There was no guesswork to figure out why Dave from Duke had called. But she continued, "They have a liver for Micah." 

Immediately Sarah began to journey back to North Carolina and to Duke Hospital. I began preparing to get everything together on my end to meet them at the hospital.

We all arrived at the hospital at around 10:00 PM Monday evening. Micah was admitted and work began to prepare him for the transplant that didn't begin until 6:00 AM on Tuesday morning. The surgery ended in the late afternoon.

An ultrasound would be done of the liver each day for at least the first few days. The Tuesday night ultrasound reading came back showing no flow in the portal vein. Micah's previous portal vein clotted off in the first year of his last transplant. This is really what started us down the road to where we are today with a second transplant. A CT Scan confirmed a clot had obstructed the portal vein.

I had traveled home to get some sleep when Sarah called at around 2:00 AM to tell me. One of the longest drives I've ever had back to Duke took place early Wednesday morning. Micah was heading into emergency surgery to hopefully remove the clot. Clotting was removed and flow restored. The bile duct was also repaired that showed some leakage. Steps were taken to try to fix what may have caused the clotting.

Two follow-up ultrasounds showed a small clot still in the portal vein though blood was flowing through it. A decision was made to go back to the operating room again to remove this clotting. This was done successfully and the vein has continued to remain open as of right now.

In the meantime, our oldest son Isaac celebrated the entrance into double digits on Wednesday. In the middle of having Micah operated on twice, our family gathered in the PICU waiting room for pizza and cake to celebrate his birthday.

Today Micah has rested most of the day, getting his breathing tube out this morning. We continue to pray for the portal vein to remain open and healing to occur timely and well. 

We cannot express enough our grateful we are for your encouraging words shared, prayers offered on our behalf, and visits with us and our family. Please also take time to give thanks on our behalf for God's favor that He has poured out in answering our prayers. May we be like the one beggar who returned to give thanks to Jesus for the healing Christ had given. My heart is overwhelmed by His goodness and grace. I give Him thanks.

Death is not the End

J. Vernon McGee writes, "The glory of the Christian faith is that it never views life as ending with death. This life is not all there is."

This week celebrated both the death of Jesus Christ on Friday and the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. The power of His resurrection dwells in me as a follower of Jesus Christ now inhabited by the Spirit of God. It is that power that will one day finally and ultimately bring me to my own moment of resurrection that is directly tied to and fully dependent upon the resurrection of Jesus years ago.

Death is not the end. Death was not the end of Jesus. It was merely the end of His suffering for sin. Death is a doorway into eternity that awaits us and everyone has an eternity awaiting them.

The Scriptures tell of only two eternities. The one more popular eternity stands at the end of a wide road on which many individuals are traveling. That road feeds into an eternity void of God and full of suffering the penalty for choosing everything else over God.

The other less popular eternity has a narrow road leading into it and few pilgrims who are making the trek. Yet the road, narrow and sometimes winding, leads into an incredible city and all the way to the throne of the King who will reign forever.

Death is not the end of any of us who walk in this world. By faith, however, Jesus Christ has placed us upon the path that leads to our home with Him. Death is but the finish line that once we have crossed it brings us to the author and finisher of our faith.

Where is you focus today? Where is your eternity? Are your eyes on the author and finisher of the faith that leads His followers to His eternal home?

My Confidence

Individuals take confidence in many different things including money, jobs, relationships, and more. All of these things can and often do change. The money we make is not the same. The job we have changes. Some relationship begin while others end, some grow while others go stagnant.

King Hezekiah who reigned in Judah rebelled against the Assyrians. As a result, the king of Assyria sent his commander and other officials to Jerusalem to intimidate or attack Hezekiah.

Encamped against Jerusalem, one official called out to Hezekiah asking, "On what are you basing this confidence of yours? You say you have the counsel and the might for war--but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me?"

Hezekiah was a bright spot in the line of kings. He chose obedience to God rather than rebellion. He did what pleased God rather than what incited His wrath. Like David the revered king of Israel, Hezekiah sought to live righteously, removing all place of idolatrous worship. As a result, God was with him and he was successful in his leadership.

