This will be the first of this week’s meditations on Peter in preparation for our time together on July 4th at Blackhawk Ministries.
“God who is Almighty, Alpha and Omega, First and Last, that God is also love itself; and therefore this love is Alpha and Omega, first and last too. Consider Christ’s proceeding with Peter in the ship, in the storm; first he suffered him to be in some danger in the storm, but then he visits him with that strong assurance, “Be not afraid, It is I”, any testimony of his presence rectifies all. This puts Peter into that spiritual confidence and courage, “Lord bid me come to thee;” he hath a desire to be with Christ, but yet stays his bidding: he puts not himself into an unnecessary danger, without commandment: Christ bids him, and Peter comes: but yet, though Christ were in his sight, and even in the actual exercise of his love to him, so soon as he saw a gust, a storm, “He was afraid,” and Christ lets him fear, and lets him sink, and lets him cry, but he directs his fear and his cry to the right end, “Lord, save me;” and thereupon he stretched forth his hand and saved him…
God puts his children into good ways, and he directs and protects them in those ways; for this is the constancy and perseverance of the love of Jesus Christ to us, as he is called in this text (Matt. 21:44), a stone.
… John Donne (1573-1631), Works of John Donne, vol. V, London: John W. Parker, 1839, “Sermon preached to the nobility” [1619], p. 31-32 “
