Luke 22:54-55

"Then seizing Him, they led Him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. But when they kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them."

Luke 22:54-55

Why is it that we want only the good side of the cross? That we only want to be faithful when it is easy and there is only joy to be had? We will walk along with Jesus until difficulties come and then like Peter here we begin to pull back from the Lords side and watch from a distance.

You see so often in new believers, even in myself this was the case, that since we were delivered from our pain, we expect everything to be painless from that point on in our faith. Peter enjoyed the fellowship of the Lord when He was asked to "follow me" from Jesus. He dropped everything and walked along side of his Savior. Here and there there were storms and distress, but things were good for him as he walked along for three years. Everything was new, he was learnig and growing, he was continually in the presence of the Lord.

So much again like me and others as we first walk with the Lord. We see and feel so much of the good. We enjoy the "wow" moments of our faith. We are enthrawled with He who has saved us and we enjoy His hand on our back as we fellowship with Him, as He teaches us of our salvation. But as trouble begins and the and the words "follow me" become more difficult to remember and adhere to we struggle. In this verse we see where Peter draws a line, as Jesus is lead away, arrested, "Peter, followed at a distance".

So much like our lives, we will only stay close, follow closely, when times are good. We however begin to distance ourselves from our fellowship with Christ as those around begin to put pressure on us. We may have opportunity to stand for Him to our neighbor but we chose to remain quiet and watch as Jesus is taken away. Peter at this point, is just watching as Jesus is being taken from Him. We see how he is not willing, as Christ knew he would, to take up the same cup that His Lord was about to.

At the critical point, when Jesus is now standing before His accusers, Peter find the most comfortable place he can, in the midst of those that he had come from, in the courtyard, within earshot, but not standing next to His Lord. He was hiding in essence his faith because it had become uncomfortable to him. Again, like even I have done at times, he wanted to remain inconspicuious as others began to in essence attack Jesus.

The call that Jesus has to all of us is to "follow Him". We do this in our profession as Jesus as Lord and Savior. We do this in our Baptism. We do this as we come to church and fellowship with other believers. But we pull back when we are among non believers. When we are at work, or at the kids soccer games. We afil to remain a Christen, Chris'f followers, when we may be persecuted along side of Him for doing so.

We all, at some point draw a line in the sand as to how far we will actually go in our Faith. We allow those around us to ddetermine how faithful we will be. "This man was with Him" and Peters first denial "Woman I do not know Him". "You are also one of them", Man, I am not!" "Certainly this man was with Him", "Man, I do not know what you are talking about". If these words do not remind you of the occasions when you have not spoken up, then I don't know what will. How many times are we willing to just remian in the courtyard when our heart burns, but is fearful, of standing along side of our Lord?

It is difficult and always will be difficult for us to push past our comfort levels. We will always hit a point that we feel we can not cross. Jesus in the Garden was in this type of contemplation however He rose in faith and obediance to His Father and moved forward to the end. He gave us an example to follow, to the Cross, to maove past obnly the joy that we may encounter and to walk in faith into the pain if necessary. He showed us that if we do, even the brutality of the Cross that he ultimately hung from, was made to the good by God.

The next time you find yourself debating in your head of the next, hard step, in your walk with the Lord, rember Peter sitting by the fire trying to remain hidden. Think about how He had walked for three years in the good times and now in the trying times he became scared and distnces His walk with the Lord. Ask yourself, to rise and be seen. To follow Jesus in truth and faith. To allow yourself to be strengthened by your resolve and accomplish what was previously thought not possible.

Lord, to "follow you" may mean many things at many times. It may be without hazard and full of risk but above all things let us know now that it will always be used for the Glory of God if we persevere and move past ourselves and into your Glory.