What the official of the Assyrian army didn't know was that Hezekiah's confidence was not in the power of his army, the force of his weapons, or the support of his allies but in the might of the great and mighty God. And rightly so!

After many taunts and endless threats of the Assyrians, including their declaration that the God of Israel had told them to attack, Hezekiah's confidence proved true. In one night, the angel of the Lord put to death 185,000 in the Assyrian camp. The next morning when the people woke up they found all the dead bodies. Dead bodies were strewn everywhere.

The right place to put our confidence is never in the ability, logic, power, or devices of men. It is always to put our confidence in the might and power of God. Only He is able to what no man or army can do. What is impossible for us is completely possible for Him.

We could not rescue ourselves from our sin. But God was able. We could not make a sufficient sacrifice to pay the penalty for our sins. But God was able.

This week we celebrate Christ's final entry into Jerusalem to endure the cross that was set before Him by the will of God the Father. Through the cross, God would pay for every sin and punish every act of disobedience by putting His own Son to death. Three days later, that same Son came back to life by the same incredible power of God, giving life to all who believe and opening the door to heaven for all who follow Him.

Now we take confidence not in our flesh and blood but in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Like Hezekiah, we face an enemy and hardship in this world that we should look past in order to see the God in whom our confidence has been placed.

Where does your confidence stand today?

Hope of the World

Billy Hybels, founding and senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in Illinois, said, "The Church is the hope of the world."

The Church is the hope of the world because the message of hope has been entrusted to the Church. As Jesus prepared His disciples for His return to the Father in heaven, He gave them this sacred trust of displaying and declaring the good news.

Only the gospel has the awesome power to radically, fully, and eternally change lives. The gospel alone provides forgiveness for disobedience, mercy for the rebel, and grace for the undeserving. And only the Church has been given the great task and inexpressible joy of displaying and declaring to the nations this gospel of Jesus Christ's death and resurrection.

God's plan is always best and perfect. He never makes a Plan B. Plan A has always been that His followers, ever-faithful, would make disciples of all nations, advancing His kingdom into all the world and increasing His kingdom by increasing the number of worshipping followers of Jesus.

If the Church, you and me as the followers of Jesus Christ, are the hope of the world because of the good news we have to give, then every day the Church is either the world's hope or the world's doom.

We will be the hope of the world because we are faithful to carry the light of the gospel into all dark places.

We will be the doom of the world because we find it more convenient to stay than to go and choose to keep the hope we've received to ourselves rather than share with a world in need.

Are you living to display and declare the good news of Christ's kingdom as a hope-giver to the world?

Your Gift

I have written a couple times in posts this week about being all in as a follower of Jesus Christ.  Another area important to highlight in being all in is allowing God to work through you in the exercise of the gift He has given you.

An individual who is all in following Jesus uses the gift that God has graciously given to him or her to to obey Christ, build His people, and serve the world.

Every follower of Jesus has been given a spiritual gift. These are more than talents. These gifts are not natural, coming to us at birth, but are supernatural, coming to us at rebirth.

At least three primary places in the Bible give lists of the gifts God gives to His followers. These passages include 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, and Ephesians 4. Why does God give us these gifts?

1. He gives these gifts to bring Himself glory. Exercising a gift we did not obtain naturally allows us not to take credit for it or to glory in the work accomplished through its use.
2. He gives these gifts to build up His community of people. We have differing gifts to accomplish different tasks and meet different needs among God's people. When each person exercises his or her gift, the people of God have what they need and function as they should.
3. He gives these gifts for reaching the nations. As God's people use their gifts and see the church, though imperfect, built up and strengthened, the church becomes a display of God's glory among the nations. Jesus declared that the church, by its love for one another, would be a loud testimony so that all the world would know we are His followers. Utilizing the spiritual gifts God has given is an act of love for each other and a testimony to the world.
4. He gives these gifts for meeting spiritual need. Our physical talents and gifts can be used within the church. Yet the church is first and foremost a spiritual community of worshipers who have spiritual need and work. The giving of spiritual gifts meets the spiritual needs of the church and enables the church to accomplish its spiritual work.

I am not in any way trying to be exhaustive with this list. What stands as most important is that God has given to each of us a spiritual gift God does not intend to be left unused or under-utilized. 

How has God gifted you? How are you using your gift(s)? You have been placed where you are to use your gift for God's glory, His people, and the advance of His kingdom.

Take a Daniel moment:

1.  Thank God for His grace to give us generously all things.

2.  Ask God to make clear how He has gifted you.

3.  Pray for wisdom in how to exercise the gift He has given you in the way He desires.

Buchanan Family Update

We are so grateful for your continued prayers for us. The last 12 months have been an incredible time of seeing God work and following Him on a great, but often unclear, journey.

We transitioned to a church planting ministry, welcomed our fourth (Malachi - 7 months) and fifth (Titus - 2 weeks) sons into the family, and prepared ourselves for Micah to be listed for another liver transplant.

This week we received word that Micah has been approved by the insurance company for transplant. Now, with the insurance and hospital both having approved him, Micah will be presented to UNOS to be placed on the national registry to receive a liver. It could be this week that he is officially listed.

At that time, we will wait. I know Jesus was speaking of something very different (His return), but the words are fitting. The transplant will come at a day and hour that we do not know.

I wanted to post this brief update for so you would know where we are in the process and also to ask you to continue to lift Micah and our family in prayer.

We are ever-grateful!

Re-Transplant

You read the title of this blog post right. Our son, Micah, is facing in the coming weeks (or months) a re-transplant.

The back story, in case you're not familiar, is that Micah was born with a rare liver disease that required him at 7 months of age to undergo a liver transplant. In the first two years that followed, Micah had several complications, not limited to, bile duct blockages, blood clots, and the cancer of transplant patients (PTLD).

At that time there were complications that occurred that we knew would one day have an impact that would have to be addressed. Over the last two years Micah has experienced further issues as a result. Primarily, the clotting of his portal vein years ago has now lead to issues with his lungs, spleen, and more.

In the words of the transplant surgeon, the only "medical option we have to address these issues is a re-transplant."

On Friday of last week we finished all our tests and labs. This week Micah is to be presented to the team at Duke for approval for a transplant at Duke. Insurance will then be contacted for approval. Then, probably after our fifth son arrives (any day now), Micah will be listed on the UNOS Donor Recipient list. From there, we will wait for what could be days, weeks, or months (but hopefully not years).

This blog actually began as a result of Micah's first transplant. Therefore, I am sure that I will be posting here along the way. You can sign up to follow by email, receiving notification when there is any new post, by using the Follow By Email function to the right.

We have been blessed from the very beginning of Micah's life with such love, support, encouragement, and assistance. Most of all, we have seen God's power displayed and largely a result of your prayers.

Again, we simply ask for you to pray for Micah, his brothers, his parents, and his family as we prepare for the days to come. Even in this, we know and we pray that God will be glorified.

Reprehensible

We say individuals are sinners, but we expect them to be perfect. We find it easier to point out another person's flaws than to praise another person's faith and obedience.

While studying I came cross this quote by John Calvin: "In every saint there is always to be found something reprehensible. Nevertheless although faith may be imperfect and incomplete it does not cease to be approved by God."

My nature and bent is to see the reprehensible in another person, even another follower of Jesus, and cast them away. We focus so much on their shortcomings we fail to praise the work of God in them.

Among those who have fallen prey to the enticement of sin and disobedience have been David and Samson. David committed adultery with a woman and then had her husband killed to conceal the child conceived in sin. Samson ignored the commands of God, rebelled against the authority of his parents, and married a woman who did not worship and honor God.  

As John Calvin notes, these things are reprehensible. Yet though their faith be imperfect and incomplete, their faith does not cease to be approved by God. In Hebrews 11, these two men are commended not for their sin or reprehensible acts, but for their faith.

The weak need compassion. The doubters need grace. When in another person's life we see the reprehensible, the question is how would the gospel say we are to respond. 

Jesus has properly warned us all that before we get so worked up about the speck in the eye of another person, may we first see that reprehensible log sticking out of our own eye. When that other person is a follower of Jesus, may we not throw away a brother or sister by whose faith in Christ has made them approved to God.

Take a Daniel moment:

1.  Praise God for mercy and grace that has forgiven our reprehensible acts.

2.  Pray for grace and mercy and strength to follow God in displaying and declaring the good news.

3.  Repent of your own reprehensible acts and pray for others struggling with their own.

Secrets

As a kid I loved hearing stories of the Old Testament guys who accomplished unimaginable feats.  David killed a lion and bear with his bare hands. But it was Samson who had muscles bulging from his eyelids. He would have been the Olympic Gold Medalist in just about every competition of strength. And as is the case with most guys like this, the women swooned or drooled over him. He is the kind of man most boys and men envy and aspire to be like.

A closer inspection of Samson's life reveals significant flaws, however. He had an appetite for women of rival nations that threatened the allegiance of his own heart to God. He lacked respect and submission to the authority of his parents, demanding they go get a wife for him from among them. He projects an "above-the-law" lifestyle by disregarding the commands of God.

Most significant, though, was that Samson appears to have lived a life of secrecy. From before his conception, Samson's father and mother were instructed by God to set him apart according to a vow called the Nazarite vow. He was never to cut his hair. No strong drink or wine was he to taste. He was also never to touch a corpse, whether animal or human.

Samson traveled to a place called Timnah and while on the way he killed a lion with his bare hands. Some time later as he passed that way, he noticed bees had created a hive in the carcass and he went over and scooped out some honey to eat for himself. Samson broke the vow he was to live by. But instead of confessing the secret action, he hid it from others, including his father and mother.

Scripture says he says his parents again that he gave them some of the honey for them to eat as well. "But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion's carcass."  

The secret lives that so many are living today are destroying homes, families, communities, churches, and nations. The lie is that secret sin only harms the one who commits and knows it. That is not true. When my relationship with God is not right, my relationship with others cannot be right. God may still work through me and around me, but he is not able to fully do what He desires to do and He is certainly not pleased with a life of ungodliness, especially that we seek to cover.

The Bible teaches that a man or woman who seeks to cover his or her sin will not prosper. Jesus' followers should know this better than the world. Judas commit an atrocious act against the Son of God and tried to hide it. In the end, he lost the money he sought and forfeited the eternal life he could have gained. While others may not have known of his sin, God always did. Jesus exposed him at the Last Supper table.

God already knows what secrets you and I are trying to keep. In fact, the secrets we keep of how we have lived and failed, often create great anxiety and stress for us. We constantly ask the question, "What if someone finds out?" Then we are consumed with what individuals will say or how they will respond. So instead of walking out of the dark place of brokenness, confessing our faults to one another    and Christ to receive healing, we sink further into the dark dungeon. There we stay with windows boarded up and dreading any ray of light that may pierce into the darkness.

Don't you want to be free from your past? Don't you want to let go what keeps you in fear and makes your heart anxious? Don't you want to be known, not for what you pretend to be, but for who you are as a broken vessel God is restoring by the gospel? Don't you want the community of God's people to be able to come alongside of you to encourage and walk with you? What secret are you keeping? 

David kept secret his affair with Bathsheba for about a year. When God sent Nathan to confront David and bring the truth to light, David came to understand a powerful truth of God. He wrote, "You desire truth in the inward parts" (Psalm 51). 

Take a Daniel moment:

1.  Thank God for His patience with us in our multiple failures.

2.  Ask God to flood your inward parts with light that you may see what you have hidden and what you are unaware that you've hidden.

3.  Pray for God to give you courage to share with a trusted friend and follower of Jesus the brokenness you've experienced and the secret you've kept in order to be healed.

4.  Request that God give you grace and love as others may share their brokenness with you. May we respond like our Heavenly Father to love and embrace them rather than the older brother hates and rejects sinners and broken people in need of a Savior (Luke 15).

Defining Love

How many times have you entered a conversation in which another person asks you to define love? Those conversations are always fun and quite interesting as individuals take their turns give their definition.

Today will be spent talking a lot about love and the ones we love. Gifts will be exchanged with individuals among just about every age and generation. Yet the world knows little of what love is and how true love demonstrates itself. 

The great fear is that this may be also true of me and many within the church today. We define and think of love as some mystical experience that comes upon us without us having any warning or responsibility. We describe love as a feeling. While our love for one another will be accompanied with feelings, our love is a decision to act toward one another for his or her good and as Jesus Christ has acted toward us.

Jesus said His new commandment was that we love one another as He has loved us. Paul's famous chapter on love in 1 Corinthians 13 perhaps describes Christ's love for us in a most illustrative way. He writes:

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

Christ's love is patient and kind, otherwise He would have erased us from history at the first act of rebellion. Instead, He has showed kindness to us. When Jesus came to earth, His love was demonstrated in humility and humbly He went to the cross. There was no boasting or arrogance. When in the garden He prayed, He did not insist on His own way, but rather He surrendered Himself anew to the will of the Father. And this all because of love for the world. 

His love for us did not rejoice in our rebellion and wrongdoing. Instead, He came to declare the truth to us so that the truth would make us free.  His love is stronger than all forces of evil and evil acts of humanity. It bears, believes, hopes, and endures all things. His love never ends.

The cross expresses the unimaginable love of God through Jesus Christ. This is the love He expects of His followers. And I have failed miserably.  The tragedy beyond my own disobedience and sin is that the world fails to see God's love displayed every time I fail to live out His love.

More important than us defining love is that love define us.

Jesus said by our love the whole world would know that we are His disciples. The love of Jesus should define everything about our lives. It doesn't mean we don't stand firm or speak truth. It just means it defines how we do so.

When I begin to love as Christ has loved, the world will know I am a follower of Jesus Christ. This may not always mean the world will come to follow Jesus, but it will be a compelling testimony that, for some, will lead them into the Kingdom of Christ.

Take a Daniel moment:

1. Praise God for the unconditional, unimaginable love He has shown toward us.
2. Ask God to teach you what it means to love all others as He has loved you.
3. Pray that our love for one another would compel sinners to follow Jesus.
4. Specifically pray for those you have difficulty loving. It is a great first step to God changing your heart.

10

This week marks a rather monumental accomplishment for my wife.  On May 31, Sarah will be able to say that she has survived being married to me for 10 years.  

It is very true that God doesn't show us the whole path ahead of us at one time either because He knows it would overwhelm us or because we would always be wasting today as we impatiently long for the things of tomorrow.  There is no way Sarah or I could have known 10 years ago the road ahead.  And don't expect that I can neatly and succinctly wrap it into this blog post.

Meeting and Marrying

Sarah and I met just over eleven years ago and began a relationship that quickly grew. It took far less time for me to know Sarah would be my wife than for Sarah to come to accept that I would be her husband.  We were both students at Southeastern Seminary in Wake Forest and both attending Wakefield Baptist Church that met in Wakefield High School.  Engaged in October of 2002, we married on May 31, 2003.  What I didn't realize when getting married was just how marriage would reveal my own selfishness, lack of holiness, and need to be shown and show grace.  But so began a wonderful process of God working His grace deep into my heart.

The Blessing of Children

We continued as students throughout the next year.  Since Sarah is by far the smarter of the two of us, she graduated the following May just in time for Isaac to be born just more than a month after we celebrated our first anniversary.  Lagging behind, I graduated in December of 2004 and began my first full-time ministry position (having served six years in part-time ministry). Life as three wouldn't last too long as Ethan arrived in October 2005 and Micah came right along in February 2007.  The Bible declares wonderful truth when God says children are a gift from Him and blessed are those whose quiver is full of these precious arrows.  Furthermore, a godly wife and a godly mother makes for a happy and beautiful home.

Dark Days

The dark days came with the revelation that Micah was born with a rare but serious liver disease. It is through these dark days I witnessed the immeasurable grace in Sarah's life and the strength she possesses, which often is unknown even to her.  Micah's liver disease led to his first surgery at 10 weeks old and a liver transplant at 7 months old, followed by 38+ weeks in the hospital the next years and a significant amount the following year.  I watched Sarah and my family walk through the uncertainty of life. There were days when doctors had no answers and when doctors cautioned that death was a real enemy standing at the door. 

I beheld the torn heart of a mother when her children were in two different places and yet all three needed her equally. As a man who wants to have a plan, fix the problem, and do it with perfection, I couldn't do anything to heal Micah, solve the problems we were facing, or help Sarah to not be faced with pain, suffering, and trials on a level that just are not common to most.

There have been major surgeries, chemotherapy, unknown illnesses, set backs and more across Micah's brief 6 years.  Even last September, we faced another major surgery that in the end did not produce what surgeons set out to accomplish.

Privileged to Serve

Amidst all of the craziness of life and trials, our family has also served in three different local church settings across the last ten years.  The most recent privilege we have has been starting a new work called Refuge Church.  Again, I've appreciated Sarah's support and encouragement as we followed what we knew God would have for us in serving Him to display and declare the good news of His kingdom.  

This hasn't been easy though.  It is never easy to leave friends or what your children have known.  It is never easy to step out in faith when you aren't sure how the math works, the bills get paid, or exactly how everything will look when you get there.  In all of this, Sarah has displayed grace and strength as we followed God's lead together.

An Imperfect Man in Need of Grace

Sarah married an imperfect man in desperate need of grace. I struggle often with the balance of being husband, father, pastor and, hopefully not for too much longer, a doctoral student. With perfectionist tendencies, there is always a struggle with whether the good is good enough.  Furthermore, over the last 10 years, God has exposed and begun working in some deep brokenness within my heart and life from past circumstances and sin.  Yet as I often say, Sarah is the expression of God's grace in my life.  In these areas and more, she shows the grace this imperfect man needs.

This week Sarah will celebrate having survived 10 years of marriage to an imperfect man and a marriage that's had multiple challenges.  Then again, what marriage doesn't face challenge? The problem isn't so much the challenges, but rather how we face and respond to those challenges.

This week Sarah deserves praise since she's had numerous reasons over 10 years to go insane yet she's still in her right mind. 

This week I celebrate the wife God has given as a gift of His grace. I celebrate how over 10 years He has displayed His glory and and goodness through many twists and turns. This week I celebrate our 10 year anniversary while pondering what the next 10 might hold.

Relentless Pursuit

Our final message in the Encounter Series at Refuge Church took a much needed look at Peter.  You can listen to the audio of the message here.

Peter experienced an epic failure. His was a denial and abandonment of Jesus Christ at the time of Jesus' arrest and crucifixion.  What made Peter's failure even more pronounced was his self-declaration that he, unlike the other disciples, would never fall away.  He stuck out his chest and asserted himself as the courageous and lone, devoted follower of Jesus.

On the same night before the rooster had crowed, Peter had denied Jesus three times. Remembering the words of Jesus, Peter ran away with a heart full of bitter sorrow.

Declaring our allegiance in times of peace is far easier than declaring our allegiance in times of war.  When the heat is turned up, we often turn the allegiance down. This is our act of self-preservation.  Peter boldly confessed his intent to die with Jesus and stand beside him until the end, only to then deny and abandon Jesus a few hours later.

For me and many others, when a friend or family member abandons us like Peter did to Jesus, our last thought and act is to relentlessly pursue them for the purpose of restoring the relationship we had with them.  We find it more convenient to hold them guilty for life, as our hearts seethe with anger toward them.

This was not the way Jesus responded, nor should it be our way either.  Jesus pursued Peter.  At the tomb following His resurrection, an angel instructed the women who first discovered the tomb's emptiness to go tell the disciples and Peter that Jesus was alive and planning to meet them in Galilee.  Then, in John 21, Jesus comes to the shore of the Sea of Tiberias where Peter has returned to his life before following Jesus.  

Here a most beautiful encounter occurs as Jesus demonstrates such amazing affection and grace toward Peter.  

Our past does not determine our future unless we allow it to do so.  Our destiny is not directed by our failures when our lives are surrendered to Jesus Christ.  

Jesus relentlessly pursued Peter for the purpose of restoring their relationship through grace. Peter was never the same again. His love for God would demand his love for others (feed my sheep).  His obedience to Christ would lead him into a situation where he would die for Christ rather than deny Christ as he had done previously.  

Can you see Jesus Christ relentlessly pursuing you over the course of your life?  He has been, He is, and today He wants to encounter you in a way that leaves you forever changed.